22 - 28 November 2001
Issue No.561
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 22 - 28 November 2001 Issue No.561 |
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A very good likeness
America continues its campaign to improve its image in the Arab and Islamic world -- not very successfully. President Bush, while sending out seasonal greetings for Ramadan, was signing a decision to try all suspects in the Black Tuesday case in a military court. Nearly 5,000 Arabs and Muslims resident in the US are wanted for questioning about what happened that day.
The military court, established by order of the secretary of defence, was devised specifically for non-Americans, and is exceptional in every way. In this court, the accused is allowed neither defence nor witnesses nor evidence to support or refute accusations. Sessions are off limits to the media, on grounds of keeping court personnel safe and protecting national interests. The court's verdicts are final, and are not subject to appeal in or outside America. Such courts, moreover, can be set up anywhere in the world.
What this means is that President Bush or his secretary of defence can sentence any person accused by US intelligence of involvement in the events of 11 September to prison or death, regardless of whether he is American or not. Such trials, in short, will be no different from those held in Stalin's USSR, by the Taliban against enemies like Massoud and Abdul-Haqq, or by Saddam Hussein against those accused of conspiracy against him.
President Bush made this decision in the absence of any legal evidence that could prove Bin Laden or the Taliban guilty, and despite anti-terrorism legislation that has already allowed for the arrest of large numbers of Arab and Muslim residents of the US, without the legal reasons for the arrests being made public. The suspects, dozens of whom are Egyptian, were not allowed to contact their families or lawyers; they do not know the crimes of which they have been accused; and their embassies were not informed of their detention.
In making this decision, which is unconstitutional from the American viewpoint and contradicts many international treaties (making the difference between America and Congo negligible), Bush has relied on the notion that terrorists are war criminals who, unlike American citizens, do not deserve just treatment. But the same time, he has given the US administration the opportunity to conceal any evidence condemning the American authorities or any American citizen connected with 11 September, even despite the suspicion, not yet eliminated, that American organisations carried out these operations, as they did the Oklahoma City bombings.
In Britain, similar developments have occurred, with new anti-terrorism legislation permitting the imprisonment of any suspect without trial and without the benefit of appeal before any agency. American policies, alas, are echoing throughout Europe, and in Russia and Japan.
True, in Egypt, and the Arab world in general, military courts and emergency laws have been in place for a great many years; fighting terrorism, it is claimed, always requires extreme measures. In America's case, however, even if it is willing to forego an existence based on justice, freedom and democracy, Bush's decrees are explicitly racist, discriminating between Americans and non-Americans before the law. Even the worst military courts in Egypt, furthermore, allow suspects the privilege of lawyers to defend them. In this light, American and British assurances that the campaign against terrorism is not against Islam or Muslims lose any remaining credibility. In fact, these developments only confirm Bin Laden's claims. Instituting exceptional procedures and suppressing evidence, anywhere in the world, can only spread terrorism wider.
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