This story seemed straight forward this morning when I started: How many detainees who are released or transferred from Gitmo have wound up on the battlefield again with the goal of killing Americans? But the more you report this story, the more you realize, the Pentagon doesn’t have a good handle on how many detainees are involved and some lawyers argue that their clients, the detainees, got radicalized after spending years in Gitmo without charge.

Cully Stimson, a former senior policy adviser on detainees to the president, told me that these detainees are trained to lie. It is part of their terror training – that is why Stimson says - it can be so hard to make the case they are enemy combatants. Stimson put it this way:

“You find a guy, who says he’s a sheep herder in the mountains of Afghanistan, he has 25k cash on him and a GPS recorder and he’s found with 200 rpgs. Is he a sheep herder? No. And so this is a typical type of cover story.”

According to the Pentagon’s statistics, and I mention the source because it’s always important to know the source and their agenda, of the 500 detainees released from Guantanamo Bay, about 36 are confirmed or suspected of returning to the battlefield. That is roughly 7 percent.

Among the group, Mohammed Nayim Farouq (top left) who according to military officials, quickly renewed his relationship with the Taliban and Al Qaeda after his release in July 2003.

Also, a Russian, Ruslan Odizhev, (bottom) who was killed in June 2007 after being transferred along with 7 other detainees to Moscow in 2004.

And Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi, (top right) who the military now links to a suicide bombing in mosul last month that killed 7. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said today that some countries don’t even want the detainees back - period.

“I think we do as careful a vetting job as we possibly can before releasing these people. There are a lot, um, there are a lot of, prisoners down there frankly, that we would be prepared to turn over to their home government , but the home government isn’t prepared to receive them.”

I learned today that the conditions of each detainee’s transfer can vary dramatically. They could be transferred back to their home country and the only condition is that their passport is handed over. Each case is negotiated separately between the us and the host country.

A source familiar with a number of detainee cases told me the real problem is that there is no process at Gitmo. There is no way for a court to decide who should be held and who should be freed. And that in some cases, these guys become so angry and so frustrated, that if they didn’t hate the us before they got to Gitmo, they do now.

What should we do? Because the problem of possible radicalization is more pronounced in Iraq where, one contact claims, more than 20,000 are being held.

Late Monday, I got a tip from one of my contacts. It was one of those tips where a little negotiating went on. I couldn’t air the story right away, but I could “go with it” after midnight. So I am writing this story around 5 with the idea it will go up on the Web in about seven hours. I will also do an “as-live” that is TV speak for a taped report that “looks live” for the overnight headlines.

The new report, obtained by FOX News, claims that cigarette smuggling is generating big bucks for terror groups overseas. The total terror funding is estimated to be in the millions of dollars annually.

The ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, Peter King, who called for the investigation said, “This is a very serious homeland security issue, one that has gone unnoticed for far too long. Cigarette smugglers are able to generate millions of dollars in illegal profits with a great deal of this wealth being sent to terrorist groups overseas – groups that would like nothing more than to inflict devastating harm on our country and its citizens.” The fifteen page report, obtained by FOX, includes intelligence from law enforcement sources as well as New York State’s Department of Taxation and Finance. The report reads in part:

“Historically, the low-risk, high profitability of the illicit cigarette trade served as a gateway for traditional criminal traffickers to move into lucrative and dangerous criminal enterprises such as money laundering, arms dealing, and drug trafficking. Recent law enforcement investigations, however, have directly linked those involved in illicit tobacco trade to infamous terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda.”

One of the key issues, according to the report, is what maybe a fundamental flaw in New York state policy. In that state, according to the Congressman King’s office, there is a policy of “forebearance,” or refusing to collect on sales of Native American tax-free cigarettes to non-Native Americans. Critics of the policy say it has effectively created a safe haven for smugglers. In some cases, the report claims that a well-organized operation can generate up to $300,000 per week with a loss of up to $576 million in tax revenues to New York State.

According to the report, citing federal and New York state law enforcement sources, nearly 60 percent of all convenience retail outlets in New York City are now Arab-owned, primarily families of Lebanese, Yemeni, Jordanian and Palestinian descent. While the vast majority of retailers are operating above board, some are not, seeking their supplies from Native American reservations. The benefits of tax-free cigarettes are obvious.

One interesting nugget came out of the briefing with senior intelligence officials which did not make air for time reasons.  That is often the case on these stories; so much information, not enough time. I, frankly, don’t know how the network people do it, but that IS another story…

We were told that Israel’s decision to strike the Syrian Al-Kibar nuclear reactor in September 2007 was made on its own.  “No green light was given by the U.S. … no one asked for permission and none was given.”

According to senior intelligence officials, Israel saw the Syrian facility “as an existential threat.”

As for North Korea’s motivation, senior intelligence officials said it was cash-driven, not an effort to get nuclear fuel.

While senior intelligence officials were forceful in their conclusions it was a nuclear reactor, it will take time for outside analysts to digest the material and there is certain to be questions raised in the coming days by some foreign nations who may fear similar treatment.  Do you believe the evidence? Especially after WMD? There is clearly more pressure on the intel community to make their case as strongly and as openly as possible now.

Check out this letter that was sent by CIA Director Mike Hayden to CIA employees re: North Korea and Syria.  See the bold sections:

At our town hall meeting in January, I praised the outstanding work of our officers in tackling a very sensitive counter-proliferation issue, one that I could not identify at the time because it was highly compartmented.  As of today, some aspects have been declassified and will be publicly released this afternoon, so I can share with you the highlights of this extraordinary story.

Last spring, we acquired information confirming that a building in eastern Syria was a covert nuclear reactor using North Korean technology.  We had suspected the two nations were cooperating on nuclear technology as early as 2001, and although imagery had revealed the existence of the building, it lacked features associated with a nuclear installation.  The new information included photographs of the interior and exterior that offered our first unambiguous indication that the building was a nuclear reactor.  Moreover, the reactor would have been capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, was not configured to produce electricity, and was ill-suited for research.

On the morning of 6 September 2007, the reactor was destroyed as it was nearing completion, but before it had been operated or charged with uranium fuel.  Syrian efforts to dismantle the ruined building and remove every trace of the incriminating equipment-largely conducted at night or under tarpaulins for concealment-further underscored Damascus less than benign intent for the facility. A video presentation summarizes our analysis of the Syrian reactor project and North Korean involvement in greater detail.

Our team effort on the Al Kibar reactor is a case study in rigorous analytic tradecraft, skillful human and technical collection, and close collaboration with our Community colleagues and liaison partners.  Our officers put in long hours on this issue for many months, and their hard work paid off by directly advancing our nations security and that of our allies.  To everyone who contributed to this success, my congratulations on a job well done.  

QUESTION: Do you think the pictures are the “Smoking Gun?”

So just as I was telling the babysitter I would be home a little after 6, one of those weird stories breaks.

What working mother doesn’t have that nightmare, the late in the day crisis at the office. Anyway, I digress …

The story is a great one and will probably have legs on Thursday. This guy Muthanna Al-Hanooti is accused of leading a double life. During the day, he helped an Islamic charity in Detroit and by night, he was a spy for the Iraq’s (specifically Saddam Hussein’s) intelligence service. Al-Hanooti’s job was to identify members of Congress who were sympathetic to getting the U.N. sanctions lifted against Iraq.

Reading a 14-page indictment late in the day can give you a brain cramp, but this alleged deal was pretty straight forward. Al-Hanooti apparently organized one trip for three members of congress, identified tonight by the AP as Jim McDermott of Washington State, David Bonior of Michigan (he’s gone from the hill of course), and Mike Thompson of California. The important thing here, according to one of my law enforcement contacts, is that there is no suggestion the members of congress did anything wrong or knew the trip was financed by Saddam.

We heard late tonight, i.e. 30 seconds before my FOX Report hit, so I took the call in the chair, that McDermott’s office was responding. Squeezing this stuff in late in the day is what fair and balanced is all about. A spokesman told FOX that the congressman thought the trip was put on by a Seattle church and McDermott saw sick and suffering Iraqi kids in the winter of 2002. For all of his efforts, Al-Hanooti got two million barrels of oil, according to the indictment, laundered through the oil for food program (remember that scam).

You know that old saying, and it’s especially true in Washington DC, “there’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Well, I guess now there’s no such thing as “a free trip.”

Hi! I’m Catherine Herridge and welcome to the blog! I’m guessing you watch FOX and know that I cover Homeland Security, terrorism and the intelligence community. In fact, I was the first TV reporter from any network assigned to the homeland beat after 9/11.

I left New York and came to Washington in the fall of 2001, after covering the World Trade Center attack. No one knew how long I would stay in D.C., so after a month the top brass at FOX let me go home to get more clothes and underwear.

Over the years, I’ve been given a nickname: “the Terror Pixie.” I don’t know if it’s the pixie haircut or the topics I cover, but somehow it has stuck. Although the issues I report on are very serious, there is a lighter side from time to time — and I’ll bring it to you whenever I can!