Pentagon moves another East African detainee to Guantanamo

Source: McClatchy

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon announced Wednesday that it has transferred an Islamic activist from Somalia to its prison for war-on-terror captives at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, underscoring what appears to be a growing U.S. interest in terrorist activities in the Horn of Africa.


A Defense Department announcement identified the newest arrival at the remote U.S. Navy base as Abdullahi Sudi Arale and described him as a "suspected" al-Qaida member from East Africa who'd served as a courier between the Horn of Africa and Pakistan.


The Pentagon alleged that he'd held a leadership role in the Council of Islamic Courts, the fundamentalist Islamist coalition that ruled most of southern Somalia for much of last year before a U.S.-backed Ethiopian campaign ousted it in December. The United States considers the Islamic Courts in league with al-Qaida, arguing that it has given sanctuary to al-Qaida members and sympathizers.


But a McClatchy Newspapers special correspondent in Mogadishu, Somalia's capital, and a staff member of an international group that monitors Somalia both said they weren't familiar with the name. Arale also isn't among the six al-Qaida operatives whom U.S. officials in East Africa have identified in the past as key targets in anti-terror operations in Somalia. The six include three men wanted in connection with terrorist attacks in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and 2002 and three leaders of the Islamic Courts.



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