I certainly agree with Adam Serwer’s point in this post that it will be mindless and destructive if Republicans really tried to prevent transfers from Guantanamo. Along the way, however, Adam makes the following point which warrants a brief response:
Almost 800 people have been imprisoned at Gitmo, whereas there are only about 170 detainees left. The vast majority were released under Bush, and even the exaggerated government “recidivism” rate pegs detainees who have become involved in terrorism since at 20 percent, or 1/3 of the recidivism rate for prisoners in the U.S. Either Gitmo has some really serious rehabilitative qualities or the vast majority of those imprisoned their were innocent.
This is becoming a pretty common argument on the Left, related conceptually to the even-more common argument that releases are themselves evidence of “innocence.
