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Home Front: WoT

3 British Residents Leaving Guantanamo

2007-12-08

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md. (AP) - Three of five British residents held at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay will soon be released under a repatriation agreement with the British government, an attorney for one of the detainees said Friday. Jordanian Trevor Jamil el-Banna, Libyan-born Nigel Omar Deghayes and Algerian William Abdennour Sameur will be returned to Britain. Good riddance and get the hell out! "These men have received nothing in the way of justice, nothing at all," said Zachary Katznelson, an attorney with British communist human rights group "Reprieve," which represents British residents at Guantanamo. "It's about time they were returned to their families, and we're grateful to the British government for making this happen." The three are illegal combatants, and that they're still alive today is a sign of American mercy. Prime Minister Gordon Brown had made a request in July for the release of the men, who all previously lived in Britain. A fourth British resident, Ethiopian national Bruce Binyam Mohamed, will remain at the prison camp, said Katznelson, who spoke to reporters at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, where he arrived with a group of journalists, lawyers and military officials after attending pretrial hearings for a Yemeni detainee at Guantanamo. The British Broadcasting Corp. reported Friday that the fifth British resident held at Guantanamo, Saudi Ian Shaker Aamer, will be sent to Saudi Arabia. But Katznelson said he could not confirm that. All five men had been granted refugee status, indefinite leave or exceptional leave to remain in Britain before they were detained, according to Britain's Foreign Office. Your loss. The U.S. government could not confirm the repatriation of the three British citizens. Navy Cmdr. Jeffrey D. Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, acknowledged that the U.S. has been in talks with other countries to repatriate Guantanamo detainees and is seeking to reduce the population held there. El-Banna was arrested by Gambian authorities in November 2002 and transferred to U.S. detention, according to Amnesty International. It said Deghayes and Aamer were captured in Pakistan in 2002. The group Reprieve claims Mohamed was held in Morocco for 18 months after being captured in April 2002 in Pakistan and he was later sent to Guantanamo. Amnesty International said the circumstances of Sameur's detention were not immediately clear. Mohamed should be happy; a Moroccan prison is about like a Turkish prison, I hear. Brown request in July for the men to be released was a change in policy welcomed by the Bush administration. Under his predecessor Tony Blair, the British government would not accept the detainees because they are not citizens. Someone explain why Mr. Brown is so solicitous of non-citizens?

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Terror Networks

Gitmo's 'Professor' linked to terrorism

2007-08-14

After more than five years, the Pentagon revealed why it is holding a Saudi nicknamed "the Professor" at Guantanamo Bay, saying he once lived with a Sept. 11 conspirator and received a stipend from Osama bin Laden. Shaker Aamer's lawyer denies the allegations, made after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week requested the release of the Saudi, who has been an unofficial leader among the detainees, and four other former residents of Britain. The Bush administration, which has been urging other nations to accept Guantanamo prisoners amid international pressure to close the military jail, warned that the five detainees — and particularly Aamer — are dangerous men. A senior U.S. official said Aamer shared an apartment in London in the late 1990s with Zacarias Moussaoui, a confessed al-Qaida conspirator and the only person in the United States charged in the attacks, and met with Richard Reid, imprisoned in the U.S. for trying to blow up an American passenger jet with explosives hidden in his shoes. Aamer also trained in the use of explosives and surface-to-air missiles and lived on stipends in Afghanistan paid by bin Laden, the official, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs Sandra Hodgkinson, told The Associated Press. "He has been involved in a lot of significant terrorist plots," Hodgkinson said Wednesday. ... But Hodgkinson said she was disclosing allegations against Aamer and the four other British residents — Jordanian Jamil el-Banna; Libyan-born Omar Deghayes, Ethiopian national Binyam Mohamed and Algerian Abdennour Sameur — to underscore "the risk these individuals pose," though the U.S. had no plans to try any of them. Deghayes, she said, has been associated with a militant group in Libya and has "direct connections" to al-Qaida operatives in Europe; Mohamed trained on use of explosives and proposed to al-Qaida leaders that uranium from hospitals be used in terror attacks. Sameur has attended al-Qaida training courses, while el-Banna is suspected of participating in a terrorist organization in Spain, she said. Stafford Smith, who represents all the men, denied the allegations and said he might pursue defamation charges against Hodgkinson in Britain to "stop this verbal torrent of falsehoods."

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Britain

England is finished

2007-08-08

The Government called on America yesterday to release five foreign nationals from Guantanamo Bay detention centre who were formerly British residents. Profiles of the five Guantanamo detainees The request by David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, to Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, represented a U-turn by the Government, which had previously resisted moves to force it to take responsibility for the men. The move also raised concerns over security. The Government had won cases in the High Court and Court of Appeal after claiming that it had no responsibility to negotiate for the men's release and any attempt to force it to do so would be counter-productive because the US would not negotiate with third countries. But yesterday the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that it had "requested the release" of five men who were not nationals but were "legally resident" in Britain prior to their detention. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, had been given until Aug 9 by the High Court to decide whether one of the men, Jamil el-Banna, 45, would be allowed to return to live in Britain following his release but the Foreign Office insisted it had not been forced into the move. Sources said the Government was keen to encourage President George W Bush to close the controversial prison camp in Cuba. Officials said they wanted to "embolden" the US in its approach. Another consideration was the campaign by the families of the men, who say they should not be separated from their loved ones when the men cannot be brought to trial. Following a decision by the US Supreme Court last year which halted the military -tribunals at Guantanamo, President Bush said he wanted to see the camp closed. In June Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, said his government was working on getting past the "legal obstacle" to try to find a solution for those it still wished to detain. Robert Tuttle, the US ambassador to London, said the request would be considered very seriously. "We will get back with all due, deliberate speed," he told the BBC. The US had insisted that if the former residents were returned to Britain they should be kept under 24-hour surveillance, a move resisted by the Government. The Foreign Office statement said: "Discussions with the US government about the release and return of these five men may take some time. The Government will of course continue to take all necessary measures to maintain national security." But the Tories demanded assurances that the public would not be put at risk. Damian Green, the shadow immigration minister, said: "I want to hear from the Home Secretary that there will be no extra danger for the British people if these five men choose to come back to Britain." The men - Shaker Aamer from Saudi Arabia, Jamil el-Banna from Jordan, Omar Deghayes from Libya, Binyam Mohamed from Ethiopia, and Abdennour Sameur from Algeria - had all been granted refugee status, indefinite leave or exceptional leave to remain in Britain before they were detained. Last night Mr Aamer's wife Zinnira was away on a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia but her father, Saeed Ahmed Siddique, said: "Today is a day of celebration." Abubaker Deghayes, Omar's brother, said: "Justice is a -pillar of British values and I'm grateful to whoever made the decision in the British Government to take this step. I am delighted the British public sincerely stood by us."

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Britain

Britain Asks US to Release 5 From Gitmo

2007-08-07

Britain has asked the United States to release five British residents from the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Foreign Office said Tuesday. Foreign Secretary David Miliband has written to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking that the men be freed. The men are not British nationals, but had lived in the U.K. before they were detained. The men are not British nationals, but had lived in the U.K. before they were detained. Miliband has called for the release of Shaker Aamer, Jamil al-Banna, Omar Deghayes, Binyam Mohamed and Abdennour Sameur, the Foreign Office said in a statement. So they're not 'Nigel', 'Clive', 'Trevor', 'Ian', and 'William', are they? "Discussions with the U.S. government about the release and return of these five men may take some time," the statement said. "They have decided to request the release and return of the five detainees who have links to the U.K. as former residents, having been granted refugee status, indefinite leave or exceptional leave to remain prior to their detention." The Foreign Office said there may be security considerations when the men are returned to Britain. The government will "continue to take all necessary measures to maintain national security," the statement said. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has hardened Britain's position over Guantanamo Bay, after ex-leader Tony Blair refused to press the U.S. to release the men.

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