Ex-Guantanamo detainee Ibrahim al-Qosi, a former top aide to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, has re-emerged as a leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQA),
The Long War Journal reports.
AQAP has released a video titled "Guardians of Sharia," that shows the 55-year-old al-Qosi and other top AQAP officials talking about encouraging lone-wolf and other small scale attacks in the West.
Long War Journal noted that a leaked threat assessment of the Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) showed U.S. intelligence analysts believed al-Qosi to be a "high" risk to the West.
"Detainee is an admitted veteran jihadist with combat experience beginning in 1990 and it is assessed he would engage in hostilities against U.S. forces, if released," according to the JTF-GTMO.
Al-Qosi
was released in 2012 after a decade of captivity. He performed various jobs for bin Laden, including serving as cook, chauffeur and acting as a top aide.
Republican have been critical of President Barack Obama for releasing detainees, warning they are likely to return to the battle.
"It's kind of surprising that the administration would say that we don't know that he's reengaged when he's in a video by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry said Thursday on Fox News Channel's
"Special Report."
"On average, about a third of the people who have been released from Guantanamo we have evidence have re-engaged," Thornberry said. "Now, we don't know how many we don't have evidence for."
White House spokesman Josh Earnest gave a different figure during Thursday's daily press briefing.
"Any report about a former Gitmo detainee re-engaging in the fight would be a source of significant concern and something that we would take quite seriously," Earnest said. "Based on what we know so far, more than 90 percent of those who have been transferred from Guantanamo Bay have not re-engaged in the fight."
"Ninety percent is clearly wrong," Thornberry said. "He must be defining it in some particular timeframe that I don't understand. … Secondly, there is a lot of concern by members of Congress that the Taliban Five that were traded for [Sgt. Bowe] Bergdahl may have re-engaged as well. There's a pattern here that these are dangerous folks and if you're trying to get them out of Guantanamo, at any cost, you are increasing the danger to the country."
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