Attorney General calls for Guantanamo to close
In a move that is likely to annoy his American counterparts, the British Attorney General Lord Goldsmith is to call publicly for the closing of Guantanamo Bay.
Lord Goldsmith will become the most senior figure in the British government to condemn Guantanamo, which Blair has so far only described as, "an anomaly".
I don't want to be accused of seeing Blair's imminent departure associated with every statement any government spokesman makes, but this is a significant departure from an Attorney General who said the war was illegal before the invasion and then suddenly announced it's legality days before the start of the war in a single piece of A4 notepaper.
Goldsmith's speech will be welcomed by human rights groups and senior members of the judiciary who have long campaigned for the government to use its influence to persuade its ally to close the camp. The former Law Lord, Lord Steyn, now chairman of the human rights group, Justice, said last month that 'while our government condones Guantánamo Bay the world is perplexed about our approach to the rule of law.'
Steyn made it clear that if the British government were to criticise Guantánamo it would have significant consequences. 'You may ask: how will it help in regard to the continuing outrage at Guantánamo Bay for our government now to condemn it?' Steyn said. 'The answer is that it would at last be a powerful signal to the world that Britain supports the international rule of law.'
In February, a high court judge, Mr Justice Collins, condemned America's approach to human rights after reading a report by the UN human rights commissioner which found evidence of torture at the camp. 'America's idea of what is torture is not the same as ours and does not appear to coincide with that of most civilised nations,' Collins said.
Goldsmith's statement is simply another indication of how far removed Blair's position is becoming from the rest of the political establishment.
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