Drug War, Racism, and Due Process

The issue raised by Anne Marie Jeay concerning the "drug war" is a good one.
I sent to the list on 9-13-01 a link to an article by a former LA Times
columnist explaining that the Bush Administration gave some $47 million to
the government, allegedly for joining the war on drugs, as announced last
Thursday and reported in the LA Times.  (For a copy of the article, go to:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n922/a09.html).  I've since learned that
the Taliban did dramatically crack down on heroin production over the past
several years.

But the other issue on my mind is due-process and racism.  Bush said "Dead
or Alive," meaning that bin Laden may be denied due process in a court of
law, not to mention that the Taliban's guilt has also been presumed outside
a court of law.  And even if the Taliban was found guilty, the US is
breaking international law also by overthrowing a foreign government.  In
contrast, Timothy McVeigh got due process (or at least it appears that way),
as did Milosevic, among others.  And unlike these other cases, the Taliban
is willing to negotiate bin Laden's handover.  The US government doesn't
believe in due process, and of course, we know that when it comes to foreign
countries, and radical groups opposed to oppression in the US, such as the
Black Panthers or the Communists, it never has.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: wsn-owner@csf.colorado.edu [mailto:wsn-owner@csf.colorado.edu]On
> Behalf Of jeay
> Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2001 8:05 AM
> To: wsn@csf.colorado.edu
> Subject: Jew and Muslim
>
>
> Hi all,
> I apologize for my bad English.
> This night I was  preparing a lecture on Islam in West Africa and among my
> books I found the Memoirs of Muhammad Asad. This Polish Jew who became a
> Muslim while travelling in Afghanistan and  was one of the builders of
> Pakistan as a Muslim nation. He  also represented Pakistan at the
> UN and so
> much. All during the "entre deux guerres". I think it is a very
> interesting
> reading and we can learn a lot about  the Palestinian Conflict, the
> building of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Sudan etc. Also about what is
> jihad and what is to be a mujadhin .  Does anyone read it ? I should be
> very interested by your opinions.  For my own point of view it contains a
> lot of elements  able to give a different  explanation of what is
> happening
> and coming.
> In France, we are strongsupporters of the "hypothesis" of "oil war" but we
> ad also "drug war" . Tadjikistan is the country from where heroin is
> distributed in all the European countries.
> In French Muhammad Asad's book is named "Le chemin de la Mecque".  The
> first edition was in English but with what name ? It exists also
> in German,
> Dutch, Swedish, Arabic, Japanese, serbo-croate, urdu and tamul.
>
> Anne Marie Jeay
> Professeur de Sociologie
> Responsable de la Mantrise
> Dipartement de Sociologie
> Universiti Nancy 2
> 23 Bld Albert 10
> BP 3397
> 54015 Nancy Cedex France
>
>
>