91Èȱ¬

There's no on the record reaction to Britain's plan to pay millions to 16 men who had been held as prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, except for a rather po-faced "we see this as a deal between HMG and the detainees".

Foreign Secretary William Hague is in town and he told the 91Èȱ¬ he denied the settlement was an admission that the intelligence agencies colluded in the mistreatment of detainees. He said it reflects the desire to move on and that it was good for Britain's intelligence agencies to be able to look entirely to the future, and not spend years going through court cases.

Similar attempts here to sue the US government by Guantanamo prisoners have failed in the past - and what happens in the UK sets no precedent and will make no difference.

Sources close to the Pentagon believe there will be two private reactions from the administration. One coming from the heart, the other the head. The initial reaction may be one of annoyance and profound embarrassment because this looks like confirmation by the British government that these men were wrongly detained and badly treated.

But, on reflection, it will be seen as a rational decision that avoids the possibility of the British government losing in court and having to produce thousands of documents that Americans would rather remain top secret.

That is good news for the relationship between UK and US intelligence. There are always nerves when it looks as if shared information could become public. The fact that the British government is making an awkward decision to avoid that will reassure some on this side of the Atlantic.

The instinct of many Americans may well be that such a payout is offensive. But so far, at least, there has been little public comment on the settlement. The American media are today obsessed with what is happening in Britain, but it's the news from the Palace, not the House of Commons, that has excited them.

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