Dangerous or not?

Guantanamo Bay

Most of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay never posed a threat to the United States, The New York Times reported this week. Vice President Dick Cheney has called the 595 suspected al Qaida terrorists and Taliban fighters at Guantanamo “the worst of a very bad lot.” But the Times, quoting high-ranking officials from the U.S. and elsewhere, said the government had exaggerated the danger the men posed and the value of the intelligence they provided in interrogations. Only one or two dozen of the prisoners were sworn terrorists with any significant knowledge of al Qaida’s operations, the newspaper reported. The rest were low-level recruits and foot soldiers who supported the Taliban, or innocent men swept up in the hunt for the enemy.