LONDON, Jan 23: British politicians reacted angrily on Wednesday to an “insulting” putdown from US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that they were bleating from afar about the treatment of Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners.

Images of detainees shackled and on their knees in cages at Guantanamo Bay — a US base in Cuba — have sparked outrage around the world, not least in Britain.

At a Pentagon briefing on Tuesday, Rumsfeld said it was easy for critics to carp from a “comfortable distance”.

“It’s amazing the insight that parliamentarians can gain from 5,000 miles away,” he said in singling Britain out.

British lawmakers, notably from Prime Minister Tony Blair’s own party, said they deserved better than sarcasm having stood unflinchingly by the United States when it attacked Afghanistan.

“We’ve supported the United States. It seems rather crass to dismiss legitimate concerns out of hand,” Ann Clwyd, Labour MP, said. “We don’t want to be insulted by Donald Rumsfeld.”

Menzies Campbell, foreign affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, said the “war on terror” was not just about military action in Afghanistan but winning hearts and minds in the Middle East.

“We here in Britain may be 5,000 miles from Cuba. But we are much closer to the Middle East than (Rumsfeld) is in Washington,” he said.

Human rights groups say the United States has no right to refuse to categorize the detainees as prisoners of war, a designation that would give them extensive rights under the Geneva Convention.

“It really isn’t up to Rumsfeld to decide whether they are prisoners of war,” Clwyd said.

US EMBASSY TIRADE: Clwyd, who heads the cross-party parliamentary Human Rights Group, met the number two at the US embassy in London on Wednesday to raise her concerns along with eight other MPs.