Scandal of the detainees

Serious questions were asked today over how four Britons could be held for two years in Guantanamo Bay - but completely cleared by British police in just 24 hours.

The four detainees flown home from the notorious American prison camp were freed late last night, while one other Briton, Jamal al-Harith, had walked free almost as soon as landing in Britain the previous evening. Today the American government faced the prospect of huge embarrassment as the men prepared to tell their stories and lift the lid on the secretive camp.

Despite being branded "the worst of the worst" by US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the four - Tarek Dergoul, Asif Iqbal, Shafiq Rasul and Ruhal Ahmed - are now free without a stain on their character.

It took only eight hours of "perfunctory" police questioning by anti-terrorist squad officersand brief consideration by the Crown Prosecution Service to conclude there was no reason to put them on trial.

The police did not even use their powers to release the men on bail, indicating there will be no further questions.

British diplomats are now braced for a transatlantic rift over the speed with which they were cleared after months of delicate negotiations to secure their release from Camp Delta in Cuba.

Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith and Home Secretary David Blunkett had promised Washington the men would be fully investigated and top-level consideration given to them being prosecuted.

The speed with which police and prosecutors dropped any prospect of a trial will infuriate hardliners in Washington and raises serious questions about the quality of the American judgment that the men should be stripped of their most basic rights and held without charge in virtual solitary confinement for two years.

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell said the fact the five detainees had been released after "perfunctory" questioning in this country raised issues which demanded answers from the British and American governments.

He said: "Why were they detained at all? Whey were they detained for so long? And why did it take two years before it was recognised in the US that they could be released? We will be demanding answers to all these questions."

British and American television networks are both trying to secure indepth interviews with the men.

PR consultant Max Clifford, who is advising the family of 26-year-old Mr Dergoul, said a series of high-profile US shows had already been in touch to express their interest.

The prospect of a former prisoner using a primetime interview to tell millions of American voters the full details of his capture, captivity and interrogation will seriously alarm the Bush administration and could hand his rival for the presidency, John Kerry, a huge political boost. Newspapers and broadcasters are likely to offer up to £300,000 for the story of the first of the detainees to speak.

Mr Clifford added: "There are a lot of people who want to talk to him - television, radio and newspapers. Some of them are offering huge sums of money."

And solicitors for two of the freed men have indicated that they plan to sue the British and American governments.

Cases would be brought in London and Washington, claiming the Pentagon had no right to incarcerate the men, and that the Foreign Office did not do enough to secure their release.

Four Britons remain interned in Cuba and their cases will now come under massive scrutiny.

Labour peer Baroness Uddin said: "It's about time they were returned. We must step up our efforts to ensure that they are returned to Britain opportunely.

"The fact that the Americans have made the four out to be different from the remaining five is now I think seriously questionable. There's a lot of speculation going on that it is politically motivated."

She said she was "deeply worried" hearing a US spokesman claiming the five had been released as a "charitable gesture" to Britain. "This is deeply flawed," she added.