In the six-and-a-half years that the U.S. government has been fingerprinting insurgents, detainees and ordinary people in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Horn of Africa, hundreds have turned out to share an unexpected background, FBI and military officials said. They have criminal arrest records in the United States.
There was the suspected militant fleeing Somalia who had been arrested on a drug charge in New Jersey. And the man stopped at a checkpoint in Tikrit who claimed to be a dirt farmer but had 11 felony charges in the United States, including assault with a deadly weapon.
The records suggest that potential enemies abroad know a great deal about the United States because many of them have lived here, officials said. The matches also reflect the power of sharing data across agencies and even countries, data that links an identity to a distinguishing human characteristic such as a fingerprint.
“I found the number stunning,” said Frances Fragos Townsend, a security consultant and former assistant to the president for homeland security. “It suggested to me that this was going to give us far greater insight into the relationships between individuals fighting against U.S. forces in the theater and potential U.S. cells or support networks here in the United States.”
that cartoon is fantastic…and scary. You know very well all those Gitmo detainees have Harvard lawyers fighting hard for them.
As for the rest of it? WHEN are we going to WAKE UP?? THAT is so troubling. And, don’t forget, many of the Gitmo detainees who’ve been released and returned from captivity have killed our kids in the war zones, too. Sorry the media doesn’t know about that. (ya, sure)
Certainly Z, that’s my point: we WILL see them AGAIN and AGAIN and they WILL be effective in killing more of our good men and women in combat.
BZ
But we can’t profile, ya know! We have to be very careful we don’t piss off any muslims. They might get their feeler’s hurt and protest and you know how they are when they protest! And of course we have to give suspected terrorists all the advantages that we give American criminals, even more, since Gitmo is a recreational center compared to the prisons stateside. SHEESH!
It is so sad and disgusting. I am sure you heard today that more than half of those being held in GITMO have criminal records here in the United States.
This is sick, just sick! Release them my you know what! They should be detained for life – PERIOD!
Layla: yep, that’s precisely what it said in the quote. We KNOW these guys and WILL see them again.
BZ
I guess it’s a crime to protect our country now. Can’t do something that will protect us now can you.