Lib Dems call on US to release terror suspects

[deminks]

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/7bb6ee9e-02cb-11da-84e5-00000e2511c8.html

The US administration’s self-proclaimed legal justification for holding terror suspects without trial in Guantanamo Bay has been removed by Washington’s shift in policy from a “war on terror” to a “struggle against violent extremism”, the Liberal Democrats said on Monday.

Menzies Campbell, the Lib Dem deputy leader and foreign affairs spokesman, told the Financial Times on Monday that the White House’s decision to drop the war on terror terminology directly affected the contentious Cuban detention centre.

“It very substantially undercuts the purported legal basis for detention in Guantanamo Bay, which is based on the notion of illegal combatants,” Mr Campbell said. “If there is no war, the question inevitably arises how can there be illegal combatants?”

Despite the US moves to change its strategy for dealing with extremists from a military-dominated approach to one of reaching out to moderate Muslims, Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, has quashed suggestions that Guantanamo Bay should be closed.

Interesting argument.:evilgrin:

[wli]

1. the original "legal justification" was pure BS to begin with

They couldn't justify it to begin with and they aren't going to be able to justify it now.

[54anickel]

2. Freepers gotta be ticked about that last paragrah - Bush getting weak?

Bending to the French?

...Yet they said a shift in US policy to a more multilateral approach in the last year had given more impetus to the joint work, with French officials saying they were “very appreciative” of Washington’s new approach.

A French foreign ministry official said there had been a noticeable shift in the US approach to foreign policy since last autumn, citing as an example the close Franco-US co-operation on Lebanon that resulted in last year’s UN Security Council resolution and the withdrawal of Syrian forces. “We are not throwing each other flowers, but there has been a slight lightening of US policy on Lebanon,” the official said. “Our dialogue with the US on Lebanon helped to persuade them that it was not advisable to isolate Hizbollah. Maybe we can try to pursue this in other cases.”