US Transfers Alleged Al-Qaeda Bomb Maker from Guantanamo Bay to Saudi Arabia
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The United States released Saudi national Ghassan al-Sharbi from Guantanamo prison after detaining him for 21 years for his suspected involvement in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The Pentagon announced on Wednesday that Sharbi has been repatriated to Saudi Arabia, where he will be subject to a set of security measures including monitoring, travel restrictions, and continued information sharing. Officials said that Sharbi was released because he was no longer deemed enough of a threat to the US to be held in military detention, according to CNN.
Sharbi, an engineer and native of Jeddah, was detained along with another alleged al-Qaeda associate, and taken to Guantanamo for his purported involvement in the 9/11 terror attacks. He attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in the US from 1999 to 2000, after which he traveled to Afghanistan and began training with al Qaeda, according to government records. In Pakistan, he then learned to manufacture remote-controlled bombs, with the intent of teaching others the necessary skills, the records said. He was captured in March 2002 and handed over to the US soon after.
The US military had weighed charges against Sharbi and others but dropped them in 2008, and he remained behind bars as an enemy combatant.
With Sharbi's release, 31 detainees still remain at Guantanamo, down from a peak of nearly 800. Successive US administrations have refused to release classified government documents related to the FBI's investigation into the Saudi Arabian government's involvement in 9/11. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers that staged the attacks were from Saudi Arabia, but the kingdom has long denied any role in the attacks.
The US has been trying to close down the site since former president Barack Obama's tenure. Obama issued an executive order to close Guantanamo in 2009, but he failed to achieve that goal by the end of his second term. His successor, Donald Trump, rescinded Obama's order. President Joe Biden also pledged to declassify and make public some documents related to the FBI's 9/11 investigation and ordered the release of the documents in September 2021. However, several lawmakers have been calling for the disclosure of evidence of Saudi involvement in the attacks.
