Bush Acknowledges Gitmo Prisoners Have Rights!

IN A MAJOR CLIMB-DOWN, the Bush administration formally conceded yesterday that detainees at Guantanamo Bay and other US military prisons around the world are entitled to protection under the Geneva Conventions.

The new policy, contained in a Pentagon memo from Deputy Defence Secretary Gordon England, follows last month’s 5-3 ruling by the Supreme Court declaring that the military tribunals set up to try detainees were in breach of the conventions. In doing so, the Court rejected the White House claim to virtually unlimited executive power in a time of war, making it clear that the tribunals should have been authorised by the US Congress.

Within hours of the White House announcement, Congress began discussing laws to govern the treatment and trial of detainees. The Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday considered its own proposals, with Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy saying that the US had to do better than “kangaroo courts” in dealing with suspected terrorists. The House and Senate Armed Services committee will examine the issue later this week.

Wow – and it only took three to four years for the sods to admit this. Amazing the way the wheels of justice don’t move in relation to Gitmo isn’t it? However before we all get carried away thinking Bush & Co. have finally come to their senses, it also emerged today that Bush is asking the Supreme Court to reconsider it’s decision. It just never ends does it?