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Sharon "Man of Peace | One Sided American Justice | 4th July Independece Day Celebration

Al Habtoor Information and Research Department

Located at the entrance to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is the United States Naval Base "Guantanamo Bay". It is here, that over 300 fighters detained in Afghanistan during the US campaign against Osama bin Ladin and his Al Qaeda organisation in their 'war against terrorism' are being held. These prisoners have no legal rights and are denied the protection of the Geneva Convention and other international human rights legislation. It seems strangely ironic that this base, a remnant of the Cold War and a symbol of early American colonialism, should have been chosen to house these prisoners. It serves to remind us that America, for all its trumpeting and sanctimoniousness about human rights, democracy, justice and the rule of law, has often ignored these principals, its constitution and its own judicial system to conspire with, support, train and provide a safe haven to terrorists and tyrants. And it is not above carrying out odd acts of terrorism itself through its security agencies, the CIA and the FBI. Cuba has been the focus of many of these activities; remember the Bay of Pigs in 1961? When the American CIA financed, trained and armed Cuban exiles in an attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro and his socialist government, that was the precursor to over 40 years of terror attacks, bombings, sanctions, embargoes, isolation and assassination against that country and its leaders. All of which were sponsored by successive American administrations through their security agencies. Today, another American administration believes that it is can violate the human rights of others in Cuba. However, this time, they are not victimising Cubans, but are instead denying human and civil rights to those captured in its 'war against terrorism' in Afghanistan. America is acting with breathtaking arrogance in its treatment of these detainees. Many of the prisoners, captured in Afghanistan and held in Guantanamo Naval Base, are not Afghans, but come from many other countries around the world, including America. All these countries have clearly defined civil and human rights laws and would have treated their citizens as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention. But America, by placing these detainees in a US Naval Base outside the jurisdiction of the courts on the United States mainland, can safely ignore its own justice system and those of the sovereign States that these detainees are citizens of. This allows America to ignore any rights attached to the detainees and to treat them as well or as badly as they like. However, in the case of the two Americans detained in Afghanistan, the American administration has acted differently, shipping both of them to jails in the US. This has been done to avoid any of their relatives or dependants, winning a judgement in a US court for their release, or at least a trial by jury rather than a military tribunal, for it would set a precedent for all those held in detention by the US military. The end result of all this maneuvering is that the prisoners end-up with none of the protections that those who are accused of criminal acts would get under any system of law.

America's moral authority to criticise human rights abuses around the globe, is being devalued by the Bush Administration's failure to guarantee the rights of foreigners detained in its 'war on terrorism.' This has led to a clash with the rest of the world over human rights issues, which has not been aided by America's refusal to sign up for the International Court of Justice, that is in the process of being established to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity.This controversy over the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay is contributing to a redefinition of America's moral identity in the eyes of the world, and for many Americans as well. Gone are the days when all believed that America was indeed the 'home of the free' and 'protector of the weak'. Now, everyone sees America as the bully on the block, willing to hand out punishment to anyone who it does not like. This is the focus of the Bush Administration's belief that the end justifies the means, so anything goes when dealing with terrorists, after all they are animals aren't they?Common sense tells us that if there is indeed a 'war on terrorism', then the prisoners at Guantanamo are prisoners of war, that is, unless the 'war against terrorism' is not a war after all. But rather a good excuse for America to pursue some of its long held policy aims, like overthrowing Saddam Hussein, eliminating the nuclear potential of countries like Iran, in order to support its ally Israel, and exploiting the mineral resources of the Caspian Basin and Kazakhstan. The Bush Administration tells us that combatants of Al Qaeda and the Taliban are outside the law, because they carryout or defend terrorism. However, this entirely ignores the fact that once captured, the combatant falls under the jurisdiction of law when he is captured by a nation that has laws. Law, however, is not the issue here; it is revenge. Vice President Dick Chaney made this absolutely clear when he said, " These prisoners deserve extraordinary treatment because they are the worst of a very bad lot. They are devoted to killing millions of Americans - innocent Americans."Bush's 'war on terrorism,' with its 'if you are not with us, you are against us' mentality, is again setting Americans up to commit grave acts of injustice in the name of 'freedom and democracy'. From the beginning, Bush's rhetoric has identified the enemy in absolute terms, portraying Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters as evil people, who are not to be defeated but rather to be destroyed.The shackled, hooded prisoners at Guantanamo seem to be the fulfillment of a process of demonisation and dehumanisation of others, particularly Muslims. Their plight has shocked international opinion and reinforced the notion that the United States places itself above the law when pursuing its war on terrorism, and arbitrarily decides who is right and who is wrongThis conduct should set alarm bells ringing everywhere, as is was the Nazi's success in portraying Poles, Russians, and Jews as less then human that allowed Hitler to treat them like slaves and murder them. It's this same dehumanisation that allows America's ally Israel to treat the people of Palestine in the same way today. It seems America will dictate definitions of justice, although it is apparent that in pursuing its war on terrorism it has already violated the Geneva Convention's minimum acceptable conduct in warfare. So how far is it prepared to go in violating people's human rights in pursuit of its own interests? The Bush Administration has coined a new legal term, "unlawful combatants," to cover its human rights abuses that will set a precedent for others who may one day fight the United States, and allow them to treat American "unlawful combatants' in the same way as America treats them now. By thumbing its nose at international protocol, with its unilateral declaration of war after September 11, and its purely invented doctrine that any country "guilty" of harbouring a criminal suspect can be invaded by the US, and its government deposed of at will, America has given legitimacy to Israel's use of this same logic, to launch full scale attacks on the legally elected, internationally recognised government of Palestine, in a situation that continues to spiral out of control.This doctrine of "exceptionism" is particularly obnoxious, because it comes rapped up in lofty arrogant rhetoric about freedom, democracy and human rights. To the rest of the world, this arrogance is not new, but for ordinary Americans who are accustomed to thinking of themselves as uniquely virtuous and beloved, this glimpse of America's dark side must be very disconcerting.Americans are beginning to realise that the Bush Administration is taking them on a journey that few want to make; they are slowly realising that some of Bush's new "anti-terrorism" measures can literally be photocopied by any dictator worth his salt, to suppress his people. For decades, democracy and freedom has not been what America has been exporting. Through media coverage of the treatment of the prisoners at Guantanamo and in Afghanistan, Americans can see what the world frequently, and far more clearly sees, that American does not practice what it preaches.