AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s blame off base on Guantanamo
MIAMI — President Donald Trump targeted the wrong president when he criticized the Obama administration for releasing “122 vicious prisoners” from the Guantanamo Bay detention centre who later resumed militant activities.
The latest report from the office of the director of national intelligence shows that 122 men who were held at the U.S. base in Cuba are confirmed to have re-engaged in hostilities after they were released. But more than 90 per cent of those were released by President George W. Bush, the report says.
Every six months, the DNI is required by law to publish statistics on the number of former Guantanamo prisoners either confirmed or suspected of recidivism, a response to congressional fears that potentially dangerous terrorists would be released amid efforts to close the detention centre.
Trump said during last year’s presidential campaign that he wanted the detention centre, often referred to as “Gitmo,” to be kept open. At one point, he pledged to “load it up with some bad dudes.”