[JURIST] The Pentagon said Tuesday that it has evidence that confirms that 27 released Guantanamo Bay detainees [fact sheet, PDF] have engaged in combat or terrorism against the US. The evidence, implicating five percent of ex-detainees, includes "fingerprints, DNA, and reliable, verified, or well-corroborated intelligence reporting." The five percent who have been confirmed is less than the fourteen percent of detainees, or 74 overall, who are suspected to have returned to the battlefield, according to the US Department of Defense [official website].

The Pentagon has made numerous claims regarding the number of former detainees that engage the US in combat or terrorist activities following release. In January, the Pentagon reported that 61 former detainees had returned to terrorism [Telegraph report]. In June 2008, the Pentagon reported that seven percent [fact sheet, PDF] of released detainees were suspected of or confirmed to have returned to combat. Earlier this month, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates [official profile] said that the US is considering sending Yemeni Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] detainees to Saudi Arabia for rehabilitation [JURIST report] as part of the efforts to close the prison facility, despite reports that two former prisoners have joined al Qaeda in Yemen. In January, a spokesperson for the DOD said that the US would not change its policy [JURIST report] on the transfer of Guantanamo Bay detainees to Saudi Arabia.