New DFAT Warning
Despite the late inclusion of the presumption of innocence in the Guantanamo process, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer (7/9) wonders aloud that "you know, you have to ask yourself what these people were doing in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan at the time they were picked up."
Can we assume now that Iraq is a place like that? What other places are on his list? The Minister needs to direct DFAT to come up with a new category of travel advisory: "possibility that Australian citizens may be picked up by foreign powers, tortured, drugged, transported and detained without charge for three years on a legally dubious island before being subjected to an internationally condemned show-trial where the rules are made up on the fly".
They should call it the "Alex" warning (from the Greek "a" without and "lex" law). Sadly, there's no guarantee that political expediency won't stop the public receiving an Alex warning in time.
Can we assume now that Iraq is a place like that? What other places are on his list? The Minister needs to direct DFAT to come up with a new category of travel advisory: "possibility that Australian citizens may be picked up by foreign powers, tortured, drugged, transported and detained without charge for three years on a legally dubious island before being subjected to an internationally condemned show-trial where the rules are made up on the fly".
They should call it the "Alex" warning (from the Greek "a" without and "lex" law). Sadly, there's no guarantee that political expediency won't stop the public receiving an Alex warning in time.
| Vent! | ↑ |
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home