by: Steve Crawshaw on: 17th Aug, 05
In the days after the bombings of 7 July, there
were many reasons to feel proud to be a Londoner. Politicians responded
with dignity to the terrible events. People of all faiths stood
together in the knowledge that those who had commissioned these crimes
against humanity should be identified and prosecuted. The rule of law
seemed to reign supreme.
Now, all that has changed utterly. The Government
seems ready to exploit the national fear by riding roughshod over
principles which have long been sacrosanct. In a fearful society, it is
easy to persuade people that the old rules no longer exist. Easy, and
dangerous.
The Government presents the latest proposal to deport
people with supposed guarantees that they will not be tortured as
though it were a new idea, devised as an emergency response to the
bombings. In reality, it is a mendacious old idea. A year ago the Human
Rights Watch report
Empty Promises demonstrated clearly and in detail that diplomatic
assurances are no guarantee against torture. Four months ago, a 90-page
report
Still at
Risk, confirmed the point, with yet more evidence. Human Rights Watch
and Liberty wrote to the Prime Minister, pressing the point. The
Government, however, seems uninterested in facts. It proudly announced
this week that it has struck a deal with Jordan on sending people back;
it wants to strike more such deals with a clutch of torturing
governments in the region.
The evidence shows clearly how flawed such agreements can
be. Sweden sent two men back to Egypt in 2001, after receiving
assurances that they would not be tortured. They were, of course,
tortured. Bizarrely, the United States even claimed to believe Syria (a
paid-up member, after all, of George Bush"s "axis of evil") when
Washington received what it called "appropriate assurances" that
Damascus would not torture Maher Arar, a Canadian-Syrian handed over in
2002. (Arar, too, was tortured.)
The phrase "assurances" was not always so polluted.
Assurances are given in cases where a suspect is extradited for trial
to a country with the death penalty, such as the United States. On such
occasions, America assures the delivering country that the (otherwise
legal) death penalty will be suspended. Such assurances are within the
framework of the law and wholly verifiable. In short, they work.
But the new style of "diplomatic assurances" is very
different. Torturers do not like to tell the truth. Governments which
practise torture routinely assure the world that they do not do so.
What, then, is the point of yet another assurance? If a government
regularly breaches international treaties against torture which carry
criminal penalties, why should they respect a bilateral agreement which
neither government has any real interest in enforcing?
The idea that occasional prison visits will reveal the
truth is equally far removed from experience --a person being visited
occasionally cannot speak the truth for fear of being sent right back
to be tortured.
There are two possible interpretations of what has
happened. Either the Government does not understand the significance of
all the broken promises that have gone before. Or, on the contrary, it
understands all too well--and calculates that, in the current climate,
many in Britain will be unbothered about unsavoury characters being
sent back to face torture. Some judges might be unhappy, admittedly
--but, as the Lord Chancellor and others have made clear in recent
days, who cares about judges anyway?
Certainly, it could be easy to persuade those who fear
being blown up on their way to work that rules no longer quite matter
--just as we saw that the US administration played on American fears,
with a lawless Guantanamo, after 9/11. Guantanamo was (presumably)
supposed to make the world safer. In the UK, some had hoped for a more
intelligent approach. It is depressing if our political leaders fail to
understand the importance of the rule of law. Sending people back to
the torture chambers is in breach of Article 3 of the European
Convention on Human Rights. Nor is this just a European issue. Such
deportations are also in obvious breach of the UN Convention against
Torture--whose enforcement the UK once worked so hard to ensure.
Changing national laws will not make the UK less in breach of
international law.
Despite what the Prime Minister says, the rules of the
game have not changed--or they should not have done, unless politicians
(cynical, foolish, or both) decide that they wish unilaterally to
change the rules. Those who have committed crimes, or plotted serious
crimes, can be prosecuted. Those whose activities give cause for
concern can be placed under surveillance--as happened many times in
Northern Ireland. But if the rules of the game now read "Torture is
always bad--except as part of the war on terror, when we no longer
care", then that is a betrayal of all the values that this country once
stood for. If the Government refuses to acknowledge that basic point,
we will all be the losers.
Other News from GlobalEcho.
by Norman Solomon: Blaming Antiwar Messengers
The
surge of antiwar voices in U.S. media this month has coincided with new
lows in public approval for what pollsters call President Bush’s
“handling” of the Iraq war. After more than two years of a military
occupation that was supposed to be a breeze after a cakewalk into
Baghdad, the war has become a clear PR loser.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4934
Steve Crawshaw: Not Worth the Paper They're Written On
In
the days after the bombings of 7 July, there were many reasons to feel
proud to be a Londoner. Politicians responded with dignity to the
terrible events. People of all faiths stood together in the knowledge
that those who had commissioned these crimes against humanity should be
identified and prosecuted. The rule of law seemed to reign supreme.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4931
Andy Rowell: Poison Pen
Those
of us who work in journalism have to be responsible for our actions.
The written word is one of the most powerful weapons we have against
violence and against terrorism. Just as it can spread peace, it can
also breed violence.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4930
Green Left Weekly: Anti-War Movement Targeted
In
the wake of the July 7 terrorist bombings in London, both the British
and Australian governments are pushing for new “anti-terrorism”
legislation that will enable them to criminalise the expression of
political views that these governments deem to be contrary to their
“values”.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4929
Rosie Cowan, Duncan Campbell and Vikram Dodd: New claims emerge over Menezes death
· Brazilian was held before being shot
· Police failed to identify him
· He made no attempt to run away
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4928
Peter Symonds: Bush menaces Iran with threat of military attack
President
George Bush’s inflammatory comments last Friday menacing Iran with
military attack have again underscored the lawless character of the US
administration. His declaration that “all options are on the table,”
that is, including the military one, directly undermines European
efforts to negotiate a deal with Iran over its nuclear programs and
signals that Washington is moving toward unilateral military aggression.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4927
Robert Fisk: Secrets of the morgue - Baghdad's body count
Bodies
of 1,100 civilians brought to mortuary in July Pre-invasion, July
figure was typically less than 200 Last Sunday alone, the mortuary
received 36 bodies Up to 20 per cent of the bodies are never identified
Many of the dead have been tortured or disfigured
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4925
Kola Odetola: Islam, Sex and the Western left
While
differing in their responses to the west’s war on terror, read non
compliant Muslim nations, right wingers, liberals and a lot of silent
leftists share in varying degrees a unity in support of one its most
vociferously avowed aims – the liberation of the Islamic world’s women
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4923
Rory Carroll: Iraq: Arab champion or cauldron of civil war?
From
the swirl of political drama in Baghdad last night one stark fact
emerged: the new constitution, if and when it is finally agreed, will
not settle the question of what is Iraq.
Even if a draft
constitution is agreed in seven days' time, the document will mark
another stage, not the end, of the answer to that question.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4922
Alex Callinicos: Cook, Iraq and New Labour
The
sudden death of Robin Cook is a major blow to the Labour Party as it
was traditionally conceived, as a party of progressive social reform.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4870
Ziauddin Sardar: Disaffected and Dangerous
Oscar
Wilde is seldom cited to argue the Muslim case; it would seem these
days that no one presumes ordinary human nature applies to Muslims. “I
can resist everything except temptation,” Wilde wrote. Tony Blair is
about to flout this elegant aphorism with legis-lative measures
intended to keep young British Muslims out of temptation’s way.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4921
Greg Guma: Anything but the truth: Official spin, unnamed
sources, and the art of managing perceptions
In
The Secret Man, Bob Woodward’s new book about his Watergate source Deep
Throat, he notes, “Washington politics and secrets are an entire world
of doubt.” Even though Woodward knew that the identity of his source
was W. Mark Felt, then associate director of the FBI, what he could
never be sure about was why Felt decided to gradually reveal the
details of the Nixon administration’s illegal activities.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4919
James Brooks: Deceive, Divide, and Devour - The uses and meanings of
"disengagement"
"This
complicity in Sharon’s designs may be remembered as one of history’s
most foolish and immoral appeasements. We must demand that our leaders
reject Sharon’s extortion of their silence while he tries to kill the
Palestinian state in the womb and “Judaize” the Holy City of the three
Mosaic religions."
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4918
Postmans Knock: Chavez secures South American markets for his oil in
South Am..then tells George Bush to Fuck Off
Venezuela’s
President Chavez spent 4 days on trip to key allies in the Southern
Cone Economic Zone (Mercosur) countries, consolidating his vision of a
South American energy structure… and according to his allies north of
the Gulf of Mexico, reeking of cheque book populism…. A method of
foreign influence they are familiar with.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4917
John Burton: Singapore president wins new term as elections panel
disqualifies rival
S.R.
Nathan will return unopposed to a second six-year term as Singapore's
president after a government-appointed elections panel disqualified an
independent candidate, dashing hopes for the city-state's first open
presidential election since 1993.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4916
Haifa Zangana: Women of the New Iraq
The
war on Iraq has not only made the country and world less safe, it has
erased the social and political rights of women who were the most
liberated in the Middle East.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4914
Martin Sieff: 'Black August' in Iraq
It
is "Black August" for American soldiers in iraq. Devastating
improvements in shaped charges and multiple-piled mines used by Sunni
Muslim insurgents there have enabled them to inflict massive casualties
on U.S. forces.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4912
Robert Fisk: No more bottles of Lebanese red for the diners of
Baghdad
In
the good old days - when there were just roadside explosives and
suicide car bombs to contend with - one of the few comforts of Baghdad
was to go out for dinner. A bottle of wine, the traditionally cooked
masgouf fish from the Tigris and a heap of fruit would end a
potentially calamitous day in a civilised manner. Kidnapping and
throat-cutting put an end to the good life.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4908
Robert Fisk: Iraqis extend deadline for new constitution
As
usual in Iraq, a grotesque political failure was being dressed up as a
semi-victory last night by an Iraqi government that controls little
more than a few square miles of Baghdad. For inside the infamous Green
Zone - the castellated, concrete-barricaded pseudo-castle in which most
of Iraq's principal politicians are now forced to live - the almost
equally infamous constitution, which was supposed to have completed its
drafting yesterday, appeared to be falling to pieces.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4909
Paul McCann: The world's largest prison camp
It seems that Israel wants to lock up Gaza and throw away the key
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4907
George Monbiot: A life with no purpose
Darwinism implies that the only eternal life we have is in the
recycling of our atoms. I find that comforting
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4906
Reuters: Death toll in Russia's Chechnya could be 160,000
Up
to 160,000 civilians and troops have died or gone missing in the two
wars Russia has launched in rebel Chechnya, but only a quarter of them
were ethnic Chechens, a top pro-Moscow official said on Monday.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4905
Norman Solomon: Someone Tell Frank Rich the War Isn't Over
On
Sunday, the New York Times published a piece by Frank Rich under the
headline "Someone Tell the President the War Is Over." The article was
a flurry of well-placed jabs about the Bush administration's lies and
miscalculations for the Iraq war. But the essay was also a big straw in
liberal wind now blowing toward dangerous conclusions.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4904
Kathleen Christison: Totally at Israel's mercy:
The myths of Camp David
Had
it not been for the Palestinians' turn to violence, so the myth goes,
we would not now have Ariel Sharon in office, there would be a
satisfactory peace, there would be no killings, and so on. What the
myths ignore is the "state" left to the Palestinians would have been a
mere colony of Israel -- non-viable and indefensible, without borders
with any state but Israel, totally at Israel's mercy.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4903
Robert Fisk: A constitution that means nothing to ordinary Iraqis
Behind
ramparts of concrete and barbed wire, the framers of Iraq’s new
constitution wrestled yesterday to prevent - or bring about - the
federalisation of Iraq while their compatriots in the hot and fetid
streets outside showed no interest in their efforts.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4896
Doug Ireland: Iranian Sources Question Rape Charges in Teen
Executions
As
worldwide protests are taking place against the death penalty and
criminalization of homosexuality in Iran in the wake of the hanging of
two teenage males in the Iranian city of Mashad, new information is
coming in from that country casting doubt on the validity of the rape
charges the government there used to justify the death sentences.
http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4885