Instead of setting up a straw man, you might respond to my actual argument:
At 11:30 AM -0500 12/17/01, Yoshie Furuhashi wrote in a post titled "Re: Sara Pursley on 'Unveiling the Bushes'":
***** Michael Hardt & Antonio Negri write in _Empire_: "What we are calling moral intervention is practiced today by a variety of bodies, including the news media and religious organizations, but the most important may be some of the so-called non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which, precisely because they are not run directly by governments, are assumed to act on the basis of ethical or moral imperatives....Such humanitarian NGOs [e.g., Amnesty International, Oxfam, Medecins sans Frontieres, and other orgs for relief work and human rights protection] are in effect (even if this runs counter to the intentions of the participants) some of the most powerful pacific weapons of the new world order -- the charitable campaigns and the mendicant orders of the Empire" (pp. 35-6), whose work is comparable to what Christian missionaries did for colonialism & imperialism in the earlier centuries. I'd include Mavis Leno, the Feminist Majority Foundation, & the like among "the mendicant orders" whose work on balance helps to expand the Empire's "right of the police" (p. 17), even though "this runs counter to the intentions of the participants" as H & N note & they often provide useful criticisms of concrete forms that imperial interventions take. *****
As for human rights in Egypt and other states that the U.S. government supports, you might take note of a contradiction: as the American Empire wages its so-called "war on terrorism" in the name of human rights, it cannot but (A) commit human rights violations at home and abroad itself and (B) encourage its client states to suspend civil rights and liberties in pursuit of elusive terrorists. For instance, real and alleged religious zealots are victims of such human rights violations as torture, military tribunal, denial of freedom of association, etc. by the Egyptian government, according to Amnesty International, one of the better mendicant orders.
***** 19 November 2001 AI Index MDE 12/032/2001 - News Service Nr. 204 Egypt:Trials of civilians before military courts violate human rights standards
Amnesty International today urged President Hosni Mubarak to end the referral of civilians to military courts as they deny defendants their rights to a free and fair trial.
The appeal follows the appearance on 18 November 2001, before a military court, of 94 civilians charged in connection with their alleged affiliation with armed Islamist groups. Several of the accused allege that they were tortured while held in incommunicado detention at premises of the State Security Intelligence, where torture and ill-treatment of detainees is commonly practised.
Some 170 other defendants are also due to appear before a military court on similar charges following their referral by a presidential decree on 16 October 2001. Many of this group have reportedly been held for several years in administrative detention.
"Trials before these military courts violate fundamental requirements of international law for fair trial, including the right to be tried before a competent, independent and impartial court established by law and the right to appeal to a higher court," Amnesty International said.
The appointment of military judges and the referral of cases to courts by the executive of the government creates a strong link between military courts and the executive which does not provide sufficient guarantees of independence and casts doubts on their impartiality. According to international standards, everyone convicted of a crime has the right the right to appeal to a higher tribunal, which is denied to all those tried by military court in Egypt.
"Widespread torture and ill-treatment over the past two decades has gone unchecked due to the state's failure to investigate torture allegations and the near total impunity enjoyed by security forces responsible for these crimes. The government should ensure that effective safeguards are put in place to prevent the practice of torture in detention centres in Egypt," Amnesty International said.
Background The UN Special Rapporteur on torture concluded in 2001 that ''torture is systematically practised by the security forces in Egypt, in particular by State Security Intelligence''.
Trials before military courts violate fundamental requirements of international law and standards for fair trial, as recognized by Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which Egypt is a State Party. This includes the right to be tried before a competent, independent and impartial court established by law and the right to appeal to a higher court. Egypt's civilian judges are appointed for life by a supreme judicial council. Military judges, on the other hand, are serving military officers appointed by the Minister of Defence for a two-year term, which can be renewed for additional two-year terms at the discretion of the Minister of Defence. In addition, a political official, namely the President, is charged with deciding under which court's jurisdiction certain cases fall.
Article 14 (5) of the ICCPR states: "Everyone convicted of a crime shall have the right to his conviction and sentence being reviewed by a higher tribunal according to the law". However, those convicted by military courts have no right to appeal to a higher court.
\ENDS public document
For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW web : http://www.amnesty.org ***** -- Yoshie
* Calendar of Anti-War Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>