Men with many shadows

In response to revelations by US officials that four of the five Britons released from Guantanamo Bay were far from innocent wedding party-goers Melanie Phillips asks:

Why are the British authorities passive in the face of all this?

It’s a fair question. Why, Melanie asks, haven't these four been arrested and charged with treason?

I’m guessing that there simply isn’t the evidence to convict in a court of law. The Telegraph article that Melanie links to says:

Officials at the American Embassy in London sent a letter containing detailed allegations about the four men

The key word here is allegations and as far as I can tell there is no indication in the report that these were accompanied with corroborating evidence.

Now, that is not to say that the UK and US governments are not convinced of the culpability of the released men, it’s just that they feel there is nothing they can lawfully do to keep these men locked up.

However, this does not mean that the British authorities are, as Melanie puts it, passive. These four men can be considered useful sources of intelligence even if they are not in custody and I suspect that the authorities and, more specifically, the intelligence services will be very busy.

The spooks are, after all, on to them.

Posted by John at March 19, 2004 08:39 AM | TrackBack