Look Familiar?
For twenty-five years (since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat), Egypt has had an emergency law on the books. That's a pretty long emergency by any standards, but it apparently is expected to continue for at least another two years, according to an article in the NY Times.
President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday pushed through Parliament a two-year extension of an emergency law, a measure that for almost 25 years has effectively allowed the Egyptian government to detain prisoners indefinitely and without charge.
..."We will never use the emergency law against the Egyptian people," he said to the crowded parliamentary chamber. "We will use it only to protect the citizens and face the terror cells that did not quell until now."
But the extension was widely criticized by political opposition groups, human rights groups and citizens on the streets of Cairo, who said it demonstrated that the government was intent on protecting itself, not the people.
...The extension provided another signal that the government had stalled — if not reversed — the commitment it had made toward increasing freedoms. In recent days, Egypt, like other countries in the region, has backtracked on such promises as pressure from the United States has eased. [Emphasis added]
Obviously the US has backed off on demanding these kinds of reforms from its Middle East allies. We're holding too many citizens from those countries in Guantanamo Bay, and have held them without trial or even charge for several years. It would be unseemly to insist that Egypt not do what we are clearly doing.
What is most disturbing about the article, however, is the fact that the ramming through of an extension of this practice looks only too familiar. We've just watched the same activity as the White House rammed through the Patriot Act based on the same premise, a state of emergency, only here we call it the Global War on Terror.
It appears that we still have twenty-two years to go when it comes to our liberties being under attack. And, as in Egypt, the attacker is our own government.
President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday pushed through Parliament a two-year extension of an emergency law, a measure that for almost 25 years has effectively allowed the Egyptian government to detain prisoners indefinitely and without charge.
..."We will never use the emergency law against the Egyptian people," he said to the crowded parliamentary chamber. "We will use it only to protect the citizens and face the terror cells that did not quell until now."
But the extension was widely criticized by political opposition groups, human rights groups and citizens on the streets of Cairo, who said it demonstrated that the government was intent on protecting itself, not the people.
...The extension provided another signal that the government had stalled — if not reversed — the commitment it had made toward increasing freedoms. In recent days, Egypt, like other countries in the region, has backtracked on such promises as pressure from the United States has eased. [Emphasis added]
Obviously the US has backed off on demanding these kinds of reforms from its Middle East allies. We're holding too many citizens from those countries in Guantanamo Bay, and have held them without trial or even charge for several years. It would be unseemly to insist that Egypt not do what we are clearly doing.
What is most disturbing about the article, however, is the fact that the ramming through of an extension of this practice looks only too familiar. We've just watched the same activity as the White House rammed through the Patriot Act based on the same premise, a state of emergency, only here we call it the Global War on Terror.
It appears that we still have twenty-two years to go when it comes to our liberties being under attack. And, as in Egypt, the attacker is our own government.
posted by Diane at 3:55 AM
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