'Guantanamo prisoners held ties to BBC'
The Telegraph reports WikiLeaks documents leaked from notorious detention center suggest many prisoners held contact number of 'someone' in British Broadcasting Corporation; another report claims dozens of prisoners 'brainwashed' in UK by Islamist asylum seekers
Documents leaked from the Guantanamo Bay detention center by WikiLeaks depict Britain as a hub of Islamic activity and blame the British Broadcasting Cooperation (BBC) of being part of the "propaganda network."
UK-based newspaper The Telegraph reported Tuesday that many detainees in Guantanamo have the contact number of someone at the BBC. The report also claimed that dozens of prisoners were recruited to fight the West after completing their studies in Britain.
According to the report, "a phone number of someone at the BBC was found in the phone books and phones of a number of extremists seized by US forces."
Finsbury Park mosque. 'Haven for extremist' (Photo: Shutterstock)
A detainee assessment form filled in 2007 by American forces noted that many "extremist links" have been found to be associated to this number, pointing to a possible contact between extremists and BBC employees that sympathized with their cause.
The Telegraph claimed its reporters tried to contact the number, but it had apparently been disconnected.
'Subjected to brianwashing'
A BBC statement issued in response stressed that "independence and impartiality are at the heart of all BBC World Service output.
"The service has interviewed representatives of organizations from all sides involved in the Afghan conflict so it would not be surprising that a number believed to relate to the BBC Pashto service was in circulation," the statment read.
Another Telegraph report claimed that according to the leaked documents, at least 35 of the prisoners passed through Britain prior to their detention in Guantanamo, where they were subjected to "brainwashing" by radical preachers.
Eighteen of them were foreign nationals, while the rest held British passports or obtained political asylum in the country.
The report named Abu Qatada and Abu Hamza, two preachers who "lived off state benefits after claiming asylum and were identified by the American authorities as the key recruiters responsible for sending dozens of extremists from throughout the world to Pakistan and Afghanistan via London mosques."
According to The Telegraph, the leaked documents describe Finsbury Park mosque in north London as a “haven for extremists."
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