America should be fighting for justice and liberty
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Your support makes all the difference.The indications are that , as often in the past, the Bush Administration is overselling its latest intelligence coup in the war against terror. There still seems only the sketchiest of circumstantial evidence to link Abdullah al-Muhajir, the alleged "dirty bomber", with a terrorist atrocity in the United States. After he had spent almost a month in custody, the US authorities, it would seem, found themselves unable to charge him with any offence, and so have simply decided to detain him indefinitely under the catch-all category of being an "enemy combatant", effectively a prisoner of war.
But even if Mr al-Muhajir had been caught red-handed leaving a suitcase containing Semtex and rods of cobalt 50 outside the White House, even that would not justify the denial of basic human liberties that we have witnessed in this case. Even war criminals deserve a trial. It is yet another example of the inconsistent, illogical and capricious application of "justice" to those who have found themselves hoovered up by the United States' war on terror.
Contrast the treatment given to Mr al-Muhajir and that of his fellow US citizen John Lind, the so-called American Talib, who has at least been charged and awaits trial for treason. Then contrast Mr Lind's treatment and that of his fellow Taliban fighters who happened to be Arabs who have found themselves in more or less indefinite custody without charge in the notorious Camp X-Ray in Cuba.
Some 1,200 people, mainly non-US nationals, were taken into custody after the 11 September attacks. Many were abused, denied access to legal representation, shackled and kept in indefinite custody on relatively minor charges relating to immigration rather than treason or terrorist offences. The authorities have also failed to give information on the identities of those being held indefinitely. Guilty or innocent, many remain in custody with no prospect of a trial or, in the case of those held in Camp X-Ray, of even being charged.
It bears repeating: the war on terror, is supposed to be a war for justice; in denying justice to so many, America only damages her cause and aids her enemies.
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