Made Any "Anti-American Statements" Lately? Congrats, You're a Terrorist!

One of the great legacies of the Bush era is that his administration's routine politicization of national security stripped any lingering credibility that might have adhered to our intelligence agencies' habitually leaked reports and unsourced statements.

The latest night-sweats being hawked by the typical fear-mongers is that closing Gitmo will lead to a horde of frightening -- and dusky -- Islamototalitarians blowing themselves up in your local 7-11. That's a talking-point based on some information that is decidedly dodgy. CNN:

Security experts are questioning information released by the Pentagon last week, saying 61 former detainees from its detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may have returned to terrorist activities.

The report, released days before President Obama took office, says 18 former detainees are confirmed to have participated in attacks, and 43 are suspected to have been involved in attacks.

On Friday, a Pentagon spokesman defended the integrity of the report but would not directly answer questions about where the figures come from.

"We don't make these figures up. They're not done willy-nilly," spokesman Geoff Morrell said.

Who said they don't have a sense of humor at the DoD?

Pentagon officials have said they would not discuss how the statistics were derived because of security concerns that such information could give clues to how U.S. intelligence officers collect their data.

"Collect their data" sounding much better than "making shit up." Buried deep in the article, however, we get some insight into those dedicated public servants' "methodology":