Excuses from their fellow coreligionists quickly followed. They were called 'numpties' and that the police released these men without charge was 'proof' they were arrested for being Muslim, but otherwise completely innocent.
Now, after the OBL raid, it turns out these men were really connected with a terror plot to bomb shoppers during Easter.
The article says the ringleader is still living in the UK after authorities failed to deport him on 'humanitarian grounds'. It would be grossly absurd at this point if the leader of the terror cell is not arrested and charged and put on trial.
The information is contained in computer files seized by US special forces and is some of the first top-secret intelligence to have been passed back from the bin Laden operation, according to senior Government sources.
The Manchester terrorist cell – suspected of plotting to blow up landmarks in the city during the Easter holiday – was arrested in 2009.
But the police were unable to press charges because of a lack of evidence and their treatment at the time became a cause célèbre for MPs, lawyers and human rights groups.
An attempt last year to deport the alleged ringleader of the plot then failed on human rights grounds because he claimed he would be tortured if he was returned to Pakistan. Most of the alleged cell members have now left Britain.
The disclosure of the links to bin Laden is likely to lead to renewed concern over the British operation to apprehend the men – and the evidence which can be used in terrorist prosecutions in this country.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... -show.html
