-Caveat Lector- http://www.jihadunspun.net/newsarchive/article_internal.php?article=30744&list=/newsarchive/index.php&;
300 "Killers And Terrorists" Will Be Set Free From Camp X Ray Oct 26, 2002 Daily Mirror George Bush's war on terror was shaken yesterday when it was revealed half the men held in notorious Camp X-Ray are to be freed. Up to 300 of the 598 supposed al-Qaeda and Taliban suspects - branded "the worst of the worst" by US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld when it was set up 10 months ago -will be sent home. Detainees have been repeatedly questioned by intelligence experts while being held without charge in the camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. But US officials now admit many are NOT a threat and have NO intelligence value at all. It gives fresh hope to families of the seven Britons held. The move is a major embarrassment for the White House, which has described the men as highly dangerous terrorists and "enemy combatants". President Bush called them "killers and terrorists - they know no countries". Rumsfeld said they were the "hardest of the hardcore ... very tough, well trained terrorists". But last night Rumsfeld attempted to play down the releases. He said: "It's true the process is working and that there are some people likely to come out the other end of the chute. "The goal is to not have them. Let's be rid of them." Najeeb al-Nauimi, a Qatari lawyer for 92 of the detainees, said "reliable US officials whom I prefer not to name" told him the 300 would be freed soon. They include Saudis, Pakistanis - including an 80-year-old and many in their 60s - and Kuwaitis. Mr al-Nauimi said some will refuse to be extradited to their own countries. "Several families of clients whom I represent told me their loved ones, fearing tough investigations when they get back home, would try to seek asylum in other countries," he said. Mr al-Nauimi vowed he would continue to fight for justice through the courts. "One of the aims of the lawsuits I will file in America and Cuba is to get a legal explanation of the reason those people were held." Lt Col Bill Costello, spokesman for the US Southern Command in Miami, which oversees the Guantanamo operation, said the 300 estimate was "exaggerated". For security reasons he would not give a number or say how soon they could be released. "We haven't moved anyone yet." Since the camp was set up two men have been released - one a US national, the other an Afghan schizophrenic who was sent to a Kabul mental hospital. The brother of one British man said he was disappointed that the Britons were not on the list of those to be freed. Halid Dourgal, 28, was phoned by the Foreign Office and told his brother Tarek, of Bethnal Green, East London, would stay in Cuba. The family are calling on the Government to put diplomatic pressure on America to free the 24-year-old care worker. Halid said: "We have heard the Pakistani government were lobbying for their people to be freed. If this is the case then it just shows our government should have been doing the same. We haven't heard anything about him officially and it seems like there's been nothing happening with any of the inmates for months. It doesn't seem like the Government are doing very much for them. "We never hear anything - I phone but they always just say there is no news and they are doing everything they can. We get letters from Tarek and they always say he is fine. But it doesn't put our mind at rest because they're obviously written for him by someone else. If they were in his handwriting we would feel much more reassured. Also he always says he is in good health but we know from the Foreign Office that he was very badly injured and has had an arm amputated." Solicitor Parvez Akthar, who represents Shafiq Rasul, 24, a former law student from Tipton, West Mids, said he was also not among those due for release and his family were getting little news of him. "The feedback we get is heavily censored. "We get very little other than to say he is alive." Lawyer Louise Christian, who acts for several UK inmates, said the Foreign Office had told her none would be freed. They are Feroz Abassi, 22, of Croydon, South London, Jamal Udeen, 35, of Manchester, Ruhal Ahmed, 20, of Tipton, and Martin Mubanga, 29, of Dollis Hill, North West London. Miss Christian said she was still waiting for the result of her High Court case pressing the Government to make diplomatic representations for the Britons. She added: "Among those who are being released are citizens of Pakistan, whose government has been very vocal in its representations to the US. I'm outraged by the failure of the Government to make similar diplomatic representations to the US - they have just been sitting on their hands." The Foreign Office denied failing to act. A spokesman said: "We have had regular contacts with the US administration and have sent British officials to Guantanamo Bay on three occasions. 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