reuters
Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:38 AM ET
By Andrew Cawthorne and Michael Holden
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's top court delivered a severe jolt to Prime Minister Tony Blair's post-Sept. 11 security policies on Thursday by ruling against the detention of nine foreign terrorism suspects without trial.
The British government, Washington's chief ally in its "war on terror," said it would send the controversial law under which the Muslim men are held back to parliament.
But it refused to release the nine -- one of whom is accused of inspiring the Sept. 11 U.S. attacks -- for security reasons.
The Law Lord judges ruled 8-1 in favor of the men whose imprisonment under draconian anti-terror laws, some for as long as three years, has become a cause celebre for rights activists who call their predicament "Britain's Guantanamo Bay."
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=MB2KMCJF5EXYECRBAELCFEY?type=worldNews&storyID=7115584Expect major repercussions for Poodle this weekend after this jinxed ruling....