Said Ali al-Shihri is an enemy combatant who was formerly held at the Guantánamo Bay detention center. He was released from there in 2007 and has now emerged as the deputy leader of the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda announced his status with the group on the internet.

al-Shihri was released to Saudi Arabia, his home country, in 2007. He went through a jihadist rehabilitation program there. No one is sure how or when he made his way to Yemen, but he did and is suspected of having been involved with the deadly bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Yemen in September.

In the Internet statement, Al Qaeda in Yemen identified its new deputy leader as Abu Sayyaf al-Shihri, saying he returned from Guantánamo to his native Saudi Arabia and then traveled to Yemen “more than 10 months ago.” That corresponds roughly to the return of Mr. Shihri, a Saudi who was released from Guantánamo in November 2007. Abu Sayyaf is a nom de guerre, commonly used by jihadists in place of their real name or first name.

A Saudi security official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Mr. Shihri had disappeared from his home in Saudi Arabia last year after finishing the rehabilitation program.

A Yemeni journalist who interviewed Al Qaeda’s leaders in Yemen last year, Abdulela Shaya, confirmed Thursday that the deputy leader was indeed Mr. Shihri, the former Guantánamo detainee. Mr. Shaya, in a phone interview, said Mr. Shihri had described to him his journey from Cuba to Yemen and supplied his Guantánamo detention number, 372. That is the correct number, Pentagon documents show.

Said Ali al Shihri is 35 years old and a citizen of Saudi Arabia. He was captured in Pakistan in December 2001. Documentation on his terrorist activities and imprisonment at Gitmo have been declassified.

Our new President says we will be safer now that he has made a show of shutting down Gitmo, releasing the detainees there and taken other steps to make us appear weaker to the world. Yet, the enemies of our country seem to be taken these messages from the administration as a green light to continue with their jihads. This administration refuses to call the Global War on Terrorism the Global War on Terrorism. I’m not sure what they are calling it, but they refuse to call it that. They seem to want to act as though the administrative orders Obama signed ended the whole thing. If only that could be true. I suppose for people who believe we are the ones perpetrating the violence, then it makes sense that if we quit fighting then the other side will quit fighting. Unfortunately, we aren’t the aggressors and as for depending on the other side stopping when we show them good will, I don’t think you have to look any further than the ongoing wars between Israel and her neighbors to see how well that works.

Do you feel safer? I think we are in for a rough ride.