An al Qaeda Veteran Released From Gitmo Has Gone Missing

A veteran al Qaeda fighter, and an expert in document forgery who has decades of experience helping jihadists travel internationally without detection, has gone missing after being released from the detention facility at Guantanamo.

The Obama administration released the former detainee, Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, in December 2014 to Uruguay, despite the fact that U.S. military and intelligence professionals had declared him a “high risk" detainee—one who was likely to return to terrorism if freed. According to a report by Public Radio International, authorities in Uruguay have "no idea" of Diyab's current location. But they suspect that the detainee, who declared earlier this year "I like al Qaeda", has left Uruguay for Brazil.

None of this should be a surprise. Thomas Joscelyn, writing in these pages immediately after Diyab was released, noted his expertise in document forgery and his association with other al Qaeda facilitators and concluded that Diyab's contacts and experience "may come in handy if he wants to travel the world again."

Diyab was one of six detainees released to Uruguay—five of them "high risk" detainees—in what ought to go down as one of the most shameful moments of the Obama administration: A foreign leader slandered U.S. military and intelligence professionals, and the Obama administration not only said nothing in their defense but thanked and praised the man who smeared them.

On December 7, 2014, an American military airplane delivered six Guantanamo detainees to Uruguay. Two days earlier, Jose Mujica, the president of Uruguay, denounced the United States and accused the U.S. government of crimes against humanity. "We have offered our hospitality for humans suffering a heinous kidnapping in Guantánamo," Mujica said in statement. "The unavoidable reason is humanitarian."