As mcjoan describes in her post The Myth of 61 and the Fear Wurlitzer, a growing number of news outlets are reporting claims that dozens of former Guantanamo detainees have returned to Al Queda.
My instinct is to assume some conservatives are spreading these stories in an effort to re-ignite national paranoia and slow down the Obama administration's efforts to give justice to the detainees. But let's assume for a moment these stories are more than urban myths. The journalists involved should be asking their sources two very pointed questions:
First, if "enhanced interrogation techniques" are so effective (as the Bush administration insisted) how did so many terrorists manage to fool their interrogators and get released?
Second, how soon can we hold hearings about this supposed recidivism?
If we couldn't even get them to confess to being terrorists, that's stark evidence that the use of torture failed us miserably. And if the Bush administration really has released terrorists to kill again, Americans have a right to know how that happened.
That is, if it really happened and it's not some Gitmo apologist trying to blow smoke at us.