Freed Gitmo detainees back in rebel ranks, officials say

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Several detainees released by the U.S. military from the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have rejoined their former comrades-in-arms and taken part in fresh attacks on American troops, according to Defense Department officials and a senior Republican lawmaker.

"We've already had instances where we know that people who have been released from our detention have gone back and have become combatants again," said Rep. Porter J. Goss, Florida Republican, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

"It's the military Willie Horton," he said, referring to the murderer who absconded on a furlough granted by then-Gov. Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts in 1987. The freed Horton pistol-whipped a Maryland man and raped his fiancee, and the case became an issue when Mr. Dukakis, a Democrat, ran for president in 1988.

"I do in fact have specific cases," Mr. Goss said in an interview. But when pressed for further details, he declined to say more.

A Defense official independently confirmed that several such cases had involved Afghans released from Guantanamo.

"At least five detainees released from Guantanamo have returned to the [Afghan] battlefield," the defense official said on the condition of anonymity.

When asked how U.S. authorities could know, the official declined to comment.

"That gets into intel stuff. I can't go there," the official said.

The case of the released detainees threatens to become a political issue as Congress returns in the aftermath of June's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the Guantanamo Bay detainees have a right to file writs of habeas corpus.

According to Mark Jacobson, a former senior official at the Pentagon who helped put together the handling practices for detainees at Guantanamo, every detainee is fingerprinted and photographed.