Wonderful: Two Flight 253 plotters were released from Gitmo in 2007

Via Gabriel Malor, not the first case of compassionate release from Gitmo to have gone drastically wrong but certainly the one that’ll have the most political fallout.

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This reads like the plot of one of those over-the-top David Zucker attack ads against the left — except it wasn’t the left that presided over this one. The next interview with Dick or Liz Cheney should be pretty interesting, huh?

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an “art therapy rehabilitation program” and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari, were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody. Al-Harbi has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi…

“The so-called rehabilitation programs are a joke,” a U.S. diplomat said in describing the Saudi efforts with released Guantanamo detainees.

Saudi officials concede its program has had its “failures” but insist that, overall, the effort has helped return potential terrorists to a meaningful life.

One program gives the former detainees paints and crayons as part of the rehabilitation regimen.

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From “Allahu Akbar” to “Crayola Akbar.” On the bright side, at least The One has learned from Bush’s terrible folly here, right? Wrong. Bob Gates has been pushing since May to transfer 97 Yemeni detainees to the Saudi rehab program; as of 10 days ago the plan was to send six Yemenis back to Yemen itself with possibly scores more to follow. Any reason to worry about that? Yep: Yemen is notorious for jihadi jailbreaks, from mass escapes like the one in 2006 where 23 AQ operatives went loose to the U.S.S. Cole bomber who broke out of prison twice until finally — I kid you not — Yemen simply let him go after he gave them his solemn word that he’d cool it with the jihadism. These paragraphs from CBS’s 2007 story about the Cole case are worth quoting:

Yemen does not have a law that criminalizes Jihad, or holy war. Detainees remain in prison until they either renounce their commitment to Jihad or are released under pressure from family and human rights groups.

Since the suicide attack in July that killed eight Spanish tourists visiting an ancient Yemeni temple, President Saleh has said in several interviews with local papers that al Qaeda had reached a truce with the government.

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If not for the Crotch Bomber, these people would now be preparing to take custody from The One of nearly 100 mujahedeen zombies. As it is, it’s time for plan B. Exit question: What’s plan B?

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