The Commissioner of Police only learned the four detainees from Guantanamo Bay were relocating to Bermuda last Thursday, the morning of their arrival.

And he said a “preliminary threat assessment” of the men conducted by Police the following day described them as “high risk” — information passed on to Governor Sir Richard and Public Safety Minister David Burch later that afternoon.

Premier Ewart Brown stated in the House of Assembly on Friday that Mr. Jackson had done a thorough security check on the men.

Commissioner George Jackson issued a press release this afternoon following what he described as “unclear and inaccurate” public reports about the Service’s role in assessing threats posed by the Uighurs.

A statement released soon after by Government House said Sir Richard shared the Commissioner’s concerns.

“Government House have discussed fully with the Commissioner of Police the current process of making a security assessment of the four Uighurs. The Commissioner has underlined his serious concerns about misleading comments on the supposed content of the security assessment. Government House share the Police Commissioner’s concerns.

“So far the Commissioner and his experts in the Bermuda Police Service have not had from the Bermuda Government, who brought the Uighurs here and without any advance notice to the Police, the information they need to make a proper assessment.”

He continued: “Their provisional assessment, to a handful of Ministers and Government House, made clear that the Bermuda Police Service have been given neither the political background nor any available criminal background on the four men; nor have the Police been given any detailed psychological assessments. Without a good deal more information the Police cannot make a professional assessment of the likely future intentions of the four Uighurs.”

According to Mr. Jackson, he received a folder with “unclassified information” on the Uighurs on Friday, afterwhich a “preliminary threat assessment” on the men was run by Police.

“Based on the limited information available, the overall threat assessment was deemed to be ‘high’,” he said. “This was conveyed to the Governor and Minister Burch on Friday afternoon. Simultaneously, contact was made with our security agency partners and a more comprehensive threat assessment was commenced. This process is not yet complete.

“The public should not be unduly alarmed at the designation of ‘high risk’. The status of ‘high risk’ has been arrived at largely because of the lack of specific information. It is therefore not possible to put any further context around the assessment until a number of questions have been answered.”

Mr. Jackson added that a comprehensive threat assessment “is a multi-dimensional analysis of information across a range of risk factors”.

Such a check includes, but is not limited to public security and safety, terrorism risk, internal and external political risk, reputational risk and business risk.

For the full story see tomorrow's edition of The Royal Gazette