A campaign of disinformation

Aamer was cleared for release in 2007, when George W Bush was president, and two years later after Barack Obama's election, but he remains incarcerated.

Throughout his imprisonment Britain and the US have spread misinformation about him, describing him as an inveterate al-Qaida fighter, a member of a British-based al-Qaida cell and an associate of Osama bin Laden.

If there had been a scintilla of evidence to justify these and other claims, he would have been brought to court and sentenced to many years in jail.

In the absence of evidence, the two states that operate as though they have global authority to invade any country in the world have simply dispensed with legality and locked Aamer up indefinitely anyway.

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The Foreign Office declined to comment on Aamer's accusation that British security services deliberately spread lies about him, referring to his decision to launch a defamation case against government agencies.

Unfortunately, he has been left with no other recourse but legal action because of government lethargy in securing his release.

It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that government ministers and officials on both sides of the Atlantic have been involved in an elaborate game over the past five years or more to pretend that they intend to release him while continuing to hold him.

His lawyers' decision to release the details of the allegations made against Aamer by both governments is unusual, but it is essential that people can appreciate the extent of the calumnies heaped upon his head.

The logic behind revealing the defamatory statements against him is that MPs, legal officials and members of the public ought to insist that this evidence be tested in a court of law.

This won't happen because Britain's legal and political establishment knows that such a case would not stand a chance of producing a guilty verdict.

As his legal representative Clive Stafford Smith says, it's supposed to be the British and the US way of doing things but both Westminster and Washington have fought shy of having their words and deeds tested in court.

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Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer's announcement that Gary McKinnon will not face trial in Britain after Washington decided against bringing witnesses and documentation to this country is very welcome.

It spares a vulnerable and unthreatening man from a similar ordeal to that suffered by Aamer and many others in the Guantanamo Bay hellhole.

Home Secretary Theresa May was correct to take the decision not to extradite McKinnon to the US.

It is incumbent on her now to show the same bravery and commitment to humanity by breaking the logjam that blocks Aamer's release.

Britain's security services have played an atrocious role in recent years, emulating that of their US counterparts and fabricating evidence to suit warmongering politicians' invasion plans.

The longer Aamer's unjust treatment has gone on, the more difficult the politicians find it to admit their responsibility for getting it wrong and splitting an innocent man from his wife and four children.

Government ministers have a responsibility to rectify the situation by coming clean about their dirty deeds.

Failing that, they should be forced to answer in court for their campaign of misinformation.