18% of Gitmo Detainees Go Back to Terror (according to DOD report)

[sabra]

Source: CBS News

Nearly 1 in 5 Suspected of "Terrorist Activities" After Release, According to Defense Dept. Report

(CBS) The United States is mulling the future of hundreds of detainees held indefinitely and without charge at the naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They are being considered on a case-by-case basis, with some getting trials and others being released to countries willing to accept them.

But what becomes of a detainee when he's sent home? CBS News correspondent David Martin reports that in many cases, they go right back to their former life.

Nearly one out of every five prisoners released from Guantanamo has gone back to terrorism.

The latest figures compiled by the Defense Intelligence Agency show that 18 percent of more than 530 prisoners sent home or to another country are confirmed or suspected of what the Pentagon calls "terrorist activities."

That works out to nearly 100 former detainees back in the fight.

The so-called recidivism rate has increased most dramatically in the past two years, which suggests that the longer you are held at Guantanamo the more likely you are to return to terrorism.

Lawyers who represent Guantanamo inmates claim the prison itself - indefinite detention without being convicted of any crime - drives them to terrorism. But CBS News consultant and former Bush administration official Juan Zarate says the ones being released now are more likely to be genuine terrorists.

"You've had individuals who are released who are harder core, more tied to the terrorist networks and more ideologically committed," he said.


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/30/eveningnews/main5199148.shtml?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea

[Solly Mack]

1. What to say?

[aquart]

2. So? Keep 100% in jail because of what 20% MIGHT do?

We don't really have a constitution anymore, do we?

[ejpoeta]

3. wasn't there a guy out there that debunked these so called numbers...

that change with the wind??? unless that was a different counting group. not sure. let's look at it this way.... what percentage of criminals in this country recommit crimes after they are released from prison??? i think it's a high percentage, probably. so, should we just keep them all in prison forever no matter what crime because the rate of those who return is high?

[Hissyspit]

11. I believe so. Can't look for it right now. Maybe someone can find it. nt

[JustinL]

47. Clark Hoyt, public editor of the New York Times

WHEN former Vice President Dick Cheney assailed President Obama’s plan to close the prison at Guantánamo last month, he used ammunition plucked right from that morning’s Times.

The top front-page headline that day, May 21, read: “1 in 7 Detainees Rejoined Jihad, Pentagon Finds.” The article reported in the first paragraph that an unreleased Pentagon study had concluded that about one in seven of the 534 prisoners already transferred abroad from Guantánamo had “returned to terrorism or militant activity.”

...

But the article on which he based that statement was seriously flawed and greatly overplayed. It demonstrated again the dangers when editors run with exclusive leaked material in politically charged circumstances and fail to push back skeptically. The lapse is especially unfortunate at The Times, given its history in covering the run-up to the Iraq war.

...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/opinion/07pubed.html

[JackDragna]

4. Wow. 1 in 5.

..which means our fantastic method of identifying terrorists ends up getting a majority of people with no likely terrorist ties. To me, that doesn't sound like "in many cases, they go right back to their former lives." Of course, the article tries to cloud the truth here by suggesting these men were terrorists in the first place, when they really weren't.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. If true, that's a very low recidivism rate.

[BOG PERSON]

25. The system works. n/t

[dipsydoodle]

6. Maybe that's because

they've now got due cause to retaliate which they may not necessarily have had before.

"the ones being released now" ? The most recent will be the youngster being returned to Afghanistan. Former Bush administration official Juan Zarate should maybe try talking out of his mouth...........

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Go back? The ones released were not charged with or guilty of anything.

If this report is to be believed at all it implies that 18% of the people tortured for years in our torture centers, on release, seek out and join anti-US political groups, that is they have been radicalized by their experience in our gulag.

This bullshit report gets recirculated as 'news' every few weeks.

[pattmarty]

8. C'mon, SUSPECTED??? Who in the fuck decides the SUSPECTED??

AND, more importantly if a kid say 12 yrs old is held and ass fucked, beat up, and generally scared out of his head, who in the fuck can blame this guy if he wants to kill himself a couple of white guys that look just like the guys that ass fucked him? I certainly would grab a 9mm and start looking for the pricks. Right from the get go this was mishandled and Obama is continuing the shit.

[Piewhacket]

9. DOD program creates terrorists to perpetuate a program to fight terrorists....

OMG, that's aiding terrorism!

[harmonicon]

14. haha! +1

[arikara]

10. Maybe they all go back to their former lives

82% of them were probably never terrorist to begin with. Maybe some of the 18% weren't terrorist either but now want revenge for being kidnapped and mistreated in a foreign gulag.

[saigon68]

12. If someone tortures you. and Shoves a Plastic Rod up your Rectum

You may "Itch" for a Little PAYBACK.

God help the Little Troopies who may get captured by these folks

The Chimp Cheney and the other War Criminals sure raised the bar for acceptable treatment of the enemy.

Didn't they?

[davsand]

42. That is a point that rarely gets raised. What ABOUT our troops on down the road?

When the dubya brigade pissed all over the Geneva Convention and started their merry torture programs, they opened the gates to all kinds of abuse of our service personnel on down the road.

God help any of our troops if they become POWs from this point on.

How come nobody is out there talking about this?

:shrug:


Laura

[jaksavage]

13. So would I

If I had been treated that way.

[PSPS]

15. Doesn't this "story" get "reported" every few weeks with different numbers?

I recall reading this same thing over and over over the last several months. It is a hoot, isn't it? How, exactly, does a luckless goat herder "go back to terror?"

[EFerrari]

34. Yes, it does. It's wild, isn't it?

Somewhere in the Pentagram, the propaganda office is still going strong.

[valerief]

16. That's better than US prison recedivism rates, isn't it? nt

[mbperrin]

17. Yep, it's about 50% within 3 years, apparently.

Last year alone, states spent more than $49 billion on corrections, up from $11 billion 20 years before. However, the national recidivism rate remains virtually unchanged, with about half of released inmates returning to jail or prison within three years.

http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=35912

[valerief]

18. Guess that happens when prisons are profit-driven. nt

[mbperrin]

20. Yep, and big bizness needs low cost slaves to work in prison industries.

14th Amendment and all that had them cramped for a while.

[valerief]

28. I think the same thing is true! And I'm told I'm a tin-foiler for thinking it.

Peonage is part of empiricism.

[mbperrin]

29. Heck, I teach it as a unit in my high school economics classes.

We assign a state to each group, and they come back with what businesses use convict labor and what they pay.

37 cents to 67 cents an hour in Texas, and then the commissary can charge them for things we used to give them, in addition!

Free dental, too! Tooth hurt? Cavity? Loose? Filling out? Pull 'em. One simple answer for all life's problems. Helps get 'em back in too. Hard to find a legit job where you cannot smile.

[dixiegrrrrl]

30. I'd love to see the stats on Alabama.

Prison inmate "help" is hired out here. I know of the long long history, was surprised to find it continues.
got any info. fo rme?

[mbperrin]

39. This sorta jumped out. Apparently all wages are paid to the state, where they can deduct

restitution and the actual costs of confinement, up to 40% of earnings, the rest to be put in an inmate account, where I presume he or she can purchase items from the company store, I mean, the prison commissary. This is a start, anyway.

http://www.legislature.state.al.us/SearchableInstruments/2006RS/Bills/HB808.htm

(c) No inmate participating in the program may earn less than the prevailing wage for work of similar nature in the private sector. The earnings of an inmate authorized to work at paid employment pursuant to this act shall be paid directly to the department. The department may adopt regulations concerning the disbursement of any earnings of the inmates involved in a program established pursuant to this section, including the payment of any and all court-ordered restitution. The department may withhold from an inmate's earnings the costs incident to the inmate's confinement as the department shall deem appropriate and reasonable and the moneys collected shall be deposited into the Department of Corrections Special Revenue Fund. In no event shall the withheld earnings exceed 40 percent of the earnings of the inmate. After all expenses have been deducted by the department, the remainder of the inmate's earnings shall be credited to his or her account with the department.

[dixiegrrrrl]

40. So, does this mean the mass privatization of prisons is profit making, I wonder.

All that money that went to the State must now be paid, in some percentage at least, to
private systems.
I do know no one would go to the trouble of running a private enterprise without certainty of a profit.

[mbperrin]

41. Yep, and prisoners make great employees. They didn't get drunk or stoned

last night or even stay up late. You know where they live - they won't be late to work. They don't have to worry about keeping the lights on, the mortgage paid, they never have car trouble, either. They're alert and ready to work!

Old prisoners? Not so good. Aches, pains, attitudes. Put em out on early release or parole. Get in some of those young strong offenders who got popped for possession or maybe a little distribution. Their livers are good, brains good, no drugs in here, not old enough to have taken any damage, ready to work.

The last is why my students can finally understand why legalization of various drugs is not going to happen, and the merits of any drug versus booze just don't matter; there's too much money to be made from hundreds of thousands of relatively minor offenders who can work for cheap!

Corporate America versus any concept of individualism is no contest. Don't get under the wheels is my advice.

First rule in my class every fall: Don't break the law.

Woops, ran on, sorry.

[dixiegrrrrl]

46. Don't be sorry....most excellent info. and insight and sharing.

Please do feel to share anytime. I truly enjoyed it, I know others here who did too.
:hi:

[The Stranger]

19. If they were RELEASED from GITMO, then they WERE NEVER IN "TERROR" TO BEGIN WITH.

Where is "Terror"? Is it a place? What kind of bizarre Orwellian-speak is this?

How in the fuck did everything end up like this?

[Supersedeas]

go back? what % were completely innocent coming in and found inspiration in Gitmo?

[Gormy Cuss]

27. Damn good question n/t

[Supersedeas]

21. go back? what % were completely innocent coming in and found inspiration in Gitmo?

[ProudDad]

22. That's pretty damn good odds...

In the USAmerikan criminal-injustice system the recidivism rates range from about 5% for "sex offenders" up to 70% for the violent crimes -- robbery, theft, burglary, etc.

This is a pretty low recidivism rate, especially since the USAmerikan Empire causes these chickens to come home to roost with their policy of exploitation of the Earth to create the 2nd most unequal society on Earth...

[damntexdem]

23. But 30% of Republicans are birfers -- so Gitmo detainees show greater sense than GOPers.

The real threat is not that some Gitmo detainees might ultimately be imprisoned in U.S. prisons, nor even that some might be released onto U.S. streets, it's that so many Republicans are loose on U.S. streets.

;-)

[bamacrat]

24. I wonder how that compares with our prison system in America?

Does anyone know the rate of return to our prisons?

[RedCloud]

26. So you accept Bush's story they are all terrorists? I don't.

Some were probably sent there to hush them or for political favors.

[Vidar]

31. Less than the recidivism rates for American criminals.

[truthisfreedom]

32. Maybe we shouldn't have terrorized them at gitmo then.

You are what you eat.

[magellan]

33. I notice they don't say how many of them were released by Bush**

It also doesn't say how many of the 18% are confirmed rather than suspected.

All in all, this article is more tuned to the fearful among us than to those with critical thinking skills.

[killbotfactory]

35. If they followed due process and rule of law they wouldn't have this problem

What a strange world

[Q3JR4]

36. ...

"The so-called recidivism rate has increased most dramatically in the past two years, which suggests that the longer you are held at Guantanamo the more likely you are to return to terrorism."

If you rape my wife and/or daughter(s) and son(s) in front of me while torturing us, no matter what my thoughts about your country were when you picked me up odds are good that I'm going to find the nearest recruiting station the second I get out. I'd expect my son(s), daughter(s) and wife to do the same.

In fact, with everything we ain't done to most of them, 18% seems kinda low to me.

Q3JR4.

[madokie]

37. I know if I was in their shoes

I'd have a whole now outlook on life when I was released, yep I'd be just like the 18%'ers

[Blandocyte]

38. They know this because they do follow-up phone calls

Good morning, Moustafah. I'm calling on behalf of the Guantanamo Data Collection Project to find out how our detainees are faring after their release. I'd like to ask you a few questions, but won't be hurting you in any way while I do so; however, if you wouldn't mind placing yourself into one of the stress positions you learned at our facility, that might be helpful. Alright, now, since leaving facility, have you returned to terrorist activities?

[Posteritatis]

43. Meanwhile, 82% don't. (nt)

[lunatica]

44. The assumption that the detainees are all terrorists is stupid

We know they aren't. But many of them could start being terrorists if they get released.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

45. Gee, I can't imagine why being detained without formal charges

or legal representation and being waterboarded should cause anyone to have any lingering resentments now. :sarcasm:

Back in the days of Reagan's interventions in Central America, I heard a talk by a Maryknoll priest who worked with Salvadoran refugees in Mexico. He claimed that the Salvadoran government was the best recruiter the guerrillas had because it was so routinely harsh to innocent people. He told of refugees who had been non-political until soldiers used "advanced interrogations techniques" on them--or even on their children--to find out if they knew anything about the guerrillas.

[USA_1]

48. Previous Reports Like This Have Been Refuted

Expect the same here.