So, the 4 Britons have been brought back to the UK from the Guantanamo Bay prison facility and I was on a field exercise when it occurred. I was sitting in a rest area at the time, listening to the news via radio when I heard how they arrived at RAF Northolt, reunited with their families and were given a full team of councillors, medics, lawyers at no expense spared cost. They essentially received celebrity treatment. They have since been “freed” by Police and have now returned to normal civilian life.
Well, correct me if I am wrong, but were’nt they originally arrested in Afghanistan under suspicion of collaborating with an organisation charged with commiting offences aginst Terrorism? Under what capacity they did so, I don’t know, but I believe that where there is smoke there is fire. However, evidence of some weight must therefore be lacking in order for the Police to have actioned their release.
Anyway, my point is: The whole issue has got somewhat distorted in that we have allowed these people back into the UK without any further public investigation into their reasons for being in Afghanistan in the first place. Arent we judged by the company we keep?
On the one hand I am glad they are out of G-Bay as it has been 3 years since detention without charge, but I don’t agree they should have been brought back to the UK and then released without a seperate inquiry. I’m not taking anything away from the US, but I know that a proper UK led investigation into their connections within Afghanistan would have somewhat been hindered, but then intelligence is a very fragile affair and there are probable facts that can’t be disclosed for fear of identifying sources. Protecting the watcher so to speak.
Now, I dont presume for one moment that these men will be allowed to live normal lives as they will be scrutinised forever and a day, but I do presume that a compensation claim is bound to have been discussed (my cynical side coming out as usual). I just don’t feel safe knowing that this is the end result of a situation that kicked off after the world’s largest Terrorist attack. Justice be they innocent or guilty has not yet been served! Where are the answers?
What I would do with them? I don’t know for sure. They have served a prison sentence without charge and subsequently released. Send them back to Afghanistan maybe? Let them make their own way home? I just don’t know yet. Ill have to think on it.
I’m sure you’re well aware of these developments, but I think this is what Parliament has in mind for the 4 recently returned to the UK, as well as for the 12 currently suspected who are within the UK at Belmarsh…..or at least I can’t help but think that they would be prime targets for these new proposals….
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4207295.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4186457.stm
Interesting. I had’nt seen those articles..strangely. Not sure as to what I think yet.
Indeed…..leads to a whole new set of questions…..
I can’t help but sympathize with friends I have in the UK who find it to be a potentially gross violation of their civil rights….they were quite upset regarding the proposals. Do the ends justify the means? The proposals are somewhat similar to the US Patriot Act. Which I have very conflicting opinions about depending on my mood and the time of day and what i ate for breakfast.
My friends found it ironic that the proposals were announced on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I think that’s taking it too far, however I’m not an Islamist who wants to be “western” worrying about making my way through life and potentially facing deportation back to a land where progress seems at best, demoralizing.
In other words, I have no legitimacy in my own mind to draw conclusions about the way things should be handled. I haven’t been affected by the Patriot Act. I have many more issues within the realm of domestic policy that concern my day to day. That’s a cop out in a sense and I realize that. Their means don’t affect my life, so it justifies their ends? Not quite. However, in our McCarthy-like national consciousness as of late, my own and others with a similar opinion who try to make appeals towards empathy are seemingly marginalized. Labeled liberal and “soft on terrorism” despite the contradictions that I think that implies…..I always thought it was the conservatives who wanted less government regulation. Topsy-turvy politics….
Is there anyway to avoid this type of thing in an imperfect world given the current state of international affairs?
People forget that Terrorists existed prior to 9/11. The media has spun so much crap since then that the general masses are quaking in their boots, wondering how to combat the every day threat of an attack. To my mind its nonsense.
9/11 happened simply because the Terrorists recognised the weaknesses in US Civil aviation Security policy and exploited them. The same attack in the UK would have been doubly hard because regulations were already in place to screen passengers on all internal flights, but alas…the stable door was shut after the horse had bolted. But 9/11 began a wave of paranoia which is still in existence.
Prior to 9/11 the fact was that Terrorists organisations were already operating, but it hadn’t struck home because nothing had hit the US mainland since the first WTC bombing in 93 (excluding the Oklahoma bombing 95, but that’s a different kettle of fish). Now it has, suddenly everyone thinks it’s the start of something really, really bad. But…what has actually happened since? More had happened prior to 9/11 than has happened since although the Security forces are definitely doing a better job at preventing such acts, mainly because they are better funded now, and Foreign policy changed to take the forces directly into the heart of governments and countries believed to harbour Terrorists. So, whilst nothing was different on 9/11 than 10 years previous in terms of the existence of organisations such as Al Qaeda, the sheer weight of the atrocity brought home the realisation that the US Government had possibly allowed its people to walk around in a bubble believing that they were untouchable. And now, to hide the fact that they messed up they thrive on your (not you specifically) fear in order to implement policy changes and redirection of funding into massive military and security budgets all in the name of World peace. Like you say, the day to day problems are still there though. Let’s start with the homeless?
Anyway, I’m waffling and I apologise (Sunday morning blur!)
Ill end with a UK quote:
“Can someone please explain to me why these measures are needed now after all the years of IRA terrorism? If there is enough evidence to charge and bring these people to trial then it should be done. If not, then they should walk free. That’s what the presumption of innocence means. Scaremongering on the back of “global terror” is no justification for destroying the basis premise behind the rule of law. Don’t forget that the intelligence service that is pointing the finger is the same one that assured us that Iraq had WMD.â€
Get your facts straight next time.
Don’t you know that my privates are a lot bigger than yours?
Don’t you know that my privates are a lot bigger than yours?
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