"Layers of al-Qaida's security have been slowly worn down and it's much easier today to infiltrate these groups," says Noman Benotman, a former jihadist with links to al-Qaida in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sudan, and now a security and terrorism analyst in London.
Saudi Arabia has had some of the most success with spies in the Arabian Peninsula, some of whom have been former Guantanamo detainees, Benotman says. Jail time at Guantanamo is a new asset on the resumes of many double agents, security officials say — an ultimate sign of credibility that often makes them revered and trusted among senior operatives.
The reputation of Guantanamo--fueled by lies of inmates about torture and the efforts of Western human rights groups that believe the worst about us--gave the agents credibility. The actual conditions apparently weren't bad enough to harden these inmates as jihadis. No, they worked for us.
And as a bonus, now anyone released from Gitmo will be suspected by the enemy.
Thank goodness we haven't closed Guantanamo Bay.
UPDATE: Nice. The jihadis don't think Gitmo just creates more hardened terrorists:
But this is an increasing subject of discussion of this on the Internet, and elsewhere, by Islamic terrorists and their supporters. Over the last year, those who have been arrested and released have come under increased suspicion. There appear to have been some executions of men who were not spies, although that has been going on for a long time. But now, just having been a prisoner of the Americans is enough to get you killed if you act in the wrong way, or say the wrong thing.
Thank goodness we haven't closed Guantanamo Bay.
