Senator Feinstein: "Guantanamo Detainees Should Not Be Released To Yemen At This Time”

The Hill reports that the "senior Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee wants no more Guantanamo Bay detainees released to Yemen in the wake of a Christmas Day terrorist attack hatched in that country. 'Guantanamo detainees should not be released to Yemen at this time,' Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said in a statement. 'It is too unstable.' Feinstein’s warning comes just nine days after the Department of Justice announced the most recent transfer of 12 detainees from Guantanamo Bay to Afghanistan, Yemen and Somaliland. Six of the 12 were transferred to the government of Yemen. An al Qaeda wing in Yemen claimed responsibility for last week’s attempted bombing of the Northwest Airlines flight headed to Detroit. The organization known as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula said the plot was retaliation for U.S. assistance to Yemen’s military, which has launched air strikes on safe house and training camps in recent weeks that killed as many as 60 al Qaeda members. In addition, two of the planners behind the Christmas Day bombing plot had been released to Saudi Arabia from Guantanamo Bay in 2007 and ended up rejoining terrorist ranks in Yemen, according to a report by ABC News’s Brian Ross. Feinstein joins a chorus of Republicans who have issued warnings about the release of detainees in the aftermath of Friday’s attempted attack on the passenger jet. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on Tuesday sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking him to halt the transfer of six Guantanamo detainees to Yemen given the danger they realize that country now poses." Tweet