Ten face deportation as Britain cracks down on foreign Islamists

Ten foreigners were detained and face deportation from Britain on national security grounds, as part of a crackdown on hardline Islamists.

Ten foreigners were detained on Thursday, and face deportation from Britain on national security grounds, as part of a crackdown on hardline Islamists in the wake of last month's bombings in London.

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One of the detainees was said to be Abu Qatada, 44, a Jordanian resident living in Britain for the last 12 years. He has been described as Al-Qaeda's "ambassador" in Europe, and has been the subject of a "control order" or house curfew.

Meanwhile, in Beirut police detained Omar Bakri Mohammed, five days after he had flown to Lebanon from London for what he described as a vacation. He is another outspoken foreign Islamist who has been living in Britain.

Yasser al-Serri, head of the Islamic Observatory in London, said Qatada was detained at around 6:00 am (0500 GMT) when 35 to 40 officers in four vehicles came to his home in the British capital. He told AFP that the others arrested included seven Algerians and a second Jordanian. The origin of the 10th detainee was not known.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke said he used the power to "deport individuals whose presence in the UK is not conducive to the public good for reasons of national security" to enable the Immigration Service to detain the 10 foreigners. The detainees - picked up in London and across central England - have the right to appeal any deportation order to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, but the process could take years, a top immigration official said. "The process can drag on for months if not years," said Keith Best, the chief executive of the Immigration Advisory Service.

Thursday's detentions came a day after the signing of a memorandum of understanding between UK and Jordan which guaranteed that the deportees would not be mistreated after their forced return from Britain. Jordanian authorities, however, said on Thursday that they have not yet requested Qatada's extradition from Britain.

Prime Minister Tony Blair also had "constructive conversations" with authorities in Algeria and Lebanon last week over guaranteeing the safety of deportees. In all, Britain is looking for assurances from 10 countries, a Home Office spokeswoman said.

The lawyer representing seven of the ten detained foreigners blasted the move as "insane and dangerous". Gareth Peirce said assurances from "appalling regimes" known to use torture had been rejected internationally and carried no penalty if broken. She said that the Home Office could not claim Jordan or Algeria had witnessed, "overnight any internal revolution that does away with torture. This is insane and dangerous government at its worse."

Hardline Islamists have largely been free to live and speak out in Britain for years, much to the frustration of other European countries that complained that the resulting "Londonistan" had become a safe haven for militants.

They include Bakri, a Syrian-born cleric and founder of Al-Muhajiroun who left Britain last Saturday for what he called a holiday in Lebanon, amid speculation as to whether he would be allowed to return. Bakri said recently that as a Muslim, he would never report a would-be terrorist to police. Police detained Lebanese passport-holder Bakri as he left a Beirut television studio. However Lebanese security sources would not say why Bakri had been detained, and under Lebanese law he can be held for 72 hours without charge.They added that no country had requested his detention.

Bakri told Lebanon's Future Television before his detention that he deplored "innocent deaths" and denied any link to the Al-Qaeda terror network. "I have no position with regard to this organisation, neither positive nor negative," Bakri said. "I am counting on taking up residence in my home country and not returning to Great Britain," he added. "If Tony Blair deems that there is no evidence against me, then I could go to Britain as a tourist or visitor." he concluded.

Prior to going on holiday, Blair rolled out a raft of anti-terrorist measures in the wake of the July 7 suicide attacks on London transport which killed 52 innocent people. Meanwhile, 10 people appeared in a central London magistrate's court charged with failing to provide information to police regarding a failed attempt on July 21 to repeat the bombings. And in a further development, a Briton deported from Zambia over the weekend appeared in a London court where he was remanded in custody until September 8 as the United States seeks his extradition.

Haroon Rashid Aswat, 30, is alleged by Washington to have been involved in setting up a camp in the state of Oregon to train US and British men to fight in Afghanistan.