Blair, a Bush Poodle or a Briton?

Tony Blair will, to put it mildly, be an honoured guest when he arrives as the guest of George Bush in Washington this week. The Prime Minister has been invited to address a joint session of Congress, and is to be awarded a Congressional Gold Medal. No other Briton has been so doubly honoured during his or her lifetime.
And yet Blair seems reluctant, even now, to challenge his hosts forcefully on an issue where international law is simply being trampled - at the expense of British citizens. In the circumstances, it will be extraordinary if Blair fails to speak out strongly on this issue.

Blair's role is especially important because of the widespread indifference on this subject in the United States. The announcement last week that six terrorist suspects are eligible for trial by military commissions may have seemed a bombshell in Britain, not least because two of the six are British citizens. In the United States, by contrast, the announcement barely registered as a blip on the radar screen.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/comment/0,11538,997413,00.html

A motion signed by 218 MPs, including the former cabinet ministers Robin Cook and Clare Short, has called on the Government to arrange for all the British suspects to be repatriated and tried in Britain.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, has also told his American counterpart, Colin Powell, that the men should be handed over to the British authorities. However, the proceedings at the US military base are controlled by Mr Powell's rival, the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.