Assuming, that the webistes taken down were abroad, any British judge does not have much jursidiction over this, so it really doesn't matter what is his order. It is probably much more important to have an advice from a lawyer that specializes in international law.
Attacking foregin website by the British is probably illegal, but the problem is that the people and organizations who maintain those sites will have a difficult time to win a lawsuit in the international court. Any type of lawsuit would force them to reveal some of the secrets of the organization and that probably would cost them much more than the moral win of any lawsuit.
I bet the intelligence community would like to know names of the people who are involved in maintaining those sites. The biggest risk taken here is that other governments might justify this type of action in the future. Imagine Chinese government attacking websites located in US or Europe devoted to democracy in China.
The Israelis definetly did not do that. That would be very naive assumption since it is against their national interests.
- First, Israel practically is not a target for AlKaida, so there is really no important reason to attack AlKaida with the scarce resources that they have and reveal to their most dangerous enemies that they have such capabilities. In all recent AlKaida terrorism actions there were wery little if any Palestinian Arabs involved.
- Second, AlKaida targets West which makes the West natural Israeli allay in the struggle with extremists.
- Third, Arab terrorism convieniently turns world public opinion against Arabs.
- Fourth, Arab terrorism turns world media attention away from Palestinian issue.
- Fifth, any attack in Europe, "hopefully in the future", in countries such as France or Germany actually helps Israelis, since European countries are usually not symphatetic to Israel in its struggle with Palestinians. I'm not suggesting, that they are not going to warn the West if they knew something about coming attack. What I'm trying to say, is that the terrorist attacks will take place many times in the future and from Israeli point of view it is important that they happen anwhere but in Israel and preferably in the countries that are not symphatetic to the state of Israel. It would be naive to assume that the Israel is going to devote it's intelligence resources trying to save every country and every person against islamist terror.
- Sixth, tracking those websites probably allows for more intelligence on militant extremism, that shutting them down. It is the same mechanism as with Osama cell phone. Until we did kept it secret that we can track his cell phone from satellites we were able to listen to some of his conversations and gain some intelligence. Now we don't even know where he is and how he communicates with his troops.
All those reasons above are somewhat or even very cynical, but in the world of secret services and national intelligence the "moral" standards are not the most important factor. National interest and effectiveness is what counts. Remeber Rainbow Wrrior ?
JM
And as we all know, in today, modern society science is done democratically by scientists voting. The majority opinion becomes the religion of the day. Those who has data that suggest otherwise we just ridicule.
JM
Slashdot Mirror
Assuming, that the webistes taken down were abroad, any British judge does not have much jursidiction over this, so it really doesn't matter what is his order. It is probably much more important to have an advice from a lawyer that specializes in international law. Attacking foregin website by the British is probably illegal, but the problem is that the people and organizations who maintain those sites will have a difficult time to win a lawsuit in the international court. Any type of lawsuit would force them to reveal some of the secrets of the organization and that probably would cost them much more than the moral win of any lawsuit. I bet the intelligence community would like to know names of the people who are involved in maintaining those sites. The biggest risk taken here is that other governments might justify this type of action in the future. Imagine Chinese government attacking websites located in US or Europe devoted to democracy in China. The Israelis definetly did not do that. That would be very naive assumption since it is against their national interests. - First, Israel practically is not a target for AlKaida, so there is really no important reason to attack AlKaida with the scarce resources that they have and reveal to their most dangerous enemies that they have such capabilities. In all recent AlKaida terrorism actions there were wery little if any Palestinian Arabs involved. - Second, AlKaida targets West which makes the West natural Israeli allay in the struggle with extremists. - Third, Arab terrorism convieniently turns world public opinion against Arabs. - Fourth, Arab terrorism turns world media attention away from Palestinian issue. - Fifth, any attack in Europe, "hopefully in the future", in countries such as France or Germany actually helps Israelis, since European countries are usually not symphatetic to Israel in its struggle with Palestinians. I'm not suggesting, that they are not going to warn the West if they knew something about coming attack. What I'm trying to say, is that the terrorist attacks will take place many times in the future and from Israeli point of view it is important that they happen anwhere but in Israel and preferably in the countries that are not symphatetic to the state of Israel. It would be naive to assume that the Israel is going to devote it's intelligence resources trying to save every country and every person against islamist terror. - Sixth, tracking those websites probably allows for more intelligence on militant extremism, that shutting them down. It is the same mechanism as with Osama cell phone. Until we did kept it secret that we can track his cell phone from satellites we were able to listen to some of his conversations and gain some intelligence. Now we don't even know where he is and how he communicates with his troops. All those reasons above are somewhat or even very cynical, but in the world of secret services and national intelligence the "moral" standards are not the most important factor. National interest and effectiveness is what counts. Remeber Rainbow Wrrior ? JM
Why give back something that you legally bought ? Are you a communist ? JM
And as we all know, in today, modern society science is done democratically by scientists voting. The majority opinion becomes the religion of the day. Those who has data that suggest otherwise we just ridicule. JM