Friday, October 27, 2006
Extraordinary rendition
I saw a small piece about extraordinary rendition on Sky news this morning I didn’t catch all of it but it set me thinking. This is not the first time that this story has surfaced while I can’t prove it there is definitely something up. If the Vice President for Torture is happy to go on the record and proclaim the need for waterboarding then the stuff they get up to but don’t tell us must be pretty horrific. If I were to posit a Rumsfeldian analysis it would be a known unknown.
The whole issue calls into question the special relationship. There can are three possible scenarios. Firstly we knew nothing about American methods. A see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil approach. If the special relationship is as close as we are lead to believe and sometimes we have the Americans sitting in on the Joint Intelligence Committee that to me seems not entirely credible.
The second is that we kind of suspected something was going on. We knew that they were roughing up there sources a bit but then this is war and in war nasty things happen sometimes so we stuck out head in the sand and got on with it. This to me seems the most likely option and a great discredit to the nation it would be to.
The third that we knew all about it and British national were instrumental and approving of this activity. I think that this is a possibility, though I don’t think that this is the most likely option
My view is that there can be no room for compromise, no equivocation, no back tracking from what separates us from our enemy. Extraordinary rendition is a phrase like collateral damage that at meant to nullify the emotional meaning of an act which is actually kidnap, torture and detention without trail.
Looking at this from an international relations perspective, could we be seeing a new norm developing relations between states, namely that it is OK to torture “terrorists” It’s not like the Chinese are going to object to that, Russia is quite happy to flatten Grozny or how about Africa, South America and the Middle East as the upholders of civil liberties I think not.
While the United States may be thinking that it is doing itself a favour in the war on terror I passionately believe that it is a major strategic error. If it is to defeat terrorism then it has to show that it has a better vision for humanity than the terrorists. It won the cold war not by force of arms but by force of ideas. That freedom is an essential human liberty and that America is its home. Other systems may be strong, may be able to repress their populations but America inspires respect rather than fear. It seems something to me that it is not worth giving up for the sake of “intelligence” of disputable value.
To me this strengthens the case that the international system should be run of the basis of law and the responsibility to protect principle rather than on the basis of power relations as this has the be the foundation stone on which we can create an international system that respects human rights, encourages freedom and ultimately brings about a more just and peaceful world.
To all the other bloggers out there you know that this is going on as well please don’t be quiet about it. There is plenty of blogspace to put into the bloggersphere all the mundane stuff that we usually put there but sometimes you just need to do something with a bit more significance. ¶ 4:09 pm
The whole issue calls into question the special relationship. There can are three possible scenarios. Firstly we knew nothing about American methods. A see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil approach. If the special relationship is as close as we are lead to believe and sometimes we have the Americans sitting in on the Joint Intelligence Committee that to me seems not entirely credible.
The second is that we kind of suspected something was going on. We knew that they were roughing up there sources a bit but then this is war and in war nasty things happen sometimes so we stuck out head in the sand and got on with it. This to me seems the most likely option and a great discredit to the nation it would be to.
The third that we knew all about it and British national were instrumental and approving of this activity. I think that this is a possibility, though I don’t think that this is the most likely option
My view is that there can be no room for compromise, no equivocation, no back tracking from what separates us from our enemy. Extraordinary rendition is a phrase like collateral damage that at meant to nullify the emotional meaning of an act which is actually kidnap, torture and detention without trail.
Looking at this from an international relations perspective, could we be seeing a new norm developing relations between states, namely that it is OK to torture “terrorists” It’s not like the Chinese are going to object to that, Russia is quite happy to flatten Grozny or how about Africa, South America and the Middle East as the upholders of civil liberties I think not.
While the United States may be thinking that it is doing itself a favour in the war on terror I passionately believe that it is a major strategic error. If it is to defeat terrorism then it has to show that it has a better vision for humanity than the terrorists. It won the cold war not by force of arms but by force of ideas. That freedom is an essential human liberty and that America is its home. Other systems may be strong, may be able to repress their populations but America inspires respect rather than fear. It seems something to me that it is not worth giving up for the sake of “intelligence” of disputable value.
To me this strengthens the case that the international system should be run of the basis of law and the responsibility to protect principle rather than on the basis of power relations as this has the be the foundation stone on which we can create an international system that respects human rights, encourages freedom and ultimately brings about a more just and peaceful world.
To all the other bloggers out there you know that this is going on as well please don’t be quiet about it. There is plenty of blogspace to put into the bloggersphere all the mundane stuff that we usually put there but sometimes you just need to do something with a bit more significance. ¶ 4:09 pm
