A full 30 percent of former Guantanamo Bay detainees went back to terrorism, or are suspected of reengaging, following their transfers to other countries, according to a government report cited in Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Some of the former detainees are no longer engaged in terrorism, because they’re dead or in foreign custody, but the Director of National Intelligence assesses “that some detainees currently at GTMO will seek to reengage in terrorist or insurgent activities after they are transferred.”
The report is required periodically of the DNI by a 2012 federal law.
It explains the forecast is based on “trends identified during the past 15 years.”
The U.S. has been periodically releasing Gitmo residents to their home countries, rather than keeping them indefinitely as prisoners of the war on terror. They are transferred on various conditions, such as not reengaging in terrorism.
Some of the recipient countries have well-developed terrorism support structures.
“Transfers to countries with ongoing conflicts and internal instability as well as recruitment by insurgents and terrorist organizations could pose problems,” the report warned. “While enforcement of transfer conditions may deter reengagement by many former detainees and delay reengagement by others, some detainees who are determined to reengage will so do regardless of any transfer conditions, albeit probably at a lower rate than if they were transferred without conditions.”
The report explained it is inevitable that the released detainees will communicate with each other, families of other former detainees and previous associates who are members of terrorist organizations.
The communications range from the “mundane” to the “nefarious,” which would include “planning terrorist operations.”
The DNI chart explained there have been 728 detainees transferred, and of that number, a known 123 returned to terrorism, with another 94 suspected of returning.
For the rest of this report, and more, please go to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
