Trial and Terror

The lives of the prisoners of war in Guantanamo has been out of focus in media lately. Now the first prisoner will finally get a trial in a civil court. Obama promised to close the Guantanamo prison when he was elected, but so far not much has happened. There seem to be little progress in the closing process, apparently there is trouble with the transfer of prisoners to other facilities and more surprisingly with the prisoners that are to be released.

Hopefully this will pave the way for more trials in civil courts, instead of the closed and criticised trials in military courts.

Previous post on the prisoners in Guantanamo


[Guantanamo] [USA] [Prisoners of War] Share on Facebook

Fighting terror?

The American usage of drones to kill "terrorists" has escalated lately, up to the point that Pakistani officials are protesting and closing borders for NATO supply trucks. To make matters worse US troops shot down a pakistani military helicopter, assuming that they were militant islamists. This is forcing supply trucks to take another more dangerous route through Baluchistan. In this area  40 NATO oil trucks have been destroyed.

The NATO/American way of waging war is turning a whole area against them. Instead of decreasing the number of militant islamists targetting Western interests, we can safely assume they will keep growing and may also turn more violent. Furthermore, I suspect that American actions will reflect on the rest of the Western society, thus increasing threats not only in USA, but in all of the Western world.

[Pakistan] [USA] [War] [Terrorism] [Drones] Share on Facebook

The new face of bin Ladin

The world never ceases to surprise you...

Usama bin Ladin has been quite for a while now, however now he has apaprently made a statement again. What is surprising is the subject, it is not about infidels, bombs or terror. His latest statement talks about concern for the environment and climate change in general, and about the recent floods in Pakistan. I was not expecting the environment to be his biggest concern, but you never know there may live a little tree hugger inside him.

On another note intelligence services claim to have disrupted Al-Qaida terror plans against several European cities. Whether this is really the case, or if it is mostly a public relations thing is still unclear.

[Climate Change] [Environment] [Pakistan] [Usama bin Ladin] Share on Facebook

Big Brother

The paranoid American government is now looking to formalise the internet surveillance by forcing software companies to build a backdoor through which government agencies can get information. This backdoor should be used to decrypt information, I assume it will be used on the same vague premises as the rest of the war on terror package.

The internet is already being controlled in many ways all over the world, often without laws regulating the control systems. This law is however something new, as it is forcing software to decrypt information. So, how will this be done? Are the software companies forced to send keys to their encryption?

I will assume a lot of individuals and companies will oppose this. From a corporate prespective this would increase risks of industrial espionage and leaks of sensitive information. From an individual prespective it will impose even more threats on personal integrity. 

As I see it, the problem with the internet and law is largely based on a generation gap. The generation controlling the laws do not understand the internet, whereas the generation understanding the internet is not making the laws.

[USA] [Big Brother] [Internet] [Surveillance] Share on Facebook

War games

In front of a computer screen sits a young man, he uses a joystick to aim and shoot. So far nothing strange, it happens all over the world. What is new is that this time a man really dies when he shoots. This is the newest weapon in the American arsenal. They are usually refered to as drones, unmanned small aircrafts with advanced weapon systems. You may say it is war, people die in wars. However, this is problematic in several ways.

The killings do not really take place in a war. The killings are more like death penalties for suspected terrorists without any trials and they have hit innocent civilians. Furthermore, this takes out the personal aspect of war, one guy presses a button and another guy in another part of the world dies. To me it is very disturbing. According to New America Foundation over 1000 have been killed in drone strikes, many of which are civilians. The U.N.'s senior official for extrajudicial executions, Philip Alston, said the United States should explain the legal rationale for the CIA's campaign of drone strikes in northwest Pakistan, which he characterized as "a vaguely defined license to kill" that has created "a major accountability vacuum."

[War on Terror] [Drones] [USA]Share on Facebook

Bush wants torture

Bush has now put in his veto against a law banning torture methods that has been used in interrogation of suspected terrorists in US prison camps. Examples of methods in use include drowning of prisoners as a part of interrogation. Bush claims this is a vital part of the war on terror and refuses to ban it.

Yet again Bush has shown no respect to human right and international conventions. Hopefully the next president will stop this. If McCaine wins, a pro-war republican, I am however not confident this will be stopped. But if a democrat wins this law is very likely to be imposed.

[Torture] [Terrorism] [Human rights] [Bush] [USA]

Share on Facebook

The US Inquisition

Torture as a means of getting a confession was widely used during medieval times, for example the spanish inquisition or the witch trials going on until around 1700. After a time of torture the victims are often happy to confess to anything just to end it, often by being executed. This is a barbaric practise and taking torture to an even worse level.

How come then the country perceiving itself as the world's foremost democracy are using this horrible methods. Apparently fighting terror is viewed as more important than human right, democracy or fair trials. The problem is just that a confession under torture is more or less worthless. Thus, this creates no value for the war on terror. Adding to the atrociousness of these actions carried out by the US army is the fact that these "confessions" will be used trying condemn these men to death.

It is time for the rest of the world, first and foremost the European Union and United Nations to stand up for democracy and codemn the US treatment of prisoners and lack of respect for fair trials.

[Torture] [Terrorism] [Democracy] [USA]
Share on Facebook

Spawning of terrorism

The war on terror will never be a success. No matter how much military spending is put in to it. It can at best keep USA a head in a constant struggle against terrorists.

The problem is that the invasion of Afghanistan or whatever target is chosen only creates more terrorists and hostility. For every day a country is occupied by a foreign force without the support of the people new terrorists will spawn.

An occupant, such as USA in Iraq, will need to have the support of the people and in cooperation with the people create a democratic system, otherwise the mission is bound to fail. Inevitably leading to enormous spendings and the occupying force ultimately withdrawing with their tails between their legs.

[USA] [Terrorism][Democracy]
Share on Facebook