From CBC News Tony Blair calls “Guantanamo an ‘anomaly’ that has to end”.

Guantanamo an ‘anomaly’ that has to end: Blair
Last Updated Tue, 06 Jul 2004 8:27:29

LONDON – The U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has gone on nearly long enough for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said on Tuesday it has to end.

Blair has personally asked U.S. President George W. Bush to let go the four remaining Britons being held at the camp, a request Washington has been reluctant to grant.

“Guantanamo Bay is an anomaly that has at some point got to be brought to an end,” Blair told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday.

The United States insists that the four British citizens will remain behind bars at the U.S. naval base until the British government can guarantee the men will not pose a threat, either to Britain or elsewhere in the world.

The U.S. military set up the prison camp in January 2002 during the war in Afghanistan to hold suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda members.

Hundreds of detainees of various nationalities have been held there for months, now even years, without charge.

At least two Canadians have been held at the camp, Abdurahman Khadr, who is back in Canada, and his brother Omar, who is still at Guantanamo Bay.

Five Britons who spent up to two years at the prison camp were released to British officials in March. All were freed without charge.

London still wants four more released. Two of them, Moazzam Begg, 36 and Feroz Abbasi, 23, are expected to be among the first of the detainees to face a U.S. military commission.

Britain’s Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said last week he didn’t believe the commission would provide trial that would meet international standards for fairness.

Speaking to the House of Commons Liaison Committee on Tuesday, Blair said he didn’t believe the U.S. demands were unreasonable. “I hope we can resolve it reasonably soon,” he said.

Blair is under political pressure, both from opposition parties and from within his own Labour party ranks, to have the remaining Britons released. Some suggest his support for Bush’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have earned Blair little influence in Washington.