Intelligence analysts now believe that an additional former Guantánamo Bay detainee has engaged in terrorist activity after his release, while seven more have been added to a roster of those who might be causing problems, according to data disclosed on Monday.
Most of the former detainees newly believed to be causing problems were transferred under the Obama administration, according to a semiannual report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Congress has mandated that the office produce and make public the reports on so-called recidivism by former detainees. The reports contain aggregate data based on intelligence assessments but do not give names or places. The new report compiled data as of mid-January.
It said that of the 144 detainees transferred after President Barack Obama took office in January 2009, seven were known to have engaged in post-release militancy. The previous report, which contained data as of mid-July 2015, showed six such detainees.
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In December 2015, Ibrahim al-Qosi, a former aide to Osama bin Laden who was repatriated to Sudan in 2012 after serving out a sentence imposed on him by a military commission, appeared in a propaganda video released by al-Qaida’s Yemeni branch. Qosi pleaded guilty in the tribunal system to providing material support to a terrorist organization.
The new report also showed that 12 former detainees released in the Obama era were suspected of causing problems, meaning that intelligence agencies had an unconfirmed allegation by a single source. Six months earlier, there were six suspected cases. In addition, one former detainee transferred under the Bush administration was newly suspected of causing problems.
The report’s data for the 532 former detainees transferred under George W. Bush was largely unchanged: 111 were known to have re-engaged, the same figure as in the July 2015 report, and 74 were suspected of it, up from 73.
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