WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Pentagon said Tuesday that 61 former detainees are believed to have returned to terrorism since their release from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a big increase from its last count.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, used the new numbers to highlight the challenges of quickly closing the prison despite reports that President-elect Barack Obama will move immediately to direct its closure.
"There, clearly, are people who are being held at Guantanamo who are still bent on doing harm to America -- Americans and our allies. So there will have to be some solution for the likes of them," he said.
"That is among the thorny issues that the president-elect and his new team are carefully considering," he said.
He said the Pentagon now believes that, as of the end of December, 61 former Guantanamo detainees have returned to the fight, up from 37 the last time the Pentagon provided an estimate, which was in March 2008.
Of those, 18 had been confirmed as once again having become directly involved in "terrorist activities."
Morrell said such means as "fingerprints, DNA, conclusive photographic match, reliable, verified or well-corroborated intelligence reporting" were used by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to confirm those cases, he said.
The other 43 former detainees were suspected of having returned to the fight, he said.
The DIA based its suspicions in those cases on "unverified or single source but plausible reporting" or when "significant reporting indicates a former DoD (Department of Defense) detainee is involved in terrorist activities and analysis indicates the former detainee most likely is associated with a specific former detainees," he said.
Morrell provided no detail on the specifics of the new cases, so it was difficult to tell whether a new pattern has emerged that might explain the jump.
"It may have been predicated on the fact that we... transferred out of Gitmo more detainees last year than any previous year," he told reporters.
About 520 detainees have been transferred from Guantanamo to other countries to be held or released since the prison was established in 2002 following the US-led campaign in Afghanistan.
Morrell said more than 100 detainees were shipped to other countries from Guantanamo in 2008.
Obama acknowledged in a television interview on Sunday that it would be "a challenge" to close Guantanamo in his first 100 days in office.
But the following day, Obama transition aides were reported to have said that he would issue an executive order on his first full day in office closing the prison.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has directed his staff to prepare options in case Obama wanted to move quickly on Guantanamo.
Morrell said everyone was in agreement that the prison should be closed.
"The challenge, of course, has been, for this president and for this secretary, how do you close it?" he said.
"I think you've heard from the president-elect that he acknowledges that it may take some time to do so. But that doesn't mean that he and his team, including the secretary, aren't working, now, to figure out the best course of action," he said.
The prison, which is located at a US naval base on the southeast tip of Cuba, currently holds about 250 detainees, including the alleged mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attack on the United States.
About 60 prisoners deemed no longer a threat have been cleared for transfer or release, but their home countries have been reluctant to take them.
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