HOW thin is the veneer of civilisation?

 

When Bill Brown quotes Dianne Feinstein (Letters, December 11) it would appear that the implied reasoning is that an atrocity in some way justifies a reaction no matter how debased it is. It should be remembered that her remit as chair of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is to promote and defend the intelligence community actions around the world. Does this logic suggest that the Jews would have been entitled to commit genocide after their horrific treatment during the Holocaust?

In today's world the main enemy of all nations is the terrorist and to consider using any nuclear device is not only immoral but also patently absurd. The very possession of these illegal weapons of civilian slaughter is a damning indictment of our own inhumanity. The terrorist's main aim is to subvert our society and undermine our way of life. If we descend to the level of justifying torture are we any better than the terrorist who would attack us? Do we value individual liberty so little that, as Mr Brown advocates, we should permit mass surveillance of emails and mobile phones?

If our society has any value then we should not be restricted by fear or lower our standards to the barbarity of torture. As the author Neil Gaiman succinctly put it: "It has been said that civilization is twenty-four hours and two meals away from barbarism."

David Stubley,

22 Templeton Crescent,

Prestwick.

BILL Brown correctly points out the horror of the 9/11 bombings, and the shock to the American psyche when their all powerful nation was attacked and bombed. Not only Americans, but the whole world reeled with shock, and watched in disbelief as the Twin Towers burned. It was impossible not to stand in solidarity with America on its darkest day.

However, Mr Brown, in writing ''If the West wants to fight clean then perhaps it has to accept the only alternative is to fight dirty" appears to have forgotten that the West fought very dirty indeed, and without any cause whatsoever, in its response to the terror attacks on America. Seeking to destroy al-Qaeda in its Afghan refuge was one thing, but when that was accomplished, that should have been the end of military action in Afghanistan. And spectacularly, the world wide empathy which had been aroused for the US following 9/11 was dissolved when it defied all logic and, together with its UK ally, by-passed the United Nations and bombed Iraq.

Iraq was totally innocent of involvement in the 9/11 attack. The bloody invasion of Iraq, and the ensuing death and destruction which continues to plague that country has its roots in that immoral and unnecessary war against a country which posed no threat to either Britain or America. Where before there was no terrorism, the actions of the UK and US governments created a terrorist state, when they fought their dirty and illegal war.

Ruth Marr,

99 Grampian Road,

Stirling.

IN the Lockerbie trial at Zeist the CIA was the major provider of evidence to the Scottish police nominally in charge of the investigation.

From day one CIA agents were observed removing and interfering with potentially evidential material at the crash site, unimpeded by any scene-of-crime precautions.

During the trial a sliver of circuit board was produced in court, allegedly found at the crash site and discovered within a Scottish police evidence bag. The bag was seen to have had its label interfered with. The court accepted that the sliver had come from a long running bomb timer owned by Libya.

What the court did not know was that the sliver of circuit board had been manufactured using technology which had not been in use with manufacturers until the early 1990s, years after Lockerbie, and so could not have been from the wreckage in 1988.To the court it seemed strongly to support the prosecution case that the bomb had traveled all the way from Malta, courtesy of such a timer.

Those who seek the truth over Lockerbie, would like to know who made this clearly anachronistic fragment, what their motive was and how it came to be found within an official Scottish police evidence bag, thus apparently deliberately assisting in perverting the course of justice.

Hitherto both the Scottish and UK Governments have refused objective and comprehensive review of the tragedy; now is America's chance to define the role of the CIA in this dreadful case.

By assisting the court in reaching a guilty verdict against a Libyan, the scene was set for the subsequent NATO bombing of Libya, which led to the murder of Gaddafi, the collapse of Libya into an anarchy where thousands have died, and where ISIS is now able to run training camps in the East of the country, while the country's armories have been looted to supply terror groups throughout the Sahel region.

This apparent perversion of justice through CIA actions appears to have led to results which have killed more people even than those horribly murdered in 9/11.

If America wishes to overcome the CIA's deep stain on her reputation for freedom and fairness, as at least some of her senators and her President seem to want to do, she will need to investigate just how far back the CIA first became a semi-autonomous rogue organisation.

The senate's investigations must now be extended back in time to cover all aspects of the Lockerbie bombing, the truth of which so many in the Arab world already believe has been deliberately concealed to this day for political reasons, by the West.

Enough of the present Senate report has been left unredacted to show not only that the limits of the law were far exceeded, but that a culture free from the restraints of honesty or integrity had been accepted without question by many in the service.

Dr Jim Swire,

Rowans Corner, Calf Lane, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire.