The war on
terror, that campaign without end launched 14 years ago by George
Bush, is tying itself up in ever more grotesque contortions. On
Monday the trial in London of a Swedish man, Bherlin Gildo, accused
of terrorism in Syria, collapsed after it became clear British
intelligence had been arming the same rebel groups the defendant was
charged with supporting.
The
prosecution abandoned the case, apparently to avoid embarrassing the
intelligence services. The defence argued that going ahead with the
trial would have been an “affront to justice” when there was
plenty of evidence the British state was itself providing “extensive
support” to the armed Syrian opposition.
That didn’t
only include the “non-lethal assistance” boasted of by the
government (including body armour and military vehicles), but
training, logistical support and the secret supply of “arms on a
massive scale”. Reports were cited that MI6 had cooperated with the
CIA on a “rat line” of arms transfers from Libyan stockpiles to
the Syrian rebels in 2012 after the fall of the Gaddafi regime.
Clearly, the
absurdity of sending someone to prison for doing what ministers and
their security officials were up to themselves became too much. But
it’s only the latest of a string of such cases. Less fortunate was
a London cab driver Anis Sardar, who was given a life sentence a
fortnight earlier for taking part in 2007 in resistance to the
occupation of Iraq by US and British forces. Armed opposition to
illegal invasion and occupation clearly doesn’t constitute
terrorism or murder on most definitions, including the Geneva
convention.
But
terrorism is now squarely in the eye of the beholder. And nowhere is
that more so than in the Middle East, where today’s terrorists are
tomorrow’s fighters against tyranny – and allies are enemies –
often at the bewildering whim of a western policymaker’s conference
call.
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