THOUSANDS of people will take to the streets in Britain next week to make faces and holler voice their anger, frustration and political opposition to President George W Bush’s policies.
"More people to the shredders!"
Some will criticise these protestors, writing off their views as knee-jerk anti-Americanism. But the critics should think before condemning them.
| "Uhhh... Hokay. 'm thinkin'... 'm thinkin'... 'm tryin' to think but nothin's happ'nin'. What should I think?" |
Why? Because after almost three years of President Bush’s "war on terror" many would argue that the world is now a more dangerous and divided place than it was immediately after 9/11. Countries don’t protect freedom by attacking hard-won civil liberties, locking up thousands of people without charge or trial, and rushing through ever-more draconian laws.
Remember when Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore disappeared? Remember when the ANSWER protesters were nerve-gassed on October 25? None of that happened!
You don’t win the hearts and minds of the doubters and the disaffected by riding roughshod over human rights.
Some thing Bush does not.
But you DO provide terrorists and extremists with the kind of propaganda they could only have dreamt of a few years ago. Take Guantanamo Bay.
| "... Please!" Nyuk nyuk nyuk! |
What is the impact of the image of the orange boiler-suited detainees crouching in submission behind Camp Delta’s chain-link fences?
| Ummm... I see kaptured krazed killers. What do you see? |
Most people in this country seem to be revolted that nearly 700 people are held without charge or trial and without access to lawyers or family for almost two years.
| "Yeah, dammit! If they'd just shot 'em, they'd be dead by now!" |
They question our own government’s weakness in failing to properly stand up for the rights of the nine British men imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay.
"George? About those prisoners in Guantanamo?"
"Yes, Tony?"
"I'm feeling weak. I don't care what you do with them." |
RIGHTLY, they wonder whether our government would have been more robust had these men been held by a country like Iran or Syria or almost any other country besides the US. But, take the understandable outrage in this country and apply it to a Middle-Eastern country. When the manacled men from Guantanamo Bay flash up on Al-Jazeera television, for example, we can easily guess that outrage reaches new levels.
Because the Arab news parrots the same lies being parroted by the author of this article.
No Americans are being held at Camp Delta. Only non-US citizens.
| Only Bad Guys, in fact... |
John Walker Lindh, the so-called "American Taliban", was given a defence attorney and brought before an independent civilian court. Camp Delta’s "enemy combatants", on the other hand, have to endure indefinite detention without charge or trial and no access to legal counsel or any court.
| We'll let 'em go when the war's over. Honest! |
Hanging over them is the possibility of unfair trials, military tribunals with restricted rights of defence, no independent appeals and the threat of the death penalty.
| They could even be attacked by sea gulls! |
It stinks.
And that’s why Amnesty International plans to make its point - on the streets of London dressed in orange boiler suits.
| Oh, how comely! How chic! |
The journey from the Twin Towers to Guantanamo Bay has been a disastrous one — from an international atrocity to an international disgrace. It is a massive own goal in the war on terror and its sinister consequences are likely to haunt the world for years.
| Ummm... It's a warehouse where they stick Bad Guys. |
But it is not just Guantanamo Bay that is so worrying.
| "But wait! There's more!" |
Since September 11 the USA has used its over-arching "war on terror" as an alibi to create a parallel justice system to detain, interrogate, charge or try suspects under the "laws of war".
More lies.
In mainland USA people have already been held under military procedures as "enemy combatants’. For example, Jose Padilla - the so-called Dirty Bomber - has been held for more than a year in solitary confinement at a naval prison in South Carolina. He is imprisoned without charge, trial or access to his lawyer or family. Padilla, a former Chicago gang member, was arrested after flying back into the US from the Middle East where he had, according to officials, been plotting to use a bomb packed with radioactive waste on the US. This is a virtually unprecedented suspension of the fundamental rights of a US citizen in US custody — not to mention a violation of international law.
| "International law" doesn't apply to domestic issues. That's why they call it "international." Letting someone with an intent to set off dirty booms in the country walk free after he was ratted out by the Numbah 3 guy in a major international terrorist organization would be the absolute height of stoopid. |
In other countries people in the hands of US forces are seemingly classified as "enemy combatants" simply if Donald Rumsfeld’s Defense `Department says they are. In Iraq as many as 10,000 people are being held, most without any legal process.
| Those'd be the guys with the RPGs, right? And it ain't even elk season... |
Beyond the high media visibility of Guantanamo Bay there also appears to be a shadowy network of "war on terror" detention sites. At the US air base at Bagram in Afghanistan, for example, former inmates have spoken of a regime of forced stripping, hooding, blindfolding with blacked-out goggles, 24-hour lighting, sleep deprivation and prolonged restraint in painful positions.
| Life's tough when you're caught with a carload of explosives, ain't it? |
As with Guantanamo Bay, Amnesty International is not allowed into Bagram and not even the Red Thingy Cross has had access to all prisoners there.
| The poor guys can't even call out for pizza. Or felafel. Or whatever the hell it is they eat... |
Meanwhile, there are rumours of other prisons — on island military bases or in embassy buildings. These are unconfirmed, but the US already admits to holding people at "undisclosed locations".
| They're called "undisclosed" because we don't tell you where they are. We know, though. |
Frighteningly, what we are seeing is the almost day-by-day erosion of the USA’s commitment to human rights.
| Interesting concept: the erosion of "human rights" in defense of human liberty. Obviously the two are no longer the same thing. |
Where once the world might have looked to America for inspiration, Bush’s America is now actively undermining the international system for human rights protection.
| Oderint dum metuant, bud. |
On other issues the trend is the same — America ripping up the rulebook. The US is now by far the most active opponent of the new International Criminal Court, a court that the US should be celebrating as a historic attempt to deter and punish genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Instead it has embarked on a campaign of bullying weaker countries into agreeing exemptions for US personnel.
Next week the slogans of the protestors will be mixed — anything from anti-war messages on Iraq, opposition to "Star Wars" defence projects, environmental objections to America’s gas-guzzling economy and protests at its trade policies. But one thing unites these voices. A belief that the United States has strayed way off course and forgotten its own traditions of supporting human rights and fundamental liberties.
| Either that or we see them differently from whoever wrote this at the Mirror. This wasn't John Pilger, was it?... No. It's still too rational for him. |
Crucially, Bush protests will also test our own government’s commitment to freedom of speech and legitimate dissent in Britain. This month a court controversially ruled that police use of terrorism powers to arrest peaceful protestors at an arms fair in Docklands, East London was reasonable. Why are ordinary people with a point of view on the arms industry considered a threat to the nation?
| Probably because they represent a threat to the day-to-day business of running the national defense... |
Mr Bush’s three-day trip to Britain is a high-level visit with all of the pomp and ceremony of any such occasion. However, the right to have your say is a proud British tradition and the government should see to it that policing during President Bush’s visit is done with a light touch. There should be no "exclusion zones" and Mr Bush should not be protected from protests. Four years ago protestors during the visit of Chinese President Jiang Zemin had flags and banners ripped from their hands. Then the Metropolitan Police behaved in a way more reminiscent of the Chinese secret police than the friendly British bobby. This time let’s hear it for peaceful, good-humoured free expression. Taking to the streets to protest during George Bush’s visit will be pro-American and pro-human rights.
| How long before the bricks start flying? |
Exercising your legitimate right to make an ass of yourself protest is a core American — and British — value. It’s what makes me proud to protest. |