[free-sklyarov] FC: President Bush says military tribunals will try civilian cases (fwd)

[Bob La Quey]

On 2001.11.14 16:50:58 -0500 Don Marti wrote:
>>begin Jei quotation of Wed, Nov 14, 2001 at 11:32:46PM +0200:
>>
>>> Fast, secret non-public tribuals and executions for non-americans.
>>
>>Please somebody point out that this doesn't apply to DMCA violations,
>>or at least that it isn't retroactive to Dmitry's case.  Anyone?
>>
>>-- 
>>Don Marti 

At 01:31 AM 11/18/01 -0500, Ruben Safir replied:
>I'll point it out, 

it == "that this doesn't apply to DMCA violations". 

>and also point out that it's in bad taste to compare the two.

"The Sklyarov Affair" != "The Bin Laden Affair".

>As far as I'm concerned, they can shoot the bastards straight up and skip
>the tribunals.

bastards == "Bin Laden and Al Qeda" 
bastards != Dmitry

Ruben expressed himself clearly although using pronouns often leads to 
confusion. Nowhere is he saying that "all non-americans should be shot". 
That is a complete misreading of what Ruben said. I am not surprised
that he would be offended that anyone could so distort his statement 
into such a meaning. OTOH it was perhaps a simple misreading. Was it? 

The secret tribunals are supposedly targeted at Bin Laden and Al Qeda. 
Some of us may well fear that the government will overreach and apply
this power in cases like Dmitry's. I hope not, but feel we must be vigilant. 
Others may doubt the responsility of Bin Laden and Al Qeda for the events 
of Sept 11. Nonetheless, I must say that I won't lose any sleep if they 
shoot the "bastards". Indeed it would be a much better solution then 
secret tribunals which can be used far too easily for other purposes. 

I live in California, often work in Mexico, and am more effected by absurdites 
of "security" at the border with Mexico then the WTC disaster, but Ruben is 
in Brooklyn, close to that scene, and has probably earned a right to some 
strong feelings about that subject. There was certainly no trial or due process 
available to the victims of the WTC destruction. See that smoke. That is them. 

I don't see the need to pillory Ruben for expressing those strong feelings. 
The USA in alliance with a number of other nations is after all killing people
every day as a direct result of the event on Sept 11. Not all of that killing 
is passion free calculation. If we condemn Ruben then we must also condemn a 
very large number of people. Given the circumstances I am willing to ask the
Ruben's of this world to look beyond this evil toward a better outcome
but I am also unwilling to condemn them for their natural human passions. 


Bob La Quey