Tuesday, October 04, 2005

Laws of wide application

Word comes out that Iraq's parliament has passed a rather wide-ranging anti-terrorism law:
The tough new anti-terrorism law -- a response to almost daily suicide bombings and attacks in Iraq -- sets capital punishment for "those who commit ... terror acts" as well as "those who provoke, plan, finance and all those who enable terrorists to commit these crimes," according to a text obtained by The Associated Press...

The law defines terrorism as any criminal act against people, institutions or property that "aims to hurt security, stability and national unity and introduce terror, fear or horror among the people and cause chaos."

It also cites "activity threatening to spark sectarian differences or civil war ... including by arming citizens or encouraging or financing their arming."

I'm not quite sure who drafted the language, but it seems that almost anybody taking a side in a future civil war would be covered - though of course we can safely assume that only the losers would be punished. Not to mention that I'd love to see the defense argument against a prosecution based on the "shock and awe" campaign (or prisoner abuse, or...well, you get the idea) helping to provoke terrorism.

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