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You'll notice it's the democrats who are warning the new messiah.
Full story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28800516/
Key Dem says Obama needs to be ‘careful’; critics warns about Gitmo order
msnbc.com news services
updated 10:09 a.m. CT, Fri., Jan. 23, 2009
CAIRO, Egypt - A Saudi man released from Guantanamo Bay after spending nearly six years inside the U.S. prison camp is now the No. 2 of Yemen's al-Qaida branch, according to a purported Internet statement from the terror network.
The announcement, made this week on a Web site commonly used by militants, came as President Barack Obama ordered the detention facility closed within a year. Many of the remaining detainees are from Yemen, which has long posed a vexing terrorism problem for the United States.
In response to the report, a key Democratic lawmaker said Obama needs to "proceed extremely carefully" in closing Guantanamo, but that there was no justification for "disappearing people" in a place outside the reach of U.S. law.
The terror group's Yemen branch — known as "al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula" — said the man, identified as Said Ali al-Shihri, returned to his home in Saudi Arabia after his release from Guantanamo about a year ago and from there went to Yemen, which is Osama bin Laden's ancestral home.
The Internet statement could not immediately be verified, and Yemen and Saudi Arabian authorities would not immediately comment on it. In a report Friday in The New York Times, a U.S. counterterrorism official said al-Shihri was a former detainee. "They're one and the same guy," the official was quoted as saying.
The Web posting said al-Shihri was the group's second-in-command in Yemen, and his prisoner number at Guantanamo was 372. "He managed to leave the land of the two shrines (Saudi Arabia) and join his brothers in al-Qaida," the statement said.
Documents released by the U.S. Defense Department show that al-Shihri was released from the facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in November 2007 and transferred to his homeland. The documents confirmed his prisoner number was 372.
Saudi Arabian authorities wouldn't immediately comment on the statement. A Yemeni counterterrorism official would only say that Saudi Arabia had asked Yemen to turn over a number of wanted Saudi suspects who fled the kingdom last year for Yemen, and a man with the same name was among those wanted. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the press and would not provide more details.
Key Dem urges caution
Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, who heads the House Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence, said the reports about al-Shihri should not slow the Obama administration's determination to quickly close the prison.
"What it tells me is that President Obama has to proceed extremely carefully. But there is really no justification and there was no justification for disappearing people in a place that was located offshore of America so it was outside the reach of U.S. law," she told CBS's "The Early Show."
Click for related content
Analysis: Bush's 'war on terror' comes to a sudden end
Newsweek: Obama overrules intel team on interrogation
Pentagon: Gitmo detainees returning to fight
But Rep. Pete Hoekstra, of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, criticized the executive order Obama signed Thursday to close the facility as "very short on specifics."
Interviewed on the same program, he said there are indications that as many as 10 percent of the men released from Guantanamo are "back on the battlefield. They are attacking American troops."
On Thursday, Obama issued sweeping orders to rein in secretive U.S. counterterrorism policies and end harsh interrogations.
“The message that we are sending the world is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism,” the president said. “And we are going to do so vigilantly, and we are going to do so effectively, and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals.”
Obama’s three executive orders, coming on Day Two of his presidency, sought to show that the United States does not torture and abides by domestic and international laws governing the treatment of detainees.
The Obama administration is looking at three military prisons — in Kansas, California and South Carolina — along with the civilian Supermax prison in Colorado as potential sites for the Guantanamo detainees.
“I don’t know of any city that would be thrilled to have Khalid Sheik Mohammed or Abu Zubaydah living down the street,” Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., said of two high-level al-Qaida operatives who are being held at Guantanamo.
In a related development, a federal judge decided to give the Obama administration time to weigh in on some of the legal cases brought by U.S.-held terror detainees.
U.S. District Judge John Bates gave the new president and his Justice Department until February to tell him whether they want to change the government's position on the definition of "enemy combatant." Prisoners from U.S. detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan are challenging their detention as so-called enemy combatants in federal court.
"The new presidential administration may wish to review the government's current position regarding the appropriate definition of 'enemy combatant' to be used in these and other habeas cases," Bates said Thursday.
msnbc.com news services
updated 10:09 a.m. CT, Fri., Jan. 23, 2009
CAIRO, Egypt - A Saudi man released from Guantanamo Bay after spending nearly six years inside the U.S. prison camp is now the No. 2 of Yemen's al-Qaida branch, according to a purported Internet statement from the terror network.
The announcement, made this week on a Web site commonly used by militants, came as President Barack Obama ordered the detention facility closed within a year. Many of the remaining detainees are from Yemen, which has long posed a vexing terrorism problem for the United States.
In response to the report, a key Democratic lawmaker said Obama needs to "proceed extremely carefully" in closing Guantanamo, but that there was no justification for "disappearing people" in a place outside the reach of U.S. law.
The terror group's Yemen branch — known as "al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula" — said the man, identified as Said Ali al-Shihri, returned to his home in Saudi Arabia after his release from Guantanamo about a year ago and from there went to Yemen, which is Osama bin Laden's ancestral home.
The Internet statement could not immediately be verified, and Yemen and Saudi Arabian authorities would not immediately comment on it. In a report Friday in The New York Times, a U.S. counterterrorism official said al-Shihri was a former detainee. "They're one and the same guy," the official was quoted as saying.
The Web posting said al-Shihri was the group's second-in-command in Yemen, and his prisoner number at Guantanamo was 372. "He managed to leave the land of the two shrines (Saudi Arabia) and join his brothers in al-Qaida," the statement said.
Documents released by the U.S. Defense Department show that al-Shihri was released from the facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in November 2007 and transferred to his homeland. The documents confirmed his prisoner number was 372.
Saudi Arabian authorities wouldn't immediately comment on the statement. A Yemeni counterterrorism official would only say that Saudi Arabia had asked Yemen to turn over a number of wanted Saudi suspects who fled the kingdom last year for Yemen, and a man with the same name was among those wanted. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the press and would not provide more details.
Key Dem urges caution
Rep. Jane Harman, D-California, who heads the House Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence, said the reports about al-Shihri should not slow the Obama administration's determination to quickly close the prison.
"What it tells me is that President Obama has to proceed extremely carefully. But there is really no justification and there was no justification for disappearing people in a place that was located offshore of America so it was outside the reach of U.S. law," she told CBS's "The Early Show."
Click for related content
Analysis: Bush's 'war on terror' comes to a sudden end
Newsweek: Obama overrules intel team on interrogation
Pentagon: Gitmo detainees returning to fight
But Rep. Pete Hoekstra, of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, criticized the executive order Obama signed Thursday to close the facility as "very short on specifics."
Interviewed on the same program, he said there are indications that as many as 10 percent of the men released from Guantanamo are "back on the battlefield. They are attacking American troops."
On Thursday, Obama issued sweeping orders to rein in secretive U.S. counterterrorism policies and end harsh interrogations.
“The message that we are sending the world is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism,” the president said. “And we are going to do so vigilantly, and we are going to do so effectively, and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals.”
Obama’s three executive orders, coming on Day Two of his presidency, sought to show that the United States does not torture and abides by domestic and international laws governing the treatment of detainees.
The Obama administration is looking at three military prisons — in Kansas, California and South Carolina — along with the civilian Supermax prison in Colorado as potential sites for the Guantanamo detainees.
“I don’t know of any city that would be thrilled to have Khalid Sheik Mohammed or Abu Zubaydah living down the street,” Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., said of two high-level al-Qaida operatives who are being held at Guantanamo.
In a related development, a federal judge decided to give the Obama administration time to weigh in on some of the legal cases brought by U.S.-held terror detainees.
U.S. District Judge John Bates gave the new president and his Justice Department until February to tell him whether they want to change the government's position on the definition of "enemy combatant." Prisoners from U.S. detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan are challenging their detention as so-called enemy combatants in federal court.
"The new presidential administration may wish to review the government's current position regarding the appropriate definition of 'enemy combatant' to be used in these and other habeas cases," Bates said Thursday.
Stick to making fun of typos and x-posts, that's your place.
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