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WITH AN order to close Guantánamo, the Obama administration has acted quickly to move away from the Bush administration’s policies in what it called the “war on terror.” But much more needs to be done to undo the damage to America’s reputation abroad-not just in the Muslim world-and to lessen the chances of starting another chapter in the erosion of America’s civil liberties. And not all measures will be difficult. For starters, President Barack Obama should follow the lead of Britain’s Gordon Brown, who, upon becoming prime minister, stopped using the phrase “war on terror.”

The concept of a “war on terror,” was “misleading and mistaken,” the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, wrote in the Guardian recently. Calling for a “war on terror,” he went on, “implied that the correct response was primarily military. . . . We must respond to terrorism by championing the rule of law, not subordinating it. . . .”

The CIA destroyed 92 videotapes of terror-suspect interrogations, according to a court document filed by the government on Monday. The disclosure marks the first time the specific number of tapes has been made public.

Lieutenant-Colonel Darrel Vandeveld had been a prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay for one year when he went to seek advice from a priest. He wondered whether he should resign from a legal system he had come to believe was a sham, but he expected to hear he should stick with it and work within the system.

The priest offered no such advice. Instead he told the lawyer: “Quit. Do not co-operate with evil.”

Britain faces fresh accusations that it colluded in the rendering and alleged torture of a second UK resident now being held at Guantanamo Bay. The new claims bring further pressure on ministers to come clean about the scale of the Government’s complicity in the rendition and torture of dozens of terror suspects captured by the Americans after 9/11.

PARIS — A United Nations human rights official, investigating practices at Guantánamo Bay, has concluded that evidence obtained from the interrogations there is tainted and that foreign law enforcement and intelligence officials who took part in those interrogations violated their legal obligation to reject the use of torture and arbitrary detention.

The official, Martin Scheinin, is the special rapporteur on human rights and counterterrorism, an unpaid position created in 2005 by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

“When evidence is obtained through cruel and inhumane treatment, we will be faced with situations where the courts decide they don’t have proper evidence,” Mr. Scheinin said in a telephone interview. “There may be suspicions of terrorism, but evidence is tainted, so courts have only one option, to drop the case. They should have thought about that from the beginning, but didn’t.”

BRUSSELS (AFP) — The European Union expressed reservations Thursday about hosting Guantanamo inmates until the United States addresses EU security concerns, with no decision on accepting them likely for months.

A high-level EU delegation will travel to Washington on March 16-17 to find out exactly how US authorities decided that around 60 of the more than 240 prisoners could be released and why they cannot be hosted by the United States.

Brussels: Sherif el-Mashad, a 32-year-old Egyptian with a knack for carpentry, moved to Italy in 1997 in search of a better life. Having obtained the necessary permits, he began working in a restaurant before setting up a small business near Lake Como.

In July 2001, two months before the September 11 terrorist attacks against the US, he bought a round-trip ticket to Afghanistan, where he said he intended to spend some time doing charity work.

A former Guantanamo Bay prisoner was detained in the UK while on his way to visit a human rights lawyer.

Jaralla Saleh Mohammed Kahla al-Marri said he arrived in the UK from his native Qatar on Sunday. He was visiting lawyer Gareth Pierce, whose clients have included the Guildford Four and the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, when he was held at Heathrow Airport.

A Pentagon review ordered by President Barack Obama into conditions at Guantánamo Bay has concluded that prisoners are being treated in line with international standards demanded under the Geneva conventions, according to US officials.

Admiral Patrick Walsh, the vice-chief of naval operations who carried out the inquiry, is to hand over the 85-page report to Obama this weekend. Human rights groups said they feared the review ordered by Obama could turn out to be a whitewash.

This is a transcript from The World Today. The program is broadcast around Australia at 12:10pm on ABC Local Radio.

ELEANOR HALL: In the United States the Obama administration has been reminded of just how difficult its plan to shut down the Guantanamo bay detention centre will be.

17 people from the Uighur minority in north-west China have been held at the centre since 2002. Now a United States court has ruled that while their indefinite detention is grossly unfair, it has no power to order their release.