Comment: As a long-term member of 'the database' (al Qaeda), the British security services no doubt knew exactly where he was and exactly what he was doing.

We're not at all surprised. The two founders of 'Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula' were also Gitmo graduates. Clearly, at least some of the 'detainees' were held there (and in other 'black sites') in order to 'turn them', further indoctrinate them, maybe even train them, then pay 'em loads of money and set them loose in order to ramp up, not damp down, the 'War on Terror'.

That's Western liberal democracy for ya folks: gotta have an enemy to justify the war crimes!

Update (Feb. 23): PM May reportedly downgraded surveillance on Fiddler while she was home secretary, but her spokesperson referred to comment when asked about it. The claim comes from two ex-Labour home secretaries, David Blunkett and Jack Straw, who say surveillance stopped prior to him going to Syria.

Straw followed up the attack, telling the Independent: "One of the things that she [May] did do [as Home Secretary] was weaken the ability of government to keep terror suspects under effective surveillance."

While security officials confirmed al-Harith and other Guantanamo detainees were monitored after their release, they said the scale of it depended on the extent of the threat they posed to the public.

"There is a finite amount of resources and a valued judgement has to be made on how these resources are allocated," a senior source told the Independent.

Richard Barrett, the former head of counter-terrorism at MI6, told the newspaper: "This guy came out of Guantanamo Bay ten years before he left for Syria. That would be a hell of a long time to keep someone under close surveillance, almost impossible, and against his civil liberties.

"When he came back from Guantanamo Bay the assessment was made by the British and Australian services that he posed no threat and for the ten years that he was in the UK and maybe even for a period after that, he did not pose any direct threat to the British public in the way that we would understand it."

On Wednesday, it was revealed Tony Blair's government lobbied for the release of al-Harith despite never regarding him as innocent.

Fiddler's family deny the claim that he received as much £1 million in compensation from the UK government.

David Cameron's government agreed a total package of £10-20 million in damages for British citizens and long-term residents who were held in Guantanamo in an out-of-court settlement in 2010.
...
The Tory government is now facing pressure to prove that £10-£20 million paid to terror suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay did not end up in the hands of IS, after it emerged that four of the 17 British detainees thought to have been given compensation have been accused of links to Islamic groups or individuals in Syria.

Writing in Thursday's Daily Telegraph, Lord Carlile QC, the former terror law watchdog, said: "I hope that what he [al-Harith] did with the money was the subject of careful monitoring, something on which we are entitled to some reassurance from the authorities."

Lord Carlile, who said the payment should never have been made, added: "I am concerned about the monitoring of money received by people who have been identified as terrorists. I would hope that the money was followed with care to avoid large sums being paid over to terrorist groups."

In a statement to the BBC al-Harith's family denied he received as much as £1 million in compensation, claiming the figure was "a group settlement including costs for four innocent people including Jamal." They blamed his treatment at Guantanamo Bay, where he was held by the US, for his subsequent involvement with the terror group.

More background on Fiddler's past. Note the last line:

Catherine Philp, correspondent for the Times, wrote on Thursday that al-Harith was barely able to speak when she met him in a Kandahar jail shortly before he was taken to Guantanamo Bay in 2002. "He doesn't speak. He was mentally tortured by the Taliban," she wrote.

The father-of-five flew to Pakistan after the September 11 attacks and spent time in a Taliban jail, alongside political prisoners and foreigners, before American forces moved in and took him to Guantanamo Bay. Interrogators found he provided useful information about the Taliban's methods, and believed he had spent time with Osama Bin Laden in Sudan. But he was released from the notorious prison camp in 2004, after two years, repatriated to the UK by private jet and released without charge.

Speaking to the BBC soon after his return to the UK he described being frightened to leave Guantanamo because he was so used to life there, and his hatred for the Americans who held him there. "When they were taking us out I could see the British plane waiting for us - they had to walk us over the 300 metres - and we got put in front to the British Bobby and the American soldier was taking off my chains I wanted to spit in his face but you have to hold yourself inside."

He also spoke of his determination to sue for compensation, and revealed the Americans were only convinced he had a clean criminal record because he worked for MI5, which he laughed about on live TV.

Comment: Trump signed an executive order back on January 28 giving the Pentagon 30 days to come up with a plan to defeat ISIS. It has been 26 days. If the Pentagon has been merely carrying on as usual for that time, Erdogan may be in for another surprise if the new plan actually turns out to be new, and not just a rehash of Obama policy. On the other hand, if they don't come up with anything new, as MoA points out above, the incompatible objectives between all the main players will continue to cause nothing but trouble.

Comment: See also:

• What Minsk Deal? Donbass ceasefire violated 4,700 times in 24 hours
• What ceasefire? Ukraine security forces try to break DPR line near Yasinovataya
• Ukraine video updates: DPR says Ukraine planning terror attack in Debaltsevo

Comment: And yet, when officers are charged with police brutality or wrongful murder and families settle for millions, that money comes from the taxpayers instead of police pension funds or personal assets.

Comment: See also: US-backed Iraqi forces advance on ISIS-held areas of Mosul as 750,000 civilians remain trapped