Ashcroft Criticized at World Economic Forum
EDITH M. LEDERER / AP 24jan03
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John
Ashcroft I think one remarkable way to fight against terrorism has changed the world is by expanding the free world. I... you just need to ask for men and women of Afghanistan. Ask the Afghan boys and Afghan girls, who now attend schools. And watch with pride as the rule of law is established.
Prevention must be our priority. The president turned and said, on the day following September 11th, "Make sure this never happens again." I think, uh, Kofi Annan [see below] and, uh, a number of others have said that a big order, a tall order, I don't know that it can be done. But it ought to be our objective. I began to mobilize the Department of Justice toward the prevention priority to save innocent lives. The United States of America desperately needs...is greatly in need of the co-operation and help of freedom loving people who support the rule of law and reject the idea of terrorism and its extortion. Cooperate as we share its information with them and they let us, so that together we can piece together enough of the fragments of the picture which is being assembled of acts which are yet to occur so that we can interdict them and prevent them. For as we prevent terrorism we enforce freedom. There has been a lot of talk about somehow that, uh, the fight against terrorism is a sacrifice of freedom, and that security, somehow is a sacrifice of freedom. There is only one reason for security, and it's freedom. That is what we are securing. We are securing values. And that's part and parcel of the ethics that is taught in America is that the things worth fighting for are values like freedom. |
Mahathir bin Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia In response to Ashcroft's statements "People do not tie bombs to their bodies or crash their planes for the fun of it. They must have a reason for it. We have to identify the reasons and remove them. Out-terrorizing the terrorists will not work. But removing the causes for terrorism will." [Regarding] the proposed attacks, if you do that, you are going to kill a lot of innocent people. You are going to make a lot of people very angry. Certainly a lot of Muslim people are going to be very angry. And as you know, the terror attack mounted was not carried out by people who are most affected, who have been experiencing a lot of oppression. They were carried out by other people who are quite far removed from, say, what is happening in Palestine, or in Chechnya, or in Bosnia, or in Afghanistan. The Saudis, they are very well-off. They're living a good life. And yet, they made this decision to crash their aircraft into a building. It's a horrible death that they entertained. But they did it because they were incensed over something. And we have to find out why are they so motivated, if you can say, to do these horrible things. If we understand what moves them, then we should try our best not to amplify it, not to create other situations which would anchor them some more, and lead more people, perhaps to join this group of people and commit acts of terror. Mahathir bin Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia Also see: Capitalism's "True Self" Mahathir bin Mohamad / PBS Interview 2jul01 |
DAVOS, Switzerland -- The United States faced more criticism at the World Economic Forum on Friday, this time for conducting a war on terrorism that opponents claim targets Muslims and violates human rights.
After weathering complaints about their stance on Iraq, American officials were told they are guilty of racial profiling and should try harder to discover the roots of terrorism.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft was first in line, saying the United States expects governments around the world to make preventing terrorism a priority and "desperately needs" help in piecing together information "of acts that are yet to occur."
But Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said focusing on prevention without addressing the causes of terrorism was wrong. Those responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks "were incensed over something" and the world should try to understand what motivated them, Mahathir said.
Ashcroft retorted that the Sept. 11 attackers engaged in "hostage-taking to kill innocent civilians," adding that "the targets of terrorism are values and the rule of law."
"I'm not willing to say we have to downplay values we believe in to appease the terrorists," he said.
On the opening day of the forum Thursday, several of the 2,300 business, government and other leaders criticized the United States for its threats to go to war against Iraq over its alleged arsenals of mass destruction.
Kumi Naidoo, secretary-general of the South Africa-based Civicus-World Alliance for Citizen Participation, criticized "the severe curtailment of civil liberties" in democratic countries, including the United States. He cited the "invasion of privacy rights," bans on meetings by certain groups, and travel restrictions for Arabs and others.
"I don't think we've got the balance right," he said. "We are seeing large levels of alienation of ordinary human beings across the spectrum."
Ashcroft responded, "It distresses me to hear the panel talk about communities offended -- and talk about communities as if they're just defined by race. Very frankly I think values define communities much more effectively than race does."
mindfully.org note:
Graphic image of
Ashcroft's values.
He also disputed the contention that freedom is being sacrificed for security, saying only individuals who violated the law have been detained -- and all have access to lawyers.
The only exceptions are a few enemy combatants and those held as material witnesses because they have information crucial to a judicial proceeding, he said.
"I live in the United States, and when I got taken off a flight last year, the content of my character did not play any role in it," Naidoo replied. The 800-strong audience burst into applause.
Ashcroft responded that people from 147 countries had been screened under the new U.S. border policy.
At another panel, titled "U.S. Foreign Policy: Going it Alone?" Kenneth Roth, executive director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, took on Richard Haass, the U.S. State Department's director of policy planning.
Roth said Americans have violated civil rights in the war on terrorism and criticized Washington for being willing to go it alone in Iraq without U.N. Security Council authorization. Profiling, he said, is generating "outrage."
"We've got to get the balance right" between security and human rights, Haass said. "Give us some time to fix it."
Ashcroft said he was confident that freedom-loving people around the world would rally around the United States in its campaign against terrorism.
"We find ourselves in the midst of an historic struggle for the values of democracy. It's more than a duty. It's more than a privilege. I believe that it is the calling of our time. We must rise to the challenge and we must answer the call."
'Knowledge Means
Power'
And those who provide honest information are best allies of UN
KOFI ANNAN, UN Secretary-General 11dec02
[Excerpt. For complete speech follow source link below]
In place of Realpolitik, we strive to buttress the rule of law. To improve on a century that brought us two world wars, Holocaust and genocide, we work to build a system of collective security. And in a world of transnational issues, we seek to foster a sense of transnational values.
There is no greater enemy of this work than armed conflict. War, more than anything else, drives people to build walls and hunker down behind them.
It soaks up resources that should be used for productive investment.
It interferes with trade, and provokes shortages.
It chokes off escape routes from poverty, robbing the poor of hope.
It even ropes in children, who not only suffer death, injury and bereavement, but are also conscripted -– boys as soldiers, handling guns almost as big as they are; and girls as sexual slaves.
source: http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2002/SGSM8552.doc.htm 26jan03
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