The Cellar - Gitmo Update

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I know we have discussed this subject a number of times but as we approach the time of a new CIC it is going to come up again and again till it is fully closed. I support that. And now we have this in the news:

Pentagon: 61 ex-Guantanamo inmates return to terrorism

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Tuesday that 61 former detainees from its military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appear to have returned to terrorism since their release from custody.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said 18 former detainees are confirmed as "returning to the fight" and 43 are suspected of having done in a report issued late in December by the Defense Intelligence Agency.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNe...rpc=22&sp=true

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMercenary (Post 522549)

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said 18 former detainees are confirmed as "returning to the fight" and 43 are suspected of having done in a report issued late in December by the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Rather misleading to me - 18 isn't as sexy a number is it? and thats out of how many total released?

I don't read it as 18, I read it as 18 + 43. To many for comfort.

I understand that Merc - But weren't they all "suspected" at first? Then they were released - Why? Because we had no proof!

Now what do we have? More suspicion - sorry, I appreciate the gravity of the situation, but the number I see is still 18, and I wonder about some of them too.

You know I am not to sure that they were all "suspected" at first. I think it became a place to send people you really didn't know what to do with, esp early on. Higher level people were sent other places. This was a good read that gave me some insight into the early days and what kinds of people were being shoveled off to Gitmo.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The...6011532/?itm=4

From what I can tell bad people were sent there, but they were not the majority.

How many are turning rather than returning to terrorism?

Either way, hey, now we have a second chance to grab them legitimately. Unless they confirmed the return to terrorism in the same way they grabbed them in the first place.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey (Post 522592)

How many are turning rather than returning to terrorism?

I don't think we will ever know for sure. I still stand by my statements to send home to their countries of origin or to where they were picked up and let the host figure out what they want to do with them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMercenary (Post 522594)

~snip~send home to their countries of origin or to where they were picked up and let the host figure out what they want to do with them.

They apparently cannot do that Merc as that would be, in many cases, the same as condemning them to a death sentence.

They can do it. They just don't want to.

Better late than never. They need to finish it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/wa...9gitmo.html?hp

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/wo...t/23yemen.html

More grist for the mill: freed from Guantanamo in 2007, now deputy leader of Al Qaeda's Yemeni branch.

In spite of Gitmo, or because of Gitmo?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Undertoad (Post 525665)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/wo...t/23yemen.html

More grist for the mill: freed from Guantanamo in 2007, now deputy leader of Al Qaeda's Yemeni branch.

Not surprising but real question. What these people suppose to do with their lives now that they have been released? Are they ostracized from society?

His past history says... in spite of.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NYTimes

Mr. Shihri, 35, trained in urban warfare tactics at a camp north of Kabul, Afghanistan, according to documents released by the Pentagon as part of his Guantánamo dossier. Two weeks after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he traveled to Afghanistan via Bahrain and Pakistan, and he later told American investigators that his intention was to do relief work, the documents say. He was wounded in an airstrike and spent a month and a half recovering in a hospital in Pakistan.

The documents state that Mr. Shihri met with a group of “extremists” in Iran and helped them get into Afghanistan. They also say he was accused of trying to arrange the assassination of a writer, in accordance with a fatwa, or religious order, issued by an extremist cleric.

However, under a heading describing reasons for Mr. Shihri’s possible release from Guantánamo, the documents say he claimed that he traveled to Iran “to purchase carpets for his store” in Saudi Arabia. They also say that he denied knowledge of any terrorists or terrorist activities, and that he “related that if released, he would like to return to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, wherein he would reunite with his family.”

“The detainee stated he would attempt to work at his family’s furniture store if it is still in business,” the documents say.

I doubt NATO bombed a lot of "relief workers" at those al Qaeda training camps.

Big deal. Some half-wit decides to turn or return to terror. I'm quakin' in my boots I am.