Gitmo recruited thousands of terrorists, says US interrogator David Edwards and Joe Byrne

Published: Tuesday January 27, 2009





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A Pentagon report that 61 former inmates from Guantanamo Bay have "returned to the battlefield" doesn't seem to be scaring anyone. Matthew Alexander, a former senior interrogator in Iraq, told Keith Olbermann last night on MSNBC's Countdown that Guantanamo Bay is a persuasive argument for al-Qaeda in recruitment of fighters in Iraq.



Matthew Alexander led the team of interrogators who found Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in August 2006. Since returning from Iraq, he has been outspoken about the tactics that the US military uses to interrogate prisoners. His book, How to Break A Terrorist, outlines his experience with the "deeply flawed, ineffective, un-American way the US military conducts interrogations in Iraq."



The Pentagon report on former Gitmo inmates returning to terrorism has been the subject of much debate since its release. Only 18 former inmates are listed as "confirmed recidivists"; the remaining 43 are listed as "suspected," although the basis of suspicion isn't definitively documented. The activity of one "confirmed recidivist" amounts to being interviewed in a documentary about Guantanamo Bay.



Seton Hall University law professor Mark Denbeaux published a report on Jan. 15 pointing out that the Pentagon has altered its figures on "terrorist recidivism" multiple times, with the latest figure being the most egregiously inaccurate. Denbeaux spoke to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow at the beginning of the month.



"Once again, they've failed to identify names, numbers, dates, times, places, or acts upon which their report relies," the professor asserts. "Every time they have been required to identify the parties, the DOD has been forced to retract their false IDs and their numbers. They have included people who have never even set foot in Guantanamo--much less were they released from there."



Last night, Olbermann asked Matthew Alexander why the Pentagon would use the idea of former Gitmo inmates engaging in terrorism to try to keep the prison open.



"Whether [the number of detainees that are suspected terrorists] is 68 or 100, that number pales in comparison to the number of fighters that have been recruited to al-Qaeda because of Guantanamo," Alexander responded. "That number would be in the thousands. The number one reason that I consistently heard while in Iraq that foreign fighters gave for coming there was 'torture and abuse occurring in Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo'... If we seriously want to undercut one of al-Qaeda's best recruiting tools, the best thing to do would be to close Guantanamo Bay."



Olbermann closed his session with Alexander by asking him, "What would you call a compound where you throw people without trial, and then you don't keep track of how they are, or how long they've been there, or what they're charged with? What do you call that?"



This video is from MSNBC's Countdown, broadcast Jan. 26, 2009.









Download video via RawReplay.com





