WASHINGTON — Former terror suspects released from Guantanamo Bay are increasingly fighting against the U.S. and its allies, the Pentagon said Tuesday.
Sixty-one detainees freed from the U.S. Navy base in Cuba are thought to have joined the fight, said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell, citing December data. That’s up from 37 in March, he said.
About 520 Guantanamo detainees have been released or transferred to other prisons.
“There clearly are people who are being held at Guantanamo who are still bent on doing harm to America,” Morrell said. “. . . So there will have to be some solution for the likes of them, and that is among the thorny issues the president-elect and his new team are carefully considering.”
Morrell said the new numbers showed a “pretty substantial increase” in former detainees joining terrorist missions — from 7 percent to 11 percent.
He said intelligence, photographs and forensic evidence such as fingerprints and DNA were used to tie the former detainees to terrorist activity. The Associated Press
