American lawyer, Gitanjali Gutierrez of the Center for Constitutional Rights, received a handwritten letter from him, dated 12 July 2004, addressed to the US Forces Administration at Guantanamo Bay. It was copied to Begg's lawyers, and the US authorities agreed to declassify it. Its full text was passed to his British lawyer, Gareth Peirce. He insisted: "I am a law-abiding citizen of the UK, and attest vehemently to my innocence, before God and the law, of any crime — though none has even been alleged". Alleged contacts with extremists Release Following the United States Supreme Court decision in Rasul v. Bush (2004), in which the court ruled that detainees had habeas corpus rights and could challenge their detention, the US government quickly developed a system of Combatant Status Review Tribunals, Administrative Review Boards, and military commissions to provide the detainees with an "impartial tribunal" for reviewing their cases. Detainees could not call defence lawyers, could not review the evidence against them, and had allegations made that were dependent on hearsay evidence. The British government protested about their citizens being subjected to the planned Guantanamo tribunals, because due process rights would be severely curtailed. On 11 January 2005, the British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw announced that, after "intensive and complex discussions" between his government and the US, the remaining four British nationals in Guantanamo Bay would be returned "within weeks". While they were still regarded as "enemy combatants" by the US government, it had brought no specific charges against them. The New York Times and CNN reported that Bush had released Begg as a favour to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was being harshly criticised in the UK for his support of the Iraq war. The Atlantic claimed that the Bush administration has tried to make a gag order a condition of Begg's release, but that this would not have been acceptable to the British public. On 25 January 2005, Begg and the three other British detainees, Feroz Abbasi, Martin Mubanga and Richard Belmar, were flown to RAF Northolt in west London. On arrival they were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 by officers from the Metropolitan Police and taken to Paddington Green Police Station for questioning by anti-terrorist officers. By 9.00pm on 26 January, all four had been released without charge. Post-release: January 2005–present US claims of ties to terrorism Bush released Begg over the objections of the Pentagon,