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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 <http://hrw.org/reports/2004/un0404/> Empty Promises demonstrated clearly and in detail that diplomatic assurances are no guarantee against torture. Four months ago, a 90-page report <http://hrw.org/reports/2005/eca0405/> 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4934>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4931>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4930>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4929>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4928>* · 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4927>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4925>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4923>* 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? <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4922>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4870>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4921>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4919>* 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" <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4918>* "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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4917>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4916>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4914>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4912>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4908>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4909>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4907>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4906>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4905>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4904>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4903>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4896>* 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 <http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=4885>* 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