Suspect Business

Another guest at the Guantánomaly, Jamil el-Banna, has been cleared for release by Britain's greatest ally after only four years. Although no actual date has been set for his release, this is obviously much better treatment than he could hope to expect in his native Jordan, whence he fled to Britain in 1994, alleging ill-treatment in an obvious attempt to manipulate his way to the top of the housing list. By some oversight or other, Banna was granted "refugee status"; but in 2002 the CIA capturised him on the strength of information from MI5 that a travelling companion on a business trip to Gambia was carrying bomb parts. Doubtless owing to the activities of courts, civil liberties groups and the House of Lords, this information turned out to be untrue; but then again, who is to say that, if circumstances had been different, something completely other might in fact have been the case? Anyway, a solicitor claims that it would be illegal to refuse Banna entry into Britain because "his children are British nationals with a right to family life under article eight [of the European Convention on Human Rights]", so it looks as though we might have to derogate from that one as well. We cannot, after all, put the family values of ex-suspected terrorists above the instant and utter necessities of national security enhancement in the face of the greatest threat to our country since Hitler and immigration. It just wouldn't make any sense.