You Are All Suspects Now. What Are You Going to Do About It?

[Carsten Wiethoff]

Especially in the case of Babar Ahmad the scandal is (in my view) the complete sellout of any European law to the Americans. Babar Ahmad ran a website with questionable content. OK. He was never charged for that (or for anything else) by the British law system, which normally should be perfectly capable of dealing with suspected supporters of terrorism. He is physically abused and put into jail for 8 years, without charge, by the British law system. Nobody can call that "justice", whatever you may think about the suspect or his alleged deeds. And on top of that he is now extradited to the US, without any evidence presented that could have lead to a prosecution in Britain. Just on the base of an extradition law that is a crime in itself, in the view of many.
The scandal in all this lies more in the shocking nakedness of the British law system than in the arrogant world police attitude of the US, which is well known for a long time.
If it can happen in Britain, it can happen anywhere. Today a US president decides for every person on this planet, if they will live or die, and a US attorney decides, if they will travel to the US or not.