Margaret Kimberley

"In the days of the Soviet Union, Americans and other westerners were quick to use the derisive term “show trial” when dissidents faced prosecution. That term can now surely be applied to the United States if a guilty verdict and execution are presented as foregone conclusions by both the president and his chief law enforcement officer."

In order that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed be denied even the formalities of American justice as we once knew it, the system itself must be eviscerated. “Phony concerns about security costs and whipped up fears of impending terror attacks are used to subvert the legal system that was once held up as a model for the rest of the world to follow.”

A guilty verdict and execution are presented as foregone conclusions by both the president and his chief law enforcement officer.”

The United States government has held Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in Guantanamo ever since his capture in 2003. He was one of many “enemy combatants” held there without charge or trial. Not only did he suffer from this violation of American and international law, but Mohammed suffered through water boarding torture an incredible 180 times in just 30 days.

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David Cronin

Defenders of Israel’s aggressive stance have for many years been recognised as a powerful force shaping United States foreign policy. A less well-known fact is that the pro-Israel lobby has been making a concerted effort to strengthen its presence in Europe.

The lobby’s determination to make an impression on European Union policy-makers was exemplified by a new booklet published on Jan. 28.

Titled ‘Squaring the Circle?: EU-Israel Relations and the Peace Process in the Middle East’, the booklet advocates that EU should "rebalance its priorities" and pursue closer relations with Israel regardless of whether progress is made in resolving the conflict with the Palestinians.

Unlike the plethora of publications on EU affairs that quickly fade into obscurity, there are good reasons to believe that this one will not go unnoticed in the corridors of power.

First, it was published by the Centre of European Studies, the official think-tank for the network of Christian Democrat and conservative parties that dominate European governments.

Secondly, its author, Emanuele Ottolenghi, has already demonstrated his capability to catch the eyes of politicians by penning several pamphlets for Labour Friends of Israel, a group that boasts of the top figures in Britain’s ruling party among its members.

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Marco Villa

Alexis de Tocqueville observed that the American people never tire of self-praise and exaggeration when it comes to glorifying their democracy.

The American people have change plenty since then but that obnoxious habit remains. American political culture is incredibly delusional in its praise of the U.S. political system being somehow greater than everyone’s else democracy. The Senate is the self-described ‘most distinguished body’ and when Barack Obama was sworn in a tearful Dan Rather (disgraced newsman) remarked that only in America is the transition of power so dignified. Dignified? France’s transition is dignified as the old man waves au revoir and the new guy is ushered in a violin melody. America’s transition of power is a two-month-$3billion-slugfest of-negative campaigns-photo-ops-distortions- and illiberal efforts to sabotage an opponents voters by, say, misinforming them that election is really on Wednesday. There is nothing dignified about contemporary American elections.

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Abdus Sattar Ghazali

[This article originally was published in American Muslim Perspective in February, 2009 -Editor]

The Taliban is not a terrorist organization, but a movement attempting to unify Afghanistan and the “war on terror” is a hoax that fronts for American control of oil pipelines, the profits of the military-security complex, the assault on civil liberty by fomenters of a police state, and Israel's territorial expansion. ~~Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration

President Barrack Obama has virtually embraced his predecessor George Bush’s “War on Terror” policy without naming it so.

Asked in a CNN interview why he hasn't used the oft-repeated "war on terror" phrase coined by the Bush administration, Obama said he believes the U.S. can win over moderate Muslims if he chooses his words carefully. "Words matter in this situation because one of the ways we're going to win this struggle is through the battle of hearts and minds," Obama said.

The “war on terror” catchphrase burned into the American lexicon soon after the 9/11 attacks is deliberately being replaced by the Obama administration in a bid to repair America’s negative image in the Muslim world.

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