Byline: David R. Sands, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates yesterday said a "fair number" of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay military prison cannot be returned to their countries for fear that they might be freed when they arrive home.

Mr. Gates was responding to reports in The Washington Times and other press outlets yesterday that former Guantanamo inmate Abdallah Salih al-Ajmi is now thought to have participated in a suicide bombing in the Iraqi city of Mosul on April 26 that killed six other people.

"I would say that I think we do as careful a vetting job as we possibly can before releasing these people," said Mr. Gates, who has called in ...