A delegation of U.S. Senators, led by Senator John McCain, is in Yemen today to reportedly discuss the Yemeni citizens detained at Gitmo, among other topics. When it comes to closing down the detention facility, the Yemeni detainees pose one of the Obama administration's most difficult challenges. As Steve Hayes and I have previously reported, this is true for primarily two reasons.
First, there is substantial turmoil inside Yemen, which is now home to one of the strongest al Qaeda affiliates on the planet and is governed by President Saleh's corrupt and duplicitous government. Second, many of the Yemeni detainees at Gitmo are first-order threats who have been indoctrinated to wage jihad until they have either achieved victory over the "infidels" or died trying.
For these reasons, and more, the Obama administration has, like the Bush administration, been hesitant to repatriate the more than 100 Yemenis left at Gitmo to their home country. There were some initial comments by Obama administration officials suggesting that they wanted to send a "majority" of the Yemenis back home, but the administration eventually backed off this game plan. Instead, the administration tried to send at least some of the Yemenis to Saudi Arabia's rehabilitation program, but these efforts have thus far failed. And there are good reasons to suspect that the Saudi program, which relies on "soft" policing tactics including pressure from the jihadists' families, will not be very effective on the bulk of the Yemeni detainees who have no roots inside the Kingdom. In fact, the more we learn about the Saudi program the more we realize that is has not been nearly as effective as its proponents claim.
Thus, the Obama administration is left with no easy answers. Closing down Gitmo by January of 2010, if the administration sticks to that timeline, will likely mean that the administration will have to find an unsatisfactory compromise.
All the while we should be focused on who the Yemeni detainees are. Consider one glaring illustration.
Sanad Yislam al Kazimi is a Yemeni citizen who was captured in the United Arab Emirates in January 2003. While in the UAE, al Kazimi allegedly plotted attacks against U.S. interests with top al Qaeda operative and USS Cole bombing mastermind, Abd al Rahim al Nashiri. In November 2002, just a few months prior to al Kazimi's capture, al Nashiri was also captured in the UAE. At the time, according to a biography prepared by the Department of Defense, al Nashiri's planning included "a plot to crash a small airplane into the bridge of a Western navy vessel in Port Rashid, UAE" and the bombing of a U.S. housing compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, among other planned attacks.
According to documents prepared by the U.S. government at Gitmo, al Kazimi is an especially violent and blood-thirsty extremist. At some point while in U.S. custody, al Kazimi stated "he would like to tell his friends in Iraq to find his interrogator, slice him up, and make a schwarma sandwich out of him with his head sticking out of the end of the schwarma."
Al Kazimi also boasted that "all Muslims are against the U.S., even Muslims within the U.S." and he could raise $100,000 "in any mosque in the U.S. in 30 minutes using Koran passages, which Muslims could use to fight Americans in any country."
Such statements are not the type of thing that is likely to get a detainee freed. But given the biographical details the U.S. government compiled on al Kazimi, his reported words are not surprising.
Al Kazimi told U.S. authorities that he was arrested for destroying tombstones in 1994. When asked why he did this, al Kazimi explained that Sheikh Muqbil al Wadi, a prominent al Qaeda cleric who convinced many recruits to join al Qaeda, had issued a fatwa declaring "it was illegal, according to Islamic law, to have tombstones above ground." Wahhabism and other austere forms of Islam ban the use of tombstones because they are supposedly sacrilegious.
A few years later, like many other al Qaeda members (including some of the 9/11 hijackers), al Kazimi was drawn to the jihad in Chechnya. The U.S. government says that al Kazimi admitted an al Qaeda member "advised him to join the Chechnya jihad and gave [al Kazimi] two Chechnya jihad videos to watch." But first, al Kazimi would have to go to Afghanistan for training.
So, an al Qaeda facilitator allegedly gave al Kazimi "money to get a passport to Afghanistan." While there al Kazimi hoped to either die a martyr's death or "receive the financial security al Qaeda would provide upon his return."
In May 2000, al Kazimi traveled to Kandahar, Afghanistan via Karachi and Quetta, Pakistan, allegedly staying at al Qaeda guesthouses along his way. He trained at al Qaeda's infamous al Farouq camp and then became a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. The government's files indicate that he swore bayat, the ultimate oath of personal loyalty, to the terror master and vowed to fight Jews and Christians on al Qaeda's behalf.
After the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, al Kazimi retreated to the UAE where he allegedly aided Nashiri's plotting. Al Kazimi took part in "several operational meetings" during March 2002, according to the U.S government's files. He "received money to purchase a truck in order to transport explosives from Yemen to Saudi Arabia in the middle of July 2002" and then accompanied a fellow al Qaeda operative on a reconnaissance mission at a flying club in the UAE. Al Kazimi also allegedly received a significant amount of money "to cover upcoming expenditures" for Nashiri's aforementioned Port Rashid operation.
That is, al Kazimi allegedly took part in al Qaeda's and Nashiri's post-9/11 plotting against American and Western targets.
Al Kazimi did not attend his combatant status review tribunal at Gitmo. So, he did not answer any of these allegations in person. However, al Kazimi did agree to an interview with his personal representative, who was assigned to look after his case file at Gitmo. Al Kazimi mixed important admissions among his denials. He conceded that he swore bayat to bin Laden, but claimed that he eventually swore against the terror chieftain and refused to join al Qaeda's terrorist arm in Yemen. This is unlikely, on its face, as al Kazimi had served al Qaeda for several years and had compiled a lengthy record of extremism at the time of his capture in early 2003. More importantly, al Kazimi admitted to his personal representative that he had taken part in an al Qaeda surveillance mission just a few months prior to his capture. Although, al Kazimi claimed he did not play a central role.
On top of all his other remarks, al Kazimi told his personal representative that the "Bush doctrine is fascist."
As the senators engage in talks with Yemen's government over the possible return of Yemeni detainees, or other arrangements for the detainees' future disposition, they should keep in mind what is known about men such as Sanad Yislam al Kazimi.
Chances are his interrogator is not the only American he'd like to turn into a schwarma sandwich.
