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Torture Kamm

Tuesday, 11th March 2008

I mean no disrespect to my friend Oliver Kamm when I say that the real interest of his excellent piece in the Guardian (about extraordinary rendition) is in the comments on Comment is Free. Oliver writes:

The hypothetical kidnapping of Bin Laden illustrates two problems with the absolutist rejection of rendition. First, the Taliban regime in Kabul would no more have handed over Bin Laden in response to an international summons than it would have handed over Lord Lucan. Second, the evidence against a terrorist suspect might be circumstantial or partial. It might not be of a type admissible in court. I do not know if this is true of Bin Laden and the destruction of the twin towers. But I know he did it, and I want him stopped.
Rendition is justifiable because it interdicts terrorists, and terrorism is not merely a problem of law enforcement. The particular controversy over rendition concerns torture, and on this point European objections are on firmer ground. The US is a signatory to the Geneva conventions against torture, yet terrorist suspects have been sent to countries that are guilty of human rights violations and have used torture.

As one of the commenters at Oliver's own site puts it:

And THIS is being posted at Comment Is Free? Oliver, why do you do this to yourself?

Indeed. The very first comment at CiF sets the tone:

Where is your evidence that OBL was responsible for the 911 event?

This one (by 'Weeper') is especially choice:

Kamm, you are an apologist for a criminal organisation called the govt. of USA and its ugly partners, UK and Israel. And you are a liar. Have you any evidence that bin Laden was behing 9/11? I have a lot more evidence that Cheney/CIA/ISI (Pakistan) were behind it. And you are convinced that the "war on terror" is genuine! How many muslims have these countries killed and how many in these countries have muslims killed? The ratio is 1000's to one. That's assuming 9/11 and 7/7 were not inside jobs, which is very doubtful.
You have the gall to talk about this unholy alliance implementing international law when they have trashed same, and destroyed muslim countries in order to grab their resources (see the article by John Hilary in yesterday's Guardian), and told the UN to sod off!
Every molecule of my body loathes you. I am also against torture but I will make an exception in your case.

Don't you just love the fraternal spirit and love of one's fellow man of the Left?

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Max Kaye

March 11th, 2008 1:02pm

Why the surprise?

Austin Barry

March 11th, 2008 1:21pm

As marshalling yards for the more deranged members of the otherwise supine left, Comment is Free and the BBC's Question Time audience provide endless astonished amusement for the rest of us and I commend them.

Ben

March 11th, 2008 1:25pm

You make far too much of these stupid, irrelevant comment writers. Thoroughly disapprove of the new format, btw.

Verity

March 11th, 2008 1:41pm

From the evidence presented here, Weeper is very much a paint-by-numbers kind of guy. I'm curious, though. How did he come to leave out Halliburton? I might suggest rendition for the Comment Is Free coterie, and force them to watch, at volume, videos and readings of Anne Coulter. That should do it.

DershLite

March 12th, 2008 11:04pm

Nothing wrong with expressing revulsion when confronted with an obscenity. Of course there were many cogent, considered posts at CiF which dismantled Mr. Kamm's rather incoherent use of history. But it would be some measure of intellectual honesty, wouldn't it Mr. Pollard?

David Preiser

March 13th, 2008 3:42am

If anything, deranged commenters like this prove the rational discernment of people like yourself and Oliver Kamm. Typical how all those who disagree are blissfully unaware that bloody Bin Laden made a video tape taking credit for the whole thing and laughing about how it was more successful than he had planned. This was all over the news for weeks. Even the BBC admitted as much when they were forced to remove their own nod to the conspiracy theorists in their 9/11 recap on CBBC. Sad.