As many as 20 to 30 former Guantanamo Bay detainees -- some of whom were released within the last three years -- are suspected by intelligence and Defense officials of having joined forces with the Islamic State and other militant groups inside Syria, Fox News has learned.
The development has cemented fears that the U.S. military would once again encounter militants taken off the battlefield.
The intelligence offers a mixed picture, and officials say the
figures are not exact. But they are certain at least some of the
released detainees are fighting with the Islamic State, or ISIS, on the
ground inside Syria. Others are believed to be supporting Al Qaeda or
the affiliated al-Nusra Front in Syria.
A number of former detainees also have chosen to help these groups
from outside the country, financing operations and supporting their
propaganda campaigns.
Sources who spoke to Fox News were not able to provide the identities of the fighters.
Senior Defense and intelligence officials say the vast majority of
detainees released from Guantanamo don't return to the fight -- and of
those who do, relatively few have made it to Syria.
Of the 620 detainees released from Guantanamo Bay, 180 have returned or are suspected to have returned to the battlefield.
Of those 180, sources say 20 to 30 have either joined ISIS or other
militants groups in Syria, or are participating with these groups from
outside countries. Officials say most of those 20 to 30 are operating
inside Syria.
Top military officials on Thursday acknowledged such recidivism but insisted most do not return to the battlefield.
"We know that some of the detainees that have come out of Guantanamo
have gone back to the fight, the battlefield. We're aware of that and we
think that overall the policy of getting to close Guantanamo is clearly
in the interest of the United States, as the president has
articulated," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said: "We
believe that the recidivism is a relatively small fraction of those
detainees which have been placed into conditions where the risk of
recidivism is mitigated. But even one would not make someone wearing the
uniform very content."
The development underscores just one of many long-running
complications for efforts to shutter Guantanamo Bay, a promise President
Obama made within hours of taking the oath of office in 2009.
Nearly six years later, that effort has run aground, complicated by
problems with relocating prisoners, by concerns about fighters returning
to the battlefield and by Congress' resistance to allowing any to be
detained on the U.S. mainland.
Asked if he's concerned about more Guantanamo prisoners being
released, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq James Jeffrey told Fox News
this has been a concern for a while.
"The majority have remained there, but there was always, if you will,
a certain seepage," he said. "These people are ideologically and
essentially religiously committed to their evil cause, and it is very
hard to sort out who are going to stay at home and who are going to
return to the battlefield."
A majority of the jihadists released to their home countries tend to
stay and fight locally. Afghans who return to the battlefield, for
instance, tend to stay in Afghanistan.
But these officials said the former detainees who have joined ISIS in
Syria have migrated from the European and African countries which
agreed to receive them from the United States.
Egypt and Tunisia, as well as six European countries, are among them.
According to a source, there are 149 detainees still at Guantanamo
Bay, almost 90 of them from Yemen. Eighty detainees currently are
eligible for transfer.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/10/30/sources-former-guantanamo-detainees-suspected-joining-isis-other-groups-in/Jennifer Griffin currently serves as a national security correspondent for FOX News Channel . She joined FNC in October 1999 as a Jerusalem-based correspondent.
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