Reply #5: In my opinion, Qatada has been an informant all along [View All]

[paulthompson]

...so it makes perfect sense that they found a way to release him. The only reason they arrested him in the first place was because the pressure was on, esp. from other countries that wanted to try him. As if it wasn't obvious enough, a recent article on the release notes Qatada was living only a couple blocks from MI6 headquarters after 9/11 (the safe house mentioned below). Here's my timeline entry on him (note the second to last sentence):

Early December 2001: Al-Qaeda “Puppet Master” Disappears in Britain
Al-Qaeda leader Abu Qatada disappears, despite being under surveillance in Britain. He has been “described by some justice officials as the spiritual leader and possible puppet master of al-Qaeda’s European networks.” (TIME, 7/7/02) Qatada had already been sentenced to death in abstentia in Jordan, and is wanted at the time by the U.S., Spain, France, and Algeria as well. (GUARDIAN, 2/14/02) In October 2001, the media had strongly suggested that Qatada would soon be arrested for his known roles in al-Qaeda plots, but no such arrest occurred. (LONDON TIMES, 10/21/01) In November, while Qatada was still living openly in Britain, a Spanish judge expressed disbelief that Qatada hadn’t been arrested already, as he has previously been connected to a Spanish al-Qaeda cell that may have met with Mohamed Atta in July 2001. (OBSERVER, 11/25/01) Time magazine will later claim that just before new anti-terrorism laws go into effect in Britain, Abu Qatada and his family are secretly moved to a safe house by the British government, where he is lodged, fed, and clothed by the government. “The deal is that Abu Qatada is deprived of contact with extremists in London and Europe but can’t be arrested or expelled because no one officially knows where he is,” says a source, whose claims were corroborated by French authorities. The British reportedly do this to avoid a “hot potato” trial. (TIME, 7/7/02) A British official rejects these assertions: “We wouldn’t give an awful lot of credence (to the story).” (GUARDIAN, 7/8/02) Some French officials tell the press that Qatada was allowed to disappear because he is actually a British intelligence agent. (OBSERVER, 2/24/02 (B)) Qatada is later arrested in London on October 23, 2002, but there still has not been any signs of a trial, as of mid-2004. (LONDON TIMES, 10/25/02)

It'll be interesting what they do with him, because if they really set him free, some other country like France could snap him up and I doubt the British would want that.