Guantanamo Bay four 'had al-Qaida training'
US officials’ dossier claims Britons went to Afghanistan camps
The Scotsman
ALAN MCEWEN
A DOSSIER gathered by US officials against the four British men freed this week from Guantanamo Bay alleges they all received military training in al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, it emerged today.
The US Justice Department documents include claims that at least one of the men was taught how a jihad group works and was given instructions on how to use weapons and destroy vehicles.
Similar allegations have previously been denied by the lawyers and families of the former prisoners, who were held for up to three years at the Cuban naval base as suspected terrorists.
Martin Mubanga, Feroz Abbasi, Richard Belmar and Moazzam Begg say they were tortured while in captivity. The Pentagon describes the four men as a continuing security threat, but they were freed without charge after being questioned on their return to Britain.
The dossier was obtained by the BBC as outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said he believed another attack on the US was "inevitable".
He also warned that America should not focus just on al-Qaida, but also on similar groups that could carry out terrorist acts.
The Justice Department documents include transcripts of tribunal hearings, case reviews and correspondence between the Foreign Office and lawyers.
The dossier also features a handwritten autobiography of Mr Abbasi, covering his childhood in Croydon to his time in Afghanistan.
The autobiography details Mr Abbasi’s anguish and low self-esteem, and describes how he felt people walked over him and treated him like dirt.
He also draws a picture of how a jihad group works following his time Afghanistan, writes about weapons training and firing a Kalashnikov, and targeting and destroying an enemy vehicle.
Mr Abbasi said that he believed the camp he attended was military and not a terror camp.
But critics have claimed the autobiography cannot be relied upon as accurate and could not be used in a British court as evidence.
Lawyers for the former detainees have declined to comment about the documents.
But Michael Ratner, the president of the Centre for Constitutional Rights, who has acted for the men in the US, said the allegations were "rubbish" and an attempt to justify why the men were held.
Meanwhile, Mr Ridge voiced fears over a terrorist attack on the US on the eve of his departure from the department launched two years ago to guard against another atrocity like that of September 11, 2001.
"I have accepted the inevitability of another attack or attacks," he said. "It could be al-Qaida or it could be al-Qaida-like organisations."
He added that America should not focus "just on al-Qaida" when tackling global terrorism.
"There are a lot of al-Qaida-like organisations and there are quite a few Osama bin Laden wannabes out there - you’ve got one of them operating in Iraq right now," he said, referring to al-Qaida’s alleged leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Mr Ridge, who leaves his post on February 1, said the other groups he views as possible threats are driven by the same ideology as al-Qaida and they would also use "terrorist attacks" as their means to that end.
Biological or nuclear attack were his biggest concern since they could involve "catastrophic" loss of life.
"I’m convinced that if they had a nuclear weapon they’d use it," he added.
Although there were no new attacks during Mr Ridge’s tenure, the Bush administration was criticised for not giving him enough leeway or resources to properly set up an effective department.
Mr Ridge was heavily criticised for the five-tiered, colour-coded terror alert warning system he created.
Some charged that he timed the raising of security alerts, particularly during last year’s presidential campaign, to boost support for President Bush.
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