Comments on: Gazans to Invest British Aid Money in Sumo Coaching http://politicsandpoetry.com/2010/06/gazans-to-invest-british-aid-money-in-sumo-coaching/ Home to a cat-loving neocon poet Fri, 30 Dec 2011 05:06:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: Oliver http://politicsandpoetry.com/2010/06/gazans-to-invest-british-aid-money-in-sumo-coaching/comment-page-1/#comment-1005 Oliver Thu, 17 Jun 2010 13:27:24 +0000 http://politicsandpoetry.com/?p=284#comment-1005 As an aside, a few dozen people were quite horribly murdered in late-80s and early-90s Japan by a millennial, Buddhist-fundamentalist terrorist cult known as the Aum Shinrikyo, which boasted 1000s of members, some as far afield as Russia, and whose stated aim seemed nothing less than religiously-inspired slaughter and chaos. (I should know: I was living in the country at the time.) Did the government of Japan declare itself to be at war with an enemy capable of destroying the both country and democracy? Did it introduce a repressive raft of 'anti-terror' measures, suspend Habeas Corpus and issue scaremongering justifications for the use of torture? Did it invade Russia, for harbouring terrorists? No on all 3 counts -- instead it employed, simply but thoroughly, the existing criminal laws, sending police en masse to raid cult establishments, seize all its funds and properties, and round up cult members. Then Japan used the evidence thus gathered (including the testimony of low-ranking, less fanatical members, in exchange for reduced sentences and subject to continuing surveillance by the security services) to assemble such compelling cases against the leaders that most if not all of them ended up getting the death sentence. No torture, no Guantanamo, no 'executive presidency', no Patriot Act -- just existing powers of the state coupled with the rule of law versus a terroristic fanaticism that didn't hesitate to unleash nerve gas on the Tokyo subway. And guess what? The good guys didn't only win, they remained the good guys in doing so. NeoConservatives ought to try it sometime. As an aside, a few dozen people were quite horribly murdered in late-80s and early-90s Japan by a millennial, Buddhist-fundamentalist terrorist cult known as the Aum Shinrikyo, which boasted 1000s of members, some as far afield as Russia, and whose stated aim seemed nothing less than religiously-inspired slaughter and chaos. (I should know: I was living in the country at the time.)

Did the government of Japan declare itself to be at war with an enemy capable of destroying the both country and democracy? Did it introduce a repressive raft of ‘anti-terror’ measures, suspend Habeas Corpus and issue scaremongering justifications for the use of torture? Did it invade Russia, for harbouring terrorists?

No on all 3 counts — instead it employed, simply but thoroughly, the existing criminal laws, sending police en masse to raid cult establishments, seize all its funds and properties, and round up cult members. Then Japan used the evidence thus gathered (including the testimony of low-ranking, less fanatical members, in exchange for reduced sentences and subject to continuing surveillance by the security services) to assemble such compelling cases against the leaders that most if not all of them ended up getting the death sentence.

No torture, no Guantanamo, no ‘executive presidency’, no Patriot Act — just existing powers of the state coupled with the rule of law versus a terroristic fanaticism that didn’t hesitate to unleash nerve gas on the Tokyo subway. And guess what? The good guys didn’t only win, they remained the good guys in doing so.

NeoConservatives ought to try it sometime.

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