PrintMay 21, 2009
1 in 7 freed Gitmo detainees go back to terrorism: Pentagon report
The report showing that we released a whole bunch of very bad people back into the world so that our allies wouldn't be so mean to us was held up by the Pentagon for some reason. Allah at Hot Air has this take:
If administration officials already have the report, they could take the decision out of DOD's hands by releasing it themselves. Which, I suppose, is precisely what they did in essence by leaking it to the Times. Better to push it out there now, while the plan to close Gitmo is momentarily deceased, than to let it linger and go through another clusterfark down the road after it's resuscitated.
Regardless, it is a devasating indictment of the narrative put out by the left that there are a lot of innocent people being held at Gitmo. Elizabeth Bumiller has the story at the New York Times:
An unreleased Pentagon report concludes 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. 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."
Two administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the report was being held up by Defense Department employees fearful of upsetting the White House, at a time when even Congressional Democrats have begun to show misgivings over Mr. Obama's plan to close Guantánamo.
This should prove to anyone with a mind open enough to grasp it that basing national security decisions on other nation's perceptions of our actions is suicide. It is always better to be feared and respected rather than loved and thought weak.
I doubt whether Democrats will ever learn that lesson.
Hat Tip: Ed Lasky
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. 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."
Two administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the report was being held up by Defense Department employees fearful of upsetting the White House, at a time when even Congressional Democrats have begun to show misgivings over Mr. Obama's plan to close Guantánamo.
This should prove to anyone with a mind open enough to grasp it that basing national security decisions on other nation's perceptions of our actions is suicide. It is always better to be feared and respected rather than loved and thought weak.
I doubt whether Democrats will ever learn that lesson.
Hat Tip: Ed Lasky
