More ex-Guantanamo detainees returning to terrorism: Pentagon News
More ex-Guantanamo detainees returning to terrorism: Pentagon

[JURIST] An official from the US Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] said Wednesday that about one in five detainees freed from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay [JURIST news archive] have returned to terrorist activities, according to a new Pentagon report. The report, which remains classified, shows an increase from the 14 percent recidivism rate reported last spring. That number was up from 11 percent in December 2008. The report was completed in late December [ABC News report], and officials have not released the raw numbers on which the 20 percent figure is based. Many human rights groups dispute the numbers [LAT report], calling them inflated, and some reports have suggested that many Guantanamo detainees are innocent [JURIST report], never having engaged in terrorist activities in the first place.

News of the latest report comes just a day after the White House announced that it was suspending transfers of Guantanamo detainees to Yemen [JURIST news archive]. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs would not say [press briefing] Wednesday whether that decision was due to fears that detainees would return to terrorist activities. Last year, the DOD said that the US would not change its policy [JURIST report] on the transfer of Guantanamo detainees to Saudi Arabia, despite reports that two former prisoners had joined al Qaeda in Yemen after undergoing a Saudi rehabilitation program.

THIS DAY @ LAW

38 Santee Sioux hanged by US for rebellion

On December 26, 1862, 38 Santee Sioux men were hanged in a mass execution for their roles in a rebellion against US authorities in Minnesota which left hundreds dead and made refugees of some 40,000 white settlers. Government annuities promised under a treaty with the Sioux had failed to arrive on schedule and credit for purchases was not advanced in the meantime, threatening the tribe with starvation. The Santee Sioux Tribe's members were deported first to South Dakota and ultimately to Nebraska, where they remain today. Learn more about the 1862 Minnesota Sioux Rebellion.

Louis XVI put on trial during French Revolution

On December 26, 1792, Romain de Sèze, a defense attorney for deposed King Louis XVI, presented a defense of his client. The former King was on trial before a French Revolutionary court on thirty-three charges, including treason and other crimes against the state. He was convicted on January 15, 1793 executed by guillotine on the following January 21.