‘10 former Gitmo detainees rejoined fight against US’
WASHINGTON: About 10 former detainees have rejoined the fight against US forces after being released from a US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in the belief they no longer posed a threat, Pentagon officials said on Friday.
Some have been recaptured, others reportedly killed and an unknown number remain at large, the officials said.
“From the beginning, we have recognized that there are inherent risks in determining when an individual detainee no longer had to be held at GTMO and that the assessment process is not risk free,” said Lieutenant Commander Alvin Plexico, using the military acronym for Guantanamo.
Military reports indicate that “about 10 of the 202 detainees that were transferred from GTMO have taken part in anti-coalition activities,” he said.
They include an Afghan teenager who was a minor at the time of his first capture in the wake of US-led offensive that toppled the Taliban regime, a Pentagon official said, asking not to be identified. He and two other minors captured in Afghanistan were separated from other inmates at Guantanamo and schooled in English and other subjects until their release in January.
But rather than reintegrate to Afghan society as US officials had hoped, he rejoined the Taliban.
“He was recaptured participating in an attack” near Kandahar, the official said. “At the time of his recapture he was carrying a letter confirming his status as a Taliban in good standing.”
Another former detainee made headlines in Pakistan earlier this month with the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers working on a dam in Waziristan.
One hostage was freed and the other killed in a Pakistani rescue attempt. However, the alleged mastermind, Abdullah Masud, a 29-year-old militant tribal leader who was released from Guantanamo in March, remains at large.
Plexico said other released detainees include one who reportedly killed a judge as he left a mosque in Afghanistan, another who was recaptured in a raid on a suspected training camp in Afghanistan after firing on US forces, and yet another who was killed by Afghan security forces in a raid. The US military weighs whether a detainees have intelligence value or continue to pose a threat before releasing them. Detainees have often concealed their roles in the Taliban or Al Qaeda by trying to pass themselves off as farmers, or cooks or low level combatants.
“We’ve said from the beginning, it’s not a risk-free process,” said the Pentagon official. afp |
