Some compassion, please
Ahmed Zaoui’s family are applying for the right to come to New Zealand and be reunited after two and a half years of separation. I’m confident that the majority of Kiwis will support their applications. The way Zaoui has been treated, with two years of detention without being shown the evidence under which he was being detained, has been a constant embarrassment for this government and this country, While Winston Peters will try to make political hay out of the Zaoui family’s possible reunification – a militant underbelly and all that – the rest of us will just see a family that has been apart for too long. If our failure to respect Ahmed Zaoui’s human rights can be mitigated a little bit by allowing his family to join him, then so much the better.
July 31st, 2005 at 10:12 am
yes fwwog just what we need,
July 31st, 2005 at 11:37 am
No problems with his family coming here as long as it is made clear that if he is ouski, so are they.
July 31st, 2005 at 11:59 am
the “war on terror” reallie has become a war on justice.
I don’t understand the full details of the Zaoui case.
David what is ouski?
Here in Palmerston North at centrepoint Theatre , where I work, we will be perfoming the NZ premier of a plaie called “Guantanamo honour bound to defend freedom”
It is about the english detainees that were sent to guantanamo, some of whom have now been released (because their british).
The people there are all being held without charge.
It is insanitie rivaling that of the witch hunts IMO. The fact that most of them are, I believe, absolutely innocent is not as important (IMHO)as the fact that legal process has been abandoned.
July 31st, 2005 at 8:59 pm
We have to abandon due legal process because THEY are trying to destroy OUR way of life.
Just remind me exactly who is intent on destroying the freedoms and rights that have been hard won over the centuries
August 1st, 2005 at 9:01 am
fastbike. The abandonment of legal process. Kind of plays into American hands. That is the hands of those whose terrorists where the Green beret or are CEO of an American owned nulti-national. Who exactly is trying to destroy our freedom and rights? A few suicide bombers doesn’t compare at all to the might of the dollar and the armed forces of countries like Israel. Britain and the US. Even 9-11 isn’t really that significant compared, in body count terms, to the road toll in the US or any other “natural” cause of death.
Must be terrible living in a country that pushes people so hard that little people without power are prepared to give their lives to try and get their cause noticed.
August 1st, 2005 at 9:13 am
The conspiracy against Zauoi is truely disturbing.
First France, an agent of the US and abject Bush lackey, finds reason to have Zauoi leave. Something about getting mixed up with terrorits. We all know how much France is in the pay of the US.
Then Belgium, an agent of the US and abject Bush lackey, finds reason to have Zauoi leave. Something about getting mixed up with terrorits. We all know how much Belgium is in the pay of the US.
Then Switzerland, an agent of the US and abject Bush lackey, finds reason to have Zauoi leave. Something about getting mixed up with terrorits. We all know how much Switzerland is in the pay of the US.
And finally Malaysia, an agent of the US and abject Bush lackey, finds reason to have Zauoi leave. Something about getting mixed up with terrorits. We all know how much Malaysia is in the pay of the US.
That the US sercret service can engineer such a conspircay all in the name of The War On Terror is truely frightening.
August 1st, 2005 at 9:19 am
Scott,
I had typed a <farce> farce sign around my first sentence. Unfortunately frog’s server ate them - seems he eats more than annoying buzzing flies
Next time i’ll be more careful with my sarcasm eh.
August 1st, 2005 at 12:00 pm
I don’t know sock theif. It is an interesting idea but I think that if so many countries kicked Zauoi out, that might be a good reason to be suspicious of him. I don’t see how the U.S. secret service could possibly have masterminded such a “conspiracy” as you call it. Do you have any proof to back up your claim? Also, I had never heard any evidence that the countries you mentioned (France, Belguim, Switzerland, Malaysia) are in any way “in the pay of the U.S.” though I’d be very interested to hear more about why you think this is so. I think there really is a risk of a case like this being turned into a politcal football and the discussion can become about innocence or guilt. When the real issue is one of whether we as a people are prepared to accept a closed legal proccesses. To me, a system where someone can be charged without being told what they are charged with, or be held without charge, or where there is no independant prosecution, defence, judge and jury is to be shunned. I don’t care if a person is caught red handed, they must have access an open legal proccess because if we don’t honour this proccess then our society has become criminal.
August 1st, 2005 at 1:15 pm
wizban, I was being ironic. Of course there is no such conspiracy - but the supporters of Zauoi have to believe in something like this.
I also forgot to add -
Then New Zealand, an agent of the US and abject Bush lackey, finds reason to have Zauoi leave. Something about getting mixed up with terrorits. We all know how much Helen Clark is in the pay of the US.
August 1st, 2005 at 1:28 pm
not sure why you think the American’s got the French to convict Zauoi - it was because of the connections between France and their former colony Algeria, nothing to do with the Yanks.
Also, Zaoui was not forced to leave France because of court case - he had already left and was tried in his absence.
August 1st, 2005 at 1:38 pm
stuey, you can replace the US by France and the point is the same. But many Zauoi supporters claim that his predicament is a direct result of what they consider to be Bush’s misguided WOT. There are quiet a few unlikely countries that are, according to Zauoi’s supporters, all part of some secret service plot against him.
And if you look at those countries, non have been particularly on side with Bush. France is very pro-Arab and Malaysia is very pro-Muslim so why on earth would those countries have something against Zauoi if not that they considered him dodgy?
August 1st, 2005 at 2:15 pm
I didn’t replace the US with France, I replaced the US with Algeria.
You ask why? because the French have a lot of economic interests in Algeria, so they have to be onside with the regime there.
August 1st, 2005 at 4:59 pm
sock theif,
I don’t think there is any secret service plot against him and I don’t know the precise details of the situation as pertains to Zauoi, but I know that with the “WOT” countries all around the world made changes to their “security” laws, or introduced “anti terror” laws, also the “intellegence” agencies began sharing more info with each other.
So I don’t think that it would take any orchestrated effort for separate intellegence agencies to work together once he had been listed as a suspect. But if all the info that separate agencies had was from the same original source, and if he was never tried, or convicted or accused of anything. Then we could easily have an “emperors new clothes” type scenario where everyone is just following the rest that were before them.
August 8th, 2005 at 11:37 pm
ouski –> presumable outski as in out