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Kazakhstan and the United States: Twenty Years of Ambiguous Partnership
The Five Futures of Cyber Conflict and Cooperation
US Lessons for the Eurozone Restoring Confidence through Transparency
Prospects and Challenges for Increasing India-Pakistan Trade
A US-EU Action Plan for Supporting Democratization: Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia
Council News
Damon Wilson US Senate Testimony: Ukraine at a Crossroads
On February 1, Atlantic Council executive vice president Damon Wilson testified at a hearing of the US Senate Committe on Foreign Relations on the topic: "Ukraine at a Crossroads: What's at Stake for the US and Europe?"
Michele Dunne on US-Egypt Relations for NPR's Morning Edition
Relations between the US and Egypt have taken a downturn since Egyptian authorities raided the offices of seventeen nongovernmental organizations in December - three of them US-funded. Michele Dunne, director of the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, spoke on NPR's Morning Edition about the situation and what it means for US aid to Egypt.
Atlantic Council SAG Members Nominated for Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature
The Oxford Handbook of War, edited by Atlantic Council Strategic Advisors Group members Julian Lindley-French and Yves Boyer, has been nominated for the prestigious Duke of Westminster’s Medal for Military Literature awarded by the Royal United Services Institute.
FEATURED ISSUE
The South Asia Center receives guidance and support from many experts throughout the world. Our senior fellows, guest-speakers, Center patrons, and visitors contribute heavily to the Center’s mission to “wage peace,” and engage the international community in the region. The Center asked our contributors the simple, but key question, “What you do expect in 2012?”
REGISTER
Freed Gitmo Inmates Return to Terrorism
James Joyner | January 13, 2009
Whether by mischievous intent or happy coincidence, mere hours after Obama people announced that he would order the Guantanamo Bay detention facility closed, the Bush administration announced that 61 former detainees had returned to terrorism.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said 18 former detainees are confirmed and 43 suspected of "returning to the fight." He said the figures, updated at the end of December, showed a higher rate of recidivism than seen in a previous report showing 37 former detainees as active militants. He provided no details about the detainees or their countries of origin.
"The overall known terrorist re-engagement rate has increased to 11 percent" from about 7 percent, Morrell said. The numbers were generated by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency based on fingerprints, photographs and intelligence reports, he said.
Perhaps this is what Vice President Dick Cheney had in mind this morning when he said the administration had "erred a bit on the side" of "letting the wrong people go on a few occasions." Obviously, one doesn't want to release terrorists back into the wild.
Cheney's description of the place as "very well-run facility," on the other hand, is sure to raise some eyebrows. On one score, at least, he's right. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the numbers are far worse in the general prison population, where "an estimated 67.5%" of those released "were rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years."
UPDATE: See the follow-up post, "Gitmo 'Recidivism' Claims Don't Stand Scrutiny."
James Joyner is managing editor of the Atlantic Council. Photo credit: Reuters Pictures. Thanks to commenter markm for the tip.
