Lawful Responses to Terrorism (by Mary Ellen O'Connell)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

At 6:16 PM +0000 10/20/01, Justin Schwartz wrote:
>It really outrages me when Bush says things like, No negotiations, 
>hand him over, we know he's guilty, or well destroy you--not just 
>because it's arrogant and imperialist, but because it tramples on 
>everything that gives the US a claim to moral superiority in this 
>incident. I mean, what would we say if the Afghans or someone else 
>came to us with a similar demand to hand over a foreigner residing 
>here whom they suspected of some evil deeds in their country? 
>Probably "Fuck you" would be on the polite side. ANd that would be 
>without the threat to do us harm.
>
>That said, suppose we did the investigation and determined that 
>there aws probable cause that ObL planned the 9/11 attack. I am now 
>inclined to think this is true. Independent foreign press has said 
>that "follow the money" investigations and inquiries into the 
>connections of the hijackers to al-Qaeda indicate a pretty strong 
>connection. None of thsi involves confidential informants whose 
>lives would be endangered by revealing the information to a hostile 
>government. Suppose we then gave the informationto the Taliban, and 
>demanded extradition or its close analogue, whatever you dow hen 
>there isn't a formal treaty. No threats of further attack, just a 
>firm but polite request, one sovereign nation to another. And they 
>said, no way Jose. If negotiations about a possible trial in an 
>international court failed, then I think that the US would be on 
>decent moral ground, and possibily, though I don't know this for 
>sure, decent international legal ground, to use force to seek out 
>and arrest ObL.

Here's an article written by Professor Mary Ellen O'Connell at the 
Ohio State University College of Law: "Lawful Responses to Terrorism" 
at <http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumnew30.htm>.  What do you think? 
Also, we may consult Professor John Quigley, "The United Nations 
Security Council: Promethean Protector or Helpless Hostage?" _Texas 
International Law Journal_ 35.2.
-- 
Yoshie

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