[lit-ideas] Mixed reaction to govt plea on terror detainees
- From: "Lawrence Helm"<lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2007 18:01:58 +0000
Here's an interesting article about the Guantanamo detainees from the Gulf
Times, located, I believe, in Doha, Qatar. Some people as we can see in the
last paragraph are weeping for the detainees, like Mike, but as the earlier
paragraphs indicate, not everyone.
Lawrence
Mixed reaction to govt plea on terror detaineesPublished: Thursday, 9 August,
2007, 06:49 AM Doha Time
LONDON: London’s request for the US to release five British-linked Guantanamo
Bay inmates triggered both fury and relief among commentators here yesterday.
New Foreign Secretary David Miliband wrote to US Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice on Tuesday seeking the return of the five, who are not British citizens
but who lived in the country before their detention in the controversial “war
on terror” prison camp in Cuba.
It was seen by some as a new sign of a hardening stance against Washington.
Commentators in some newspapers tore into the move, while others welcomed the
decision as coming not a moment too soon.“The overwhelming odds are that these
guys were put inside for good reason - whatever sob stories their lawyers are
peddling on their behalf,” The Sun newspaper’s associate editor Trevor Kavanagh
wrote in Britain’s biggest-selling daily.
“We don’t need any of them back here. Our security services are under enough
strain keeping an eye on dodgy Brits,” Kavanagh said.
In the past, London has intervened in the cases of British citizens detained in
Guantanamo, but has refused to get involved in those of residents without
British nationality.
In the latest move it pointed out that the five - Shaker Aamer, Jamil El Banna,
Omar Deghayes, Binyam Mohamed and Abdennour Sameur - had either been granted
refugee status or leave to remain in Britain prior to their detention.
“Any who are released as a result of Miliband’s pleading should be sent at once
to their countries of origin and not welcomed here,” insisted the Daily Express
newspaper in its editorial.
The tabloid said the five had a “variety of ingenious explanations as to how
they came to be picked up in war zones” and groaned Miliband would be “the
toast of the liberal left.”
The Times newspaper, however, said it was a difficult but correct decision to
shoulder more of the burden, with Britain’s position having become “untenable
and embarrassingly inconsistent.”
“They are innocent until proven guilty, but unlike the brave Iraqi translators
whose just claims on this country’s loyalty apparently leave the prime minister
unmoved, these men are no heroes.”
Former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg said the “commendable decision,” albeit
five years in, had been met by the inmates’ families with elation and relief.
This time is undoubtedly the first when those tears have been of joy, not
despair,” he wrote in The Guardian newspaper.
“I am sure this decision is designed, in part, to help the government in its
‘hearts and minds’ campaign. I wish it every success. – AFP
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