WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Perhaps delayed by the U.S. Supreme Court, President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said they reached no agreement Thursday on what to do with nine British citizens detained at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.
Blair, who has been severely criticized in some British circles for allowing the men to be held without charges for nearly two years, defended how he and Bush had been handling the issue at a news conference in London.
"The very fact that we are in discussion about making sure there are fair procedures for trial ... is an indication that we actually treat people differently. So, even though this arose out of this appalling, brutal attack on America on September the 11th, nonetheless, we make sure that justice is done for people."
Bush chimed in, "Justice is being done." Calling the men "illegal non-combatants picked off a battlefield," Bush said they were being treated in a "humane fashion," adding that the United States was "sorting through them on a case-by-case basis. There is a court procedure in place that will allow them to be tried in a fair fashion."
Liberal Democrat Party Charles Kennedy said later Thursday that Bush offered in a meeting with him to fly nine Britons detained in Guantanamo Bay back to their country if the British government is not satisfied with arrangements for their trial.
Briefing journalists on his discussion with the U.S. president, Kennedy said Bush would declare "here are the tickets, and they can come back to Britain."
The fate of these detainees and some 651 others held in the island prison without charges, trials, lawyers or access to their families has made them an international cause celebre in legal and anti-war circles.
Two of the British detainees, Shafiq Rasul and Asif Iqbal; Australian citizen Terry Hicks, and 12 Kuwaiti nationals at Guantanamo sued Bush and the U.S. government through friends and families seeking release from illegal incarceration. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court agreed to take the case and a hearing will be scheduled in the next several months.
The U.S. government claims that the detainees are not covered by the Geneva Convention or U.S. law, and though the base is located in Cuba, the Department of Defense said Cuban courts have no authority. Several people have called it a "legal black hole."
This may explain the delay in deciding how to handle this sensitive case. On July 17, the two leaders discussed the case the week after Bush had named two of the British citizens to be tried in military commissions. In July, Bush agreed not to try any British citizen until the issues was resolved.
But the delays have caused difficulties, according to the International Commission of the Red Cross. ICRC officials are the only outsiders who have been able to talk to the detainees. In an unusual statement in October, the ICRC said the long incarceration, with repetitive interrogations, no charges and no outside contact has caused a "worrying deterioration" among the detainees.
When United Press International visited the prison this month, the U.S. command said there had been 31 suicide attempts by 21 men. No prisoner has died, it said, but one man has serious, long-term medical difficulties resulting from his attempt. Hicks has been on repeated hunger strikes, according to his father and prison officials, and another inmate was on a hunger strike.
The two British detainees ordered for trial in July by Bush are Feroz Abbasi and Moazzam Begg, according to family members and a British Embassy official.
Abbasi, the BBC reported last summer, is 23, was born in Uganda and moved to Britain when he was 8. "After A-levels at the John Ruskin college, he took a 2-year computing course at Nescott College in Epsom," the BBC said. In November 2002, a British court of appeal found his imprisonment "legally objectionable," but failed to order the government to intervene, the BBC said.
Begg, 35, is from Birmingham. This father of four was picked up by the CIA in Pakistan in February 2002 and moved to Guantanamo.
Other Britain citizens held at Guantanamo Bay are Ruhal Ahmed, 20, who went to Afghanistan in 2001 with Rasul, 24; Iqbal, 20; and Munir Ali, 21. All are from Tipton. The Guardian said they were held by U.S. Special Forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan.
Richard Belmar, 23, of London, was seized in Pakistan, the BBC reported. Also from London was Tarek Dergoul, 20; and Martin Mubanga, 29, and Jamal Udeen, 35, both from Manchester.
The main objection to handing them over to the British, according to U.S. sources, was the secrecy of the proceedings and the death penalty. Najeeb bin Mohamed Ahmed al-Nuaimi, a Qatari lawyer who represents some 95 of the detainees at the request of their families, told UPI that he believes none of them will face the death penalty.
