The United States is offering a $5 million bounty for the recapture of an Islamic terrorist it freed six years ago who returned to the jihad campaign after attending a Saudi rehab program for militants.
Ibrahim al-Rubaysh, a Saudi national, was released in 2006 under a Saudi program endorsed by President George W. Bush and continued "full-throttle" under President Barack Obama,
Judicial Watch reported Monday as it highlighted a State Department announcement of the reward.
"It turns out that al-Rubaysh is the poster child for the Saudi rehab’s failures. He’s a dangerous al-Qaida operative based in Yemen and now, years after freeing him, the United States wants him captured," Judicial Watch said.
Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, started its rehabilitation program to try to reform violent jihadists by teaching them that they misinterpreted Islamic law by committing acts of terrorism. However, the program has widely failed to keep the militants from returning to terrorism after they graduated from the program, Judicial Watch noted.
Al-Rubaysh, who was held at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is now a senior leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP),
the State Department said.
"He serves as a senior adviser for AQAP operational planning and is involved in the planning of attacks. He has served as a senior AQAP sharia official since 2013, and as a senior AQAP sharia official, al-Rubaysh provides the justification for attacks conducted by AQAP," the State Department added.
He has called for attacks against U.S. targets and the Saudi royal family.
Judicial Watch called the new global dragnet for al-Rubaysh an "unbelievable story" that comes as President Barack Obama "frees more and more terrorists" as part of a 2008 campaign promise to close the Guantanamo prison.
The Long War Journal, which tracks terrorists, explained that al-Rubaysh was first captured by Pakistani authorities in late 2001 and turned over to the Bush administration.
He was confined at Guantanamo until he was transferred to Saudi custody in December 2006 and placed in the rehabilitation program. He later escaped and fled to Yemen.
In its reward announcement last week, the State Department listed al-Rubaysh and the Egyptian group, Ajnad Misr, as "specially designated global terrorists." That listing freezes any assets they might hold in the United States and prohibits Americans from dealing with them.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.