Trump incorrectly claims 122 Gitmo detainees released under Obama returned to battlefield
President Trump incorrectly claimed Tuesday that 122 Guantanamo Bay detainees who were released under the Obama administration have returned to the battlefield.
122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2017
The number appears to stem from a report released last September from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, but the report clearly indicates that 122 of the 693 detainees, or about 18 percent, released under both George W. Bush and Obama administrations reengaged.
A bulk of those detainees that returned to the battlefield, however, were released under the Bush administration, before the U.S. set up an interagency screening and hearing process for each prisoner. The report says that of the 532 detainees released from the detention facility under Bush, 113 returned to the battlefield, or about 21 percent.
Under Obama, 161 detainees were transferred from Guantanamo Bay and only 9 have been confirmed to have reengaged and returned to the battlefield. That’s just under 6 percent of the total transferred since 2009.
Of the combined total 122 that returned to the battlefield under both Bush and Obama, the report says that 30 are dead, 25 are in custody and 67 are not in custody.
Over the course of Obama’s two terms in the White House, he urged Congress to close down Guantanamo Bay, but President Trump has opposed such a move and called on Obama before his inauguration to stop releasing detainees.
CBS News’ Margaret Brennan and Mark Knoller contributed to this report.