UK-US Released Terrorists for Saudi War Support
By Andrew Buncombe and Kim Sengupta
Independent U.K.
Monday 05 July 2004
Saudis freed Britons in a secret swap of prisoners.
Six Britons convicted on terrorism charges in Saudi Arabia were released last year as part of a
secret three-way deal in which the US set free a number of Saudi prisoners being held at
Guantánamo Bay. The deal was brokered to obtain Saudi support for the invasion of Iraq.
Diplomatic and intelligence sources have confirmed to The Independent that the Britons, convicted
of a fatal car-bombing, were released last August after the US returned five Saudi prisoners, at least
two of whom were believed to have trained in al-Qa'ida camps.
At the time, the release of the Saudis was opposed by the Pentagon and the CIA. But the joint
releases were subsequently presented as diplomatic triumphs by both the British and Saudi
governments.
A senior British source said yesterday: "Of course there were government-to-government talks. We
were all anxious to solve the problem. But one must bear in mind that it was the Americans who held
the aces with the Saudi detainees, the British government did not have that kind of leverage. So the
term 'negotiations' should really be applied to the American-Saudi dialogue. But it was a particularly
difficult time with Iraq, and a solution was in everyone's interest."
The Britons - Sandy Mitchell, James Cottle, Les Walker, James Lee, Glenn Ballard and Peter
Brandon, and a Canadian, William Sampson - said they were subjected to beating while incarcerated
for two years. They had been convicted of a car-bombing in which another Briton, Christopher
Rodway, was killed. Many have subsequently said their confessions were forced and are suing the
Saudi authorities.
Mr Mitchell, 48, originally from Kirkintilloch, near Glasgow, said last night: "We were definitely
pawns in a game. I was sentenced to crucifixion and beheading for a crime the Saudis knew I did not
commit.
"They had to tell us during the torture sessions what to confess to. It was a set-up from the very
beginning."
The initiative to release the five Saudis from Guantánamo Bay began in July 2002 when Saudi
officials visited the camp. According to a report in The New York Times, the proposal was discussed
at the highest levels of the US and British governments, both eager to keep the support of the Saudi
authorities for the invasion of Iraq. One US official said: "This was something that the Saudis
desperately wanted, as a way to show their people that they could get something from the Americans
and that it was not just a one-way street."
The following month, a recommendation by the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Robert Johnson,
outlined a "swap" as a way to keep the Saudis' support. While the Saudi authorities were technically
opposed to the invasion of Iraq they allowed the US to use air bases in the kingdom.
The deal that was negotiated deliberately ensured there was a time gap between the release of the
Saudis and the subsequent release of the Westerners in order to allow officials to deny there had
been a "swap". "We did not want to make it a clear quid pro quo," said a US official. "We did
obviously say that we expected [the release of the Westerners] to be resolved."
In March 2003, just days before the American-led coalition invaded Iraq, King Fahd granted
clemency to the Western prisoners, though they were not released immediately. On 14 May, the five
Saudis were flown to Riyadh. There are contradictory reports as to whether these men have been
released by the Saudi authorities or charged with any crime.
Finally, in early August, the Westerners were flown home.
Informed of the secret deal Mr Rodway's widow, Jane, said last night she was shocked by the
news and had not been informed of any such swap. "I didn't even know they were coming home until
they were on the plane," she said.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman refused to confirm or deny that a deal was done.
Go to Original
Sampson Says He Was Freed
Under Saudi-U.S. Deal
Toronto Star
Sunday 04 July 2004
Ottawa - The tale of William Sampson, a Canadian jailed fort 31 months and accused of terrorism
and murder in Saudi Arabia, has taken another bizarre twist with a claim that he finally won his
freedom last year in a prisoner exchange brokered by the United States.
In return for the release of Sampson and other westerners held in Riyadh, the Americans agreed to
send five Saudi terror suspects they had captured back to their homeland, the New York Times
reported Sunday.
The Canadian government had no immediate comment, other than to say it was looking into the
matter.
Sampson, in a telephone interview from Penrith, Britain, where he now makes his home, said he's
convinced the story is correct.
"It confirms information that I have found from different sources myself over the last nine months,"
he said.
Sampson said he knows of at least two other attempted deals that fell through when Britain and
Belgium - the other countries involved in the affair - rejected various demands made by Saudi
negotiators.
The Saudis were trying at that time to extract a promise from the British that they would expel
Saudi political dissidents who had made London their base of operations, said Sampson.
Sampson said he has also seen Belgian government documents that indicate the Saudis changed
their approach for the third and ultimately successful deal. They sought American agreement to
release the five Saudi prisoners who had been held at the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
"It's my information that the Saudis themselves broached the idea of an exchange," said Sampson.
"We were used from the very, very outset as hostages, and this had been deliberate from the start,
to use us as a means of leverage against western governments."
The Times, quoting anonymous U.S. and British officials, said the prisoner exchange that finally
freed Sampson was engineered by Robert Jordan, the American ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
The deal was controversial in Washington, where some officials thought the U.S. was taking too
big a risk by releasing potentially dangerous terrorist suspects from Guantánamo, said the
newspaper.
But the Americans reportedly went ahead because they wanted to help British Prime Minister Tony
Blair, a loyal ally in the war then shaping up in Iraq.
Blair's government had been trying to win the release of six Britons held along with Sampson, who
is a dual Canadian-British citizen. Also held was Belgian Raf Schveyns.
All were arrested following a series of bombings in Riyadh that westerners claimed were the work
of Al Qaeda terrorists and the Saudis claimed were part of a turf war among western bootleggers
involved in the illicit alcohol trade.
All eight westerners were finally set free in August 2003, three months after the five Guantánamo
prisoners were sent home to Saudi Arabia.
Sampson said the Belgian documents, obtained and shown to him by Schveyns following their
release, indicate that diplomats in Riyadh were worried about the three-month time lag.
The Belgian embassy sent word home to Brussels, saying it appeared the Saudis might be
reneging on the deal and asking whether they should take the matter up directly with the U.S.
ambassador.
It is not clear what the Belgian government advised its diplomats to do.
Jenni Chen, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Affairs Department in Ottawa, would not comment in
detail on the affair. She said only that officials were aware of the New York Times report and were
trying to gather more information.
Dan McTeague, a Liberal MP who visited Sampson in prison in Saudi Arabia and encouraged the
federal government to press for his release, said this is the first he's heard of a U.S.-brokered deal or
a prisoner exchange involving Guantánamo.
"I think it's intriguing, and for some perhaps quite plausible," said McTeague. "But I'm at a loss to
really say what triggered the release."
Sampson, who was arrested in late 2000 and spent 31 months in custody, was convicted by a
Saudi court of murder and terrorism and was sentenced to death.
He has always denied any wrongdoing and says he was tortured into making false confessions -
not just to the bombings, but also to being a British spy.
The other western prisoners have told similar stories since their release. Sampson and several of
the others are currently suing the Saudi government in the British courts.
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