at that time attributed the deaths to natural causes. However a Department of Defense investigation, whose results were reported in May 2005, concluded that the deaths of Dilawar and Habibullah were wholly due to mistreatment by American soldiers. Begg wrote after his release that, he believed, one of the reasons he had continued to be detained was because he had been a witness to the two killings. Guantanamo files leaked in 2011 revealed that, nine months after Begg's capture, the Department of Defence had concluded that Begg was a "confirmed member of al-Qaida," and that he had been an instructor at the Derunta training camp, as well as having attended the al-Badr and Harakat aI-Ansar training camps. Detention in Guantanamo Bay On 2 February 2003, Begg was transferred to United States military custody at Guantanamo Bay detention camp. A February 2003 editorial in Gulf News reported that Begg had written to his parents that he did not know what he was accused of and was beginning to feel hopeless and depressed. It also said that Begg had confessed to being part of a plot to spray the Palace of Westminster with anthrax, a plan which had "caused hilarity" among security experts because of its implausibility, but, the article claimed, detainees were not allowed access to a lawyer until they had confessed to a crime. Begg was held in Guantanamo Bay for just under two years, the first almost 600 days of which were spent in solitary confinement. The US government considered Begg an enemy combatant, and claimed that he trained at al-Qaeda terrorist camps in Afghanistan. He was not charged with any crime and was not allowed to consult legal counsel for the majority of the time he spent there. On 9 October 2003, a memo summarising a meeting between General Geoffrey Miller and his staff and Vincent Cassard of the International Committee of the Red Cross said that camp authorities did not permit them to have access to Begg, due to "military necessity". This is allowed by the Geneva Conventions, only as an "exceptional and temporary measure". In July 2004, Begg wrote a letter saying he was not tortured in Guantanamo, though the conditions were "torturous". Late in 2004, Clive Stafford Smith (a British lawyer working in the US) visited Begg and said he heard "credible and consistent evidence" from Begg of torture, including the use of strappado. Begg's