« Apologies | Main | Fun »
January 27, 2005
Terror, Crime and Punishment
After three years in Guantanamo, and a day in British Police custody for questioning, the four British men are now free.But not really free.
According to US defence officials, the four still pose a risk. And in response to this, the UK has negotiated a security package with the US and every practical step was being taken by the relevant authorities to maintain national security within the law.
So after three years of detention and questioning by the US, and a further questioning by UK Police, and no charges being brought, in spite of all this they are effectively sentence to live in an open prison, with their civil liberties still restricted.
Still you're probably thinking that it's no big deal. After all, the most draconian excesses of the Anti Terror Legislation doesn't apply to UK citizens.
Well, you're wrong. Or you will be if the latest security measures are made law.
With the law lords ruling that detention of terror suspect without trial was a breach of human rights, the Government has come up with a new approach. If these measures are enacted, then anyone suspected of being involved in terrorism could be subject to house arrest, curfew or electronic tagging. Victims (for indeed most could very well be innocent victims) will also have their use of telephones and the internet limited, in addition to restrictions on their movements.
Now, a prison is still a prison regardless. It doesn't really matter fundamentally whether you're being held in Guantanamo or No. 2 Acacia Avenue. Detention without trial is still an anathema to our concepts of civil liberties.
I've heard plenty of bleating from people who claim that I am exaggerating the risk. These same people belittled my fears when the Act was originally implemented. And the same people scorned the outrage at the detention without trial of those currently held in Belmarsh prison. They'll probably mock me for my concerns now.
But, little by little our civil liberties are being eroded. And those who belittle the concerns of others would do well to heed the words of Martin Niemoller:
They came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me.
Martin Niemoller was a Protestant pastor in the Berlin suburb of Dahlem. In 1933 he formed the Pastor's Emergency League which, amongst other activities fought against discrimination against Christian's who had a Jewish background. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1937, and between then and his freeing by the Allies in 1945 he spent time imprisoned in Sachsenhausen and Dachau.
If we don't speak out now, if we don't try to stop the erosion of our freedoms, then who will stand by us when our turn comes. Because believe me, it will come. If not under this Government then under some future administration.
History has shown that regardless of the original intentions, subsequent governments will use existing legislation to achieve their ends. Could any of those who voted in support of the 1911 Parliament Act, introduced with the noblest of intentions to ensure that state pensions were adequately funded, have believed that the Act would subsequently be used as profligately and, in some cases for such trivial matters, as this New Labour Government has?
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. - Santayana
History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives. - Abba Eban
We have an opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the past here. And maybe that's why the teaching of history has been devalued so much over recent years. After all, without visibility of the causes of some of the worst excesses of recent history how could we recognise their parallels today?
All of which makes the Conservatives desires to make compulsory the teaching history a little odd. After all, knowledge of the behaviour of past Tories going back to the Glorious Revolution would hardly make them any more endearing.
Now we've an election coming, so get shouty. Hold these people to account; they are after all your elected representatives. Make them represent you. Especially the constituents of Sedgefield.
--------
Posted by Clive on January 27, 2005 3:34 PM in the category Old Stuff