Jeroen wrote: > >> Which principles of democracy would be violated in hunting >> and killing terrorists? AFAIK, this is something that >> almost everybody wants! > > Those about fair trials, being innocent until proven > guilty in a court of law, and such. > I imagine that there was no *reasonable* doubt that those guys that Mossad hunted and killed were terrorists. Or do you require a formal judgement before they can be declared terrorists by the Law?
> > Two different situations, Alberto. Taking out a criminal > while he is committing a crime is different from hunting > down someone who you believe to be a criminal. > But how much sure you must be before you can classify someone as a criminal? In the hypothetical example I made, of the guy shooting other people, well, you might say he was temporarily insane, or he might be *himself* under a gun, or... there can always be room for any doubt. > > Nope. You may be convinced that he is guilty, but in a > democratic country it is up to a court of law (and > *only* a court of law) to determine that a > person is guilty. > But *before* a court of law declares him guilty, you can�t even call him a terrorist; he was, at most, a suspect of terrorism. So, when you say that a terrorist is innocent until proven guilty, you are 100% wrong. And we don�t have to be too rigorous about this "Court of Law" stuff; you agreed that in the example of a man shooting other people from a building it was reasonable to kill him - without a "Court of Law". So, you have declared that there are two non-empty sets of people, one of those that can be killed without a court of law declaring that they are guilty, and another that can only be killed after a court of law declares that they are guilty. *I* claim that an identified terrorist, who was undoubtly identified as terrorist, belongs to the first set. Oh, I wouldn�t object that some sort of trial was done; this might reinforce his terrorist status for extremely skeptic people. But if before the trial there is an opportunity to kill him, then let�s kill him! Alberto Monteiro - yes, it�s Monday, and I�m bloodthirsty!!!
