We need a National Terrorist Offender Registry

We’re finding out some information concerning the recidivism rate of terrorists who have been released from Guantanamo Bay. Some – not the majority – seem to be going back to the fight. With that knowledge in hand I’d like to suggest a National Terrorist Offender Registry.

Welcome Michelle Malkin readers!

terrorist-registryWe could make them register with local authorities when they move into town, and have a cool Google map that displays where they live, their photo and what they were convicted of.

Hmm… they may elect to live out of the country, so maybe we could make it a world-wide registry…

The Obama administration is planning to close the Guantanamo detention center soon after arrival in the White House so we’ll need to move quickly to make this law.

Word from the Pentagon is that more than one in 10 released detainees go back to their old ways – you know – terrorizing people and fighting the jihad.

Pentagon: 61 ex-Guantanamo inmates return to terrorism
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Pentagon said on Tuesday that 61 former detainees from its military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appear to have returned to terrorism since their release from custody.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said 18 former detainees are confirmed as “returning to the fight” and 43 are suspected of having done in a report issued late in December by the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Morrell declined to provide details such as the identity of the former detainees, why and where they were released or what actions they have taken since leaving U.S. custody.

“This is acts of terrorism. It could be Iraq, Afghanistan, it could be acts of terrorism around the world,” he told reporters.

Morrell said the latest figures, current through December 24, showed an 11 percent recidivism rate, up from 7 percent in a March 2008 report that counted 37 former detainees as suspected or confirmed active militants.

Granted, these are Pentagon figures and no details as to how the recidivism rate was calculated. But when the American judicial system has someone in custody and they are released to create another crime, people get pretty mad.

Hence, the Terrorist Offender Registry. Many states already have sex offender registries, all we would need is another table in the database.

Hat tip to Geller over at Atlas Shrugs.

Update: Sister Toldjah, Malkin, Gateway Pundit and Scott at Power Line all discussing.

Obama is planning to start closing up shop on the first day of his presidency, but with almost 250 prisoners, it’s going to take some time – some figure more than a year – to complete the process.

Photo Credit: Home page photo courtesy casmaron.
Amnesty International demonstrates in front of the US Embassy in London on 11 January 2007 for the closure of the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

9 Comments

  1. Bill G on January 15, 2009 at 2:07 am

    At present, all we could get would be a registry of people who have offended terrorists.



    • NGrove on January 15, 2009 at 7:30 am

      We already have one.  Its called a phone book.



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