Guantanamo Five branded dangerous

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has requested the former UK residents be sent back from the US detention centre in Guantanamo, Cuba, in a reversal of previous UK policy.

The US is considering the request but the Sunday Times said the Pentagon's head of detainee affairs had warned some of the men had close associations with senior al-Qaeda figures.

Sandra Hodgkinson, deputy assistant secretary of defence for detainee affairs, reportedly said: "Among these men are some extremely dangerous individuals... if they are sent back to the United Kingdom they could pose a risk.

"Because of some of the extensive ties these individuals have with well known al-Qaeda leaders, we have concerns that they will try to reconnect with some of their old counterparts and return to the fight in the sense that they will try to carry out attacks, whether it's in England or elsewhere."

Lawyer Clive Stafford Smith, who represents the men, dismissed the allegations as "a blatant attempt to smear my clients".

The men are Shaker Aamer, a London resident originally from Saudi Arabia; Jamil El Banna, whose family lives in Dollis Hill, north-west London and who was a refugee from Jordan; Omar Deghayes, who lived in Brighton and was a refugee from Libya; Binyam Mohamed, who lived in Kensington, west London, and had applied for asylum from Ethiopia; and Abdennour Sameur, a refugee from Algeria who lived in Bournemouth.

They are not British nationals but were legally resident in the UK before they were detained.

A Foreign Office source indicated that the Government was prepared for "long and complex negotiations" with the US, adding: "Clearly the US would not release them and the UK would not be requesting their return if they presented a risk to international or national security."

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said national security was Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's "foremost concern" but that the request still stood.