The only man to be convicted of involvement in the 11 September attacks has been freed from custody in Germany.
A German court granted bail to Mounir al-Motassadek, awaiting retrial on charges of helping the 9/11 hijackers.
His conviction for being an accessory to more than 3,000 murders and being part of an al-Qaeda cell had already been quashed due to lack of evidence.
A Bush administration spokesman said the US disagreed with this view and was "disappointed" with the decision.
"We are disappointed because we believe the evidence against him is strong and we believe he is a dangerous guy. Given the seriousness of the charges, it would have been preferable to keep him under detention," deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.
However, he was keen to stress that US-German co-operation in the war against terrorism would continue and praised Berlin for its anti-terror efforts thus far.
Conditional release
The judges in Hamburg said they had decided to release him on bail because their suspicion that he might be guilty had lessened.
Mr Motassadek, 30, who had been serving a 15-year sentence, left prison soon afterwards.
His lawyer said his client was very happy when he heard the news and all he wanted was to be with his wife and two young children at their home.
The Moroccan's bail conditions include surrendering his passport and reporting regularly to the police in Hamburg.
Relatives' dismay
A representative of the Families of September 11 relatives' group echoed the White House view that Mr Motassadek's release was deeply disappointing.
"I think he's getting out on a technicality, not on the strength of the evidence," said Stephen Push, whose wife Lisa died in the jet that hit the Pentagon building.
"I hope the prosecutors will continue to pursue a new trial and win a new conviction," he told AFP.
A Hamburg court found Mr Motassadek guilty last year of being a member of the cell which supplied three of the suicide hijackers who carried out the 11 September attacks.
"Mr Motassadek will go free today, but not without conditions "
They argued that he had been wrongly convicted, because the United States refused to allow the court in Hamburg hear evidence from Ramzi Binalshibh, an al-Qaeda suspect who is now in US custody.
Mr Binalshibh is believed to have told US investigators that Mr Motassadek was not aware of the 11 September plot.
The BBC's Tristana Moore, in Berlin, says Mr Motassadek's release pending the retrial is a blow to German prosecutors, who will now come under increased pressure to come up with evidence to back their case.
'Insufficient' evidence
The presiding judge at the hearing last month said the evidence against Mr Motassadek had not been sufficient for a conviction.
He warned that the retrial could collapse on the same grounds as his original conviction - because of key evidence withheld by the US.
The judge added that Mr Motassadek was "far from being beyond suspicion", but had a right to a new trial if legal standards were below those he expected.
Wednesday's court ruling was faxed to the court by the judges, who had been deliberating their decision for several days.
Court spokeswoman Sabine Westphalen said the judges now viewed suspicions against Mr Motassadek as less serious - "urgent suspicion" of involvement cited on the original arrest warrant has been downgraded to "adequate suspicion".
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