Premier Ewart Brown yesterday admitted that he may not have brought four Guantánamo Bay detainees to Bermuda had he anticipated the "firestorm" it would provoke.

But he told MPs during a speech in the House of Assembly that he still firmly believed it was the right thing to do and had no qualms about thrusting the Island onto the world stage by allowing it to lead rather than follow.

The Premier delivered the 25-minute speech late afternoon at the end of a motion to adjourn which raged for some five hours and saw members of his own party lambast him for allowing the Chinese Uighurs to come to Bermuda.

He held an emergency Progressive Labour Party caucus meeting behind closed doors at Sessions House immediately after the debate ended, emerging about 45 minutes later to face local and international media on the landing outside the Lower Chamber.

He told reporters that the hullabaloo would soon die down and that he honestly believed Britain would let the men stay here. "This too shall pass," he said.

In his speech to the House, Dr. Brown demanded of MPs: "Why can't we lead? Why can't Bermuda take a step before someone else takes it and we follow? What's wrong with us taking a step because we feel it is right, because it is right?

"I don't think that anyone in this House — Christian, Jew or Muslim — believes that it is against the law of nature to welcome and receive people in need."

He said it had not been easy to listen to members' accusations that he was arrogant, uncaring, insensitive and disrespectful.

"I accept the criticism but what I will not accept is the accusation that I acted at any time without Bermuda's interests in mind."

Dr. Brown informed MPs that the Commissioner of Police had assessed the four men, who arrived here on a private plane from Cuba on Wednesday night after seven years in US custody, and concluded "that there is absolutely no security risk".

He said: "I believe that this issue will be resolved. It will be resolved in a way that Bermudians will one day look at this and say it was a good thing."

The Premier started the speech by telling his parliamentary colleagues: "Had I ever thought that carrying out or engineering, if you will, what I thought was a huge humanitarian act would have created and generated the firestorm that it has, I surely might have reconsidered."

He insisted that no law was broken in bringing the men to Bermuda, arguing that it was all a matter of interpretation.

He said Government believed the issue was one of immigration with "potential political overtones", which it had the power to deal with, while Government House felt it was a foreign affairs matter, for which it has sole responsibility.

Dr. Brown told the House he called Governor Sir Richard Gozney to give him a "heads up about what was about to happen" the evening before the flight out to Cuba. "There was no disrespect or disregard for the law," he said.

He added: "We did not know that there was disagreement on this issue until Thursday."

At that point, Opposition MPs called out that there was no disagreement because the Governor knew nothing of the plan.

Dr. Brown said: "I did not tell him all of the details but I did tell him who was coming to Bermuda and he well understood that.

"I told the Governor what I thought I was required to tell him because at that point I was of the opinion, and so was [Immigration] Minister [David] Burch, that this issue fell within the purview of Immigration.

"Consequently, the Governor determined that he did not agree with that. He asked me to come to Government House on Thursday morning. I said 'I'll be right there'. I went. The Governor was not happy."

Dr. Brown said his desire for independence and distaste for Bermuda's colonial relationship with Britain did not prevent him from understanding where the power really lay.

"I have no power," he said. "If I had power we wouldn't be here talking about this. I have no power; what I have is delegated authority and delegated authority can always be taken away by he or she who delegates."

Dr. Brown said the relationship with the UK naturally brought about tension at times but that disagreements should not be feared.

At one stage, he ran through a lengthy list of countries which the US Department of Justice says has taken in former Guantánamo detainees, emphasising that the UK was one of them.

Dr. Brown said that although the US was a foreign power, its relationship with Bermuda was "more than just incidental" and was vital to the Island's economy.

He knocked back suggestions from members that the four Muslims posed a security threat, claiming that young Bermudians with guns were far more dangerous.

"No Uighur shot that young man two weeks ago," he said. "We have our home-grown issues to deal with."