I am writing out of concern with the way the US government is dealing with the prisoners they have taken in the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

The administrations repeated refusal to give these prisoners 'prisoner of war' status under the Geneva Convention, and thus deny them some of their basic rights is unlikely to help convince the rest of the world that America's cause is the just one.

Now don't get me wrong; I support the initiatives against terrorism and think that the freedom the Afghans now have is ultimately a great thing for the world. However, if the United States is going to try its prisoners in a military court, out of the gaze of even its own media, with the possibility of a death sentence hanging over them, it will find itself increasingly alienated from the rest of the world, not just the extremists and fundamentalists, but the United Nations.

The United Nations has called for the United States to grant its prisoners POW status and the British government is desperately concerned over the three alleged British citizens held without access to lawyers or even the British Consulate; this concern is deepened when the only American to be captured has been sent to be tried in a civilian court.

As an exchange student in America I have seen first hand the things which make your country great; it's freedom and the friendliness of its people. But I fear that unless the Bush administration acts on the grave concerns of its allies, it will itself foster the resentment that it seeks to destroy.