In theory, the idea of bringing terrorists and war criminals to justice sounds like a good idea, but it doesn't appear to me to be always practical. The world is full of current and former terrorists and war criminals, and people -- including their victims and families -- everywhere have lived with this cruel fact. Some of the terrorists and war criminals -- especially those on the Right -- rose to the highest offices, amassed great wealth, and secured comfortable retirement at home or abroad. Kishi Nobusuke is a good example. So is Irgun leader Menachem Begin. They have demonstrated that terrorism and war crimes sometimes pay -- a great deal. Very few terrorists and war criminals in the Japanese Imperial Army have suffered any punishment, while their surviving victims, for instance women violated as sexual slaves during World War 2, are to this day denied compensation and even sincere apology. Many former Nazis have been protected and employed by Washington.
<blockquote><http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/536364.html> Last Update: 05/02/2005 19:57 Documents reveal CIA recruited five of Eichmann's associates By Yossi Melman, Haaretz Correspondent
Five of Adolph Eichmann's Nazi assistants were recruited and employed by the Central Intelligence Agency after World War II, according to recently declassified intelligence documents. The information came to light after a lengthy battle waged by the non-profit group, The National Security Archive, whose goal is to expose government documents under the framework of the Freedom of Information Act.
The newly-revealed documents are based on internal investigations in the CIA's history department. The agency has steadfastly refused to make the documents public for fear they would cause embarassment.
The revelations cast a negative light not only on American intelligence activity but also the U.S. Army's conduct in Germany at the conclusion of the war. The military made efforts to recruit members of the SS and the Gestapo into its ranks despite simultaenously waging a campaign of de-Nazification over vanquished Germany, a process which included arresting and trying Nazi war criminals.
The documents also reveal in great detail CIA efforts to recruit Reinhard Gehlen, who was the Wermacht's chief intelligence officer for the eastern front during the war.
The recruitment evolved into a new intelligence sub-organization known as "Gehlen's Organization," which served as the basis for what would later become West Germany's foreign intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND).
According to the new findings, Gehlen's Organization employed a number of Gestapo and SS officials. Gehlen and his senior associates secretly operated out of a building with the knowledge of the American occupation forces.</blockquote>
To take a current example, George W. Bush got reelected with a wider margin than in 2000, and I doubt that we will see him impeached, let alone brought to justice under international law, while families of the victims of his wars are still alive, cruel as it may be to say so to grieving Afghans and Iraqis.
To my knowledge, South Africa is the only nation that has tried to bring terrorists and war criminals of both sides to justice with a measure of success, through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but even the South African case leaves much to be desired. E.g., "The statistic that 80% of those who applied for amnesty were black is puzzling to many. There are several reasons for such a skewed number. The most obvious is the sad fact that whites have been less willing to embrace the TRC, and the leadership of the National Party (the white ruling party during apartheid) did not themselves apply for amnesty. Secondly, anyone in jail who received amnesty was immediately released, thereby providing a huge incentive to apply; there were very few whites in jail for apartheid era crimes. Finally, in the last years of apartheid, there was a tremendous amount of black-on-black violence, initiated by the government of the day. There were many applications for amnesty for such incidents" (Frances Reid & Deborah Hoffman, "A Message from the Filmmakers," <http://www.newsreel.org/guides/longnight.htm#Reid>).
It is possible that Osama bin Laden may never get arrested. Washington just raised its reward for bin Laden from $25 million to $50 million, which prompted none other than Thomas Friedman to suggest that "[a]ll we are doing is feeding their [Osama bin Laden's and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's] egos and telling them how incredibly important they are, when we not only put a $25 million bounty on their heads, but in the case of bin Laden, double the figure." Friedman suggests that the reward be lowered "from $25 million to one penny, along with an autographed picture of George W. Bush" and the money saved be spent on an essay contest for Arab youths:
<blockquote>What I would do with the millions we have budgeted as rewards for bin Laden and al-Zarqawi is use it instead to sponsor an essay contest for high school students in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Syria and Egypt.
The contest entry form would say the following:
"In 2,000 words, write an essay on one of these two topics:
"1. Why you believe the Arab-Muslim world is fully capable of achieving democratic, representative government and how do you envisage it coming about through peaceful changes inside your country, without any American or other outside help.
"2. Discuss the lives of any of the great medieval Arab or Muslim mathematicians, scientists or philosophers and how their innovations helped to shape our world today."
The winners would be awarded visas and four-year scholarships to any accredited university in America to which they could gain acceptance. The winning essays would be posted on the Internet in English, Arabic, Urdu, Farsi and French.
What do you think would make America more secure? Rewarding one person for turning in bin Laden or putting thousands of young Arabs and Muslims through American schools?
Maybe we could even call them "bin Laden scholars."
I sort of like the idea of bin Laden sitting in a dark cave somewhere, composing his latest nutty video message, and suddenly learning that all the reward money we were devoting to killing him will go instead to killing his ideas -- and to bringing young Arabs and Muslims closer to America rather than pushing them further away.
I know the 9/11 families want justice and closure when it comes to bin Laden. So do I, and I can't think of any better punishment than having him turned in one day by one of his neighbours in return for a penny or a pistachio.
That's an unexpectedly sensible idea from Friedman. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>