Britain Asks U.S. To Free 5 Detainees

U.K. Alters Policy on Foreign Residents

LONDON, Aug. 7 -- The British government on Tuesday asked the Bush administration to release from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, five foreign men who were longtime residents of Britain before being taken to the U.S. detention facility.

David Miliband, Britain's foreign secretary, wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday asking for the release of Shaker Aamer, Jamil El Banna, Omar Deghayes, Binyam Mohamed and Abdennour Sameur, the Foreign Office said in a statement.

The move signals a new direction for the British government, which during the tenure of Prime Minister Tony Blair had said it was not obliged to intervene on behalf of detainees who did not hold British citizenship.

Clive Stafford Smith, a lawyer who represents the five men, said in an interview: "This is good news for everyone, even George Bush. For all his statements about wanting to close Guantanamo, he can't if it's chockablock. The Europeans have been pretty pious in their criticism but done nothing to help close it until now. This is a remarkable turn for the British government."

Bob Ayers, a security and intelligence expert at Chatham House, a research institute in London, said the request was almost surely political posturing by Gordon Brown, Blair's successor, who has to call an election by 2010.

A recent YouGov opinion poll found that 71 percent of people here wanted Brown to "ensure that Britain's Prime Minister and the U.S. President are no longer 'joined at the hip.' ''

"It's a preelection gesture to show that Britain is increasingly independent from the U.S. It doesn't mean that this is the case, but Brown wants to demonstrate that he's not the U.S. poodle that Blair was accused of being," Ayers said. "It's political grandstanding. The British government didn't suddenly get a conscience. What has changed is a change of government and they want to flex their muscles."

A Pentagon spokesman, Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, said the United States welcomed Britain's request. "We hope that we can explore with them and other countries their willingness to accept responsibility for some of the other Guantanamo detainees already approved for transfer," he said.

But Gordon also said that "the decision to transfer or release a detainee while hostilities are ongoing is based on many factors, including the extent of the threat a detainee continues to pose to the international community if released."

In a statement, the British government said that "discussions with the U.S. Government about the release and return of these five men may take some time" and that "should these men be returned to the U.K., the same security considerations and actions will apply to them as would apply to any other foreign national in this country."

The government said Britain secured the release and return in January 2005 of all British citizens detained at Guantanamo Bay.

Human rights groups welcomed the news.

"This change of policy is extremely welcome especially if it signals a bigger change of approach on both sides of the Atlantic," James Welch, legal director of the human rights group Liberty, said in a statement. "Surely U.S. and U.K. governments need no further evidence that internment, kidnap and torture have been completely counterproductive in the struggle against terrorism."

Staff writer Josh White in Washington contributed to this report.