Freed Brits "Had Terror Training"
Find a Conversation
| Thu, 03-18-2004 - 9:14pm |
18 March, 2004
The Sun claims that four of the five British prisoners recently released from Guantanamo Bay had been trained in guerilla combat by the Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists.
http://www.eursoc.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/378/Freed_Brits__Had_Terror_Training_.html
The report is based on information sent from US investigators at the Sun's request, detailing the background and history of the former detainees. All four have denied links with terror groups and have been treated by Britain's media as homecoming "innocents abroad", relieved to be back in Blighty after their two-year ordeal at the hands of their wicked US captors. Their claims of torture and mistreatment (strongly denied by US and British officials) have been used by some newspapers to undermine the war effort, and Britain's close alliance with the US in particular.
Few have questioned their stories of what they were doing in Taliban and al-Qaeda dominated Afghanistan in the first place.
The Sun reports that government insiders, including some ministers, opposed the prisoners' release but were overruled by Tony Blair. The Telegraph also reports that off-record, British officials agree the four are not so innocent, but play down claims of close al-Qaeda involvement. The Telegraph also claims that officials dispute the Sun's claims of a trans-Atlantic divide over the prisoners' release.
As the Sun asserts, nothing is proven against the four men. But in any case, Britain's security forces are said to be keeping the four under tabs, at a cost of £1 million a year.

Pages
If there's proof of their guilt why weren't they put on trial?
Please take into account The Sun, the link that your post quotes from, is a tabloid rag. The article I've posted is also from The Sun. If you click on the link you'll see what I mean. :)
How can they be no threat?
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2004130605,00.html
THE four freed Camp X-Ray Britons must be locked up, MPs demanded last night.
The call came after U.S. officials told The Sun they were all trained al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters.
Tarek Dergoul, 26, Rahal Ahmed, 22, Asif Iqbal, 22, and Shafiq Rasul, 26, were described as no security threat when they were returned to the UK from Guantanamo Bay.
But Shadow Home Secretary David Davis said: “There is a case to be brought for treason.”
And David Blunkett was slammed for claiming the four Britons posed no security threat.
The Home Secretary allowed the detainees back on the streets after they were released by America.
But yesterday we printed claims by America that they had weapons training from al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters while in Afghanistan.
One even allegedly admitted the UK and US were his enemies.
Mr Davis said: “If the evidence from the US is accurate the Home Secretary has serious questions to answer.
“He has to explain exactly how he came to the view that people trained in terrorist tactics, with a track record of setting up to fight the armed forces of Britain and her allies, are no threat to the security of the British people.
“It would also seem that there is at least a prima facie case to be brought for treason.
“In the wake of Madrid, it is vital that the Government closes down every possible avenue of terrorist attack.”
Fellow Tory Ann Widdecombe added: “If these facts were known to the Government, there is no justification for saying they pose no threat.
“There would also be a clear case for charges of treason to be brought against them.”
Labour MP Andrew Dismore urged the Home Secretary — who can detain foreign terror suspects without trial — to extend his power to UK citizens. He said: “It does seem odd that these men have not been charged under UK law.”
There was shock at The Sun’s revelations from people in Tipton, West Midlands, where three of the four men live. Yvonne Jones, 45, said: “If the report is true they shouldn’t have been released.”
Mark While, 28, said: “It makes you wonder why they haven’t been charged.”
Last night Mr Blunkett’s spokesman said: “There is a difference between what these people have done in the past and the security service assessment of the level of threat they pose in the future.”
Lawyers for the four men claimed US claims were based on information obtained under torture.
Renee
Kate
Kate
www.areyouhivprejudiced.org
Then why has Blair asked for the release of Brit's several times, in public?......
On
Renee
However, if you only get your news from 'mainstream' souces, be careful. Their biases are easily overlooked, and you might get complacent and believe that their journalists are credible and are actually reporting news instead of making it up, ie. BBC, Washington Post, New Republic, NYT, & USA Today.
Also, I'm one who knows that truth may be found in many unlikely places. Drudge & the National Enquirer broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal which the mainstream only lowered themselves to mentioning because it was already in the media.
Along that vein, had you bothered to read the Sun article, you would have learned that the article was based on the statements of government officials and so that there was perhaps something to this story.
Now that it has appeared in the Telegraph, I assume that you might think it is at least worthy of a cursory reading.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/18/nterr218.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/03/18/ixnewstop.html
Guantanamo Britons 'trained by militants'
By David Rennie in Washington
(Filed: 18/03/2004)
Four of the British Guantanamo Bay detainees released last week were armed and trained by Islamic militants in Afghanistan, US officials told reporters last night.
Officials at the American Embassy in London sent a letter containing detailed allegations about the four men, from East London and the West Midlands town of Tipton, to The Sun newspaper.
The four - Tarek Dergoul, 26, Ruhal Ahmed, 22, Asif Iqbal, 22, and Shafiq Rasul, 26 - have all strongly denied any contact with terrorists.
A fifth detainee released last week, Jamal al-Harith, 37, was released soon after returning to Britain last week, and was not even questioned by anti-terrorism officers. He is not one of those accused in the embassy letter.
The US embassy letter, signed by the embassy press counsellor, Lee McClenny, alleged that one of the four trained with an AK-47 rifle and pistol at an al-Qa'eda safe house in Kabul in September 2001, and was a "weapons carrying fighter at Tora Bora", wounded in battle with coalition forces.
Two of the others trained for 40 days in autumn 2000 at a military camp in Afghanistan, the letter claims, learning to shoot a rifle, and watching weapons demonstrations. They are described as being captured near the Afghan city of Kunduz, after spending three weeks with a known Taliban unit.
One is linked in the letter to "an organisation known to be associated with al-Qa'eda", and is alleged to have called the US and British governments his enemies.
Last week, senior administration officials in Washington told The Telegraph that four other detainees still being held at the prison camp were veterans of al-Qa'eda training camps, who had been judged too dangerous to be released by US and British intelligence and security agencies.
British officials privately expressed agreement that the four were not innocents abroad, though they played down any idea of a close connection with al-Qa'eda.
They also disputed The Sun's description of a trans-Atlantic rift over last week's release of the five.
A lawyer for one of the accused four, Tarek Dergoul, told The Sun: "I have a client who is so traumatised he is finding it difficult to say anything about what has happened to him. I have no comment to make at present on his behalf." awyers for the others were unavailable for comment last night.
A spokesman for the US Embassy in London confirmed last night that Mr McClenny had written a letter to The Sun but were unable to comment on its contents.
Renee
>"The Attorney-General, Philip Ruddock, will argue that the foreign incursions legislation should be amended to make it an offence for Australians to fight for a terrorist state.
Mr Howard and Mr Ruddock have argued that the absence of such legislation has prevented the Government from seeking the extradition of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib because they could be freed if they returned.
Cabinet will debate another plan by Mr Ruddock for supporting extended police powers to detain terrorist suspects for longer, which is also under consideration by the Premier, Bob Carr."<
Quote from.......
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/03/21/1079823242643.html
Renee
Point: Posting a link to confirm. Others read these posts without commenting, for their sakes.
Pages