This ex-detainee is now unambiguously a known terrorist, and can be dealt with as such, swiftly. If there wasn't enough evidence to hold him at Gitmo then it was correct to release him. Anyone is a potential criminal, ask any law enforcement agent and they will agree, but there needs to be solid proof. We may never know if this individual's treatment at Guantanamo drove him to Al Qaeda or if he had an allegiance with the group before hand. We send petty offenders to prison in the US everyday and when they eventually get out many wind up being worse criminals than they were at first.
The choices are simple, we could line up all of the Gitmo detainees, guilty or innocent, and execute them for the sake of expedience. We could dutifully use measures of our legal system to determine guilt or innocence individually and risk some detainees becoming an issue upon release ... Parole Boards deal with that situation daily. One path is risky, one is sure. One path represents American Values, the other doesn't.
Before people say we are in undiscovered territory in dealing with freelance terrorists I would cite the example of Ramzi Yousef. Yousef, nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, was one of the planners of the 1993 attack on the WTC. Yousef was apprehended, tried and is serving a life sentence at Supermax Prison ADX Florence. So, to our credit, we have processed terrorists successfully through our judicial system before.
About Guantánamo Bay
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
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