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helping to spread terrorism (fwd) by Boris Stremlin 15 January 2002 15:38 UTC |
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More on how disregard for international law helps us defeat terrorism... From the Guardian (UK) -- Legal double-standards are not the way to win a war against terrorism 14 January 2002 Internal links More Taliban prisoners flown to Cuba base American forces 'may be breaking PoW convention' One law for us and another for them has never been a good maxim, either of justice or diplomacy. The case against the treatment by the United States of alleged al-Qa'ida terrorists is readily made by the fact that John Walker, the US citizen who converted to Islam and joined the jihad against his own country, will be treated differently from – and better than – the Afghans and nationals of assorted other countries now settling in to the US military base in Cuba. The current intention of George Bush's administration is to bring the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay before special military tribunals, which will allow them fewer rights than normal courts (and even courts martial) and which are manifestly designed to increase the chance of convictions. While they wait, they will be held in conditions which – even by the low standards of US jails – seem primitive. Meanwhile, the US authorities have said that Mr Walker, still being held in Afghanistan, will be tried by US courts in the US because he is a US citizen. This double standard matters rather more than the technical legal argument over whether the detainees should be accorded prisoner-of-war status or whether they are members of a new legal category – unlawful combatants. This new label was invented for Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, to get him through his news conferences last week. It is yet another example of the folly of declaring war on terrorism, for if prisoners are taken in this war, then surely they are prisoners of war? But the point is, as was put at the weekend by Donald Anderson, the chairman of the Commons foreign affairs select committee, that, "whatever the formal category, these prisoners still have legal rights and what we've heard already suggests that human rights are indeed being put in jeopardy". Sadly, the British Government has written a similar double standard into its own legislation responding to the horror of 11 September. The fact that one of the first batch of 20 prisoners to be flown by the US to Guantanamo Bay is a British national ought to give pause for thought for even the most bone-headed supporters of David Blunkett's anti-terrorism law in this country. If this man had escaped back to Britain, he would have all the rights which an innocent-until-proved-guilty defendant has in our judicial system. As it is, the Foreign Office is reduced to asking plaintively for access and "seeking reassurances on welfare and treatment". Equally, if Mr Walker came into British hands, Mr Blunkett would be able to detain him, as a foreigner, indefinitely, under a special judicial system requiring a lower burden of proof of guilt. The difference between our special justice for foreigners and America's being that we will not execute them. This is an effective way to fight a war against terrorists – and those whom the intelligence agencies think are terrorists – but it is no way to wage an effective campaign against terrorism. Not only are such double standards offensive in themselves, but they spread like a virus around the world and erode the rights of those feeling the sharp edge of state power under regimes less sensitive to human rights and their legal protections. Israel, India, Russia and Zimbabwe are only four states which have used the rhetoric of the war against terrorism for repressive internal purposes. An effective campaign against terrorism requires the support, not just of Arab and Muslim countries, but of many other countries in the developing world which are quick to sniff out Western hypocrisy. If the alleged terrorists detained in Guantanamo Bay are denied democratic standards of justice or treated inhumanely, that campaign will be seriously damaged. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/
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