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Using "war on terror" to flout own laws The US president and the British prime minister were recently embarrassed by decisions reached by their respective judiciaries concerning the treatment of terror suspects. But far from displaying remorse, both George W. Bush and Tony Blair sought to over-turn such rulings, saying the safety of the nation comes first. When Bush was confronted by the press over military tribunals held at Guantanamo, deemed illegal by the Supreme Court, he initially appeared tongue-tied but later committed himself to seeking a congressional rubber stamp on his controversial policy. Given that the Supreme Court's decision came hard on the heels of an official EU condemnation of the facility, it's surely surprising that Bush didn't seize on this opportunity to close Guantanamo down. Some legal experts are suggesting that without a change in the law, top Bush administration figures could be open to prosecution. On Wednesday, Justice Jeremy Sullivan, a British High Court judge, ruled the government's control-orders, whereby electronically-tagged terror suspects are put under house arrest without charge or trial, contravened the European Convention on Human Rights. Like his US counterpart, Blair came out swinging, threatening judges with new legislation enabling the government to overturn their rulings. Put simply, rather than adhere to established laws and treaties, US and UK leaders are opting to replace them with new laws drafted to favour the furtherance of their joint agenda. At the same time EU countries have been blasted for illegally assisting the CIA in its transport of "ghost prisoners" to secret detention centres within the Union. A recent Council of Europe report points the finger at 14 European nations, including Britain, Germany, Italy, Romania and Poland, of complicity with the CIA in a "spider's web" of human rights violations. If the report is backed up with hard evidence, EU member countries found guilty could lose their voting rights, while Romania's accession to the Union could come under threat. European airlines have also come under attack by the European Court of Justice for agreeing to transfer 34 items of passenger data including credit card information, telephones and addresses to US authorities. The Bush administration insists that wealth of information is an essential part of its war on terror and says it will deny landing rights or fine airlines that refuse to comply. The judgment prohibiting transfer of data, which the court says infringes privacy rights and "lacks legal basis," will not come into effect until September 30, hopefully allowing airlines time to resolve the issue with the US. Last month, thanks to an exposé in the New York Times, it emerged that even bank transfers are far from being sacrosanct. If you thought that details of your account remained between you and your bank manager, think again! In fact, the US Treasury Department, with the assistance of a Belgian-based consortium of 8,000 international banks, known as the Society for Worldwide Inter-Bank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, has been covertly monitoring wire transfers for years. The news has outraged those European banks, especially Swiss banks, which promise their customers privacy. SWIFT is regulated by the National Bank of Belgium, which is professing ignorance as to the consortium's cooperation with the US Treasury. The Belgian government is currently launching an investigation into the legality of the practice. Vital tool Caught with his hand in the cookie jar, Bush's reaction was to blame the messenger. He called the New York Times' conduct "disgraceful," adding, "this programme has been a vital tool in the war on terror. There can be no excuse for anyone entrusted with vital intelligence to leak it and no excuse for any newspaper to print it." Congress was then co-opted to approve the spying programme after the fact and condemn newspapers that hamper the protection of American lives. You may recall that it was the New York Times that exposed Bush's domestic eavesdropping programme, initiated by a secret presidential decree. Once again, the White House was dismissive of criticism that the National Security Agency's (NSA) monitoring of telephone calls flouted the Fourth Amendment, saying the president has the right during wartime to do everything in his power to protect the nation. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) disagrees and has brought a case against the government with a second hearing set for July 12. In reality, though, it has little chance of success as government lawyers seek cover under "state secrets privilege." It is generally believed that the NSA also tracks faxes, as well as wireless and Internet communications using the largest covert intelligence gathering organisation in the world, known as ECHELON, funded by the CIA and the Pentagon. ECHELON is said to have "listening posts" in Britain, Canada and New Zealand that sift through communications for words that raise red flags. The governments involved regularly deny the existence of ECHELON, which is hardly surprising since spying on citizens, without court orders, is illegal. As western governments become more authoritarian and leaders use the war on terror as a pretext for a power grab, the judiciary represents the last bulwark for those concerned about waning civil liberties, loss of individual privacy and human rights. If the concept of freedom is to mean anything at all, then more power to those wise men on the bench. Governments surely need reminding that they are servants of the people, not their keepers, and should quit treating their own nationals as the enemy within. It also behoves we, the people, to join the dots and remain alert before the war on terror signals democracy's demise. ---------------------------------------------------
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