(no subject)

[mrph]

According to the BBC, all of the British prisoners returned from Guantanamo have now been released without charge. Which begs the question... why has it taken two years to get to this point?!

Comments

[miss-blu.livejournal.com]

Tell me about it...although, from reading some of the comments in the BBC website's 'have your say' section, it would seem that some UK citizens seem to be catching 'rabid nationilsm/I'm directly under threat' syndrome...the dolts... :-(

[mrph.livejournal.com]

*sigh* Yup.

Looking at the BBC story, btw, it seems one of the released men was already in a Taliban jail - picked up on the border and accused of spying for the UK - when the US invaded Afghanistan... and decided that he must be part of the Taliban.

You've got to love military "intelligence", haven't you?

[zotz]

Well, they couldn't just let them go. That would be admitting that they'd been mistaken to arrest them. And they couldn't admit that, because them the world would explode.

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

Answer: ~chants~ "oo ess ey! oo ess ey! oo ess ey!"

[tenuous.livejournal.com]

At this risk of being very unpopular, I'd point out that -regardless of their innocence or otherwise - it would be virtually impossible to try them under UK law without creating a horrendous legal and political mess.

The cynic in me suggests that might well have had a part to play.

[smogo.livejournal.com]

it would be virtually impossible to try them under UK law

Mainly because there's no evidence against them, what with them being innocent and everything.

[paulw.livejournal.com]

I think the UK Untelligence squad are asking about Camp Delta. They are making notes and are about to setup Camp Copycat in the Shetlands. After all if the Americans can get away with it.......

[giolla.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't quite work, as it wouldn't have the same fun "legal" status as the US version.

1) Camp Delta is not in the USA so normal USA procedure does not apply.
2) Camp Delta is under the control of the USA so local procedure does not apply.
3) We can gloss over how people got there.

I suspect something similair could be done in the UK between high and low water marks.

[dmh.livejournal.com]

At least one of them has spoken in length about mistreatment; it would be very interesting indeed to see how his story is corroborated or not by other ex-prisoners.