Guantanamo recidivism probed

MIAMI – About one-fourth of all released Guantanamo detainees have been confirmed or suspected of engaging in terrorism or insurgency activity, the vast majority of them freed in the Bush years, according to a new U.S. intelligence report.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper included the figure in a report filed with Congress on Tuesday that was required by the 2010 U.S. intelligence funding bill.

The 150 former Guantanamo detainees who turned to terrorism or may have done so include 83 men who are at large, 54 who are now in custody and 13 who have been confirmed dead.

In all, the U.S. has released some 600 captives from Guantanamo. Some have been repatriated to their home nations, others resettled in third countries and six were sent home after their deaths – five of them apparent suicides.

The report said 81 men – 13.5 percent of those released – were confirmed to have gone on to plan, fund, conduct or recruit for attacks or suicide bombings on U.S. coalition forces or civilians.

In one of the most notorious confirmed cases, Kuwaiti Abdullah al Ajmi, 29, blew himself up in a truck bombing at Iraqi Army headquarters in Mosul in March 2008. He had spent three years at Guantanamo as Detainee No. 220 and was released through a Bush administration review process in 2005.

Another 11.5 percent, or 65 men once held at Guantanamo, are suspected in terror attacks. Those suspicions were based on a single report or “plausible but unverified” information, according to the intelligence directorate.

Tuesday’s report provided none of the recidivist captives’ names or nationalities.