Evidence of Radicalization at Guantanamo
Many Ex-Detainees Said to Be Engaged in Terror – NYTimes.com
Administration officials said Wednesday that a classified Pentagon report concludes that of some 560 detainees transferred abroad from the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, about one in five has engaged in, or is suspected of engaging in, terrorism or militant activity.
The detainees released are by definition the ones we considered the least dangerous. We are not releasing guys like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, but rather people grabbed in sweeps and turned over for bounties. The reality is that we have to assume that the vast majority of those who engaged in terrorism post-release were radicalized in Guantanamo. Either that or these guys are masters of resistance, people who managed to hide evidence of their terrorist affiliations through years interrogation and investigation, and who as a result were released despite their long-standing activity in terrorist circles.
Unfortunately, we can’t address the issue systematically. The Pentagon only gives names of 29 of the 74 “former prisoners were engaged in or suspected of engaging in terrorism or militant activity,” and there is little way of assessing whether any of those 29 were terrorists or militants before being picked up. But again, either President Bush released people who we should have known were guilty, or he released innocent men who became terrorists in our custody.
