The Wire

Today is Independence Day for the US, marking the publication of the Declaration of Independence, which set out a list of complaints against King George III. The document has an almost religious significance in America, however, the celebrations might be more muted than usual. Last week the US Supreme Court decided that the inmates being held at Guantanemo Bay were being denied justice by the Bush administration and that the President could not arbitrarily deny people access to the civil justice system. Exactly this charge was leveled at George III in the Declaration of Independence. Dr Chris Dickson, Professor of American History at the University of Newcastle spoke about some of the some of the unfortunate analogies between the Bush administration and the despotic rule of George III.