UK PM Accused of Letting Daesh Bomber Slip through the Net
Local Editor
UK Prime Minister's record as Home Secretary has been thrown into doubt over accusations she weakened surveillance on an extremist who fled the country to become a Daesh fighter and suicide bomber after he was released from Guantanamo Bay.
PM Theresa May's official spokesman refused to discuss whether monitoring of Jamal al-Harith had stopped in 2014, at which point May had been running the Home Office for four years.
But two ex-Labor home secretaries, David Blunkett and Jack Straw, attacked May's handling of terror suspects, including Harith.
The 50-year-old suicide bomber is said to have received £1m, while May was Home Secretary, from the Government in compensation for his detention at Guantanamo Bay.
Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the Takfiri ‘ISIS/ISIL' terrorist group] claimed Harith, born Ronald Fiddler in Manchester, blew himself up in an explosives-laden vehicle in a village south of Mosul.
Daesh said there had been many casualties, though this has not been officially confirmed.
For his part, former PM Tony Blair took the unusual step of issuing a statement denying his administration had paid compensation to Harith, a claim made by a national newspaper, and pointing out that the money was handed over in 2010 under a Conservative government.
With focus shifting on to May's tenure at the Home Office, her spokesman refused to answer questions on the matter at two separate briefings.
The spokesman also refused to say why the May as Home Secretary had allowed Harith to travel to Syria.
He said to each question: "It is an intelligence matter."
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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