Via LWJ:
The Egyptian government has requested the release of a top al Qaeda explosives expert from the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, according to Agence France Presse and Reuters.
Tariq Mahmoud Ahmed al Sawah, a Guantanamo detainee since 2002, became one of the US government’s most prolific sources during his time in custody, a leaked Sept. 30, 2008 Joint Task Force Guantanamo (JTF-GTMO) memo shows. So prolific, in fact, that JTF-GTMO officials recommended that al Sawah be transferred out of the Defense Department’s control even though he had compiled an extensive dossier as a jihadist in Bosnia, Afghanistan and elsewhere.
At first, al Sawah was hostile to Guantanamo personnel, according to the leaked JTF-GTMO memo. But he became “compliant” and, as of 2008, continued “to be a highly prolific source,” who “has provided invaluable intelligence regarding explosives, al Qaeda, affiliated entities and their activities.”
“If released,” JTF-GTMO surmised, al Sawah “will possibly reestablish extremist associations, but is unlikely to do so as his cooperation with the US government may serve to identify detainee as a target for revenge by those associates.”