http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1874559,00.html Britain warns US on terror
The Attorney-General says treatment of al-Qaeda suspects must not breach the Geneva Convention Mark Townsend and Jamie Doward Sunday September 17, 2006 <http://www.observer.co.uk/> The Observer Britain's alliance with the US in the so-called war on terror was under strain last night after the Attorney-General, Lord Goldsmith, warned the Bush administration that it risked international condemnation if its detention of al-Qaeda suspects was in breach of the Geneva Convention. Last Friday, the US President signalled his intention to effectively redefine the convention by urging Congress to back his proposals to allow harsher treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. In a hard-hitting speech last night, its impact rendered all the more powerful by the fact the government's most senior lawyer has made it on American soil, Goldsmith suggested such a move would be seen as unacceptable in the eyes of the international community. In a speech to American lawyers in Chicago, he suggested conditions in Guantanamo risked breaching fundamental human rights laws. A copy of his speech, seen by The Observer, states: 'Given the political discussions about this issue at the moment, I must be careful what I say. I will say only this today: that this [the Geneva Convention] is an international standard of very considerable importance and its content must be the same for all nations... These are standards which must apply to all those detained in what has been termed the "war on terror".' Goldsmith told his audience that Article 3 of the Geneva Convention 'sets standards for the treatment of people such as those detained in combat and prohibits among other things outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.' Attempts by Bush to redefine Common Article 3 so that it would incorporate controversial proposals for tougher interrogation techniques, have been criticised by the former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, who said it would erode the moral basis of the 'war on terror'. Tomorrow Goldsmith will meet his US counterpart, Alberto Gonzales, to discuss Guantanamo and the Bush administration's approach to international law. It has emerged that as long as three years ago, Goldsmith privately relayed his concerns concerning the legality of Guantanamo. Bush has urged Congress to back his controversial proposals for treatment of Guantanamo detainees, claiming they were essential to protect the US against attack. But last week senior Republican senators dealt the President a significant blow over the treatment of terror suspects when they blocked his plan for tough interrogation techniques. Goldsmith's comments, made with the tacit support of Downing Street, will be widely interpreted as an attempt by Britain to put some distance between this country and the US over the controversial issue of Guantanamo, which Goldsmith described as 'a symbol of injustice, a recruiting agent for terrorists'. The UK government is increasingly concerned over the Bush administration's practice of taking terror suspects hooded and shackled in the middle of the night for detention at Guantanamo. The Washington Post recently revealed how men were covertly gathered from locations across the world and flown to CIA facilities hidden throughout Eastern Europe and Asia. It is alleged that the Bush administration opted to conceal as many as 100 al-Qaeda suspects from the world and to shield the agency's interrogation tactics from public scrutiny. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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