Remember, those Yemeni detainees are only being held back “right now.” They’ll be going home soon enough.
See if you can guess the White House spin on this before proceeding. Here’s a hint: It’s the same spin they use with every political problem they have.
Two U.S. officials confirm to ABC News that the number of released detainees suspected of or confirmed to have returned to terrorist activities has risen to 20 percent. They would not provide the raw numbers on which the percentages are based. A U.S. official tells ABC News that the most recent report was completed in late December…
The first publicly released Pentagon analysis of the recidivism rates of former Guantanamo detainees, released in December 2008, showed the recidivism rate was 11 percent. That number trended upward to 14 percent when the second report was released in May, 2009…
A White House official told ABC News, “We have been presented with no information that suggests that any of the detainees transferred by this administration have returned to the fight…
Approximately 90 of the remaining 198 detainees at Guantanamo are from Yemen. President Obama said Tuesday that no more detainees would be returned to that country following recent terror threats there, as well as connections to the recent underwear bomber plot.
I’m not sure what they mean by that “blame Bush” boldfaced part. Is the insinuation that Bush officials were too comparatively stupid to know a recidivist when they saw one? Or is this more of an MSNBC-esque conspiracy accusation that the Bushies knew some of these guys were likely to take up arms again and yet they freed them anyway? A word to the wise in the White House: If you’re going to greenlight the release of people like Qais Khazali, whose pockets are lined with Iranian money and whose hands are stained with American blood, be very, very careful about pointing fingers. Especially when you’ve released half a dozen Yemeni Gitmo detainees within the past three weeks. The odds say at least one of them will be back on the field trying to kill Americans again soon. What’s the excuse then?
Exit question: Why would Obama officials leak this very damning info? Is it a backhand way of trying to stir support for his plan to transfer detainees to Illinois, where they’ll at least remain imprisoned?
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