British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has asked US President George W. Bush to send home the four remaining Britons in Guantanamo Bay, amid mounting calls for the British government to increase its pressure on Washington to end alleged human rights abuses.
Court papers reveal the UK prime minister's direct plea to Bush. They form the British government's formal defense to a legal action brought by lawyers for two of the remaining prisoners seeking a court order compelling Britain to formally demand their return.
The UK's defense states: "The United Kingdom government is continuing to seek the return of the four remaining prisoners and the prime minister has made a direct request to President Bush to that effect."
The four prisoners alleged by the US to be terrorists have been held without trial, charge or access to lawyers for up to two and one-half years. Blair has been condemned for doing too little to secure their release from conditions that have caused worldwide outrage.
On Friday the UK attorney-general Lord Goldsmith said the military tribunals planned by the US at Guantanamo Bay broke international standards. In a speech made after months of talks with US officials, Lord Goldsmith said the right to a fair trial was inviolable.
"We in the UK have been unable to accept that the US military tribunals proposed for those detained at Guantanamo Bay offer sufficient guarantees of a fair trial in accordance with international standards," he said.
Louise Christian, the lawyer who brought the legal action, said the UK government had been very likely to lose.
The court papers say that Washington fears the Britons will pose a danger if released: "The US government has expressed security concerns regarding the return of these prisoners." They also reveal that the US snubbed an earlier UK request for the return.
On March 29 a British government letter to Christian made no mention of Blair's direct intervention with Bush.
After this month's UK election defeats, disquiet grew among rank-and-file members of Blair's Labour Party about Blair's closeness to the White House. The former UK foreign secretary, Robin Cook, said: "It's striking how little we have received in return for all Tony Blair has done for the Bush administration."
The case against the British government is now likely to be adjourned, because the lawyers of the Guantanamo prisoners feel their demands have been met.
Christian said the looming case forced the UK government's hand: "They would have been in quite serious trouble in the court case. We would have had a very good chance of success. They know the level of judicial concern about Guantanamo Bay."
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
FAKE NEWS? ‘When the government demands the press become a state mouthpiece under the threat of punishment, something has gone very wrong,’ a civic group said The top US broadcast regulator on Saturday threatened media outlets over negative coverage of the Middle East war, after US President Donald Trump slammed critical headlines from the “Fake News Media.” The US president since his first term has derided mainstream media as “fake news” and has sued major outlets over what he sees as unfair coverage. Brendan Carr, head of the US Federal Communications Commission — which oversees the nation’s radio, television and Internet media — said broadcasters risked losing their licenses over news coverage. “The law is clear. Broadcasters must operate in the public interest, and they will
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
INFLUTENTIAL THEORIST: Habermas was particularly critical of the ‘limited interest’ shown by German politicians in ‘shaping a politically effective Europe Jurgen Habermas, whose work on communication, rationality and sociology made him one of the world’s most influential philosophers and a key intellectual figure in his native Germany, has died. He was 96. Habermas’ publisher, Suhrkamp, said he died on Saturday in Starnberg, near Munich. Habermas frequently weighed in on political matters over several decades. His extensive writing crossed the boundaries of academic and philosophical disciplines, providing a vision of modern society and social interaction. His best-known works included the two-volume Theory of Communicative Action. Habermas, who was 15 at the time of Nazi Germany’s defeat, later recalled the dawn of
RSS