Obama Signs Order To Close Guantanamo Within One Year

The Associated Press reports that "President Barack Obama moved quickly Thursday to reshape U.S. national-security policy, ordering the Guantanamo Bay prison camp closed within a year, forbidding the harshest treatment of terror suspects and naming new envoys to the Middle East and Afghanistan-Pakistan."

Meanwhile, the AP reports on another important story that shows some of the dangers that Obama will face if he releases Gitmo prisoners. Obama will have to tread carefully when implementing his executive order to shut down the prison within one year. The AP writes that "U.S. officials believe a detainee who was released after six years in Guantanamo Bay is now a top figure in the Yemen branch of al-Qaida. A U.S. counterterrorism official confirmed Friday that Said Ali al-Shihri was released in 2007 after six years of confinement. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss foreign intelligence, says al-Shihri is one of a one of a small group of deputies in what's known as 'al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.'" An Internet site commonly used by jihadists had announced "that al-Shihri is the group's second-in-command in Yemen. The Internet statement said the detainee returned to his home in Saudi Arabia after his release from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and then went to Yemen to help lead al-Qaida."

Tweet