Terrorist Recidivism

Dick Cheney, distraught that imprisoned men no longer scream in agony at the mention of His name, is on a crusade to bring back righteous torture. One weapon in his quiver is a statistic quoted in the New York Times that one out of seven released from Gitmo has returned to terrorism. Cheney uses that stat to content that the prisoners were treated too humanly.

we learned yesterday, many were treated too leniently, because 1 in 7 cut a straight path back to their prior line of work ~ Dick Cheney speech May 21, 2009

The recidivism rate for regular prisons in the United States is 67%; the Gitmo rate is a meager 14%. That could mean that torturous treatment chased hundreds away from their previous employment.

More likely, it means that of the 534 suspects held and interrogated at Gitmo and subsequently released only about 150 were actually terrorists. The remaining nearly 400 were innocents who had no terrorist careers to return to and merely wanted to return to peaceful lives and try to forget the horror of their American captivity.