Liberal Road Blog Individual Freedom and Equality

More or less official curfews seem to become more common in some countries. Even shopping malls in the United States are forbidding young people to come shopping without their parents (See article of The Times).

In the shopping mall mentioned in the article people under 16 are not allowed to come in the shopping mall after 3 pm on Saturdays and Sundays if not accompanied by parents.

To me it sounds like discrimination and a limitation of the freedom of movement. In the society nowadays shopping malls are such an important place to spend time that it is hard to accept such curfews especially with the starting time as early as 3pm. That’s in the middle of the afternoon(!)

By denying some people the right to come to normal stores based solely on their age is just plain discrimination.

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With the first prisonier of Guantanamo being trialed concerns can be raised about the fairness of the trial. This first prisonier has pleeded quilty apparently in order to get a shorter sentence. The fairness of Guantanamo Bay trials is a joke.

After several years in the harsh conditions (involving torture) in Guatanamo Bay quite a lot of people would be ready to pleed guilty just to get out of there. Whatever the outcome of the trial is it’s hard to give any credibility to its results.

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The problem with giving more powers to law enforcement to monitor people is that these powers are often abused. That’s why I’m not surprised that the FBI has been repeatedly abusing the law to get phone records and customer records (sources: Los Angeles Times, ACLU).

According to a published report, the FBI has sent letters requesting companies to give it personal information such as phone and email records and education information in cases it is not allowed to do so. The Patriotic Act passed after 9/11 gave the FBI more powers, powers that the FBI has been abusing.

Spying and illegally obtaining phone and other records is nothing new for law-enforcement authorities in different countries. Unfortunately often when they are given wider rights to monitor people, they abuse these rights. We should be very careful about what rights are given to the police and the intelligence agencies and there should be a much stronger control of these agencies.

Many countries have some kind of spying programs (on domestic or foreign citizens). The United States is also participating with some other English-speaking countries in the Echelon program which is listening to phone calls worldwide (probably by picking automatically the phone calls to be listened to based on keyword of the conversation). We may well wonder: are you too being spied upon?

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The United States. Lawsuit, courts, a justice system. Well, the United States has been considered long as a country with a justice system. The reality is different.

The pentagon has announced it will start the hearings of some detainees in Guantanamo to determine if they can be trailed as enemy combatants, thus depriving them of their rights (source: New York Times). No lawyers will be allowed in the procedure.

Enemy combatants are trailed in special courts and they don’t have the right to lawyers. The right to a lawyer is a basic necessity to a trial being fair and here the United States is violating human rights. Trials such are planned for those in Guantanamo Bay are more typical for countries like China or Russia than for the country pretending to stand for freedom (ie. the United States)

It is a pity that the Bush administration doesn’t seem to care about human rights and freedom. The worst thing is that Bush is limiting freedom in the name of freedom!

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A court of appeal has ruled that foreign terrorist suspects (foreign enemy combatants) don’t have the right to challenge their detention in civil courts (source: Times). This is a serious violation of human rights.

The court decision means that detainees in Guantanamo won’t be able to challenge their detention in US courts. The rule in question is a part of the Military Commission Act passed after the US Supreme court declared unconstitutional that detainees in Guantanamo didn’t have the right to challenge their detention. Now the court’s decision keeps in force this part of the Military Commission Act.

One question the media and public opinion hasn’t been discussing that much is the extent to which non-citizens have different rights than citizens. Some countries make little distinction between citizens’ and non-citizens’ rights, while others have bigger differences. The rights of non-citizens’ in the United states have been continuously weakened (Patriotic Act, Military Commission Act, indefinite arrest without trial of foreign terrorist suspects and so on) in the war on terrorism.

But why non-citizens’ shouldn’t have the same rights? After all we are all individuals and it is therefore unfair that your origin determines what rights you have.

In the middle age it was current in many countries that laws had smaller punishments for people from the rich classes than from the poor classes for exactly the same crime. Nowadays this is seen as unacceptable. So why are we still making a similar distinction in practice? Now the distinction is between citizens and non-citizens instead of rich and poor classes.

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Finally a court has ordered a trial of CIA agents for kidnapping terrorist suspects (source:BBC). The case in question is about the kidnapping of a terrorist suspect in Italy to send him to Egypt. He was allegedly tortured in Egypt.

However it is quite likely that the CIA agents won’t attend the court and as they are most likely in the United States. The Italian police won’t be able to arrest them. Unless, of course, if Italy uses the same methods as the United States and kidnaps the suspected CIA agents on US ground:-) My guess is that the United States wouldn’t tolerate that at all.

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Weapons of mass destruction. Freedom. Two arguments George Bush has been using to back the necessity of the Iraq war.

Well, no weapons of mass destruction have been found. With daily bomb attacks, kidnappings and political murders are Iraqis really freer than under Saddam?

In on sentence: the Iraq war has been a miserable failure.

Freedom remains the main argument for the war. However we can wonder how free Iraqis actually are with the increasing violence (bomb attacks, killings, kidnappings and so on) and frequent curfews.

Moreover the Abu Ghraib scandal (torture of prisoners) and other human rights abuses by the US army makes me ask one question: how does it make Iraqis freer? Sure, there were serious human right abuses under Saddam Hussein. Now the difference is that it’s not Saddam Hussein’s army or police committing them, it’s the US army as well as criminals.

The public opinion has finally shifted also in the United States: 68% of Americans disapprove of the way Bush is handling the Iraq war (source: CBS News). The public opinion begins to be reflected also in the political debate as a result of the US mid-term elections.

Bush has only bad options I have to say. Withdrawing from Iraq would leave the country insecure and would leave it in a civil war. The current situation isn’t good either as the army isn’t succeeding in stopping the violence.

The war shouldn’t have been started in the first place.

——
Picture taken by dragon_mg (www.sxc.hu)

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I wrote in an earlier post that a US officer (Watada) is risking jail for refusing to go to Iraq and for criticizing publicly the war. The court martial has ended for now in a mistrial as Watada hadn’t understood a document he had signed that was used against him in court (source: ABC News).

Will be interesting to follow the new trial that should take place in March. I’ll write about it on this blog:-)

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A US army officer who refused to go to Iraq is facing court-martial (source: CBS News). Ehren Watada risks up to four years in prison for refusing to fight in Iraq and criticizing the war publicly.

Watada claims that the war on Iraq is illegal according to US laws. He claims also that he has a legal right and obligation to refuse to follow unlawful orders (ie the order to fight in Iraq).

This is once again an example of a totally unacceptable violation of the individual freedom. Refusing to serve and saying what you want to are basical rights that everyone should always have.

The state doesn’t have the right to limit the individual freedom unless it is necessary for the freedom of others. And it’s not the case here.

The court case already seems to have started in an unfair way as the court refused to analyze the legality of the war. The trial is unfair, because if the war is illegal Watada hasn’t actually committed a crime. Now he doesn’t have the chance to prove his innocence.

I see this court case also as an attack on the freedom on speech: Watada can face a jail term for publicly questioning the legality of the war in Iraq.

It’s very unfair that an army officer wouldn’t have the right to the freedom of speech (which is guaranteed in the first amendment of the American constitution). I’m not a law specialist so anyone who has more information about the first amendment in this case is welcome to comment.

Watada’s courage to stand behind his convictions can only be admired.

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As I wrote in an earlier post the cost of doctor visits makes people avoid going to a doctor even when they would need it. More than 25% of Americans have skipped or postponed an important medical visit due to the costs According to a poll by MSN-Zogby.

The problem is that the poor are much more likely to skip health care due to the costs than the wealthier. The poor that have difficulties in financing a doctor visit are in a very unequal situation compared to wealthier persons.

Health care is a basic necessity and therefore it should be free and financed by the state. A bad health situation limits the choises you can do in life and in that way not being able to afford health care is actually an indirect limitation of your freedom.

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