Fact-Check: Trump Is Wrong About Guantánamo Detainees
According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, of the 714 former Guantánamo Bay detainees who were transferred to other countries by Jan. 15, 2017 —
dating back to when the Bush administration opened the prison in Cuba in January 2002 — 121 are "confirmed" to have engaged in militant activity after their release.
One reason is that most of the former Guantánamo detainees in the world departed the prison under
Mr. Bush: 532 of the 714 former detainees who left the prison alive departed under Mr. Bush.
Mr. Obama made a late push to get the number of men on a list of those recommended for transfer — many of whom were low-level Yemeni prisoners who languished with
that status for years because Yemen was in chaos and there was no good place to send them — resettled in stable countries.
But it is also true that in terms of percentages, Bush-era releases have been more likely to cause problems than Obama-era releases: About 35 percent of Bush-era transfers are confirmed
or suspected of causing problems, while about 11.5 percent of Obama-era transfers fall into one of those two categories, according to the intelligence director’s office.
But Mr. Trump has repeatedly called for a halt to transfers, suggesting
that the five men left on the transfer list — and anyone else the parole-like board may add to it — face an uncertain future.
Most such wartime prisoners appear to have settled into peaceful lives,
but it may take time for it to become clear whether any particular one has successfully reintegrated into society or has drifted — or drifted back — into Islamist militancy.
