Resettling Guantanamo prisoners is dangerous

For the first time in nine years, terrorism now outranks the economy as the most important problem facing the country today, according to last week's CBS News/New York Times poll.

It also found that seven in 10 Americans think ISIS represents a major threat to the U.S., just one in four thinks the fight against ISIS is going well and just 34 percent approve of the president's handling of terrorism, a new low.

Forty-four percent of Americans now think another terrorist attack in the next few months is very likely. That's the highest percentage since the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

With all this public angst, we have disturbing reports on the administration's ongoing obsession to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The number of prisoners at Guantanamo has been reduced by more than half (107) under this president.

Last month, five Yemeni men were accepted for "resettlement" in the Persian Gulf nation after U.S. authorities determined they no longer posed a threat. One of those five, Ali Ahmad Muhammad al-Razihi, was suspected of being a possible bodyguard to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

The president obviously wants closing the detention center to be a part of his legacy after leaving office. An equally bad and dangerous idea is the desire to move detainees into the United States. Releasing these prisoners or housing them inside this country is absurd. We have no guarantee that those being "resettled" won't rejoin the fight against the Western democracies.

Last week, when asked about the released prisoners re-engaging, press secretary Josh Ernest said 90 percent do not re-enter the fight. Most security experts say that one out of three re-enter the battle.

Also last week, we learned that former Gitmo prisoner Ibrahim Qosi, aka Sheikh Khubayb al Sudani, is now a poster child for jihadist propaganda. Qosi, who was released in July 2012, has resurfaced in a new jihadist recruitment video.

His personal relationship with Osama bin Laden and his time in American detention make him a high-profile spokesman for the jihadist movement.

In 2007, Qosi was described in a threat assessment by intelligence analysts as a "high" risk to the U.S. and its allies. After pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy and material support for terrorism before a military commission in 2010, he agreed to cooperate with prosecutors during his remaining time in U.S. custody and was transferred to his home country of Sudan two years later.

Qosi joined al-Qaida in 2014 and became one of its leaders. In the video, titled "Guardians of Shariam," Qosi and other AQAP commanders discuss their time waging jihad. It also encourages an "individual jihad" by individuals and smaller terror cells.

This is especially ominous, given the ongoing investigation of the San Bernardino attackers.

Closing Gitmo for the sake of saving a presidential legacy is lunacy. A dangerous pattern of freed Gitmo prisoners "resettling" into their old ways and rejoining their jihadi brothers to wreak more terror on the West has already been established.

By JIM ZBICK | tneditor@tnonline.com