Sunday, July 06, 2003

Lawyers Furious as US Builds Death Chambers: "LAWYERS expressed outrage yesterday at plans to put al-Qaeda suspects, including two Britons and an Australian, on military trial in Guantanamo Bay. They would effectively be tried by a “kangaroo court”, stripped of all basic rights of due process that would be afforded in criminal courts in Britain or America, they said... Matthias Kelly, QC, chairman of the Bar of England and Wales, said that the proposed trials were “totally illegitimate and a violation of every rule in international law”. He said: “The construction of execution chambers makes virtually every lawyer in the Western world extremely angry. The idea that there is an artificial creation or enclave which, according to the Americans, is beyond the purview of all recognised systems of law is repugnant.”

The construction of these camps and death chambers and the creation of the military tribunals is a critical indicator of the direction of US policy. The question is whether the population of the camps and the number of 'trials' and executions increases or decreases. The battle is joined between the flag waving 'patriots' and the defenders of civil liberties.

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