Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Four Britons released from Guantanamou Bay had terrorist connections

Independant Journalist | 18.03.2004 09:57 | Terror War

Four Guantanamo Bay prisoners freed in Britain toted AK-47 rifles in the ranks of al-Qaeda or the Taliban, America claimed last night. All four were steeped in the guerilla tactics of Osama Bin Laden — and ready to take on Allied troops.

At least one of the men, captured in Afghanistan, has admitted being a sworn enemy of the British and US governments. The four are Shafiq Rasul, 26, Asif Iqbal, 22, Ruhal Ahmed, 22 — dubbed the Tipton Taliban because they come from the West Midlands town — and Tarek Dergoul, 26.

All Deny any involvement with terror groups. But alarming new evidence proves otherwise
In a detailed letter by Lee McClenny a Whitehouse official he wrote: “One of the five trained with an AK-47 and pistol at an al-Qaeda safe house in Kabul in September 2001.” The man, he said, was a “weapons-carrying fighter” at Tora Bora, the infamous stronghold where terror chief Osama Bin Laden hid from coalition forces including the SAS. Mr McClenny continued: “This person was wounded in battle with Coalition forces and was subsequently captured in the Tora Bora mountains. “Two of the others trained for 40 days in September-October 2000 at a military camp in Afghanistan, learning to shoot a Kalashnikov, and observing hand grenade, landmine and rocket grenade demonstrations.
“These two and a third returned to Afghanistan shortly after September 11 2001 to fight jihad with the Taliban. They lived in caves for several weeks and were issued Kalashnikovs and ammunition. They stayed with their unit, commanded by a known Taliban leader, for three weeks and were captured near Konduz.” Mr McLenny also wrote: “One of the individuals states he considers the UK and US governments to be his enemies and travelled to Afghanistan after 9/11 for an organisation known to be associated with al-Qaeda. “He also associated with al-Qaeda extremists in the UK.”

The details emerged as Met police chief Sir John Stevens warned a Madrid-style bombing is “inevitable” in Britain. The released Brits are selling their stories to sympathetic newspapers for up to £1million.

The men will need round-the-clock surveillance costing £1million a year. American administration officials were astonished that Britain released them without charge. Mr Blunkett publicly insisted the four posed “no threat” to the British public. But in private, he and other ministers warned they should not have been set free. American sources, backed by unimpeachable British intelligence, have also rejected allegations of torture of the detainees in Guantanamo as “total fabrications”.

Independant Journalist

Comments

Display the following 8 comments

  1. Unsubstantiated bullshit — freethepeeps
  2. Freed Britons were CIA double agents — Independent Journalist
  3. More racist crap — steve
  4. Tony Blair yesterday insisted the war on terrorism is necessary. — Independant Journalist
  5. Who cares? — The Moon
  6. dishonest journalism — FtP
  7. more pro-Muslim bias! — -
  8. down with religions — sky daddy scam
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech