Posted on 01/18/2006 10:13:20 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
UANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - Prisoners at the Guantanamo base in Cuba provided important information in connection with last summer's London transit bombings that the United States shared with authorities in the United Kingdom, the general in charge of the prison said.
The July 7 suicide bombings by four young British Islamists on three underground trains and a double-decker bus in central London during the morning rush hour killed 52 people and wounded more than 700 others.
"After the attacks in London, there were a number of questions asked trying to understand who these people were and where they had been," Army Maj. Gen. Jay Hood, who oversees the Guantanamo detention operation, said in an interview late on Wednesday.
"A significant number of the men we're holding here, a number, have lived in London, have lived in the United Kingdom," Hood said.
"And so where we could answer their questions and provide background on movements, travels, financing, communications, means of communications, recruitment, training, that sort of thing, I think we have played an important role."
British anti-terrorism officials have said it was unclear what support or international links the bombers had. But in a videotape aired in September, al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri claimed the group had carried out the bombings to strike at "British arrogance."
All of the UK citizens who had been held at Guantanamo have been released but non-citizens who lived in the United Kingdom are among the nearly 500 prisoners at the remote U.S. naval base.
Hood did not discuss which prisoners gave information potentially linked to the London bombings, nor did he provide specifics.
The general said U.S. intelligence agents had shared with U.S. allies "literally everything" learned from the prisoners.
"Of course if we had people here at Guantanamo Bay who had some specific knowledge -- locations, personalities, monies, communications during their time in the United Kingdom, we'd certainly provide that," Hood said.
The United States began sending prisoners to Guantanamo four years ago but Hood said some have only recently begun providing useful information. Continued ...
He said "a good, significant number" of mid-level al Qaeda associates were captured during the war in Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo and had discussed men they knew or trained who may have since moved up in the hierarchy of the militant Islamist group.
"Who knows those people better than anyone else? The people that were training them, the people that were preparing them for future roles in that terrorist organization," Hood said.
He said the Guantanamo prisoners learned about the London bombings shortly after they occurred, probably from visiting lawyers who are challenging their detention in the U.S. courts.
"Most of the information available to detainees comes to them from their contacts with legal counsel," Hood said.
GITMO AND THE LONDON TERROR BOMBINGS
By Michelle Malkin · January 19, 2006 12:24 AM
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Excerpt
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Good to keep in mind when the hysterical Gulag Card-playing crowd argues that Gitmo should be shut down and detainees all should be freed because they no longer have any intelligence value.
There is one worrisome detail at the end of the Reuters piece. Army Maj. Gen. Jay Hood noted "that the Guantanamo prisoners learned about the London bombings shortly after they occurred, probably from visiting lawyers who are challenging their detention in the U.S. courts."
Question: How many of those lawyers are the next Lynne Stewarts?
Time to put panties on their heads and find out what they really know.
This is BS, boys and girls. None of the people being held in Cuba are innocent and should be released as soon as possible.
Guantanamo prisoners tied to London bomb
Sounds like a good place for them to be tied to.
Nooooo!!! Not the panties!!! Anything but the panties!
Gitmo pays off. Gitmo saves lives. Gitmo is important to winning this war. Liberals have lost the arguement bigtime.
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