|
< style="color: rgb(0, 102, 0);">As President Obama pushes for the closure of
Guantanamo Bay prison, the debate over where to house the terror
detainees being held there is heating up.
An exclusive video of a former Gitmo detainee's martyrdom tape,
obtained by FOX News, is a reminder of the concerns that terror
suspects — who have been held but released from Guantanamo Bay — are
increasingly returning to the fight against the United States and its
allies.
Abdallah Ali al-Ajmi was transferred back to his home
country of Kuwait after his release from Guantanamo in 2005. Last April
he blew himself up in a homicide attack that killed 12 people in Mosul,
Iraq.
Al-Ajmi, known in Guantanamo as Detainee 220, made his
martyrdom tape before the attack.
"In the name of Allah, most compassionate, most merciful
and prayers and peace be upon our Prophet," al-Ajmi says in the video.
"I thank Allah, Lord of the Worlds, who freed me from Guantanamo prison
and, after we were tortured, connected me with the Islamic State of
Iraq [ISI]. And it is the gift of Allah to follow the path of this
nation, the ISI."
In the video, translated by the NEFA Foundation, a
non-profit that tracks terror groups, al-Ajmi mentions Guantanamo Bay
right away. For many jihadists, having served time at Guantanamo is
seen as a badge of honor.
Al-Ajmi's attack is one of the most well known and well
documented cases of an ex-Gitmo detainee returning to the battlefield
as a homicide bomber. His video renews concerns of many in the
intelligence community of the potential consequences by releasing these
prisoners.
Sixty-two detainees released from the U.S. Navy base
prison in Cuba are believed to have rejoined the fight, said Pentagon
spokesman Geoff Morrell, citing data from December. That's up from 37
as of March 2008, Morrell said.
The new figures come as President-elect Barack Obama
issued an executive order last week to close the controversial prison.
It's unlikely, however, that the Guantanamo detention facility will be
closed anytime soon as Obama weighs what to do with the estimated 250
Al Qaeda, Taliban or other foreign fighter suspects still there.
FOX
News' Catherine Herridge and the Associated Press contributed to this
report.
|