BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects

Subject: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 05:36 AM

They've been locked up without been charged with anything for 3 years.

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 05:45 AM

I know. I couldnt understand why they don't try them. Did they give a reason?

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 06:26 AM

There are 9 seperate dettainees, BBC website says National Security and Insufficient evidence as reasons for not trying them.
[I forgot how to do links, but see the bbc news website]

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 08:43 AM

Basically the system is that, if it seems likely someone can be found guilty, they've a chance of getting tried. If there's no likelihood of their being found guilty, they can be banged up for ever, without a trial.

So far they can only do it to foreigners who don't fancy being sent back to some torture regime, but they are working on that loophole so that the rst oif us aren't deprived of this facility.

In the last resport, all it really takes is looking like one of "the usual suspects". It used to be Irish, now it's Muslim. Jews, Gypsies, Reds...

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 09:12 AM

"Plea-a-a-a-a-ase release me, let me go!"

Thank you Tom Jones!

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: greg stephens
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 11:30 AM

Let them go, and keep an eye on where they go. Simple.

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 01:24 PM

Well I never knew they could keep people locked up that long without enough evidence to try them. As Greg said let them go, even if they tagged them for awhile to allay suspicion.Do they get compensated in the end? It just looked so cold to be standing outside with a placard.
Did you mean McG that if they were released they would be deported, so they choose to stay locked up?

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 01:33 PM

The people concerned have the option of being deported back to the countries from which they are refugees. With the prospect of being locked up in even worse conditions there, if they are lucky.

The fact that they have been locked up on suspicion here would in itself be seen as a reason to lock them up (or worse) if they were deported home.

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: GUEST,heric
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 01:42 PM

Reds?

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Oct 04 - 02:03 PM

George Bush and John Ashcroft have been making up the rules as they go along re: "enemy combatants." The Courts have been disagreeing with Bush and Ashcroft and insisting that these prisoners be treated in a reasonable manner. Now they're suddenly going home, charges never made, hoping that in all of the political fracas no one will notice them trying to undo the damage.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 06 Oct 04 - 05:59 AM

Shoot them. Don't take a chance.

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: Hrothgar
Date: 07 Oct 04 - 05:38 AM

Better be more specific about "them", Ted, or you could be in there too.

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 07 Oct 04 - 06:34 AM

EXTREMELY unlikely old fruit.

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 08:39 PM

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go. Terror suspects
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 09:30 PM

Guantanamo Britons free in weeks

"All four Britons held by the US in Guantanamo Bay will be returned to the UK within weeks, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the Commons on Tuesday."

I imagine it was time for a small favour, after all the help the Blair government gave to Bush's election campaign with the Black Watch redeployment at a crucial time. I think they were getting pretty embarrassed about the way this business has kept reminding people what a very murky operation we are tied up with, involving that Guantanamo torture camp. Especially with a General Election antiovpated this spring.

Here are the BBC site's profiles of the four young men who will be coming home soon.

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: Once Famous
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 10:15 PM

Aw, poor little terrorists.

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: DougR
Date: 11 Jan 05 - 11:17 PM

Great idea, John from Hull, and I think they should all be given one way tickets to Hull.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: GUEST,sandra in sydney
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 07:30 AM

one of the 2 Oz prisoners is also being released cos THEY can't find anything to charge him with (that would result in a conviction), so our sleazy pollies in their coldest voices say he will be under survaillance when here gets back. Even tho the authorities couldn't find anything to charge him with. But he is still guilty, sez our leaders so we gotta watch him!!

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 01:18 PM

When did "guilty until proved innocent" become the American way, Doug? Leaving aside the tradition of lynching suspects, which has generally been seen as a deviant kind of Americanism.

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 01:49 PM

Lulu of a situation , isn't it?

Before we Brits get too self righteous about it, I came across a couple of book reviews this weekend which made me think hard. Both books about the supression of the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya. In the reviews it pointed out that we Brits had grabbed all the good land in Kenya, and we hanged over 1000 people that we had detained - basically defending the rights of a few rich bastards. The fairness of those trials and the complaints procedure probably left a bit to be desired. I was living when all this was going on, but i don't remember it in the papers or on the radio.

In a way these people in Guantanamo Bay are lucky that they fell into American hands rather than ours. America is a lot more open society. You may not like everything Americans do, but at least they are open about it.

Bearing in mind the war is still pretty much in progress - in that English and American troops are still putting their lives on the line every day, what exactly is being suggested in this thread. In no war is it sensible practice to release suspected third columnists. And as for humanitarian treatment - we are pitted against an enemy which routinely decapitates hostages

Perhaps when these elections are over we will be able to let the Iraqis sort out their own complaints procedures. If they choose to go back to the ones in place when Saddam Hussein was running things, which looks a distinct possibility (how else are they to get the trains running on time?) perhaps being in England under surveillance sue-ing the arse off the government for wrongful arrest will turn out to be the most acceptable outcome of being involved on the fringes of not terribly nice people.

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: DougR
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 03:11 PM

"When did guilty until proven innocent become the American way Doug."

I wasn't aware that it was, McGrath. Why did you direct that question to me? Because of my suggesting buying them one way tickets to Hull? Seems to me Sir John would welcome them to Hull. From all I've read here on the Mudcat, Hull is sort of a paradise isn't it which should also make the suspected terrorists happy too?

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 03:24 PM

Why direct the question to you, Doug?   Because you are someone from whom I could reasonably expect an honest answer.

No, I don't think it is the American way. I think that operations such as Guantanamo Bay are a betrayal of your country's traditions, and that in time to come they will be universally recognised as such.

True enough, anyone who is naive eniugh to think that the kind of thing that is happening in Guantanamo is a peculiary American phenomenon is just pig ignorant. These are the kind of thing that imperial powers do, and what happened in Kenya was an earlier example.

Subject: RE: BS: Try them or let them go.[terror suspects
From: Once Famous
Date: 12 Jan 05 - 03:44 PM

Attention all suspicious Moslems.

The plane to Hull is now boarding.

Please check all dirty nightshirts at the gate before boarding.