Former detainees are rising to leadership roles in al-Qaeda. From Newsweek:
The Pentagon is preparing to declassify portions of a secret report on Guantanamo detainees that could further complicate President Obama's plans to shut down the detention facility.
The report, which could be released within the next few days, will provide fresh details about 62 detainees who have been released from Guantanamo and are believed by U.S. intelligence officials to have returned to terrorist activities, according to two Pentagon officials who asked not to be identified talking about a document that is not yet public. One such example, involving a Saudi detainee named Said Ali Al-Shihri, who was released in 2007, received widespread attention Friday when Pentagon officials publicly confirmed that he has recently reemerged as a deputy commander of Al Qaeda in Yemen. Al-Shihri, once known publicly only as Guantanamo detainee No. 372, is suspected of involvement in a thwarted attack on the U.S. embassy in Yemen last September.
Anyone who has spent time in Guantanamo is by nature a hero to al-Qaeda, as well as anyone who doubts the veracity of each and every detainee's guilt.
If one was already a terrorist and released from Guantanamo, one would probably return to terrorism.
If one was apprehended by mistake and subjected to internment at Guantanamo, wouldn't that make one more likely to become a terrorist? To want revenge?
The mere existence of Guantanamo is a source of outrage in the Muslim (and liberal) world. Those who emerge from that hole are natural heroes to anyone who hates America, as Guantanamo represents the worst that America is capable of. So why would we want to create more terrorist idols?
I cannot think of a single reason to keep Guantanamo open as its stated purpose is in direct contradiction to its practical effects. The issue, of course, is what to do with detainees - one would hope the international community might shrug off years of anti-Americanism and offer to lend a hand. But that would be asking very much from a world we have done so much to frustrate for years and years.
Close Guantanamo. Stop producing terrorist heroes.