'Great Justices Installed by Bush' - the Afghan Chief Justice

As the Alito confirmation hearings begin, it is worth considering some of the judicial consquences of George W. Bush's various campaigns.

When the US overthrew the Taliban and installed the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, the Bush administration implied that everything had changed.

What few observers seem to have noticed is that Hamid Karzai immediately appointed as Afghanistan's chief justice, Fazal Hadi Shinwari, whose philosophy of life was little different from that of the Taliban!

One can only imagine that Bush, who kept thousands of troops in the country and oversaw the evolution of the Afghanistan government, had no objections to the man's judicial philosophy.

Among Shinwari's rulings:

Amputation of hands and stoning to death will continue to be the punishment for thieves and adulterers in post-Taliban Afghanistan, country?s new Chief Justice Fazal Hadi Shinwari was reported today as saying.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020113/world.htm#3

The fatwa department of Afghanistan's supreme court has recommended that two journalists from a weekly newspaper that published articles some people consider blasphemous be put to death.
http://www.aidainternational.nl/agenda/diversen/Fatwa%20for%20Blasphemy%20Journalists.html

Afghanistan's chief Justice, Molvi Fazal Hadi Shinwari, on Tuesday called for abolishing the country's co-education schools as it violates Islamic teachings and principles.
http://www.hvk.org/articles/0203/256.html

Cable television services in the Afghan capital, Kabul, have been temporarily closed following a ruling by the country's chief justice.
http://www.rawa.org/cable-tv.htm

from Juan Cole:
http://www.juancole.com/2006/01/great-justices-installed-by-bush-as.html

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see also, from RAWA:

The "Miracle" or a Mockery of Afghanistan?

Ms. Diane Tebelius, Republican congressional candidate and observer in the Afghan elections sponsored by the International Republican Institute, is perhaps the first election observer in Afghanistan who wasted no time to communicate her impression in The Seattle Times of October 4, 2005.

A few days ago Ms. Tebelius returned to the United States from Kabul, I am writing these notes as a response to her dreadful article from inside my trampled country. As a member of RAWA, I had to be in several provinces to meet as many people as possible regarding the elections. Tebelius can enjoy the luxury of sitting in her house and so easily call the disgusting mockery of an election "the miracle of Afghanistan", while I am crying from among the people in the hell of the Taliban and Northern Alliance (NA) terrorists and their "westernized" accomplices. Tebelius and other election observers with their bullet-proofs and body guards were in the hands of the American soldiers and Afghan agents. She might have been told about "swift spreading democracy", "prosperity", "complete security" and other "miracles" in our land of warlords and payees of foreign powers. On the other hand since she was selected by the U.S. government that brought Karzai and the Northern Alliance to the scene, it comes as no surprise she is not calling a spade a spade.

One of her miraculous statements is: "The Afghan people see Americans as liberators."

A distorted proclamation! As we have repeatedly asserted and shown, all of the fundamentalist bands including Taliban were created, funded, and trained by the CIA turning a blind eye to the higher interest of the Afghan people and to the consequence of such sinister support to the fate of freedom and democracy in our country. Thus, the US war on the Taliban is nothing but a family fracas between the father and his rogue children. The US started the fracas by not replacing religious tyranny with democracy, by not relying on the people, but rather by siding with the NA, the very worst enemies of our people. It goes without saying that Afghans will not see as their "liberators" those who drove the Taliban wolves through one door and unchained the rabid dogs of the NA through another. How a nation "sees as liberators" those who have blown to shred not the terrorists but thousands of innocents? How can simple Afghans "see Americans as liberators" while the "liberators" are going to woo their men in the government and in the parliament to approve the establishment of the US bases on our soil for decades, which obviously goes contrary to the independence of the country? Our people say that if Americans were their liberators, they should have not allowed about 200 criminals and arch enemies of democracy to pave their way to the parliament and provincial council. After four years the people see that the "liberators'" promises for them were all lies. And bear it in mind, Ms. Tebelius, that our ruined people have no doubt that those with the disgraceful stories of Abu Ghraib cannot be their "liberators". Do we need to recite abuses of the "liberators" in Afghanistan?

(...)

http://www.rawa.org/seattletimes.htm