GregNews

[Washington Post] The Yemeni government rejects U.S. criticism of its record of combating terrorism and insists that it can successfully handle the Yemeni detainees, who make up the largest national contingent at Guantanamo Bay.

“We are ready to receive all of them, and we hope President-elect Obama and the next administration will send them to Yemen,” said Mohammed Albasha, a spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington. “It is not to our benefit to simply let these people go free. Anybody who we see as a threat to Yemen or its people, and our allies, will be dealt with in an appropriate way.”

In an interview with “60 Minutes” on Sunday, Obama said: “I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that.” But he has provided few details on how prisoners will be either prosecuted or released.

Of the 250 detainees at Guantanamo Bay, 101 are Yemenis, including two who have been convicted in military commissions and two who are charged with war crimes for participation in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

… Moreover, according to the Combating Terrorism Center study, a previous rehabilitation program in Yemen “now appears to be a failure.” A total of 354 individuals participated in that program, largely a religious dialogue run by a Yemeni Supreme Court justice, and were then released. But there was almost no post-release support such as helping the detainees find jobs and wives, key elements of the Saudi initiative.

A number of graduates returned to the fight, including three of the seven men identified as participants in the September bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Yemen. Also adding to U.S. concerns, 23 terrorism suspects, reportedly with inside help, broke out of a Yemeni prison in 2006 and went on to spearhead a surge in violence. The Yemeni port of Aden was the site of the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, which killed 17 service members.