Terrorist Arrests Baffle British Town

Aug. 17 -- They were neighborhood boys and no strangers to a little trouble. Clubs, booze and pot maybe, but nothing that locals said would ever get them mistaken for terrorists, and certainly nothing that would land them in the U.S. military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

But that's where Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Ruhal Ahmed are today, and their hometown of Tipton, England remains very confused.

Residents of Tipton, located 130 miles northwest of London in one of the most impoverished areas of Britain, have been shaking their heads since learning that three of its own were under investigation for possible involvement with the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

They remain shocked eight months after the arrests.

"I went and asked the families straight away and they were as confused as anybody," said Aziz Al-Haq, who grew up with the men. "It doesn't make sense."

"We don't know if he was fighting or giving aid," said Habib Rasul, Shafiq Rasul's brother. "He was not radical, he was Westernized."

Leaving Home

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Each man had a different reason for leaving Tipton for the embattled region.

Rasul, 24, was a law school drop-out who family and friends believed was studying computer technology abroad. Rasul told friends that attending school in Pakistan was much less expensive than in his native England. Rasul's family thought he was in school up until the day they learned of his arrest.

Asif Iqbal, 21, faced fewer options. A high school drop-out, Iqbal had trouble finding work and had been involved in local gang activity. His parents' solution was to arrange a marriage for their restless son.

According to Iqbal's lawyer, Iqbal's father "made the mistake" of letting his son go out one October night before the wedding. That night, Iqbal and his best man, 20-year-old Ruhal Ahmed, disappeared.

When news came in January that the three men, who all attended the same high school, had been detained in Afghanistan, London tabloids called the men the "Tipton Trio." An ethnically diverse community, Tipton was investigated as a hotbed for brooding Muslim extremism — a label locals felt was unfair, especially given the attitudes of Rasul, Iqbal and Ahmed.