The officials would not say which of the five men is suspected. But an ongoing US intelligence program to secretly intercept and monitor all of their communications in Qatar turned up evidence in recent months that one of them has “reached out” to try to encourage militant activity, one official said. The official would offer no further details. Under current law, this act placed the man in the category of being “suspected” of re-engaging in terrorist or insurgent activities. However several officials say there is now a debate inside the administration that the intelligence may be stronger than the “suspected” classification. Some elements of the intelligence community believe the information is strong enough to classify the man as “confirmed” for returning to illegal activities. One official told CNN all five men are having their communications even more closely monitored right now, but the belief is there is no current threat.

Under intelligence laws, the definition of “confirmed” for returning to militant activity is that there is a ” preponderance of information which identifies a specific former GITMO detainee as directly involved in terrorist or insurgent activities. The definition of ‘suspected” is that there is “plausible but unverified or single-source reporting indicating a specific former GITMO detainee is directly involved in terrorist or insurgent activities.”