You Wouldn't Like to See Judge Scalia Angry.

Via an alert reader:

 

SETON HALL LAW REPORT: DEPT. OF DEFENSE DATA REVEALS NO RELEASED GUANTÁNAMO DETAINEE EVER ATTACKED ANY AMERICANS
 Dept of Defense’s own data rebuts Justice Scalia’s claim that 30 former GTMO detainees ‘returned to the battlefield’

In his dissent to the majority opinion in Boumediene v. Bush, in arguing that GTMO prisoners should not have the right to habeas corpus petitions to challenge their incarceration, Justice Scalia cited the fact that 30 detainees released by the military had returned to the "battlefield."   Amazingly, he used this as support for his contention that the military and Executive Branch would be much better at figuring out which prisoners are guilty, and which are innocent, than the federal courts.

Turns out the source of that Fun Fact, the Department of Defense, had retracted it, and has no idea what happened to the released detainees.  What a surprise.

Interesting, though, that by Scalia, J.'s logic, if the military releases a prisoner and it turns out he really was innocent, it shows that the military system works, so the federal courts should leave it alone.  And if the military releases a prisoner and it turns out he was guilty, returning to the "battlefield," it demonstrates that even the military can't get it right -- so how the hell could the federal courts?!

So each detainee released by the military, rightly or wrongly, is more evidence that the federal courts shouldn't get involved.   If President Bush really wants to prove that the federal courts have no business deciding the fate of the GTMO prisoners, he should release them all.  QED.