"I just hope that when all this dies down we can have a relationship," he said. His 25-page testimony was written in solitary confinement at Guantanamo Bay last year for an American tribunal hearing.It details, for the first time, why he visited Islamist training camps in Afghanistan, and describes the night in 2002 when he was captured in Pakistan by US agents.Mr Begg claims that while he was held by the Americans at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan in 2002, he was "dragged into an isolation room, my hands shackled from behind to my ankles, and a suffocating hood placed over my head. One of the four Britons freed from Guantanamo Bay last week has alleged being tortured, nearly suffocated and repeatedly assaulted in American detention, The Independent on Sunday can reveal. In the first detailed account to emerge since their release, Moazzam Begg, 35, from Birmingham, has accused his US captors of threatening his family, killing fellow detainees, and interrogating him more than 250 times. The Home Office has no alternative whatsoever but to agree that everyone should be on bail.
It is inevitable, and the Government has no escape from that fact.". In a week-long series of SIAC hearings, starting tomorrow, judges are expected to rule on the impact of last month's damning criticism by nine Law Lords of the Government's emergency anti- terrorism powers.The House of Lords said detaining foreign nationals without trial by using secret evidence breached their human rights.Yesterday Gareth Peirce, the lawyer of two of the three detainees, said: "The game is up. Added to this was the slogan: "Are you thinking what we're thinking?"Liam Fox, the Conservative chairman, said the posters highlighted the party's accusation that Labour had "lost touch" with ordinary people.But Alan Milburn, Labour's election co-ordinator, countered: "The one poster the Tories haven't launched is on the economy which shows they are running away from the central issue.". One had the handwritten comment: "It's not racist to impose limits on immigration". The deportation of thousands of failed asylum-seekers will also be made a top priority. Labour fears that Mr Howard scored a direct hit with the electorate when he launched the Conservatives' policies on asylum and immigration last week.Mr Blair's nervousness over the issue will increase today as a poll conducted for this newspaper shows two-fifths of voters could switch allegiance over the issue.The Prime Minister and Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, spent this weekend finalising a "five-year-plan" for migration and asylum.
A large minority, 41 per cent, agreed that "the issue of immigration could affect the way I vote".The CommunicateResearch poll is not all bad news for the Government: it shows that its lead over the Tories has increased, with 40 per cent saying they intend to vote Labour, 32 per cent Conservative, 20 per cent Lib Dem.But the prospect that two-fifths of voters could be swayed by immigration will alarm Tony Blair, who wants the election fought on the issue of the economy.Yesterday, the Tories unveiledcampaign posters. Those who disagreed included three out of five Labour voters. It will include a points system, which a Conservative government would introduce, but which Labour will "adapt to UK conditions", according to a government source.Almost three-quarters - 71 per cent - of those sampled in today's poll for the IoS said they disagreed with the statement that "the Government has the issue of illegal immigration under control" Only 23 per cent agreed. Tony Blair will steal Michael Howard's key policy when he launches Labour's own crackdown on illegal immigration next week, The Independent on Sunday has learnt.
