A new report from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper claims 116 detainees released from Guantanamo Bay have returned to the terror battlefield.
The report says 116 of 647 former detainees are "confirmed of re-engaging," a rate of 17.9 percent.
Another 69 former detainees, which amounts to 10.7 percent, are "suspected of re-engaging."
Based on those findings, the report concludes that some detainees released from the prison camp on Cuba will try to return to their lives as terrorists once they are transferred out of the prison known as Gitmo.
"Based on trends identified during the past 11 years, we assess that some detainees currently at GTMO will seek to re-engage in terrorist or insurgent activities after they are transferred," the report reads. "Transfers to countries with ongoing conflicts and internal instability as well as active recruitment by insurgent and terrorist organizations pose particular problems.
"While enforcement of transfer conditions may deter re-engagement by many former detainees and delay re-engagement by others, some detainees who are determined to re-engage will do so regardless of any transfer conditions, albeit probably at a lower rate than if they were transferred without conditions."
The report says 110 detainees had returned to the fight before Jan. 22, 2009, while another six did the same between that date and Jan. 15, 2015.
The briefing promises to declassify an updated copy of the report "not less frequently than once every six months."
Of the 116 detainees who are confirmed to have returned to terrorism, 25 are now dead, 23 are in custody, and 68 are not in custody.
Of the 69 suspected of returning to the battlefield, two are dead, 12 are in custody, and 55 are not in custody.
One prisoner released from Gitmo in 2007 was confirmed to have returned to the battlefield as a recruiter for the Islamic State (ISIS).
Mullah Abdul Rauf switched allegiances from the Taliban to ISIS, the terror group currently occupying much of Iraq and Syria. However,
he was killed in a U.S. military drone strike last month.
President Barack Obama has pushed hard to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, which means detainees there must either be tried in the U.S. court system or released. As of January, there were just 127 prisoners left in the camp that once held 680 in the years immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Many
Republicans want the prison camp to remain open for business and filled with suspected terrorists.
Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas took that a step further last month, saying the U.S. should punish any ally that helps Gitmo transfers resettle once they are released.
Cotton's proposal never made it out of the Senate Armed Services Committee.