Binyam Mohamed is a UK resident currently detained in the US gulag in Guantanamo Bay.  In 2002 he was arrested in Pakistan, beaten, threatened with execution, then disappeared and rendered to Morocco by the CIA, where he was systematically tortured by having his chest and genitals sliced with a scalpel.  In August, a UK court found that MI5 had colluded in and facilitated that torture. And now, they may be facing prosecution for it:

Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, has asked the attorney general to investigate possible "criminal wrongdoing" by the MI5 and the CIA over its treatment of a British resident held in Guantanamo Bay, it was revealed tonight.

The dramatic development over allegations of collusion in torture and inhuman treatment follows a high court judgment which found that an MI5 officer participated in the unlawful interrogation of Binyam Mohamed. The MI5 officer interrogated Mohamed while he was being held in Pakistan in 2002.

This is good news - torturers must be brought to justice, no matter which government they work for.  And it may have a deterrent effect on other MI5 agents cooperating with the US in illegal interrogations.  But while I'm glad to see justice done, at the end of the day Mohamed is still in Guantanamo.  And there will be no real justice in his case until he is released.

The British government has abandoned its plans to detain suspected terrorists without trial for 42 days, after a masssive defeat in the House of Lords.  The bill had barely scraped through the Commons after Gordon Brown had bought the votes of the Democratic Unionist Party; today the Lords finally killed it, voting 309 to 118 to keep the existing 28 day limit.  While the government could theoretically use the Parliament Act to eventually force the bill through, that would require a prolonged period of "ping-pong" with the Lords.  It would also require them to win multiple votes on the issue in the Commons - and they can't keep bribing Northern Irish MPs forever.

But while this is a victory for justice and human rights (not to mention sanity), its only a small one.  The UK still has the longest period of detention without trial of any democracy, allowing random Muslims suspected terrorists to be detained for 42 28 days before being charged.  And the government is keeping a version of the bill on the table so they can ram it through in the event of another bombing.  Which speaks for itself about the cynical authoritarianism of the UK's leaders in the "war on terror".

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The Guardian reports on a study by the European Council on Foreign Relations on the EU's declining influence at the UN on human rights issues, and bemoans the loss of European leadership:

The west's efforts to use the United Nations to promote its values and shape the global agenda are failing, according to a detailed study published yesterday.

A sea change in the balance of power in favour of China, India, Russia and other emerging states is wrecking European and US efforts to entrench human rights, liberties and multilateralism. Western policies in crisis regions as diverse as Georgia, Zimbabwe, Burma or the Balkans are suffering serial defeats in what the study identifies as a protracted trend.

[...]

"The EU is suffering a slow-motion crisis at the UN," says the report, noting that the west is now being regularly outwitted in global diplomatic poker by the Chinese and Russians. "The problem is fading power to set the rules. The UN is increasingly being shaped by China, Russia and their allies ... The west is in disarray. The EU's rifts with the US on many human rights issues at the UN in the Bush era have weakened both."

In addition to inventing the ethical system of utilitarianism, English philosopher Jeremy Bentham designed a prison, the Panopticon, which allowed every prisoner to be watched at all times by a guard they could not see (and did not even know was there), creating a "sentiment of an invisible omniscience".  Now the UK seems to be trying to turn its society into a panopticon.  They already have more surveillance cameras per head than anywhere else on the planet.  Now they're planning to use them to track everyone's travel:

Sabina Guzzanti is an Italian comedian and political activist.  She is currently facing up to five years in jail.  Her crime?  Suggesting that when the Pope died, he would go to hell where he would be sodomised by demons.

This is simply medieval.  But its what happens when you have an archaic lese majeste law on the books, an international treaty which demands it be used against people who insult the Pope, and a government which wants to snuggle up to the Vatican.  What next? Berlusconi will reinstate the Inquisition?

This is a perfect example of both the danger and the absurdity of lese majeste laws.  It's also a perfect example of how those who think they have some sort of "sacred and inviolable" honour which demands that their critics be thrown in jail in fact have none.

Diego Garcia is a small atoll in the Indian Ocean.  Nominally part of the UK (who forcibly deported its native inhabitants), it is major US military base, and a major staging post in the war on terror.  It is also a prime suspect for one of the CIA's black sites, torture centres where disappeared terrorist suspects are tortured.  For the past two years, American officials (and their British glove-puppets) have been denying that the US has detained or interrogated prisoners on Diego Garcia.  As usual, it turns out they were lying:

For the past year, Turkey has been in the midst of a slow-burning political crisis, as the democratically elected Justice and Development Party (a moderate Islamic party) struggles for power with the authoritarian secular elite used to running the show.  Things came to a head last week, when the secularists attempted to ban the governing party for supposedly plotting an Islamic state.  If they had been successful, it would have forced early elections and banned the sitting Prime Minister and President from politics, effectively overturning the will of the Turkish people.

Fortunately, that's not going to happen - the Turkish constitutional court has voted for a fine, rather than a ban.  So, democracy prevails - but only just.  The ruling is seen as putting the government "on notice" that it may be shut down in the future, so its a suspension of the crisis rather than a resolution.  But it does at least allow more time for Turkey's democratic culture to strengthen and grow deeper roots. Unless, of course, the army (Turkey's primary anti-democratic force) decides to intervene...

Update [2008-7-31 7:34:33 by Colman]: Bernhard on Moon Of Alabama comtemplates what's been averted:

The consequences of an AKP ban would have been disastrous for Turkey and the Middle East:

• The society in Turkey would have split further and the followers of the soft Islamic AKP would have radicalized.
• The legal situation of the government under such a ban was totally unclear and could have led to a military coup.
• Further steps on to EU affiliation would have been blocked.
• Negotiations between Syria and Israel and between Iran and the U.S., facilitated by Turkey, would have stopped.

All these dangers have now been averted. The financial penalty is unlikely to be a problem.

Updated and promoted by Colman

"There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes"

That's the conclusion of Major General (Ret) Antonio Taguba on the Bush Adminstration's policy of torture.  In 2004, while still serving in the US Army, Taguba had investigated allegations of abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib prison.  His report [long] concluded that what had occurred was both illegal and immoral, and called for most of those involved to be relieved of duty and prosecuted for war crimes.  For conducting a thorough investigation and standing up for American values, Taguba was sidelined by the Army, then forced into early retirement.  Now, in the preface to a report by Physicians for Human Rights on the medical evidence for torture by the US government, he accuses his former superiors of war crimes:

Earlier in the year, representatives from more than a hundred nations met in Wellington to hammer out a draft agreement to ban cluster bombs.  On Thursday, in Dublin, they formally approved the resulting treaty.  It will formally open for signature in December, and once ratified, will commit its members to "never under any circumstances" use, develop, produce, or sell cluster bombs, and to destroy their stockpiles within eight years.  And once they have, the world will be a safer place.

The treaty will also commit its members to refusing to assist other countries to use or develop cluster weapons - a commitment which will have some interesting side effects.  In an extraordinary act of statesmanship quite unlike the craven toady role played by his predecessor, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has decided to back the treaty, and has ordered the UK military to destroy its cluster bomb stockpiles. He has also told the US to remove all cluster bombs from its bases in the UK.  The Americans are unlikely to be happy at this blatant act of independence by a colony client dependency "ally", but there's not much they can do about it.  The UK is a lot bigger than New Zealand, and a lot harder to bully into line.  And on this issue, it has a lot of friends.  Pretty much every state in NATO has signed up, and if they all ratify, the only place the US will be able to store its indiscriminate civilian-killing weapons is (typically backwards) Poland.

Last year, the Scottish National Party won a narrow plurality in the Scottish Parliament and were able to form a minority government.  Their key policy is a referendum on Scottish independence in 2010, but with all other parties opposed, it looked unlikely.  However, in a major reversal, the Scottish Labour leader, Wendy Alexander, has called for the SNP to bring it on, saying that she wants a referendum within 12 months.

This is really an effort to game the timing.  Currently there's not an obvious majority for independence, but with the SNP flexing their muscles and showing what a more independent Scottish government can do (free tertiary education, cheaper prescriptions, rebuilding council houses) and picking fights with Westminster over wanting to do more, there might be.  So by going early, Labour hopes the referendum will fail.  They also want to avoid the SNP being able to use their planned 2010 referendum as a platform in the 2010 UK and 2011 Scottish elections.

However, there's a serious danger of the tactic backfiring.  By putting up a specific proposal and making the debate concrete, they may find support solidifies.  Especially if the choice is between an independent Scotland under Alex Salmond, or being part of the UK under Blair IIBrown.

Meanwhile, Gordon Brown is flailing trying to pretend that the entire thing isn't happening. It's going to be a very amusing debate...

Over the past few years, Turkey has seen a number of prosecutions of publishers, novelists, and even a MEP for "crimes" such as publishing a map showing "the traditional Kurdish region", mentioning the Armenian genocide, and pointing out the dirty history of the Turkish military of provoking clashes with Kurdish seperatists in order to justify its own existence.  All of these charges have been brought under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which bans "insulting Turkishness".  That clause has now been amended.

But while this is a battle, it's not the war.  While it will no longer be a crime to "insult Turkishness" (whatever the hell that is), it will still be illegal to "insult the Turkish nation" - a clause which could still be interpreted to cover much of the above.  And while prosecutions will now recover the consent of the Minister of Justice, given the authoritarian bent of Turkish politics, I'm not sure how much protection this really is.  OTOH, it will at least prevent outraged groups of ultranationalists using the law to persecute anyone who doesn't share their peculiar view of Turkish history.

The EU has welcomed the change, but is pushing for further reform.  And so they should.  "Insulting the state" is not the sort of thing that should be a crime in a democracy which has pledged to respect freedom of speech.  If Turkey wants to be thought of as a modern democracy and a serious candidate for EU membership, it needs to keep its promises and expunge this law utterly from its books.

On the House: Climate change policies no longer sustainable:

Here's my pick. In a few months' time, the Government will suddenly discover that it needs to delay the ETS to sometime, ooooh I don't know, after the election. Like it did in 2005 with the carbon charge, which ironically was a much cleaner, fairer, less complicated, and less costly system to implement.

The argument will run something like this: clearly it's more complicated than we first thought, there are issues still to be worked through, households are already facing many additional costs at the moment, and the market is already bringing pressure to bear on emissions through rising fuel prices. We'll have a full review and look at it all again in 2009.

I'm afraid Espiner might be right, and that NZ is going to kill off a credible and effective climate change policy at the last minute for the fourth time in 13 years.

Why is this of interest to people in Europe?

That was Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's triumphal reaction to the victory of the right in Italian politics.  For those who don't know, the Falange was the Spanish Fascist party of General Franco, and "falangist" a synonym for fascist.  

Meanwhile, the new neo-fascist mayor of Rome was greeted with cries of "Duce! Duce!"  Do I really need to spell that one out for you?

It looks like Italian politics has just taken a very dangerous turn.

The Olympic flame arrived in London today for the European leg of its worldwide relay in the leadup to the Beijing Olympics.  The Chinese, in true propaganda style, have dubbed the relay "the journey of harmony", but its already turning out to be anything but.  The London leg began at 10:30am UK time.  Within an hour, someone had grabbed it, others had tried to put it out with a fire extinguisher, and ten people had been arrested.

Looking at the video, the torch has so many police and Chinese bodyguards (the people in blue) around it that I'm surprised anyone can see it at all.  This is what Beijing's oppression has reduced the Olympics to: a staged propaganda run, with security so thick that it might as well not be happening, while the people boo from the sidelines.  

And this is just the beginning.  The torch will go to Paris tomorrow, where the city government will be telling them to stick it, then to San Francisco on Wednesday, where it will also be greeted with protests.  This is going to happen everywhere the torch goes (or at least everywhere where people are remotely free to protest), from now until the torch returns to China in May. The Chinese media censors are going to have their work cut out for them if they want to spin this as a journey of harmony...

In the Guardian, Polly Toynbee considers the results of the latest Hansard Society Audit of Political Engagement [PDF] - which found that UK citizens were overwhelmingly disengaged from politics to the extent that only 53% of them plan to vote - and asks the obvious question: how has this happened, and why don't people vote anymore.  She also gets the answer right: because it doesn't matter.  With no real difference between the major parties, and a political system which denies real choice, they no longer have anything worth voting for:

Diary rescue by Migeru

The Olympic torch made it to Athens today to be officially handed over to China.  There were the expected protests, and the expected arrests - which is fair enough when people charge a police cordon and try to block a road.  But reading the media reports, the Greek police seem to have gone well beyond what was necessary to allow the event to proceed.  According to BBC,

Police had warned they would confiscate all banners, signs or objects that might be thrown.

While the New York Times reported that

[E]ven before the hand-over began, three supporters of the Falun Gong spiritual movement were detained outside the sprawling all-marble Panathinaiko Stadium for distributing leaflets on the movement, which is outlawed in China.

"They continue to remain in police custody and we have been given no reason by the authorities for their arrest," the Falun Gong supporters' lawyer, Ignatios Tatoulis, said.

The latter in particular is simply outrageous.  Greece is a modern democracy, a member of the European Union, and a party to various human rights instruments (including the UDHR, ICCPR and ECHR) which affirm the right to freedom of speech.  And they're arresting people for quietly handing out leaflets?

It sounds as if rather than aiming to ensure the event goes ahead safely while protecting the rights of all their citizens, the Greek authorities are primarily interested in protecting China's image.  And rather than ensuring China improves its human rights under the glare of global scrutiny (as originally advertised), the oppression Olympics are instead exporting Chinese oppression around the world.

Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, became the first EU head of government to announce a boycott on Thursday and he was promptly joined by President Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic, who had previously promised to travel to Beijing.

"The presence of politicians at the inauguration of the Olympics seems inappropriate," Tusk said. "I do not intend to take part."

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany's foreign minister, confirmed that [German Prime Minister Angela] Merkel was staying away. He added that neither he nor Wolfgang Schäuble, the interior minister responsible for sport, would attend the opening ceremony.

It's a small gesture, but a significant one, which hits the Chinese where it hurts: by denying them the prestige they hope to gain by hosting the games.  And with Merkel out, the pressure is now on other major European leaders such as Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown to follow suit.

As for New Zealand, I doubt Helen Clark will follow.  She's already demonstrated that she's willing to walk over Tibetan corpses to get her free trade deal; after that, boycotting the opening ceremony would simply seem hypocritical.

In the wake of yesterday's admission from the CIA that it had tortured three suspected terorists in violation of US and international law, the White House has come out fighting, denying that waterboarding is torture and saying that they might waterboard more people if they decide it is necessary.

Diary rescue by Migeru

Six and a half years on, the US has finally got around to charging six men for their involvement in the September 11th attacks.  But rather than trying them in a proper court, they will instead be prosecuted before a military commission in Guantanamo Bay.  If convicted, they may be subjected to the death penalty.

"Free and fair presidential elections"

That's the motto of the Electoral Commission of Kenya.  Unfortunately, in their most recent election, it seems they have failed to live up to it.  Rather than being free and fair, Kenya's presidential election was fixed by the ruling party.  Here's what the EU observation mission had to say:

The General Elections in the Republic of Kenya have fallen short of key international and regional standards for democratic elections. They were marred by a lack of transparency in the processing and tallying of presidential results, which raises concerns about the accuracy of the final result.

"Concerns" being diplomatic-speak for the following:

EU observers reported tallying results from the Kieni and Molo constituencies which contained a significantly lower number of votes for one of the candidates [President Mwai Kibaki] than the ones announced at ECK headquarters

The fix was so blatant that it was immediately challenged, resulting in a suspension in the announcement of results, then a media blackout, then rioting as outraged Kenyans took to the streets in anger.  Now over 100 people are dead, and the toll looks set to rise despite the opposition's calls for calm.  The opposition is now looking at using people power tactics, as seen in Ukraine, Georgia, and the Philippines, but they rely on the government having a sense of shame.  Unfortunately, Kenya's government and security services don't, so I doubt they'll be successful.

The EU observation mission's preliminary report is here [PDF].

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