Free Republic

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Plans to close Guantanamo are not sitting well with the Sept. 11 victims' relatives who sat stunned while two alleged terrorists declared they were proud of their role in the plot.

The fate of three of nine foreigners abducted in Yemen last week is known — their bodies were found, shot execution style. The whereabouts of the other six — including three children under the age of 6 — remain a mystery. But terrorism experts say their abductors and killers are almost certainly not a mystery. They say the crimes bear the mark of Al Qaeda, and they fear they are the handiwork of the international terror organization's No. 2 man in the Arabian Peninsula: Said Ali al-Shihri, an Islamic extremist who once was in American custody — but who was...

Yeah, bummer that guy we released from Gitmo has become an al Qaeda biggie. Disappointing, really. But hey, let the Saudis worry about it. Nothing for us to fret about here in America. As we all know, al Qaeda terrorists based in the Middle East pose no threat to the United States! That, in a mind-numbing nutshell, was the reaction of Rep. Jane Harman to the New York Times report that Said Ali al-Shihri, released from Gitmo in 2007, has become the deputy leader of Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen. Harman made her mind-boggling statement under questioning from CBS Early...

The emergence of a former Guantánamo Bay detainee as the deputy leader of Al Qaeda's Yemeni branch has underscored the potential complications in carrying out the executive order President Obama signed Thursday that the detention center be shut down within a year. The militant, Said Ali al-Shihri, is suspected of involvement in a deadly bombing of the United States Embassy in Yemen's capital, Sana, in September. He was released to Saudi Arabia in 2007 and passed through a Saudi rehabilitation program for former jihadists before resurfacing with Al Qaeda in Yemen. His status was announced in an Internet statement by...