October 3, 2006: US Wants to Return Nine Guantanamo Detainees to Britain, but Britain Does Not Want Them

The Guardian reports that after months of secret talks, the US has offered to return nearly all British residents still being held at the Guantanamo prison. However, the British government has refused to accept them. Senior officials say they have no right to return, since they are not British citizens, but merely residents. Additionally, the US is demanding that they be kept under 24-hour surveillance after they are released. Britain considers this too expensive and unnecessary. One British counterterrorism official says, “They do not pose a sufficient threat.” At least nine British residents remain in Guantanamo. Britain is reportedly only interested in accepting one of them, Bisher al-Rawi, because he used to work as an informant for MI5, a British intelligence agency. [Guardian, 10/3/2006]