Fox News hosts and contributors have repeatedly forwarded the Republican claim that the Obama administration intends to release terrorists held at Guantánamo Bay into the United States. However, the administration has explicitly stated that it does not intend to release terrorists into the U.S.
Since President Obama announced on January 22 that he will close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Fox News hosts and contributors have repeated or uncritically aired Republicans' claim that the administration intends to release terrorists held there into the United States. This uncritical reporting takes on added significance because, as Media Matters for America has documented, several media figures -- including some at Fox News -- have recently described Republicans' attempts to stoke fears about relocated Guantánamo detainees endangering Americans as possibly being a "winning issue" for the GOP.
In several instances, Fox News hosts or contributors either explicitly or implicitly referred to a group of ethnic Uighur detainees, at least some of whom the administration is considering releasing into the United States, as Defense Secretary Roberts Gates told the Senate Appropriations Committee during an April 30 hearing. In response to questioning by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Gates said: "What I have heard people talking about is our taking some of the Uighurs, probably not all, because it's difficult for the State Department to make the argument to other countries they should take these people that we have deemed in this case not to be dangerous if we won't take any of them ourselves."
However, the policy the administration is considering with regard to this group does not indicate that the administration intends to release "terrorists" into the United States. As a May 1 Los Angeles Times article noted, "The Uighurs, part of a movement that seeks independence from China, had received weapons training at a camp in Afghanistan, but are not considered a threat to the U.S.," and the Bush administration reclassified this group of detainees as "no longer enemy combatants." At the April 30 Senate hearing where Gates made his comments about plans to release the Uighurs, Gates referred to them as "people that we have deemed in this case not to be dangerous."
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Nevertheless, Fox News hosts and contributors have repeatedly advanced the baseless Republican charge that the administration intends to release terrorists held at Guantánamo Bay into the United States...
http://mediamatters.org/research/200905120034
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