Former Guantanamo detainees fuel growing al-Qaeda cell

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/29/AR2009122902289.html?hpid=topnews

Former detainees of the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have led and fueled the growing assertiveness of the al-Qaeda branch that claimed responsibility for the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. airliner, potentially complicating the Obama administration's efforts to shut down the facility.

They include two Saudi nationals: al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's deputy leader, Said al-Shihri, and the group's chief theological advisor, Ibrahim Suleiman al Rubaish. Months after their release to Saudi Arabia, both crossed the kingdom's porous border into Yemen and rejoined the terrorist network.

Both Shihri and Rubaish were released under the Bush administration, as was a Yemeni man killed in a government raid earlier this month while allegedly plotting an attack on the British Embassy. A Yemeni official said Tuesday that the government thinks he is the first Yemeni to have joined al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula after being released from Guantanamo.

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A senior Obama administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said al-Qaeda has used the prison "as a rallying cry and recruiting tool." Closing the facility, the official said, "is a national security imperative."