US Accuses Briton of Being Suicide Bomber

Tony Blair is facing new controversy over his efforts to secure the release of the Britons held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba after America accused one of the detainees of being an Al-Qaeda terrorist who volunteered for a suicide mission.

American court papers revealed for the first time this weekend say that Feroz Abbasi, a college dropout, had received advanced military training at terror camps in Afghanistan and was present on at least two occasions when Osama Bin Laden visited.

Abbasi, 24, from Croydon, south London, is alleged to have met other senior Al-Qaeda figures and fought with a crack unit of Islamic terrorists during the Afghan conflict with America and its allies. The revelations — the most detailed account to date of the US case against any of the four Britons at Guantanamo Bay — are likely to leave Blair with a diplomatic dilemma.

Less than a fortnight ago the prime minister raised the plight of the Britons with George W Bush during a trip to Washington. Blair is believed to have asked for the prisoners to be returned to Britain unless they could be guaranteed a fair trial. His wife Cherie recently criticised the lack of legal rights afforded to prisoners at Camp Delta. However, the serious nature of the American allegations against Abbasi — and the security concerns they raise if he were to be freed — could wreck a potential deal.

The new documents obtained by The Sunday Times have been filed in a district court in Washington DC where lawyers acting for Abbasi and the three other British prisoners are challenging their detention.

From Croydon to Kandahar: A 'Martyr's' Story
New documents reveal one of the Guantanamo Brits to be a hardened Islamist who twice met Osama Bin Laden. He says his words have been twisted.

Dressed in a regulation orange boiler suit, his hands manacled, his feet in leg irons, Feroz Abbasi was led into a small room at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba by two guards and told to take a seat. He was then chained to a metal ring on the floor.

Abbasi gazed nervously around the room where three senior US officers were sitting calmly before him.

The men — two air force colonels and a navy commander — were part of a specially convened tribunal to decide Abbasi’s fate.

For almost three years the 24-year-old college dropout from Croydon, south London, has been held without charge at Camp Delta, the maximum security prison used by America to detain suspected Islamic terrorists.

Since first being informed of his incarceration by The Sunday Times in January 2002, Abbasi’s mother, Zumrati Juma, has tirelessly campaigned for his release.

Abbasi, she and his lawyers argue, is nothing more than one of a small group of idealistic young Muslim men who found themselves caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.

But the Abbasi who sat before the tribunal panel last month was not that. Unclassified US government papers filed in a district court in Washington DC — which outline the tribunal proceedings — reveal for the first time that Abbasi was, and remains, a hardline Islamist.

Based on interrogations of the former student and other captured suspects, the Americans claim Abbasi underwent extensive military training at terrorist camps in Afghanistan, met senior Al-Qaeda officials and was present when Osama Bin Laden visited the camps on at least two occasions.

More disturbingly, he is alleged to have volunteered for a suicide mission and is thought to have been captured on the front line, defending the airport at Kandahar, the Taliban’s former stronghold in southwest Afghanistan.

The case against Abbasi has not been contested in anything resembling a British court of law and he claims that much of his evidence was extracted under duress. However, the US papers obtained by The Sunday Times appear to leave little doubt about Abbasi’s commitment to jihad and his antipathy towards America.

-snip-

(Dipesh Gadher in The Sunday Times, November 21, 2004)
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Cherie Blair , please think about it:
UK made a huge mistake when you threw open the doors to immigration of Muslims from the former colonies . UK made a
huge mistake when they allowed the limited area of Britain
to become the home of even more Muslims that were not even from former Colonies. Now they are so numerous they threaten to forever affect the fabric of British society.
If America catches a a few committing bad acts out there in the World , be happy! Don't complain that you want them back!
They are not Britons ....instead , think about permanently
revoking UK citizenship and permanently banning ANY that are caught behaving thus .
And while you are at it , get the fanatic , Islamic preachers off your street corners , they are pulling your country down in to the worst gutter . You really don't want to go where they will surely try to take you.

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