Understanding the present crisis

UNDERSTANDING THE PRESENT CRISIS
www.upc.org.uk

KEY

Quotes

˜ General

˜ Afghanistan and Pakistan

˜ Anti-war movement

˜ Law, legality and rights

˜ Middle East and Arab world

˜ Philosophy

˜ Radical Islamism and
al Qaeda

˜ UK foreign policy and ideology

˜ US foreign policy and ideology

˜ Civil liberties in Britain

'I have never known such venom and such hatred and such constant unchecked fascistic expression of daily appalling, often fabricated, always imagined, always exaggerated verbiage as there has been against the Muslim community. We have lost our way in this country. We have entered a new dark age of injustice and it is frightening that we are overwhelmed by it. I know I am representing innocent people; innocent people who know that a jury they face will inevitably be predisposed to find them guilty.'
Gareth Peirce, civil rights lawyer, 31 Mar 2004, Guardian

˜ The US and the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Mar 2004

'Let's remember that Hamas is a terrorist organization and that Sheikh Yassin has himself, personally we believe, been involved in terrorist planning ... It is very important that everyone step back and try now to be calm in the region.'
Condoleeza Rice, US National Security Adviser, morning of 22 Mar 2004, NBC news, Palestine Media Center

'We're deeply troubled by this morning's events in Gaza. We do think, as you asked, that this event increases tension, and it doesn't help efforts to resume progress towards peace ... we do not approve of actions like this.'
Richard Boucher, US State Department spokesman, afternoon of 22 Mar 2004, State Department briefing

'The first reaction [from Rice] came from the top of the chain, and it was very stark, very supportive of a preemptive kind of war on terror, coming from the neoconservative approach. I would say that represents the administration's true feelings.'
Michael Hudson, Middle East expert, Georgetown University, 23 Mar 2004, Christian Science Monitor

'When you see thousands of people all over the Arab world coming out into the streets, it's hard to ignore that. It's hard not to say anything about it.'
Anonymous US official, 23 Mar 2004, New York Times

'The Zionists didn't carry out their operation without getting the consent of the terrorist American Administration, and it must take responsibility for this crime.'
Hamas statement to Associated Press, 22 Mar 2004, Guardian

'The United States had no knowledge in advance of the killing of Sheikh Yassin by Israeli forces ... We certainly weren't notified of this particular action. The Israelis do not notify us when they're about to undertake a military action.'
Richard Boucher, 22 Mar 2004, State Department briefing

'There isn't any need to be consulted. The US is in a position of having opened the door without having specifically given the green light, and Sharon has become very adept at telling the US, "We're doing exactly what you are doing" in fighting terror.'
William Quandt, former National Security Council official, 23 Mar 2004, Christian Science Monitor

˜ The US and Israel's assassination policy

Interviewer: 'Israel now has a policy of assassinating opposition leaders.'
Dick Cheney: 'In Israel, what they've done, of course, over the years, occasionally, in an effort to preempt terrorist activities, is to go after the terrorists. And in some cases, I suppose, by their lights it is justified. If you've got an organization that has plotted or is plotting some kind of suicide bomber attack, for example, and they have hard evidence of who it is and where they're located, I think there's some justification in their trying to protect themselves by preempting. Clearly, it would be better if they could work with the Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority and the terrorists of whatever stripe could be headed off and imprisoned and tried, rather than having them actually assassinated.'
Dick Cheney, US Vice President, 2 Aug 2001, Fox News

˜ International law

'It may well be that under international law as presently constituted, a regime can systematically brutalise and oppress its people and there is nothing anyone can do, when dialogue, diplomacy and even sanctions fail, unless it comes within the definition of a humanitarian catastrophe (though the 300,000 remains in mass graves already found in Iraq might be thought by some to be something of a catastrophe). This may be the law, but should it be?'
Tony Blair, speech at Sedgefield, 5 Mar 2004, 10 Downing Street site

'I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing ... International law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone'
Richard Perle, Defense Policy Board, 19 Nov 2003, Guardian

'It is a big mistake for us to grant any validity to international law, even when it may seem in our short-term interest to do so - because, over the long term, the goal of those who think that international law really means anything are those who want to constrict the US.'
John Bolton, then US assistant secretary of state for international organizations, 1999, Insight