Winston Churchill on the human rights mess that Bush et al. have landed us in...

In a 1943 letter from Winston Churchill to Herbert Morrison talking about prisoners' rights.

"The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to law, and particularly to deny him judgment by his peers for an indefinite period, is in the highest degree odious, and is the foundation of all totalitarian Governments, whether Nazi or Communist...

... Extraordinary powers assumed by the Executive with the consent of Parliament in emergencies should be yielded up when and as the emergency declines. Nothing can be more abhorrent to democracy than to imprison a person or keep him in prison because he is unpopular. This is really the test of civilization."

Now this was in 1943 - when there was a proper war going on. Not a phony, 'lets spook the people into thinking we are all in immanent danger of terrorist attack so we can pass loads of dodgy laws and fleece tax payers money to your buddies', type of war. And yet even Churchill, who is not famous for being the most liberal minded soul, during a time of real crisis, against a proper bad guy, could see that the way we are behaving now is immoral and more importantly counter-productive.

Churchill may not have been a liberal but he was infinitely more intelligent than the cretins running the US and by default the World. Depressing isn't it!