Looking for troubles

Moazzam Begg wanted to help his fellow Muslims – in Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan. In the eyes of the CIA and MI5, that made him an enemy combatant. He tells Simon Hattenstone what drove him on.”

From The Guardian:

There is a word that recurs through Moazzam Begg’s conversation – identity. In his three years’ detention in Afghanistan and then at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba, Begg had plenty of time to think about his identity. He talks quietly and eloquently about all the disparate elements that have made him what he is, but he still seems baffled by the end result. In January 2005, after three years of being held without charge, the Americans released him. They had found no link between him and terrorism – let alone between him and al-Qaida – for the simple reason that there was none. But Begg accepts he gave the security forces good reason to think there could be.

More here.