Anglican leader criticises Guantanamo, terrorism

[struggle4progress]

Sun Mar 5, 2006 12:03 PM GMT

By Gideon Long

LONDON (Reuters) - The leader of the world's Anglicans branded the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay an "extraordinary legal anomaly" on Sunday and said it set a dangerous precedent for dictators around the world.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, spiritual leader of 77 million Anglicans, also described Islamist extremism as "appalling" and terrorism as "an insult to God and man".

"I think what we've got in Guantanamo is an extraordinary legal anomaly ... creating a new category of custody," Williams said in an interview with BBC television in Sudan during a visit there with the United Nations World Food Programme. <snip>

"Any message given that any state can just override some of the basic habeas corpus-type provisions is going to be very welcome to tyrants elsewhere in the world, now and in the future," Williams said. <snip>

http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=1115089§ion=news&src=rss/uk/topnews

[Greeby]

1. "anomaly" There's that word again

:eyes:

The Merciless One said it best in his speech this morning:

"A principled liberal alternative has never been more needed than when there are people being abused and held without trial at Guantanamo Bay.

The Prime Minister calls it “an anomaly”.

Let me address him directly; Prime Minister, this is not an anomaly?
This is an outrage."

http://www.libdems.org.uk/conference/speech-to-the-spring-conference-2006-by-sir-menzies-campbell-mp-leader-of-the-liberal-democrats-.html

[MasonJar]

2. Thank you, Archbishop Williams, for speaking out about the

unspeakable. Why speak of the future when tyrants might welcome this example. Tyrants are the ones currently using this illegal and unworthy policy.

[mom cat]

3. Interesting that Guantanamo is only an "anomoly" but what the

"Islamist exteremist" do is an insult against God and man.
Isn't this illegal war an insult against god and man?
Isn't the killing of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians an insult against God and man?
Isn't the usee of depleted Uranium, Hellicopter gunnships, shock and awe bombing, the use of white phosprorous, the secret prisons, the extrordinary renditions, the use of sever torture, death squads and assassinations an insult against God and man?
And what about the use of nuclear weapons and the threat of using them as a first strike option an insult to God and man ... or are these mere "anomolies" too!