For all of those who think that the United States is holding a bunch of poor, innocent saps who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time at the terrorist prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, remember that those are the ones the military and intelligence communities have good reason to suspect they're terrorists.

We've let the ones we believe aren't terrorists go free -- and according to a report in Australia's The Age newspaper, the number who've gone back to fighting and killing Americans and our allies numbers "at least 30."

AT LEAST 30 former Guantanamo Bay detainees have been killed or recaptured after taking up arms against allied forces following their release.

They have been discovered mostly in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but not in Iraq, a US Defence Department spokesman told The Age yesterday.

Commander Jeffrey Gordon said the detainees had, while in custody, falsely claimed to be farmers, truck drivers, cooks, small-arms merchants, low-level combatants or had offered other false explanations for being in Afghanistan.

"We are aware of dozens of cases where they have returned to militant activities, participated in anti-US propaganda or engaged in other activities," said Commander Gordon.

His comments follow the death this week of Taliban commander and former detainee Abdullah Mehsud, who reportedly blew himself up rather than surrender to Pakistani forces. In December 2001, Mehsud was captured in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo Bay until his release in March 2004. He later became the Taliban chief for South Waziristan.

And the Democrats and various "human rights" groups continue to demand the shutdown of Guantanamo, moving all of the terrorists to the U.S. and giving them all of the rights of common criminal defendants.

And we're supposed to believe that they're serious about fighting the war on terror?