Is America the terrorists’ best friend?

In 2006, 23 al Qaeda extremists tunneled out of prison in Yemen. There are reports that prison officials helped them escape, and that the government turned a blind eye to extremists. Now the Yemeni al Qaeda cell is plotting attacks against the United States.

Does that make Yemen partially guilty for the failed attack on December 25 near Detroit? If so, then there is another country that is even more to blame. It did more than just look the other way when such terrorists escaped. It actually released them. This country is the United States!

The U.S. has released 510 prisoners from Guantanamo Bay prison. Sixty-one have rejoined the fight against the U.S. At least four of them have joined with al Qaeda in Yemen.

The Sunday Times examines the example of Said Ali al-Shihri, a Saudi national who was captured on the Pakistan/Afghan border in 2001. He was released in 2007 to Saudi Arabia’s “deradicalization” program. The program, according to the Times, offers “psychological counseling, classes in more moderate forms of Islam, art therapy and playing sport and video games.” Al-Shihri left the program after six to ten weeks. He is believed to have then crossed the border into Yemen, and begun “putting into place the building blocks for a new organization, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” according to the Times. This is the group that claimed responsibility for the December 25 attack.

The Times writes:

By September 2008, al-Shihri had hooked up with two notorious terrorists who had escaped from Yemeni jails. Nasir al-Wahayshi was a former secretary to Osama bin Laden, and Jamal Muhammad Ahmad al-Badawi was the convicted mastermind of the uss Cole bombing that killed 17 American sailors off Yemen in October 2000.By early last year the group had gained notoriety by orchestrating the kidnap and murder of at least six foreigners in Yemen and was suspected of coordinating a failed bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Sana’a.

The U.S. is trying to prevent terrorist attacks by increasing airport security. But that is simply reacting to the terrorists. If you all you do is react to their moves, you will lose in the end. Surely it would be far more sensible to strike at the cause of the attacks—the terrorists that are planning them.

Instead, the U.S. is determined to close Guantanamo Bay and try the terrorists in civilian courts. This is bound to see many more released.

When it comes to terrorism, the U.S. is literally its own worst enemy. It could have prevented the Detroit attack simply by not releasing the terrorists in the first place!

America is responsible for its own decline. Its will is broken—it has lost the pride of its power—just as the Bible said it would. For more information, see our article in the January print edition of the Trumpet, “Can America Reverse Its Decline?”