At 08:23 PM 1/12/02 +0100 J. van Baardwijk wrote:
>>JDG - Who thinks that if the US treatment of these prisoners is violating
>>human rights, then we should hold a party - because clearly all the serious
>>human rights abuses in the world have been solved.
>
>Very bad taste, John. Your statement suggests you believe human rights
>abuses come in two categories: serious ones, and ones that are not
>serious. :-(
Yes, Jeroen I absolutely believe that.
Let us consider the following human rights that are possibly at issue here:
1) The right of a prisoner, who was trained to crash airplanes into
buildings, to not be shackled, restrained, and/or hooded during a 20 hour
flight on an airplane.
2) The right of a prisoner, who was trained to crash airplanes into
buildings, and who also attempts to resist peaceable transport to trial on
a 20-hour airplane flight, to not be sedated.
*If* these are violations of human rights, Jeroen, these are violations of
human rights of the most minor and insignificant sort. Whatever resources
Amnesty International devoted to these violations would almost surely have
had a greater net effect on the well-being of humanity had those resources
been directed towards the human rights abuses of at least a dozen other
countries.
Indeed, even if the above *is* violation of human rights, then these
prisoners are probably some of the best treated prisoners in the long
history of humanity, if for no other fact than that the government holding
these prisoners openly lets people declare the above treatment to not just
be "not nice" but unjust and immoral as well.
JDG
__________________________________________________________
John D. Giorgis - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - ICQ #3527685
"Our campaign against international terrorism does not represent some
sort of 'clash of civilizations.' Instead, it is a clash between
civilization and those who would destroy it." -Amb. Richard N. Haass
