Thursday, May 21, 2009
1 In 7 Freed Detainees Rejoins Fight, Report Finds
From The New York Times:
WASHINGTON — An unreleased Pentagon report provides new details concluding that about one in seven of the 534 prisoners already transferred abroad from the detention center in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has returned to terrorism or militant activity, according to administration officials.
The conclusion could strengthen the arguments of critics who have warned against the transfer or release of any more detainees as part of President Obama’s plan to shut down the prison by January 2010. Past Pentagon reports on Guantánamo recidivism have been met with skepticism from civil liberties groups and criticized for their lack of detail.
The Pentagon promised in January that the latest report would be released soon, but Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, said this week that the findings were still “under review.”
Read more ....
Update: Source: 1st Gitmo detainee coming to US for trial -- Excite
My Comment: If the Guantanamo terrorists are brought to the U.S. .... and are brought to trial .... I find it hard to believe that the evidence that was found and collected from the battlefield for each of these cases would be enough to convict most of these men in a U.S. court.
Hence .... they will then have to be released.
If 1/7 is the percentage .... that leaves open the possibility that a large number of these men would re-offend. A thought that I must confess is not comforting nor reassuring.
Another discomforting thought is that this Pentagon Report was ....
.... being held up by Defense Department employees fearful of upsetting the White House .....
In short .... National Security is now dependent on not upsetting the White House. If this is the case, we are positioning ourselves to a lot of hurt in the future.
As to the transfer of the 1rst Gitmo detainee to a U.S. court for trial .... considering the timing of doing this right after Congress denied the White House's request to close Guantanamo .... I have the impression that this is the White House's way to tell Congress to go to hell.
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1 comment:
Nice coverage on your site!
I find your comment on this one quite interesting. I agree that there could be some problems with prisoners joining military activities (illegal ones) or terrorism, but I really doubt that it would be more than a few individuals.
Fist, these people are marked by the intelligence community for life, and cannot move around without someone noticing.
Secondly, there is a huge difference between beeing an "ordinary" paid fighter in Afghanistan compared to a terrorist. Thoose reported numbers should at least seperate between the types of activites with differnt risks. Most people whom decides to become a "regular" fighter, reference to the income as the motivation - they earn wages and is not fundamentalists. I see this as a more of a convential problem than something linked to terrorism, and thus should one keep thoose matters seperated.
And finally, this would only be a limited potential risk, and I think other risks would be far more important to persuse if you look at the problems in a wider view.
I agree with Obama that the publicity around Guantanamo is damaging and a security threat. I am quite confident that Obama would restore much of the american credibility around the world. But it will not be easy.
Ragnar
Norway
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