Dr Julian Lewis: Does the Minister agree that the Nuremberg and Tokyo Military Tribunals offer precedents for ways of dealing with people who have been accused both of atrocities and of waging illegal warfare? Would it not be a more constructive approach to the Americans to remind them of those precedents and of the fact that both those tribunals were held in the full glare of international publicity, with the defendants given every opportunity to put their side of the case?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr Chris Mullin): Yes, that point is well taken. There are a number of precedents for dealing with enemy combatants captured in this way, if that is what they are. However, the road chosen by the US is clearly set down, and we have to negotiate around that position.]