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November
2, 2006
If Khatami Can Be Charged with Torture,
Why Not Blair, Bush and Cheney?
Evil
is as Evil Does
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Compared to the current Iranian president,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's former president Muhammad Khatami
is regarded in Western foreign affairs circles as a moderate.
When Khatami visited the US in September, he called on the US
and Iran to stop verbally assaulting each other in the interest
of dialogue that could build trust and eliminate the frictions
between the two countries. Khatami said that the precondition
for dialogue was "to eliminate the language of threat."
In an attempt to "resolve
conflicts by talking, rather than by aggression," the venerable
Scottish University of St. Andrews invited Khatami to the United
Kingdom for an honorary degree, followed by a speech at the Royal
Institute of International Affairs in London. However, a spanner
was thrown into the works by two Iranian exiles, who claim to
have been unlawfully imprisoned and tortured in Iran during the
period of Khatami's presidency. Under Section 134 of Britain's
Criminal Justice Act of 1988, torture wherever committed in the
world is criminal under British law and triable in the UK. Thus,
Khatami might still be arrested as he tours the UK in the interest
of opening communication.
If Khatami can be arrested
in the UK for torture, how does British Prime Minister Tony Blair
escape arrest for the torture of Afghans and Iraqis by coalition
forces? Why are not US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Richard Cheney,
and President George W. Bush arrested when they visit the UK?
Does the British law excuse
Anglo-Americans from its reach? Does it exclude government officials
while they are in office and pursue them only when they have
become private citizens?
Or are we witnessing the operation
of the neoconservative assumption that there is one rule of law
for the US and its allies and another rule for countries that
do not support the neocon agenda? Neocons maintain that whatever
the US and its allies or puppets do in the interest of US hegemony
is defensible and permissible but is a crime if any other country
does it.
When the president and vice
president of the United States publicly defend and advocate torture
and ram torture legislation through the US Congress, it is hypocrisy
for the US to condemn others for torture.
Perhaps Americans don't notice,
but the rest of the world does see the double standard applied
when Saddam Hussein is put on trial for war crimes and crimes
against humanity, while US, UK, and Israeli government officials
commit far greater crimes by illegally invading countries, targeting
civilian populations, and torturing detainees.
Considering the enormous bloodshed
and destruction of civilian lives and infrastructure in Afghanistan
and Iraq by US and UK troops, why do British left-wing academics
and human rights activists want to help the neoconservatives
in the US and UK spread the war to Iran? Helping to spread war
is what the British left is doing when they agitate for the arrest
of Khatami while leaving Labour Party PM Tony Blair free to commit
more crimes against humanity. Could it be that the two Iranian
exiles are acting as neoconservative agents to block any possible
rapprochement with Iran? This is not a wild speculation in view
of the role Iraqi exiles played in deceiving the the American
public and making false accusations against Iraq that Bush used
to justify his invasion.
The Iraq and Afghanistan invasions
have turned out to be a catastrophe for the US and UK as well
as for the Iraqis and Afghans.
Only a totally deranged political leadership would want to spread
the catastrophe to Iran.
According to a BBC news report
(October 30), British private security firm personnel--mercenaries
to some--outnumber British soldiers in Iraq six to one. A British
charity group accuses PM Tony Blair of "allowing mercenary
armies to operate completely outside the law."
In Britain it is no longer
permissible to hunt foxes, because it is "cruel and inhumane,"
but it is perfectly alright for private mercenaries and British
soldiers to murder Iraqi and Afghan men, women, and children
for the sake of Anglo-American-Israeli hegemony in the Middle
East.
Saddam Hussein was overthrown
and indicted, and Iraq largely destroyed, in part because Saddam
is "an evil man who tortured political opponents."
Evidence of US torture of Iraqis is all over the Internet in
vivid photos. According to Amnesty International, "Adequate
safeguards against torture and ill-treatment are not in place
in Multinational Force detention facilities, and thousands continue
to be held without charge or trial." The president and vice
president of the US advocate torture not only of Iraqis but also
of everyone declared, correctly or incorrectly, by some US government
official to be a "terrorist suspect."
Why are not Bush, Cheney and
Blair on trial? Their crimes dwarf any that could possibly be
attributed to Khatami.
The only possible answer is
that "might makes right." Yet, Bush, Cheney and Blair
parade around draping themselves in moral justifications for
their inhumane deeds and despicable acts.
The fact that Americans tolerate
crimes against humanity by their own leaders is evidence that
Americans are exceptional only in their hubris.
Paul Craig Roberts wrote the Kemp-Roth bill and was Assistant
Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was
Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and
Contributing Editor of National Review. He is author or coauthor
of eight books, including The Supply-Side Revolutin (Harvard
University Press). He has held numerous academic appointments,
including the William E. Simon Chair in Political Economy, Center
for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University
and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University.
He has contributed to numerous scholar journals and testified
before Congress on 30 occasions. He has been awarded the U.S.
Treasury's Meritorious Service Award and the French Legion of
Honor. He was a reviewer for the Journal of Political Economy
under editor Robert Mundell. He can be reached at: paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com
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