Olympic Countdown: Al Qaeda Terrorist Released from Gitmo to Uruguay Sneaked into Brazil, Whereabouts Unknown

With the summer Olympics just a few weeks away in Brazil, a veteran Al Qaeda operative released from Guantanamo to Uruguay has gone missing and authorities in Latin America believe he sneaked into Brazil after being denied legal entry. The Islamic terrorist’s name is Jihad Ahmad Diyab an in late 2014 President Obama sent him to Uruguay along with five fellow Gitmo inmates as part of a misguided plan to shut down the U.S. military prison at the Naval base in southeast Cuba. Now officials from Uruguay, Brazil and the United States are scrambling to find Diyab, according to news reports in Uruguay that quote high-level government officials.

Diyab’s Department of Defense (DOD) file says he’s a high-risk terrorist that poses a threat to the U.S., its interests and allies. “Detainee is a member of the Syrian Group comprised of dismantled terrorist cells that escaped Syrian authorities and fled to Afghanistan (AF) in2000,” the DOD file states. “Detainee was sentenced to death in absentia, probably for his terrorist activities in Syria. Detainee is assessed to be a Global Jihad Support Network (GJSN) document forger who provided services to the network operated by Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn aka (Abu Zubaydah), ISN US9GZ-010016DP (GZ-10016), supporting European, North African, and Levant extremists facilitating their international travels. Detainee is an associate of several other significant al-Qaida members to include Ali Muhammad Abdul Aziz al-Fakhri, 11 September 2001 recruiter Muhammad Zammar, and other facilitators and identified document forgers.”

Nevertheless, Obama sent Diyab off to Uruguay in December 2014 and the country’s president at the time granted him and his five cohorts “refugee” status, which means they get to come and go as they please. Diyab never even tried to hide his terrorist ties. In fact, in interviews with Latin American publications he proudly proclaimed his support for the “radical Islamic group Al Qaeda.” This is probably why Brazilian authorities denied him legal entry. Diyab was also denied a visa to enter Qatar, according to an Uruguayan newspaper article that cites government sources in that country. A few days after Diyab was discovered missing Uruguay’s Minister of the Interior, Eduardo Bonomi, confirmed in a local newspaper story that Diyab left the country. “It’s not known with what documentation he (Diyab) left the country because he didn’t go through any registry,” Bonomi said referring to Uruguay’s official border screening tools.

Many of the prisoners released from Gitmo have reengaged in terrorism after leaving the compound and Judicial Watch has reported on it for years. Just a few months ago Judicial Watch wrote about an intelligence report that confirmed the latest tally of Gitmo alums that returned to terrorist causes after leaving the prison. Of the 144 Gitmo prisoners freed by the Obama administration seven are confirmed to have returned to the fight, according to the assessment, which was issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Of the 532 captives released under the George W. Bush administration, 111 eventually reengaged in extremist causes. In 2010 an ODNI report to Congress revealed that 150 former Gitmo prisoners were confirmed or suspected of “reengaging in terrorist or insurgent activities after transfer.” At the time the agency revealed that at least 83 “remain at large” and that if additional detainees get released some will “reengage in terrorist or insurgent activities.” That assessment came two years after the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency disclosed a sharp rise in the number of Gitmo detainees who rejoin terrorist missions after leaving U.S. custody. Using data such as fingerprints, pictures and other reports the defense agency, which gathers foreign military intelligence, determined that the number of Middle Eastern terrorists who returned to “the fight” after being released nearly doubled in a short time.

This hasn’t stopped the Obama administration from releasing droves of Gitmo inmates, compromising national security and embarrassing itself in the process. In 2014, years after liberating an Al Qaeda operative from Gitmo, the U.S. government put him on a global terrorist list and offered a $5 million reward for information on his whereabouts. The recently released intelligence report cited above repeats what other government assessments have long documented: “Based on trends identified during the past eleven years, we assess that some detainees currently at GTMO will seek to reengage in terrorist or insurgent activities after they are transferred. Transfers to countries with ongoing conflicts and internal instability, as well as recruitment by insurgent and terrorist organizations, could pose problems. While enforcement of transfer conditions may deter reengagement by many former detainees and delay reengagement by others, some detainees who are determined to reengage will do so regardless of any transfer conditions, albeit probably at a lower rate than if they were transferred without conditions.” Still left at the top security facility are the world’s most dangerous terrorists, including 9/11 masterminds Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi as well as USS Cole bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.