| Page 3 of 3 < |
U.S. Faces Obstacles To Freeing Detainees
It's unclear exactly how many British residents remain in prison at the U.S. military base in Cuba. British officials said there are nine who were residents of the United Kingdom at one time, four of them illegally. U.S. officials say there are 10, court papers show.
According to an affidavit filed in a London court case by David F. Richmond, director general of defense and intelligence for the British Foreign Office, U.S. officials informally floated a proposal in June to see whether Britain would be willing to accept the transfer of all 10 prisoners. Court papers show that Britain nixed the idea, saying it would be too costly and difficult to meet U.S. conditions to keep the men under constant surveillance.
  Navy personnel last month at Camp Delta, part of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The photo was reviewed by U.S. military officials. (By Brennan Linsley -- Associated Press) Guantanamo Detainees
TimelineA history of major events and milestones at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.Detainee DatabaseView the largest list of names made public thus far, comprising men whose identities have appeared in media reports, on Arabic Web sites and in legal documents. |
George Brent Mickum IV, a Washington lawyer, represents two of the British residents, Jamil el-Banna, a Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship who legally moved to Britain in 1994, and Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi citizen who immigrated to Britain as a teenager in 1984. He said his clients would much rather return to London, even if it meant restrictions on their liberty there. But he said Britain was clearly opposed to the idea, under any circumstances.
"As far as I'm concerned, they can put them under whatever surveillance they want -- they're infinitely better off in Britain," Mickum said. "But the British have indicated to me that they are adamant. They do not want these guys back."
The British security service known as MI5 played an instrumental role in sending Banna and Rawi to Guantanamo in the first place.
The men were seized in 2002 during a business trip to West Africa, taken to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan and later shipped to Cuba. Documents show that British agents tipped off the CIA to the men's whereabouts after they had refused to work as informants for MI5 in London.
Researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.
