What next?

Pentagon officials have confirmed that Guantanamo detainees may still be kept in detention, even if they are found not guilty by a military tribunal.

They say detainees could be kept prisoner if they are considered a security risk.

If found guilty, they could also be held beyond any sentence laid down by the tribunal.

I want to respond to this, but I no longer know how. I've been beaten down.

Innocent until proven foreign.

And so, English has aquired another word for hostage - 'detainee'...

And i do wonder why america as a country can't understand why the rest of the world views them with distrust at times

Though of course on this issue the British government isn't much better. How many foreign nationals do we have held indefinitely without trail with no route for appeal now? (I think the answer is 14) At least in some cases they appear to get the choice to be deported back to their home country.

I'm pretty sure Blunkett would try it with UK citizens as well, if he thought he could get away with it. He already wants to change terrorist trials to be based on "balance of evidence" and be held in secret. He also wants to be able to withold the evidence from the defendants...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3450201.stm

Though of course on this issue the British government isn't much better...

True, but when the numbers involved are so small, you have more confidence that the people involved are more likely to be incarcerated for a good reason. When the number is 600+ you can be pretty sure that some of them were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Of course, we only know that the UK is incarcerating 14 people because that's the number they told us.
The other important factors are that not since the end of the British Empire has the UK insisted on ramming their social values down everyone elses' throats, and neither do the Brits pretend to be as white as the pure driven snow. Whilst we try to keep to the Queensbury rules, we're know that we're going to hit below the belt when absolutely necessary. In constrast the USA regularly proclaims itself to be the leader of the Free World, and constantly promotes that belief that the USA fights cleaner than everyone else.
I think this is important - people don't like bullying, but they hate hypocrisy.

Blunkett and Ashcroft obviously went to the same school. Both would like to see everyone on the planet carrying biometric identity cards 24x7. Welcome to the New World Order.

Blunkett and Ashcroft obviously went to the same school. Both would like to see everyone on the planet carrying biometric identity cards 24x7. Welcome to the New World Order.

At least in the US they knew they'd voted in a right-wing party. Here in the UK a lot of people rather thought we'd voted in a left-wing one.

Peter

LOL. That's certainly true. I wonder which party is which nowadays.