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At least 35 terrorists incarcerated at Guantanamo Bay were sent to fight against the West after being indoctrinated by "extremist preachers" in mosques, particularly the one at Finsbury Park in Britain, according to documents leaked by WikiLeaks.
The documents, written by senior United States military commanders at Guantanamo Bay, illustrate how, for two decades, Britain effectively became a crucible of terrorism, with dozens of extremists, home-grown and from abroad, radicalised here.
They also described the Finsbury Park Mosque in London as "haven" for extremists. The Daily Telegraph reported that Abu Qatada and Abu Hamza, two preachers who lived off state benefits after claiming asylum in the United Kingdom, are identified by US authorities as the key recruiters responsible for sending dozens of extremists from throughout the world to Pakistan and Afghanistan via London mosques.
US intelligence officials concluded the mosque served as "an attack planning and propaganda production base". Extremist preachers radicalised the men at London mosques, showing them videos of atrocities committed against Muslims in Bosnia and Chechnya.
According to one document, Finsbury Park mosque was "a key transit facility for the movement of North African and other extremists in London to and from al-Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan".
They were flown to Pakistan and Afghanistan at the terrorist group's expense, put up in special guest houses and sent to the training camps. They were introduced to senior Al-Qaeda figures including Bin Laden and taught to fight and make bombs. Wives were arranged for some terrorists and their families received generous payments.
According to the report, the files will raise questions over why the government and security services failed to take action sooner to tackle the capital's reputation as a staging post for terrorism, which became so established that the city was termed "Londonistan".
The documents show that at least 35 detainees at Guantanamo had passed through Britain before being sent to fight against Allied forces in Afghanistan. This is thought to be more than from any other Western nation.
The government has paid millions of pounds in compensation and benefits to people regarded as highly dangerous by the US authorities.
Qatada, who was paid compensation under human rights laws for being "unfairly detained", is described as "the most successful recruiter in Europe" and a "focal point for
extremist fundraising (and) recruitment". Hamza is accused of encouraging "his followers to murder non-Muslims".
The top-secret documents show how Muslim men traveled to European countries such as France, from where they obtained fake European Union passports. They then crossed the channel to take advantage of Britain's generous asylum system.
The US government condemned the release of the Wikileaks documents.
In a statement, the Pentagon said, "It is unfortunate that news organisations have made the decision to publish numerous documents obtained illegally by WikiLeaks concerning the Guantanamo detention facility."
These documents contain classified information about current and former detainees, and we strongly condemn the leaking of this sensitive information.
"The WikiLeaks releases include Detainee Assessment Briefs written by the department of defence between 2002 and early 2009. These DABs were written based on a range of information available then.
Any given DAB illegally obtained and released by WikiLeaks may or may not represent the current view of a given detainee." "The previous and current administrations have made every effort to act with the utmost care and diligence in transferring detainees from Guantanamo."