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Council Highlights
Nawaz Offers Views on Changing Pakistani Perceptions of U.S.
Shuja Nawaz, Director of the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center, was interviewed on The Takeaway morning radio news program on the Pakistan flood situation. The discussion focused on the U.S. being the single largest donor of aid, and the potential for Pakistanis to shift their perceptions of America. Nawaz insists that the U.S. should stay the course with aid to Pakistan, but warns of the long-term effects of America's goodwill, stating that "changing image takes a long time."
Nancy Walker Addresses U.S. Africa Command Conference
Dr. Nancy J. Walker, Director of the Ansari Africa Center, gave the keynote address at Africa Command’s Senior Leader Offsite Conference in Starnberg, Germany on August 26, 2010.
South Asia Center's Shikha Bhatnagar Spotlighted
Shikha Bhatnagar's recent appointment as Associate Director of the South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council, is yet another manifestation of a growing trend of second generation Indian Americans' advent into leading Washington, DC think tanks as senior policy analysts and associates.
Chuck Hagel Discusses START Ratification on RussiaToday
Atlantic Council Chairman Chuck Hagel was interviewed for RussiaToday on delays in ratification of the START treaty in both the U.S. and Russia.
FEATURED ISSUE
In August the sunny calm and quiet that is a Swedish summer will be shattered by the impact of Joint Direct Attack Munitions dropped by F-16CM Fighting Falcons from US Air Force Europe.
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.
