Ex-Gitmo jailbird now AQAP fundraiser

Al Ghamdi, global terror financier

The U.S. State Department has designated Othman Ahmed al Ghamdi, a radical Sunni Muslim Arab, as a terrorist.

Moreover, State describes Ghamdi as a fundraiser for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).  That’s Washington’s polite way of saying that Ghamdi solicits zakat donations from rich Gulf supporters, signs-off on kidnap for ransom schemes, or both.

Earlier Money Jihad coverage has addressed AQAP’s efforts to obtain funds from Saudi Arabia here and here.

From the Miami Herald on June 17:

U.S. lists Saudi freed from Guantánamo as global terrorist

By Carol Rosenberg

The State Department Thursday added a freed Guantánamo detainee to its list of government-sanctioned terrorists, saying the Saudi Arabian soldier is now a fundraiser for the Yemeni offshoot Al Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula.

The Obama administration has been deeply concerned that turmoil in Yemen stirred by anti-government protests has created a vacuum that could strengthen the influence of the al Qaeda franchise there. The United States blames AQAP for training the so-called “Underwear Bomber,” now in federal custody after failing to blow up an Amsterdam-Detroit plane on Christmas Day 2009.

Othman Ahmed al Ghamdi, 37 or 38, was among the earliest captives brought to Guantánamo from Afghanistan in the prison camp’s first week. He arrived on Jan. 14, 2002…

A State Department announcement Thursday said that, in addition to his fundraising activities, he had “worked with other AQAP members to plan and stockpile weapons for future attacks.”

In May 2010, the statement said, he appeared in a video that publicly identified him as the Yemeni terror group’s “operational commander”…