Guantanamo four 'remain threat'
Freed detainees in reunions with their families
LONDON, England -- Four Britons flown back from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are still a "significant" security threat despite being freed by British police without charge, U.S. officials say.
"We continue to believe that these individuals pose a significant threat," Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Commander Flex Plexico told the UK's Press Association.
The four men were released by Scotland Yard after being detained for just over 24 hours at the high-security Paddington Green police station. They were being reunited with their families Thursday.
"British authorities have assured us that they will take the necessary steps to address the threat posed by these individuals," Plexico said. "I believe the UK did not have the information they needed to charge these individuals."
Moazzam Begg from Birmingham, in the English Midlands; Feroz Abbasi from Croydon, south London; Martin Mubanga from Wembley, north-west London, and Richard Belmar from St John's Wood, north-west London, were escorted to "a location of their choice" Wednesday night to be reunited with their families.
They had been held under the UK Terrorism Act 2000 and questioned by anti-terrorist officers after being flown back to RAF Northolt in west London on Tuesday night.
All four men had been held at the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay as suspected terrorists at the U.S. naval base and released after extensive discussions between Washington and the UK government.
Begg's father, Azmat, expressed his delight at his son's release. He told PA he was "very, very pleased and glad" that his son was back in Britain.
Lawyers said the men had been deeply traumatized by their experiences. Louise Christian, lawyer for Feroz Abbasi and Martin Mubanga, said the detainees' families were "desperate" to be reunited with their loved ones, but had turned down the chance to see them Wednesday as a police officer would have been present.
Christian said she feared for Abbasi. "He has an air of unreality about him. He doesn't know where he is," she told PA.
"Like all victims of torture he's finding it difficult to talk about it."
Human rights groups welcomed their release. Massoud Shadjareh of the Islamic Human Rights Commission said his organization was pleased the men were freed last night.
He added: "We are disappointed we've had to go through this terrible, pointless, stupid charade."
Asked about Pentagon spokesman Plexico's comment that the U.S. still believed the four Britons posed a threat to security, Azmat Begg said: "I have heard from my son that they have taken more than 300 interviews and interrogators came down to his cell, everything has been done and nothing has been proved.
"No evidence is there of anything but if the United States want to say things it's up to the United States."
He added: "I know my son. I know my son very well. My son is not involved with anything wrong. He is a very God-fearing sort of person. He is always thinking of humanity and he is always doing good."
The four men were among some 550 prisoners from 42 countries swept up in the U.S.-led war on terror.
The decision to release the men followed months of sensitive negotiations between Washington and London to address U.S. security concerns.
When it announced their release earlier this month -- along with a fifth man, an Australian -- the U.S. Defense Department said the men were "enemy combatants who had been detained by the United States in accordance with the laws of war and U.S. law." (Full story)
Originally, the United States held nine British citizens at its Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. London asked in 2003 for the return of all nine, and in March 2004, the U.S. released the first five of them.
