Reports of several former Guantanamo Bay prisoners returning to terrorism are unlikely to make the Defense Department less willing to free more prisoners, a spokesman said yesterday.
“I don’t think it will make it more difficult to release people in the future,” said Air Force Maj. Michael Shavers, a Pentagon spokesman. “We will continue to apply stringent scrutiny of the cases of these individuals.”
Maj. Shavers said military officials have confirmed reports indicating about 10 prisoners released from the naval base prison on Cuba’s southeastern tip have “returned to committing terrorists acts.”
Their identities have not been released, but one former prisoner made his name known in Pakistan recently by claiming responsibility for the Oct. 9 kidnapping of two Chinese engineers.
Pakistan, a close ally to China, has vowed to hunt down Abdullah Mehsud, who returned to the country in March after about two years’ detention at Guantanamo. Helicopter gunships attacked his suspected hide-out in the South Waziristan tribal zone yesterday, Reuters reported.
The news agency said one of the hostages and all of the kidnappers, whom Mehsud had directed from a secret location, were killed after army commandos engaged in a rescue operation last week.
U.S. military officials yesterday would not give specific details about why Mehsud, 28, was released from Guantanamo, beyond outlining the general circumstances under which any prisoner may be let go.
About 550 terror suspects are held at the prison and Maj. Shavers said a release may occur if a prisoner no longer poses a threat, no longer has intelligence value or is not a candidate for trial by military commission.
“It’s a difficult balance to achieve between not wanting to hold individuals longer than is necessary and the risk to our forces if the individual returns to the fight,” Maj. Shavers said.
“What people need to understand is that a number of these detainees are highly skilled in concealing the truth.”
Military officials said prisoners who are freed are made to sign a pledge renouncing the fight against U.S. forces and agreeing not to take up arms against U.S. forces or allies.
More than 200 prisoners have departed the prison since its creation after the September 11 attacks. The Pentagon has said more than 150 were released, and 56 transferred to the control of other governments — 29 to Pakistan, five to Morocco, four to France, seven to Russia, four to Saudi Arabia, five to Britain and one each to Spain and Sweden.
The Associated Press reported one former prisoner, Maulvi Abdel Ghaffer, was killed about a month ago by Afghan security forces during a raid in southern Afghanistan.
The news agency said he had served as a senior Taliban commander in northern Afghanistan before his arrest in late 2001. He was released to Afghanistan after eight months at Guantanamo, and Afghan leaders believe he was heading Taliban forces in the Uruzgan province when he was killed.
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