Guantanamo Bay; the last British resident comes home to...compensation.

[Isitmebut]

Held without charge for 13-years without being charged, although one would like to assume that in a remotely civilized world that there was some basis for an arrest (and he alludes to the fact that he was no saint), but no trial and under those conditions is just plain wrong.

"Shaker Aamer, the last British resident held at Guantanamo Bay, lands back in UK"

Private jet carrying Britain's longest-serving 'Gitmo' detainee arrives back in Britain, as Shaker Aamer is thought to be in line for £1m compensation pay-out
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11964872/Shaker-Aamer-the-last-British-resident-held-at-Guantanamo-Bay-is-released.html

However call me a cynic, but I would suggest that any taxpayer funded compensation that comes from the UK (rather than the U.S. as probably should be) is not paid over in a lump sum, with the security of only a receipt.

I clearly know nothing about this man's intentions, who can, but as a taxpayer I'd be awfully miffed if after a short while any person receiving compensation for being suspected of being a potential terrorist, takes the money and ends up in the Middle East in some dodgy country/regime.

No one can adequately compensate a citizen for being locked up without charge for that time way from his family, but is it too much to suggest any such compensation claims are paid in instalments, or a smaller initial lump sums and then an annual income from the balance?

Our taxpayers £’s at work, just saying.

[coffeeisnectar]

Yabu for calling him a resident. He was held without charge or trial for 14 years and tortured. I think he deserves every penny as do the others who have been released and received compensation.

In a country where we shout about the lack of human rights elsewhere, with good reason, this is one of the biggest violations of human rights I've ever heard of.

[honeysucklejasmine]

Has he said he plans to go to the middle East then?

[BigChocFrenzy]

Well, even if he wasn't a terrorist before .....
No way of knowing how many innocents were actually turned into terrorists by incarceration and torture.

[Isitmebut]

Honeysucklejasmine … re your ” Has he said he plans to go to the middle East then?”

I reiterate my previous point “I clearly know nothing about this man's intentions” but I’d suggest that few of those joined an Islamist Jihad in the Gulf hold a leaving party and announce it before hand, and those leaving having had compensation is not without precedent.

Isis:Guantanamo Bay inmate who was given £1m compensation from Britain, fled to Syria to join Islamic State
www.ibtimes.co.uk/isis-guantanamo-bay-inmate-who-was-given-1m-compensation-britain-fled-syria-join-islamic-1523437

”A terror suspect, who was freed from Guantanamo Bay and given £1m compensation by Britain, has joined Isis. Jamal al-Harith, a Muslim convert formerly known as Ronald Fiddler, claims he was on holiday in Pakistan when he was locked up by the Taliban who accused him of being a British Spy.”

”He was subsequently incarcerated at the US camp in Cuba in March 2002. However two years later, following a campaign by Tony Blair's government, he was released from the notorious US military jail. Al-Harith alleged that he had been wrongly imprisoned and was tortured during his incarceration. Protesting his innocence he said: "It was very, very hard times, but I tried to think about nothing but survival."'

Having said that, how many were held over time 800(?), so it looks like only a small percentage (re)join the Jihadi fight, and even then as BigChocFrenzy points out, some of whom could have been innocent and TURNED to terrorism while in prison, or indeed while out, considering the time between Al-Harith's release and joining ISIS.

But it don't take many such payouts for a government (and their taxpayers) to look like numb-nuts.

[DoctorTwo]

I've just watched an interview with Clive Stafford Smith who said that Shaker wants to live within the rules of our country. For someone who was kidnapped by bandits and sold on to illegal invaders who imprisoned and tortured him is pretty fucking big. I'll take Clive's word over yours ta. He doesn't post bullshit on Mumsnet.

[AnthonyPandy]

Why is the compensation coming from Britain? If he was detained in the US shouldn't they pay it?

Or have I missed a really crucial bit?

[Isitmebut]

AnthonyPandy ... I agree, and if the Americans pay he deserves every penny and should get it all in one go. lol

The Twos Doctor .... One day you will get a fact right on virtually every subject you comment on e.g. HSBC; there is only one this worse than someone posting their ignorance on issues, its when there is attitude with it. IMNSHO.

[GruntledOne]

I've tried to make sense of that last paragraph, Isitme, but it just isn't working.

[DoctorTwo]

It's cross thread trolling GruntledOne. If you search using your search engine of choice for 'what has HSBC been fined for' you might get a glimpse into why I said on another thread that HSBC is the world's most criminal bank. I have no idea why this has been brought up other than to troll me and maybe react badly.

[DoctorTwo]

Maybe make me react badly. This troll poster has form...

To make you feel better toryboy, Shaker Aamer deserves every penny. More than 13 years in solitary without charge makes it clear there was no reason to keep him there other than to stop us knowing MI6 knew he was being tortured.

[KatharineClifton]

13 years. Just stop for a minute and imagine that. This is the whole lifespan of my children. And one of his.

No compensation can ever be enough. Even if he was sitting in a box for 13 years with no torture. But he was tortured, and from what I've read with British Intelligence compliance. I would like to say we will see what court hearings bring up, but we won't because they'll all be held in secret. Because justice isn't blind.

[GruntledOne]

I guessed something of the sort, Doctor, but it still doesn't make sense. Still, it sounds like it's not worth bothering to try to make sense of it.

[confuseddazed]

The thing I object to is the idea that he is in anyway British.

He is Saudi Arabian, and was in the UK on a fake British passport.

That of course doesn't excuse his incareration without trial, but he is not British, and was here for no time at all.

[Isitmebut]

GruntledOne ..... The TwosDoc and I go back many months and it either gets thinks bottom about face or sees plots on shopping lists, and usually when PROVED wrong it scurries off - the last thing on many was a recent comment of HSBC on another thread, but that is unimportant now.

But lets test who is the troll, the misinformation merchant with an agenda.

DoctorTwo .... Re the following statements below, in the Shaker Aamer story, you see NOTHING that possibly could incriminate him as being a terrorist - NOTHING at all you don't want to even consider????

"For someone who was kidnapped by bandits and sold on to illegal invaders who imprisoned and tortured him is pretty fucking big."

"Shaker Aamer deserves every penny. More than 13 years in solitary without charge makes it clear there was no reason to keep him there other than to stop us knowing MI6 knew he was being tortured."

[ottothedog]

Yup. I'm pretty pissed off with our government for making us liable for this kind of payout too. Fuckers should stop being complicit in illegal torture and rendition.

[DoctorTwo]

I stand by what I wrote, it's an acknowledged truth, one that's accepted by the Tory party many of whom campaigned for his release. But still, don't let facts get in the way of your argument. Again...

[Isitmebut]

""For someone who was kidnapped by bandits and sold on to illegal invaders "

Firstly you make it sound like we was snatched from Battersea Park whilst walking his dog, and from the "illegal invaders" (which asks more questions of your agenda) it makes it sound like it was rendition without the UK authorities knowledge.

The FACTS are very different, do you want to try again, or want me to do it for you with a bit more detail IN ADDITION to; Shaker Aamer had been living in Kabul Afghanistan (with his family) under the control of the Taliban, and ran for Pakistan when the Americans took Kabul, but then was caught/held in the Khyber Pass by the Afghan Northern Alliance who were enemies of the Taliban?

[DoctorTwo]

He was in Kabul when Afghanistan was invaded, we know that. He has maintained, consistently, that he was working for an Islamic charity, even under torture. Along with his family he left Kabul as the US were arresting all foreigners and was captured by the Northwest Alliance who sold him to the Americans. He was tortured at Bagram, allegedly in the presence of British intelligence officers, transferred to Guantanamo where he was tortured further. It wasn't until 2006 that he was accused of being Osama bin Liner's right hand man by a fellow inmate.

Both the US and British government agree he's not a terrorist.

He has 'legal resident' status and has had so for years due to being married to a British woman and having children with her, the last of which, Faris, was born on the day he arrived at Guantanamo. Before his kidnapping he'd started an application for UK citizenship.

This is all easily found upon typing 'Shaker Aamer' into Google and pressing enter.

[SoupDragon]

I do wish the OP would learn how to use the English language in a coherent manner.

[claig]

I agree SoupDragon, but I don't think the OP is English or else didn't matriculate in English or get any 'ologies in spite of offering wads of cash for one.

[claig]

'but I don't think the OP'

To be honest, I don't know if the OP is human. It seems more like some sort of Tory bot that has been fed lines from an Oxbridge whizzkid at Tory Central Office and got the lines jumbled up and expresses them in a confused, incoherent, mangled fashion.

[claig]

"Held without charge for 13-years without being charged"

I mean what is the point of this tautology? The OP obviously never deserved an 'ology, but what have we done in a past life to deserve having to read this incoherent crap?

[hackmum]

It's amusing how often you see the phrase "but he was no saint" used to justify all sorts of misdoings by the state. People used to say it about the Birmingham Six - "they were no saints". As if by not being a saint, you deserved to be banged up for years for a crime you didn't commit.