Contact: Sharon Singh, [email protected], 202-509-8194
(Washington, D.C.) — Tom Parker, Amnesty International USA's policy director for (counter) terrorism and human rights, issued the following statement in response to the congressional report released by the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee that examined efforts by the Obama and Bush administrations to move detainees from the U.S.-controlled detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba:
"The facts are simple. There was a confirmed recidivism rate among former Guantanamo detainees released during the Bush administration of just over 13 percent. Of the 66 detainees released from Guantanamo Bay by the Obama administration since 2009, there have been only two reported cases of recidivism –at a rate of just over 3 percent.
"The overwhelming majority of former detainees do not reengage in terrorism. That should be the headline of this report. Meanwhile, Guantanamo Bay continues to be a potent recruitment symbol for Al Qaeda and its affiliates. A more important question for the subcommittee is why Congress continues to obstruct efforts to close Guantanamo when U.S. national security experts almost unanimously want to see it closed.
"Amnesty International continues to call for the closure of the detention center and the return of the United States to the rule of law."
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million supporters, activists and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom and dignity are denied.
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