A former detainee at Guantanamo who went on to become a field commander for al Qaeda in Yemen has reportedly turned himself into the Yemeni government and been repatriated to Saudi Arabia. The former Guantanamo detainee is named Abu al Hareth Muhammad al Oufi. Al Oufi was captured in 2001, taken into U.S. custody, and ultimately repatriated to Saudi Arabia the first time in November 2007. He and some of his fellow former detainees went through the Saudi jihadist rehabilitation program, which obviously did not take, and then disappeared. Al Oufi was recently seen in an al Qaeda propaganda video alongside one of his fellow Guantanamo detainees. Both al Qaeda terrorists are part of al Qaeda’s Arabian branch and ended up on Saudi Arabia’s list of its 85 most wanted terrorists. The Saudi government has complained that Yemen is home to an increasingly strong al Qaeda presence that threatens Saudi and western interests. This worry was echoed in the latest threat assessment released by the U.S. Intelligence Community last week. Al Oufi’s arrest is mildly encouraging. As Steve Hayes and I have reported (see here and here), the Yemeni government is duplicitous, with longstanding ties to Islamist groups, including al Qaeda. President Saleh’s regime has not only provided a permissive environment for al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations, it has also reportedly cooperated with these groups against common enemies in some instances. The Yemeni government has often been unwilling or unable (or both) to crack down on al Qaeda operatives. For example, some of the terrorists responsible for the USS Cole bombing have “escaped” from prison on multiple occasions. In this vein, it is not entirely clear why al Oufi turned himself in now, or why the Yemeni government decided to hand him over to Saudi authorities. But it is likely that the massive amount of attention the Saudis and the western press have focused on al Qaeda’s affiliate in Yemen played a role. There is too much evidence of al Qaeda’s growing strength inside Yemen to think that this one move means that there has been a sea change by the Yemeni government. But, at the very least, one less former Guantanamo detainee who returned to the battlefield has been detained once again. Only time will tell what comes of his fellow al Qaeda terrorists living in Yemen.
