Britain condemned for 'abdication to US'

One of Britain's most senior retired judges accused Tony Blair and his government on Oct. 17 of allowing themselves to become the "lapdog" of the Bush administration by abdicating Britain's foreign policy role to the US. Lord Steyn, who retired last year as a law lord and now chairs the council of the law reform group Justice, also questioned whether the British government could have been unaware of the US authorities' practice of kidnapping suspects and sending them to other countries for possible torture. "Sadly, one must conclude that our prime minister and the present cabinet have allowed our country to become the lapdog of the Bush administration. Iraq is a greater foreign policy disaster than Suez," he said. "Long after the prime minister has gone, our country will pay a terrible price for the abdication by a great sovereign nation of an independent role in foreign affairs." Lord Steyn described as "a bit rich," the claim by the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, that Britain had cause to be proud of its record in international law since the terrorist attacks on the US on Sept. 11, 2001. He said that claim had to be tested against the evidence. First, there was the "ongoing lawlessness" of Guantánamo Bay, which for Blair was "simply an understandable anomaly." Then, the compelling evidence of extraordinary renditions–"kidnapping of suspects to send them via our airports to places where they could be tortured"–which he said had been illegal since Nuremberg. "Are we to believe that our government was ignorant of these matters?" There was President Bush's admission about "secret US prisons abroad where prisoners can be tortured," facts which amount to crimes under international law. Also the "outrageous crimes" committed against civilians by US forces at Abu Graib, Falluja, Haditha and other places in Iraq, "which recall scenes from Vietnam." And fifthly, "very recently our government acted in concert with the US administration to delay a ceasefire in Lebanon, causing huge civilian casualties in Lebanon and Israel." Lord Steyn reiterated his opinion that the invasion of Iraq was illegal. He agreed with Lord Alexander of Weedon, a former Justice council chairman, that Lord Goldsmith had been "driven to scrape the bottom of the barrel" to come up with an opinion that the war was legal by citing earlier UN resolutions.