Attn : The Clerk of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Dear Sir or Madam,

In response to the publication of the report “Visit to Guantanamo Bay” on the 21st January 2007 by the Foreign Affairs Committee, I would be grateful if you could circulate my comments below to all member MPs of the FA committee.

To all members of the Foreign Affairs Committee:

Re: Visit to Guantanamo Bay 21st Jan 2007.

This report is a travesty. It is a disgrace to the House of Commons and to the British public, in whose name is was ostensibly written. This shameful publication espouses moral ambiguity and half-baked reasoning in almost every paragraph. About the only section in which the authors were able to write with any convincing authority was in their initial paragraphs about the history of the base.

If I had wanted to read a selection of White House and Number 10 press releases, I could have simply looked them up on the internet rather than having to wade through your publication.

Your delegation had an opportunity to visit one of the most polarising and monumental icons of tyranny of my generation. Instead of asking serious questions or attempting to meaningfully audit our government’s foreign policy, you dutifully reported the calorific value of daily rations served to inmates and the frequency with which they received X-rays.

Your report alluded to and often referred to external sources which document the countless allegations of abuse, torture, suicides and force feeding, the brutal policies of isolation, denial of habeas corpus and the newly created kangaroo courts to try and potentially execute these men. Yet the gravity of these affronts to basic, fundamental and universal human rights never quite seemed to carry any weight in the conclusions of your report, let alone merit an urgent requirement for action on behalf of our government.

The actions of my government in leading this country into an unprovoked and catastrophic war in the face of massive public opposition were deplorable. The behaviour of Parliament in standing mute and subservient for five long years as repeated, unspeakable atrocities to the ideals of Democracy and human rights were committed in our name is even more despicable.

Unless this committee has any genuine intention of speaking out to represent the views of the public or those of the oppressed, then the next time you consider a similar visit, please save tax-payer’s money and just let Tony Blair’s minions at the Foreign Office write the report.

Yours faithfully,


AJ Bladderwait