Beckett admits Guantanamo Bay camp should be closed down

[cal04]

International terrorism could be fuelled by anger over the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, the Government has admitted for the first time.

Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, made the most strident British demand yet for its closure, but faced immediate accusations of hypocrisy for refusing to intervene on behalf of UK residents incarcerated there.

She warned that the camp was as much a "radicalising and destabilising influence" as it was an aid in the "war on terror".


(snip)
The Liberal Democrat leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, called on Tony Blair to join the growing chorus of condemnation from senior ministers. He said: "One by one, government ministers are starting to see sense on Guantanamo. It is a pity that they did not show such independence much earlier. We await the Prime Minister's conversion."

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1868066.ece

[Judi Lynn]

1. Sorry to say I didn't know who she is: had to look her up.

A quick wikipedia for anyone else who's not too informed, either:

Margaret Mary Beckett (born 15 January 1943) is a British Labour Party politician who currently is MP for Derby South and, since May 6, 2006, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs; the first woman to hold this position in the British Cabinet and only the second woman, after Margaret Thatcher, to hold one of the four Great Offices of State or to be the Leader of the Opposition, both of which she has done.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Beckett#Junior_Minister_in_Wilson.2FCallaghan_Government



Thanks for the article. Very glad to see it.