thousands of political prisoners
Good grief, you bring up something I never thought of: he could systematically eliminate the prisoners once they are out. Otherwise, during an invasion, the potential of a "liberation of the Bastille" by U.S. forces might create a sudden unpredictable surge of opponents.
If he doesn't kill them, he may be hoping that dispersing them into the population would prevent them from gathering into an army, which would have been feasible if the U.S. had liberated prisons that were still occupied.