The Wire

Bringing villians to justice is a large part of the much vaunted war on terror. But the conduct of the trials of Saddam Hussein and Guantanmo Bay detainees has come under much fire from human rights and justice groups. In the case of Saddam, there seems to be more emphasis on what a strange person he is rather than on the political circunstances of his crimes. For Hicks and other Guantanamo inmates finally facing court there are none of the usual democratic safeguards – for example their defence teams are not permitted to cross examine their accusers. Historian Terry Hewton suspects this Coalition retreat from the rule of law might be because they fear what a full airing of the facts might bring into public view. He says there are uncomfortable lessons from history … after World War 2 the Allies held the Tokyo Trials of 25 Japanese heads of state – and the trials didn’t present the good guys/bad guys picture of the war that the allies had hoped they would ..