Comments on: It’s called the rule of law

By: Meaders

Meaders — Sat, 12 Feb 2005 13:54:00 +0000

Timbeaux - sorry, you are being both ignorant and offensive. I do not know Babar Ahmad's family well, but I know them well enough to see - as does everyone who knows him - just how gross and stupid the charges he faces really are. They are an ordinary family from south London; that Babar should be accused of being some sort of "terror-master" would be comic, if it were not so serious.

Babar Ahmad is innocent of the charges he faces - I am quite certain of this - and Stop Political Terror are absolutely correct to campaign for his release. Their website is worth a look for the utter paucity of evidence assembled against the man: his father's thirty-year old holiday brochures from New York produced as "proof" of a plot to destroy the Empire State Building is perhaps the most memorably ludicrous.

Babar is being extradited because the standard of proof required to extradite someone from the UK is not as great as that needed to try and convict someone. Once in the US, his defence team have plausibly argued that he will not face a fair trial and given the evidence from the former Guantanamo detainees, there is every reason to believe they are correct in this.

More speculatively, the motivation for the extradition proceedings appear to be political: having beaten and tortured Babar Ahmad in December 2003 before releasing him without charge, the police wish to make it clear that complaints from uppity Muslims will not be tolerated.

Anyone with any concern for basic standards of civil liberties and the rule of law in Britain should be supporting Babar's release.

By: Timbeaux

Timbeaux — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 09:57:00 +0000

Who said he won’t get a trial? I think the whole reason he’s being extradited is that the prosecutors couldn’t expect to get a fair trial in Britain, which is rather sorry comnment IMO.

By: yay

yay — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 17:07:00 +0000

Personally, I can't wait to know that he's taking an extended tour of his own 10' x 10' plot of gorgeous southeastern Cuba.

Thank God someone is talking sense. He's so obviously guilty, why the hell waste time poncing about with a trial?

They should cut his hands off while he's there - like they do in sensible parts of the world.

By: john b

john b — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 12:49:00 +0000

Well caught. I should have used this impartial link in the original post – replaced now.

By: Timbeaux

Timbeaux — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 12:34:00 +0000

Yes, I see you trust little-known left-wing propaganda sites quite a bit more. Weren’t you the one who said blogs were of little consequence? What makes stoppoliticalterror.com an authority? They comport with the reality you wish to see?

By: john b

john b — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 04:26:00 +0000

Yes, I absolutely 100% trust the Moonie Times not to dispense made-up right-wing propaganda too.

By: Timbeaux

Timbeaux — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 21:20:00 +0000

Oh give me a break.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20041111-111158-2333r.htm

The man was caught red-handed with classified naval documents, and a plan to attack ships in the Straight of Hormuz a la the Cole and the Linbourg. You demean yourself even bringing this jihadi up, much less defending him. Of course, he’s just a poor innocent victim of the AmericanNaziNeoconMilitaryIndustrialComplexFascists, discriminating against a pilgrim of the Religion of Peace, who feeds starving children and, in his own words: "propagate[s] the call for jihad, among the Muslims who are sitting down, ignorant of this vital duty."

Personally, I can’t wait to know that he’s taking an extended tour of his own 10′ x 10′ plot of gorgeous southeastern Cuba. Of course he’ll need some panties to wear on his head, maybe you can led him some of yours?

By: Mat

Mat — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 16:55:00 +0000

I bet they’re laughing all right. But not for the reasons Mr FBI imagines.

By: dsquared

dsquared — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 15:08:00 +0000

If these people are so f’ing dangerous, then presumably MI6 are keeping an eye on them anyway? In which case, either they will lead us straight to Mr Big, or they will sit at home trying to make ricin out of kidney beans, in which case we can say something like "you’re nicked sunshine" and bang them up on a proper charge.

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 14:18:00 +0000

What we should do in response to this is sit on the steps of Westminster tube station, with bottles of beer in our hand. One of us should then say, "isn’t it amazing we live in a country which goes out of its way to protect the rights of people who want to kill us?". Then, one by one, we should say "God bless the United Kingdom". That’s how they’d do it on the West Wing.