In his already infamous dissent in Boumedienne v. Bush, Justice Scalia released a massive volley of palpable falsehoods, including this one:
“At least 30 of those prisoners hitherto released from Guantanamo Bay have returned to the battlefield.”
Nino has an obsession with “the battlefield.” His use of “returned” is intended to make us believe that all the Guantanamo prisoners were captured while fighting against U.S. troops, a flagrant lie earnestly retailed by George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and all their henchmen.
Fortunately, the good folks at the Seton Hall Law Center for Policy and Research read Scalia’s footnote and did the legwork to demonstrate that exactly 2 of the 30 engaged in terrorist activities after release, while the others, well, a couple of them granted interviews in which they said unkind things about the U.S. Some battlefield!
Hilzoy at “Obsidian Wings” has all the details. The full Seton Hall report is here. I got to Hilzoy via Andrew Sullivan.
