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Saudi Guantanamo Veteran and Al-Qaida Commander Mohammed al-Harbi Reportedly Surrenders in Yemen

By Evan Kohlmann

aqyemen.jpgNews agencies are now reporting that Saudi national Mohammed al-Harbi (a.k.a. Abul Hareth Mohammed al-Awfi)--a former Guantanamo Bay detainee accused of participating in jihadi conflicts in Chechnya and Afghanistan, who was later released and rejoined Al-Qaida in Saudi Arabia--has surrendered without a fight to authorities in Yemen. I recently profiled al-Harbi in my report published by the NEFA Foundation, "The Eleven: Saudi Guantanamo Veterans Returning to the Fight."

An excerpt from that report:

Mohammed al-Harbi, born on July 13, 1973, is a Saudi Arabian national and former Guantanamo Bay detainee no. 333. A resident of the Saudi capital Riyadh, al-Harbi claimed to be a small business owner selling fruits and vegetables. Later, before an ARB panel in Guantanamo Bay, al-Harbi bristled when he sensed that a panel member was teasing him about the scale of his business dealings. “Don’t think I’m a merchant,” he shot back. “Don't think the Mercedes I bought [in Kuwait] was a $40,000 model. The Mercedes I bought was an ‘87 model and very old. Don’t look at me like I'm a big merchant or something.” When confronted with a charge sheet in his hearing that suggested al-Harbi had “traveled extensively with little or no means of support throughout the Middle East and former Soviet Union during the period between 1999-2000”, he replied: “I have traveled, but not extensively. This is shown in my passport and other documents. I went to Turkey on vacation once and I took a short trip to Georgia, in the former Soviet Republic, and I made a trip to Kuwait to buy a Mercedes Benz. I do not understand how that constitutes extensive travel throughout the Middle East… The dates mentioned 1999-2000, were long before the United States was involved with Afghanistan, militarily… Concerning my means of support, I have three businesses in Saudi Arabia, which provide plenty of money for a vacation of several months to Turkey and the former Soviet Union.” However, contrary to his account before the ARB panel, the U.S. military learned from its own sources that al-Harbi had allegedly been “in Chechnya for approximately nine months in 1999… A source reported that the detainee underwent basic training and physical training in Chechnya"... In the late fall of 2001, Mohammed al-Harbi traveled on a religious pilgrimage to the Saudi city of Mecca for the holy month of Ramadan. It was “at this time he decided to travel to Pakistan and provide assistance to the Afghani refugees that were residing at camps on Pakistani soil”...

For more, read the whole profile on the NEFA Foundation website.