Myths that Just Won't Die

The Myth of 61, that pulled-out-of-the-Bush-administration-Pentagon's-ass assertion that 61 released detainees have gone back to terrorism just won't die. David Gregory won't let it.

On the January 25 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, host David Gregory allowed House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) to repeat the falsehood that, in Boehner's words, "we've already found" that 61 detainees released from the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay are now "back on the battlefield." In fact, the figure, which comes from the Pentagon, includes 43 former prisoners who are suspected of, but have not been confirmed as, having "return[ed] to the fight." Moreover, even the Pentagon's claim that it has confirmed that 18 former Guantánamo detainees have returned to the battlefield has been questioned by experts.

After Gregory asked if President Obama's executive order requiring that the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay be closed within a year was "realistic," Boehner responded: "[W]hat do you do with these 270 prisoners? Some of them you might be able to release, but we've already found 61 of those that we've released back on the battlefield."

Gregory did not note that according to the Pentagon, the 61-detainee figure includes 43 former prisoners who are suspected of, but have not been confirmed as, having engaged in terrorist activity -- detainees who have not been "already found [...] back on the battlefield," as Boehner asserted. Indeed, as Media Matters for America noted, during a January 13 press conference, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell stated: "The new numbers are, we believe, 18 confirmed and 43 suspected of returning to the fight. So 61 in all former Guantanamo detainees are confirmed or suspected of returning to the fight."

Of course David Gregory did not note that the figure was incorrect (or that there are 245 prisoners in Guantanamo, not 270). That would have taken a bit of research, a bit of journalism to have known. And a willingness to confront a Republican on, well, anything. Seriously, this is his follow up question to the Orange One:

GREGORY: Do you think that the president is making America less safe in taking this step?

Gee, Stretch, how long did it take you to come up with that one?

The Right is pushing hard in what's shaping up to be an "Obama is soft on terror" offensive with closing Guanatanamo as a centerpiece. Which would be laughable, if you unpack all of the things we've come to know about BushCo's operation of the place. Including the fact that those 61 they keep talking about-- if there really even were 61, which there aren't because that's a totally made-up number--were released by Bush! It would be laughable if the David Gregorys of the world weren't so liable to lap it up and spew it out into America's living rooms.