Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org (Joey Carr)]

> I have to say this is all very questionable.

I have to agree that it's very questionable, but perhaps on different
grounds than yours.  I don't know for sure that you meant to suggest that
the tape was "planted" by a U.S. agent, but that's how I read it.  
Personally, I'm remaining agnostic on the subject of whether our
government is telling the truth.

What gets me is the lack of firm procedure.  In the U.S. in our criminal
justice system we have long lists of bureaucratic firewalls that the state
must get through before it allows itself to do something like arrest a
person, or jail them.  I tend to think about issues of state power over
the individual in terms of Locke's Second Treatise on Government.

International law is nowhere near as well developed as U.S.  
constitutional law or even the criminal code.  Intellectual consideration
of international law has no John Locke.  The international bureaucracy
consists of the UN and NATO, the powerless and the biased.

We're left to consider, really to be among the first to consider, if there
is an equivalent of civil rights when it comes to foreign sovereigns.  
The answer to this question will inform the future of Global Society
('cause globalization is here and ain't goin' nowhere).

When is it right for one governmental body to penalize another?  What form
of penalties are justifiable?  By what justification can military action
(which must have collateral damage) be carried out against another nation?  
What about a nation under dictatorial control?  To whom does a nation
appeal for independent and impartial judgment--on objective topics like
whether or not a tape was in someone's hands on a certain date, as well as
the more subjective such as Slobodan Milosevic's intent when he attacked
the people of Kosovo.

Like most ethical questions, when you consider them from multiple
standpoints the answers stop looking as simple as your gut tells you they
should be.  Could an Arab terrorist really get a fair trial in an
international court?  Would Henry Kissinger get a fair trial?

I think we're at a very interesting juncture in our history.

-Joey

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