BS: At last...UK govt turning against Gitmo

23 Feb 06 - 06:58 AM (#1676657)
Subject: BS: At last...UK govt turning against Gitmo
From: Peter K (Fionn)

On BBC TV last week UK cabinet minister Peter Hain, looking seriously uncomfortable, was forced off the fence to which he'd nailed his colours and blurted out that he didn't like Guantanamo and thought it should be closed.

More significantly Lord Falconer - also a cabinet minister, and head of the judiciary - said today: "We would never have done it, and we say it should come to an end." This echoed views volunteered yesterday by Britain's chief prosecutor - yet another cabinent minister, attorney general Lord Goldsmith. In a speech at the London School of Economics he said: ""There should be in modern society no outlaws; no people to whom the law does not apply... and to whom therefore anything can be done."

Well it's a start... And such attitudes must be at least mildly significant, coming in the wake of a UN report which Washington tried to rubbish, and from just about the only ally the US has managed not to lose. (Ok, there's Taiwan. And Israel.) Meanwhile Tony Blair is sticking to his established line that the camp is "an anomoly" and should be closed "sooner or later." How pusillanimous is that?

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23 Feb 06 - 04:03 PM (#1677053)
Subject: RE: BS: At last...UK govt turning against Gitmo
From: autolycus

Imagine if Gitmo was being run by - I d'no - the Cunabs(i.e.Cubans), Iraquis, ..........(complete your choice here)

ivor

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23 Feb 06 - 04:12 PM (#1677065)
Subject: RE: BS: At last...UK govt turning against Gitmo
From: s&r

For a moment I read Gatso for Gitmo

Stu

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23 Feb 06 - 04:33 PM (#1677082)
Subject: RE: BS: At last...UK govt turning against Gitmo
From: artbrooks

I am glad that the British government agrees with what is rapidly becoming (if it isn't already) a majority of the citizens of the US.

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23 Feb 06 - 06:53 PM (#1677181)
Subject: RE: BS: At last...UK govt turning against Gitmo
From: Peter K (Fionn)

I realise that many Americans are embarrassed by their government, artbrooks, just as many Brits are by theirs. Maybe I should have made that clear.

autolycus, does your disdain extent to Cubans and Iraqis en masse? Or are you just saying that the Bush administration is OK because it's not the worst regime on the planet? Is that really good enough for you?

Incidentally if Cuba's writ ran at Guantanamo Bay, the place would not be beyhond the jurisdiction of international law, and even domestic law, as it is apparently deemed to be now.

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23 Feb 06 - 08:02 PM (#1677222)
Subject: RE: BS: At last...UK govt turning against Gitmo
From: gnomad

How differently we can read things.

Autolycus will no doubt respond for himself, but I took that post to mean imagine how we would be reacting if it were Cuba or Iraq running a Guantanamo, rather than the USA.

I suspect we would have got more indignant, and rather sooner.

It seems rather late for our UK politicians to be discovering principles and/or backbones, and it looks pretty unconvincing to me. More like positioning themselves to try and disguise the unavoidable U turn ahead.

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24 Feb 06 - 02:46 AM (#1677426)
Subject: RE: BS: At last...UK govt turning against Gitmo
From: The Fooles Troupe

In that case looks like Howard is headed full speed for the cliff...

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24 Feb 06 - 05:27 AM (#1677494)
Subject: RE: BS: At last...UK govt turning against Gitmo
From: Peter K (Fionn)

Apologies to autolycus. Thanks for correcting my misreading gnomad. And I agree there's nothing meritorious about this change of heart - especially from Hain, who started out in public life as a campaigner against apartheid and then lost sight of his principles for the sake of a career in government.

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24 Feb 06 - 05:51 PM (#1678089)
Subject: RE: BS: At last...UK govt turning against Gitmo
From: autolycus

Thanks,gnomad. Got it in one.

PK (is that alrught?) No problem.

Ivor

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