The US camp at Guantanamo Bay should be closed before it undermines the cause of democracy worldwide, a Foreign Office minister has warned.

The remarks by Kim Howells yesterday coincided with one of the most direct appeals yet by a high-ranking American figure for British support over Guantanamo Bay’s continued existence. The Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, on a visit to London, said the that camp was lawful and necessary.

Mr Howells, the minister in charge of British policy in the Middle East, warned: “Our alliance with America is based on shared values. If those shared values are seen by the rest of the world to be terribly flawed that actually undermines the cause of democracy.

The best way to “save democracy” would be to impeach Bush and Blair, then indict the lot of them for war crimes. But it is illuminating that even the UK can no longer tolerate the torture policies of the neocons, even if their reasons for objecting appear to be more public relations, “what will the world think of us”, rather than based on any ethical or moral grounds.

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