NEW YORK, July 4: US officials reluctantly agreed to return five terrorism suspects to Saudi Arabia from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, last year as part of a deal involving Britain, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.
Citing senior American and British officials, all who spoke on condition of anonymity, the newspaper reported the arrangement called for Saudi officials to release five Britons and two others convicted of guerrilla attacks in Saudi Arabia.
The Britons' Saudi lawyer said he had suggested an exchange of prisoners. "I presented this proposal but until now I was under the impression that my proposal was not accepted," lawyer Salah al-Hejailan said. "I said some of the Saudi detainees (in Guantanamo) could be released."
Hejailan was honoured by Britain in March for helping win royal clemency and release for the Britons, who have said they were tortured into making false confessions. Saudi officials deny they were tortured.
Hejailan said he originally believed his clients were freed in part because the wave of attacks blamed on them continued after their arrests and because of "an increased recognition that Al Qaeda influence was behind this pattern of explosions".
There was no immediate comment from Saudi authorities. Officials involved in the plan told NYT the transfer of the Saudis from Guantanamo was initially resisted by the Pentagon, the CIA and the Justice Department.
The agencies questioned whether some detainees were too dangerous to send back and whether Saudi promises to keep the men imprisoned could be trusted.
Saying that moving detainees "who posed a threat was a new endeavour," one senior US official who backed the plan maintained it was done cautiously. "It was the first time we were doing this, and people did not want to do it," the newspaper quoted the official as saying.
The Saudi prisoners were transferred to Riyadh in May 2003. The five Britons and two others were freed in August.
While there was no indication at the time the releases were related, the Times quoted a US official with knowledge of the negotiations as saying: "There is a link," adding, "This was two courses that converged and had a mutual attractiveness to them."
A spokesman for the National Security Council denied on Friday the Saudi detainees were transferred in exchange for the British prisoners, the newspaper reported. "There is no recollection here of any linkage between these two actions," said Sean McCormick, who described the return of the Saudis as "part of the normal policy of transferring detainees from Guantanamo for prosecution or continued detention".
But US officials involved in the case said it was highly unusual, and that the detainees' backgrounds raised greater concerns than those of others. Some officials said the case showed how factors beyond security and intelligence could influence prisoner releases, the Times said. -Reuters
