A guard walks through a cellblock inside Camp V, a prison used to house detainees at Guantanamo Bay U. Naval Base, on March 5, Despite the vehemence with which these claims are made, the basis for them is remarkably misguided. The reported number of those who have become involved in terrorism after their release is lowβand even that number is contested.
Bush , as well as U. Ayotte also failed to mention that the detainees have contested these allegations during hearings, military commission proceedings, and in federal court. But a Periodic Review Board, made up of representatives from six U. Official numbers are higher among the released under the administration of President George W. However, the attacks mostly occurred during large-scale firefights in war zones, so there was no way to determine whether the former detainees were directly responsible for the U.
Nine of those suspected to be involved in the attacks are now dead or in foreign custody. Still, some members of Congress continue to cry foul, and Ayotte has been leading the charge. Lengthening this list could make negotiating future transfers even more difficult and obstruct the release of the 20 remaining detainees the administration has already cleared for transfer. Zahir was detained at the age of 30 or 31, during a raid intended to capture someone else, in a location where chemical or biological agents were believed to be stored.
It was later determined that the agents were benign substances. Zahir has been imprisoned for 13 years and ten months. In it, Slahi detailed years of harrowing torture and abuse, but he often does so with humor and compassion, even when writing about those responsible for his pain. Some won their cases at the lower court level, but U.
Of those, 17 have been released. Of course, some of those still held in Guantanamo may harbor ill-intensions or ill-will to the United States and may have committed serious crimes. But the proper way to treat them, for a country that respects the rule of law and international human rights, is to prosecute them before a fair court of law if the evidence supports it, not hold them indefinitely or subject them to torture.
