Terror suspects still in UK despite Home Secretary's vow
Eleven terror suspects are still in the UK five months after the Home Secretary vowed to deport them.
Telegraph
The Home Office has even dropped plans to remove one of them but is refusing to say why or identify which one.
Among those still in the UK are radical cleric Abu Qatada and an alleged associate of Osama bin Laden who was once one of the world's most wanted terror suspects - both of who still face deportation.
Yesterday, four others on the list had their bail renewed pending deportation leaving them free to walk the streets, despite the Home Office fearing they could go on the run.
In November last year, the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith confirmed there were 11 cases where she was seeking to deport individuals on grounds of national security because of their suspected involvement in terrorism.
But details slipped out to MPs this month show not a single one of them has been deported and one has had deportation proceedings against him dropped because it was "no longer appropriate due to the circumstances of the case".
Patrick Mercer, chairman of the Commons counter-terrorism sub-committee, said: "The Home Secretary has to put her money where her mouth is.
"If she says we are going to deport them, then we have got to deport them. It sends exactly the wrong message to our enemy to do anything else.
"If there are legal barriers then she must not make promises she cannot keep."
In January, a ruling by the House of Lords said it would be legal to return the radical preacher Qatada, once described as "Osama bin Laden's ambassador in Europe", to Jordan but he is still here as he looks to take the case to the European courts.
Similarly, an alleged associate of Osama bin Laden, known as "U", also remains in custody here as the Home Office looks to return him to Algeria.
He is accused of being involved in a plot to blow up Los Angeles airport and was once one of the world's most wanted suspects.
Yesterday, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruled four other suspects could remain on bail even though the Home Office fears they may go on the run.
The three Algerians and a Jordanian face being returned to their home countries over alleged links to terrorism and are nearing the end of their legal appeals.
Two of the four, who cannot be named, were alleged associates of Abu Hamza, including one who was acquitted of an alleged terrorist plot in 2003. The Government maintains he was the British leader of an Algerian terrorist group, of which another of the four was also allegedly a member.
The third man was arrested in 1997, accused of being the leader of a terrorist cell in London. The fourth, the Jordanian, was arrested in 2004 when police found a will in Arabic which asked for his "fate to be in a land of jihad".