London, SANA, A terror leader whom the United States released from the Guantanamo prison in 2006 has sent at least 2,500 jihadis from Saudi Arabia and some from Yemen to join the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS), according to a highly placed Pentagon source.<\/p>\n
Ibrahim al-Rubaish, now the spiritual leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula(AQAP), was captured by American troops in 2001 and spent five years at Guantanamo before the US administration released him into Saudi custody.<\/p>\n
‘There’s no doubt that he’s sending fighters,’ the Department of Defense official told Daily Mail on Wednesday ‘Twenty-five hundred is a conservative estimate.’<\/p>\n
al-Rubaish was let go from Guantanamo in 2006 along with 16 other prisoners, and quickly returned to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula becoming its spiritual leader and he’s now recruiting for ISIS.<\/p>\n
The official refused to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the information, and because he is not authorized to speak to the press.<\/p>\n
A second Pentagon official, lower-ranking but with knowledge of the Obama administration’s tactical toolbox and Middle Eastern intelligence, confirmed the first source’s account.<\/p>\n
‘That’s correct,’ he said in a phone interview when asked if al-Rubaish was sending large numbers of extremists to join ISIS.<\/p>\n
He said some Guantanamo detainees spend time behind razor wire building networks and strategic connections that become useful once the United States government repatriates them.<\/p>\n
The Department of Defense wouldn’t comment on al-Rubaish’s ISIS recruiting, instead sending a generic statement recounting parts of his history.<\/p>\n
‘Ibrahim Al Rubaysh arrived at Guantanamo in 2002 and was transferred in 2006,’ wrote Lt. Col. Myles B. Caggins III, a U.S. Army spokesman.<\/p>\n
‘Since 2009, the Defense Department and five government departments and agencies conduct thorough security and intelligence reviews prior to transferring Guantanamo detainees; more than 90 percent of detainees transferred during the Obama administration have resumed quiet lives in various countries.’<\/p>\n
‘I can’t comment on behalf of security officials in Yemen or KSA,’ he insisted.<\/p>\n
ISIS can muster up to 31,500 fighters, the Central Intelligence Agency reported in October.<\/p>\n
If that number is correct, al-Rubaish is responsible for mobilizing at least one out of every 13 ISIS fighters.<\/p>\n
The office of the Director of National Intelligence reported in 2013 that 171 detainees Guantanamo prisoners released during the Bush years were confirmed or suspected of having re-engaged in hostilities.<\/p>\n
H. Zain\/ Barry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
London, SANA, A terror leader whom the United States released from the Guantanamo prison in 2006 has sent at least 2,500 jihadis from Saudi Arabia and some from Yemen to join the self-proclaimed Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS), according to a highly placed Pentagon source. Ibrahim al-Rubaish, now the spiritual leader of al-Qaeda …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,100,14,453,190],"tags":[3694],"class_list":["post-22953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-arabic-international","category-news","category-press","category-reports","category-global-press","tag-former-guantanamo-detainee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22953"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.sana.sy\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}