Terrorist Arrests Baffle British Town

Aug. 17, 2002 -- 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

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.

"They were Muslims, but they were non-Muslims," said Allah Lauddin, a long-time friend of the men. "I used to go and knock on their doors, wake them up to come and pray on Friday. That's how they were: clubbing, drinking, girls, the full works."

Easily Influenced

There was speculation that the men had fallen under the guidance of a popular and persuasive imam who might have visited the area.

Police said they found no evidence that anti-American Muslim preacher Sheik Abdullah al Faisal visited Tipton last summer. But Nightline's sources said Faisal did speak in Tipton, as did several other fundamentalist Muslim preachers, some in the trio's neighborhood of Park Estate.

"I'm quite sure that if there had been an imam along to spread those views, the community would have let us know," said Tipton Police Inspector Stuart Paterson, who's been investigating extremist activities in Tipton's minority population since the arrests.

Fuad Nahdi, editor of Muslim youth magazine Q-News, said the area's Muslim youth have long been susceptible to extremist religions. Nahdi said a sagging economy had left them isolated and without opportunities, things he'd addressed before in his writing.

"I called them resentful, marginalized, bitter young men," Nahdi said. "I warned that these people are vulnerable to all kinds of external agendas."But whether the men were seduced by extremism still remains speculation — one of many unanswered questions about the men that Tipton residents are left to ponder.

"We'll never know, will we, until we find the evidence," Paterson said. "Of course, they're in Cuba at the moment so I suppose the American government might be the best person to ask that question to."

ABCNEWS' Dave Marash contributed to this report.