---------------------------------------------------------- ***** CHRISTMAS PARTIES 2002 *****
Dec 21 - GOA-LA, Los Angeles, +1 (714) 821-6168 Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] for a free party announcement Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/goa-net/ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Goanet2003/ ---------------------------------------------------------- An American Fatwa William O. Beeman President George W. Bush's has issued orders to the CIA authorizing the assassination of a group of individuals designated as terrorist leaders without further permission from the White House. This amounts to an American fatwa. It should be cause for alarm for the American public. In the Islamic world A fatwa is essentially a decree from a religious authority prescribing or proscribing actions for the faithful. Because it is an individual pronouncement, it cannot be countermanded or appealed. The most famous fatwas in recent times were the order issuedby Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini for the death of author Salman Rushdie, and the order by Osama bin Laden to "kill the Americans and their allies-civilians and military . . . in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam" issued in 1998. President Bush's orders to the CIA appear to have an eerie similarity to Khomeini and bin Laden's decrees. Bush's orders, like those other fatwas, call for the murder of persons who have not been subject to any trial or review of their crimes. It may perhaps be assumed that the top names on Bush's list: Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri, along with other senior al-Qa'ida leaders and operatives belonging to groups linked to the network, are guilty on a prima facie basis. However, many of the other names on the list are relatively unknown figures, whose guilt may be based on innuendo, rumor, or mistaken identity. After they are dead, no one will know if they were mistakenly targeted or not. The Bush administration claims that this list is not a violation of a longstanding American prohibition against assassination, since these individuals have been declared "enemy combatants." This is a sophistry. President Bush, who wants to kill these individuals, justifies his assassination orders through the mere application of a label. The reasoning is circular. The American administration wants these people dead, so it summarily declares them to be members of a class that can be killed. The central problem with the current posture of the administration is that they want to have their cake and eat it too. They want the powers of a nation at war, but they want none of the responsibility that accrues from a formal war declaration, including adhering to the Geneva conventions and other bothersome international agreements. Thus the totally fabricated "enemy combatant" designation has been invented as a measure to provide the carte blanche mandate for violence that the Bush administration lusts after. All of this chicanery sullies American morality in a particularly ugly way. It also confirms to the rest of the world what they already suspect-that the United States government will not bow to any authority, moral or legal, other than itself. For the Islamic world-already registering public disapproval of American actions in the 60-70% range according to recent polls-President Bush's action is further proof that the United States is engaging in "cowboy justice" complete with kangaroo courts and lynch mobs directed at the Islamic world. One wonders if it was precisely this kind of action that prompted the Bush administration to oppose American participation in the International Court of Criminal Justice. Certainly if CIA operatives summarily execute a person later shown to be innocent of any wrongdoing, they should have to answer to some authority. The United States seems to be telling the world that it wants to be insulated from all responsibility for any mistakes in advance of their execution. Americans should not let their horror over the tragedy of September 11 blind them to the terrible abuse the administration is delivering to the American system of justice. With total surveillance of all economic activity, personal movement and expression of opinion right around the corner, it is important to wonder whether the "enemy combatant" label might someday soon be used to target dissenters among the United States citizenry for immediate summary execution by our own version of the fatwa. ............................................. William O. Beeman is Director of Middle East Studies at Brown University. He has conducted research in the Middle East for over 30 years. ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca ======================================================================== Ongoing: Exhibition of paintings, Art Chamber, Calangute www.goa-art.com Dec 19-22: Gauri Divan's studio pottery, Rust, Aguada Rd Ph 2479340 Dec 23-Jan 7: Dayanita Singh's photo exhibition, Art House Tel 2276123 Jan 18-19: International kite carnival at Morgim beach, Pernem ========================================================================
