Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2001 11:56:19 +0100 From: Paul Robinson <paul@akita.co.uk> To: Stephen Hurd <deuce@lordlegacy.org> Cc: Technical Information <tech_info@threespace.com>, FreeBSD Chat <chat@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Helping victims of terror Message-ID: <20010922115619.B55559@jake.akitanet.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <NFBBJPHLGLNJEEECOCHAGEDNCEAA.deuce@lordlegacy.org>; from deuce@lordlegacy.org on Fri, Sep 21, 2001 at 11:45:05PM -0600 References: <4.3.2.7.2.20010921173959.02994178@threespace.com> <NFBBJPHLGLNJEEECOCHAGEDNCEAA.deuce@lordlegacy.org>
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On Sep 22, Stephen Hurd <deuce@lordlegacy.org> wrote: > In my mind, the most important bit of this is that in this case, Country A > hasn't DONE anything. Afghanistan has NOT attacked the United States yet the > United States wants retribution against Afghanistan because there is a person > there who has been grated asylum that the US government THINKS organised the > attack. And there is an important side note here, with regards to the Taliban. The Taliban have now publically stated that if the US are able to prove that Laden was responsible, they will hand him over. The problem is that it will be almost impossible to prove he was responsible without the ability to cross-examine him, or carry out an investigation in Afghanistan with the Taliban's approval. > If the US granted asylum to someone say (totally random example) from the IRA, > and the British said "Hand him over, or we'll bomb the hell out of you. > You're harbouring him, so that makes you responsible for all he has done... > including this stuff that we don't have any hard evidence that he actually > did." the entire US public would be outraged, refuse to hand the refugee over > and quite possibly be happy to go to war over it KNOWING they were right. Yet That's OK. We are used to the US senate and large sections of the US public giving support to an organisation that are responsible for around 5,000 deaths in our country over the last 30 years. Fortunately, it now looks like the NI problem is starting to get resolved, and it's probably not worth dragging that one in here. However, I suspect that Sinn Fein's next money-raising campaign in the US to buy guns (if they have another one) probably won't be as successful as the previous President-sponsored events. :-) > this is the position that the US has put the Afghanistan government into. > They have not offered convincing evidence that Bin Ladden is responsible for > this attack. With the evidence that has been made public, they would NOT get > a conviction in a court of law. Doubtless they know something we don't, but > the entire US piblic is going along with this WITHOUT being offered the proof. Actually, the parallels to NI are getting stronger here. It would be reasonable to assume that the British government know who the full membership of the IRA is, and who is responsible for the majority of terrorist activity over the last 30 years. However, none of it would stand up in court and the detection methods used would have to be disclosed - not something that they might want to happen. I can see the exact same problem in the US. > That is the bit that scares me. If the United States said "We are going to > hunt all terrorists down no matter where they hide - that's why we have > special forces and are justifiably pround of our ability to effect pinpoint > strikes with massive firepower." I would be about 87% behind them. That's not > what they're saying though. Make it known. From what I've heard it's only the right wing who are supporting the current position. Lines like "you're either with us or you're with the terrorists" might scare the hell out of me (a wimpy English liberal) but the question is to how many members of the US population don't like th current plan, and more importantly, how many are prepared to make that fact known. I suspect CNN aren't really interested in talking to people like that, as they increasingly seem to be Bush's mouthpiece. This might be over the top, but this is all starting to get a little 1930's for my taste... some of the tactics being used by Bush to justify himself are definitely ones that wiff a little of those used by the man whose name I shall merely abbreviate as 'H'. Like I say, over the top, but it is all starting to feel rather surreal. -- PR To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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