Friday, May 22, 2009

Pentagon Responds to My Request for Definition of "Rejoins Fight"

On Wed, May 20th, the New York Times ran an article, which MSNBC put on its website, about an unreleased Pentagon report that claims about 1 out of every 7 released detainees have "returned to terrorism or militant activity." I had one immediate concern after reading the article and that was that it never defined the term; rejoins fight. I contacted the Pentagon this morning, requesting a definition, and just received this pdf.
Definitions for Confirmed and Suspected Cases

Definition of “Confirmed” — A preponderance of evidence—fingerprints, DNA, conclusive photographic match, or reliable, verified, or well-corroborated intelligence reporting—identifies a specific former Defense Department detainee as directly involved in terrorist activities.

Definition of “Suspected” — Significant reporting indicates a former Defense Department detainee is involved in terrorist activities, and analysis indicates the detainee most likely is associated with a specific former detainee or unverified or single-source, but plausible, reporting indicates a specific former detainee is involved in terrorist activities.
If you are like me, one line stands out, glaringly:
unverified or single-source, but plausible, reporting indicates a specific former detainee is involved in terrorist activities.
So let's take this number for what it is, unverified.

4 comments:

  1. If these detainees didn't want to be branded for life as terrorists, they should have had the good sense not to be arbitrarily captured in the first place.

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  2. Sounds like the Pentagon confirmed the report.

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  3. Yeah, it confirmed that the estimation 1 out of 7 is "unverified"

    There word, not mine.

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  4. yes. very clever to say that if a person, not guilty of terrorism or ties to terrorism, swept up and sold to the US by warlords, who then speaks out against their abduction, detention and treatment have "re-joined" the fight simply by speaking out.

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