No one is coming out of the Jamal al-Harith story well, be it the Tories, Ken Clarke, Theresa May, the Daily Mail, Tony Blair, David Blunkett or Shami Chakrabarti. Jeremy Corbyn’s 2013 words praising the released Gitmo Britons, including al-Harith, for their “commendable contribution” are also somewhat unfortunate:

“There has been no problem whatever… with any of the British nationals who have been released from Guantanamo Bay, who, in fact, have made a commendable contribution to arguments for justice and for closing it down.”

“No problem” with any of the British nationals released… Sir Humphrey would have described that as a brave line.

Today’s Daily Mail lambasts Tony Blair for securing the release of Guantanamo detainee turned ISIS suicide bomber Jamal al-Harith, asking “Still Think He Wasn’t a Danger, Mr Blair?” A fair question, yet also one that could be asked of… the Daily Mail. As Blair himself points out in a delicious take down:

It is correct that Jamal al-Harith was released from Guantanamo Bay at the request of the British Government in 2004. This followed a Parliamentary and massive media campaign, led by the Daily Mail, the very paper that is now supposedly so outraged at his release and strongly supported by the then Conservative Opposition. The Mail headline shortly after he was released after months of their campaigning was “Freedom At Last for Guantanamo Britons”. They then quoted with approval various human rights activists saying “clearly by what‘s happened they’re not bad guys. they are entirely innocent’

Blair also notes it was the Tory government in 2010 which secured al-Harith’s £1 million compensation. The then Home Secretary? One Theresa May…

The BBC is reporting that a British former Guantanamo Bay detainee turned ISIS fighter has carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq. Abu-Zakariya al-Britani was formerly known as Jamal al-Harith and before that Ronald Fiddler. In 2004 al-Harith was released from Guantanamo after intense lobbying by the Blair government, who said he was mistreated. At the time Shami Chakrabarti, the then head of Liberty, said she was “delighted” that al-Harith and four other detainees were being released:

“We are delighted that the five have been released, but let us not forget those that are remaining. Nor should we forget that Britain has its very own Guantanamo Bay at Belmarsh Prison, in south-east London, where 14 men have been held for up to two years without charge, or prospect of trial, on suspicion of being associated with terrorism. At long last the Americans have done the honourable thing and released their detainees.”

The then Home Secretary David Blunkett insisted “No one who is returned … will actually be a threat to the security of the British people”. The infamous CAGE group gave him this glowing reference:

“His family say he is a gentle, quiet man who rarely spoke of his faith unless asked, and after four years learning Arabic and teaching English at Khartoum University in Sudan, he seemed happy enough to return home where he started to study nursing… He was released from Guantanamo and returned to the UK on 9th March 2004. After a few hours of questioning he was released without charge and reunited with his family.”

13 years later and al-Harith had joined ISIS and detonated a car bomb at an Iraqi base in Mosul…

Jeremy Corbyn is to share a platform with a Muslim Brotherhood-linked Hamas sympathiser at the Stop the War Coalition conference next month. Fellow speaker Anas Altikriti has been described as “the key spokesman and lobbyist for the Brotherhood in Britain”. He has reportedly expressed sympathy with Hamas:

“the Brotherhood supports Hamas. I believe that if you are occupied you need to fight back”

The Telegraph reported last year that he co-founded a group called the British Muslim Initiative with a Hamas commander and Hamas special envoy. Altikriti once claimed HSBC had closed down his bank account because he opposed “Zionists“. Here he is pictured with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh:

He is followed on Twitter by Corbyn’s strategy chief Seumas Milne and chief of staff Simon Fletcher. With “friends” like these…

The United Nations has deleted a webpage calling charity worker Mohammed El-Halabi a “humanitarian hero” after he was arrested for funnelling millions of pounds of aid to Hamas’ military wing. An archived version of the page quotes El-Halabi claiming to have “fully dedicated my life to helping people and children”, he said the best part of his job was “managing to restore the smiles of children”. Instead he allegedly stole the money meant for those children and funnelled it to Hamas fighters, sending the terror group £5.5 million a year. You can still view El-Halabi’s glowing UN profile here…

DfID has given £27 million to a charity whose lead organiser in Gaza has just been arrested for funnelling 60% of his budget to Hamas. World Vision’s Mohammed El-Halabi was seized in an operation by Israeli intelligence and is accused of moving “tens of millions” of aid money to Hamas’ military wing. A Hamas member, Halabi allegedly “infiltrated” World Vision in 2005 with the explicit intention to steal money and funnel it to fighters. He gave £5.5 million every year to the terror group – including 40% of the charity’s civilian project fund. World Vision is funded by the British taxpayer through DfiD’s aid programme. That’s the first budget for Priti Patel to shut down then…

UPDATE: Luke Akehurst, Director of We Believe in Israel, says:

“Kind-hearted Brits have given tens of thousands of pounds to a Christian charity to help needy children in Gaza, only to find out they were duped and their money stolen and diverted to fund Hamas’s terrorist activities. It’s outrageous that instead of helping Gazan children being fed and clothed, Hamas prefers to build terrorist infrastructure, dig attack tunnels into Israel, pay their terrorist fighters and buy missiles that will be used against Israeli civilians.”

UPDATE II: A DfID spokesman says that money given to World Vision was not designed to go to the Palestinian Territories, however they concede they did give money to the charity’s Gaza appeal in 2014 as part of the Disaster Emergency Committee. They cannot rule out that some of this money may have found its way into Halabi’s hands…