The real legacy of the so-called “war on terror” that the United States prosecuted after the September 11 attacks has been the steady degradation of international law. The conventions that had held on the international stage for decades were swept aside as, suddenly, the US felt they were no longer relevant to its wars.
Out of the window went the prohibition on detention without trial –hundreds were rounded up and thrown into Guantanamo Bay, many languishing for years, never told what they were accused of. Some are still there. Thrown away, too, were the curbs on torture. What the United Nations call “cruel or inhuman” treatment was standard procedure at Guantanamo Bay, at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, and at prisons in Afghanistan and around the world, in the secret “dark” prisons. Witness the disgusting images of prisoners, naked and humiliated, leaked from Abu Ghraib. Listen to the accounts of what “waterboarding” – what is really simulated drowning – entails.
The war on terror also introduced the 21st century to “extraordinary rendition”, the process of kidnapping foreign citizens without the consent of their governments. Looking at the way the US “acquired” Ahmed Abu Khattala, the Libyan suspected of involvement in the Benghazi embassy attack, it is hard to avoid the obvious conclusion. Regardless of the veneer of legality put on his case by putting him in front of a US judge, it is obvious he was simply kidnapped by the US from Libya and held captive for two weeks on a US warship.
It is important that such cases are explained clearly for what they are. The US media has been astonishingly complicit in this violation of international law: not one major outlet has asked by what legality Abu Khattala was taken and reached the US.
It matters little whether Abu Khattala is a “bad guy”; the principles of justice must apply to everyone. To be a policeman means upholding the law; to be a global policeman means upholding international law.
If the US goes around the world invading countries on flimsy pretexts, it cannot be surprised if others, such as Russia, decided to do so too. If the US considers kidnapping to be a valid tool of diplomacy or law enforcement, it should not be surprised when, as with Bowe Bergdahl, its enemies consider that a valid tool as well. The law must apply to everyone. Not adhering to international law makes the whole world more dangerous.