EWI’s Annual Worldwide Security Conference Day 2

The main event was a workshop on"Towards a Code of Conduct for Counter Terrorism" that had valuable contributions from Human Rights Watch, British American Security Information Council.

We also had a neo-con who was suitably batshit. Claudia Rosett from the right of sensible Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, decided not to address the subject, but launch a long tirade about the UN Food for Oil programme and comparing the UN to a terrorist nation. There was no actual point to this and under questioning she did admit that the UN does a lot of good work. She also diverted briefly enough to describe the Organisation of Islamic States as 'a bunch of thugs who provide excuses for terrorists'. Back on Planet Earth the session continued.

Stephen Monblatt compared the shift in CT from arresting and trying terrorists to the post 9/11 strategy of prevention. Another difficulty is in defining terrorism and he quoted one country who had discovered over 120 different definitions of it in their own national laws. Once again he underlined the need for civil liberties as history shows that repression doesn't stop terrorism, rather it gives it an arena to prosper.

 Joanne Mariner from Human Rights Watch gave a robust defence of civil liberties and assaulted the Orwellian doublespeak of the Bush administration and euphamisms for what can only amount to torture. She illustrated her case by quoting information gathered under torture that was incorrect, asking how incorrect intelligence can fight terrorism. Some inmates are being denied representation by lawyers because the inmates have classified information. This information turns out to be the fact that they were tortured, or in Bush-speak had 'enhanced interrogation' and the techniques used are classified....

Rendition came under criticism especially as states are handing suspects over to regimes that practice torture, citing 'diplomatic assurances' from such states are not sufficent. She finished with the observation that respecting human rights is not an obstacle but an integral part of CT. Please check the link on her name for a list of truly excellent articles by her and there's more here.