Detainees released from Guantanamo Bay have attacked and killed at least six Americans in Afghanistan, according to anonymous U.S. officials.
A senior Pentagon official admitted the connection between released detainees and dead Americans back in March, but left the details completely unsaid because they were listed in classified intelligence reports, The Washington Post reports.
One of the Americans killed by detainees included a female aid worker. She died in 2008 in Afghanistan. Her exact identity is uknown.
As a silver lining to the whole debacle, an anonymous U.S. intelligence official told The Washington Post nine of the 12 released Gitmo detainees who attacked Americans have either been killed or are now in the custody of a foreign government.
These 12 detainees were released by the George W. Bush administration.
The recidivism rate is shockingly high for released Gitmo detainees, with 30 percent having been either confirmed of reengaging or suspected of doing so. A majority of re-offenders are Afghan.
Republican lawmakers have bitterly complained about attempts to close the facility and ship the detainees to storage areas in the United States. Several lawmakers, wanting to know more about the attacks, have received memos from the intelligence apparatus, but those memos are still classified at the highest level. Members of Congress are forbidden from openly discussing the details, further infuriating them.
GOP Sen. Ayotte wrote a letter earlier this week asking the Obama administration to get rid of over-classification on these memos and reveal exactly how many Americans have been killed by Gitmo detainees.
“There appears to be a consistent and concerted effort by the Administration to prevent Americans from knowing the truth regarding the terrorist activities and affiliations of past and present Guantanamo detainees,” Ayotte wrote.
A total of 80 detainees remain locked up in Guantanamo Bay, and the Obama administration is bent on closing the facility and either releasing the detainees, or transferring them to U.S. soil for further detention. Congress hasn’t cooperated at all. Time is running out for the Obama administration, and so officials are exploring different legal strategies to try and circumvent legislators, who intend to reaffirm the ban on transferring detainees to the U.S.
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