WASHINGTON - January 23 - In recent days many media figures and outlets -- including CNN's Campbell Brown and Kyra Phillips, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, Fox News' Sean Hannity, The Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Associated Press, and ABCNews.com -- have repeated or failed to challenge the claim that 61 former detainees held at Guantánamo Bay have returned to the battlefield. Hannity, the Globe, and the Los Angeles Times, in particular, falsely asserted that the Pentagon has confirmed this figure.

In fact, the Pentagon says it has confirmed that 18 Guantánamo detainees -- not 61 -- have returned to the fight. During a January 13 http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=4340 blocked::http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?t">press conference, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell stated: "The new numbers are, we believe, 18 confirmed and 43 suspected of returning to the fight. So 61 in all former Guantanamo detainees are confirmed or suspected of returning to the fight."

As Media Matters has repeatedly noted, the Pentagon's claim to having confirmed that 18 have returned to the fight has itself been called into question. Indeed, Seton Hall University School of Law professor Mark Denbeaux has disputed the Pentagon's figures, asserting: "Once again, they've failed to identify names, numbers, dates, times, places, or acts upon which their report relies. Every time they have been required to identify the parties, the DOD [Department of Defense] has been forced to retract their false IDs and their numbers."

"It is reckless for members of the media to misrepresent what the Pentagon said and to compound the misinformation by not reporting that even the lower Pentagon number that it actually claims to have confirmed has been questioned." said Karl Frisch, a Senior Fellow at Media Matters. He added, "The media should be ashamed for using these numbers without noting they have been called into question by experts. The American people deserve an honest assessment of our Guantanamo policy -- on that front they have been failed by the media."

BACKGROUND:

Media advance falsehood that Pentagon has confirmed that 61 former Guantánamo detainees have returned to battlefield

http://mediamatters.org/items/200901230002

Summary: Since President Barack Obama signed an executive order requiring that the Pentagon's detention facilities at Guantánamo be closed within a year, numerous media figures and outlets have repeated or failed to challenge the claim that 61 former detainees held there have returned to the battlefield. In fact, the figure, which comes from the Pentagon, includes 43 former prisoners who are suspected of, but have not been confirmed as, having "return[ed] to the fight."

CNN, AP falsely claim that Pentagon says 61 Guantánamo detainees have returned to terrorism

http://mediamatters.org/items/200901220014

Summary: The Associated Press falsely stated, "The Pentagon recently reported that 61 former prisoners at Guantanamo have returned to the fight against the U.S. and its allies." Similarly, on CNN Newsroom, anchor Kyra Phillips asserted, "New Pentagon figures actually say 61 released detainees have been linked to some kind of terror activity." In fact, the Pentagon's figure includes 43 former prisoners who are suspected of, but not confirmed as, having, in the AP's words, "returned to the fight."