Meet Sadeq Mohammed Saeed. He spent six years in the pen after he was caught recovering at an Afghan hospital following a battle during the U.S. invasion in 2001 — at the tender age of 17. His brother, a former jihadist himself and currently an “Islamic activist” and “mosque speaker,” talks openly of his support for Bin Laden and the Taliban (“But I’m also calling for dialogue and respect of rights and freedoms for all, and I’m against violence and coercion”). He was extradited to Yemen in June for reasons unknown even to him but which I suspect have much to do with, ahem, improving America’s image in the world, and then released by Yemeni authorities two weeks ago.

You want the punchline?

I’m not sure if you can handle the punchline.

According to Sadeq since leaving their families he and his companions had been performing a holy duty, or Jihad, and he vowed that they would continue to do so for as long as they lived.

“I traveled to Pakistan and from there to Afghanistan where I joined one of the Taliban battle lines, May Allah support them to protect Islam, and then what happened, happened,” he said. He did not speak about personal physical abuse in the detention center; instead he concentrated on the religious abuses, which he claims all detainees witnessed.

“The abuses were religious abuses, reviling God, the Prophet Mohammed and his companions and the believers. Some brothers were exposed to psychological and physical torture because they are Muslims. There were a lot of abuses and I don’t remember them but it is enough to say there were religious abuses and reviling Allah, his prophet and the believers,” he said…

Saqed’s family said they are currently consulting with American lawyers and human rights activists to file a law suit against the American government to demand fair compensation for the damages inflicted on their son who lost one of his eyes because of inadequate treatment…

“The only reason I know for being detained is that I’m Muslim, and I do not know any other thing. Now I do not know why they released me. This is at the hand of Allah.” [Sadeq] speculated.

Note how casually he connects jihad to his Islamic identity. He was picked up by U.S. troops for waging war on them in a war zone and he’s mystified as to why; to him, that sort of thing is simply what Muslims do, no different than being arrested for praying at the mosque, really. Commit his name to memory: odds are he’ll be turning up on another battlefield or as part of a terror cell somewhere and you’ll want that little mental bell to go off when he does so that you might properly express your feelings about it to our political leaders.

Exit question: How good do you feel right now about America’s image being improved with his release? Pretty darned good, I’m betting.