"England's Guantanamo" unlawful.

[Ace42]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4100481.stm

[ASsman]

Hmm, I think our system isn't working. Oh wait the ones we keep on US soil we do in secrecy.

[yeahwho]

Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, in his ruling, said: "Indefinite imprisonment without charge or trial is anathema in any country which observes the rule of law.

"It deprives the detained person of the protection a criminal trial is intended to afford."

Yet,

In a statement to MPs, Mr Clarke* said: "I will be asking Parliament to renew this legislation in the New Year.

"In the meantime, we will be studying the judgment carefully to see whether it is possible to modify our legislation to address the concerns raised by the House of Lords."

*Sounds Familiar. We have a guy just like Clarke over here in the US.

[yeahwho]

You know it is interesting the more I read into this Belmarsh Prison issue, it seems the Law of GB grinds about the same speed as the law here in the USofA....

If there was no swift government action, the detainees could ask the European Court of Human Rights to get involved.

on one hand,
The government opted out of part of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the right to a fair trial in order to bring in anti-terrorism legislation in response to the 11 September attacks in the US.

on the other hand,
The reference to Europe is only relevant because British law is subject to the European Human Rights charter (you know, that thingy that was drawn up after the French revolution?), and not because there is some sort of penis-length competition going on between the UK and the EU (of which, BTW, the UK is a full member hahahaha :) ).

Meantime....Ms Peirce (detainees rep) claimed the detention had driven four of the detainees to "madness", saying two were being held in Broadmoor hospital.

It seems as though GB has a real drama here, plus it is quite an education for me seeing how I know nothing of GB's Laws...but I like the cool names your system has...like, "Law Lords."

The cynic in me says this is how it will go, Why, keep them behind bars of course, while the law is being rewritten to mean exactly the same thing. So that it'll have to be tested again, by which time we will be another three years down the road. Sometime the ends justify the means, you know ? That is, if you're Tony Bliar er Blair.

[Ace42]

Fortunately, the population here are not taken in by the "enemy of the people" argument that people seem to buy in the US. Blair is going to suffer in the polls for this.

Incidently, the law rewrite is likely to be making phone-taps admissible in a court of law, as that is the evidence used to detain them at present, and the reason (inadmissability) that they haven't gone to court.

Hypothetically.

[yeahwho]

It is an interesting dynamic and I'm glad you posted the story, I either missed it here when it came out...or...it just didn't fit the profile of American News. Now I'm pleasantly obsessed and keeping it on the radar.

My hope is you are right, that broad and deeply-held principles of freedom and respect for individual rights are, for the most part, standing up to the assault by some of the more misguided zealots in the War on Terror. The courts work slowly, yet quite deliberately, and will be hopefully fulfilling their role as the guardians of justice.

[Ace42]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4108539.stm