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Terrorism and Britons fighting abroad Terrorism and Britons fighting abroad
(about 1 month later)
George Monbiot (Orwell's heroism? Today he'd be guilty of terrorism, 11 February) seems to equate British members of the mid-30s International Brigades with those Britons currently fighting in Syria against the Assad government. However, the International Brigaders were resisting a putsch by fascist Francoists (supported by Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy) against the legitimately elected Spanish Republican government. Despite the lack of a democratically elected regime in Syria prior to the present civil war, it is quite unclear to me why the anti-Assad uprising in Homs was immediately assumed by the west to be the onset of a democratic revolution for the Syrian people. Will the west never learn from its recent disastrous intervention in Libya – and earlier "liberation" of Iraq – that such actions may not bring about democracy, but on the contrary often worsen the plight of inhabitants living under autocratic regimes?Bryan BowesGlasgowGeorge Monbiot (Orwell's heroism? Today he'd be guilty of terrorism, 11 February) seems to equate British members of the mid-30s International Brigades with those Britons currently fighting in Syria against the Assad government. However, the International Brigaders were resisting a putsch by fascist Francoists (supported by Hitler's Germany and Mussolini's Italy) against the legitimately elected Spanish Republican government. Despite the lack of a democratically elected regime in Syria prior to the present civil war, it is quite unclear to me why the anti-Assad uprising in Homs was immediately assumed by the west to be the onset of a democratic revolution for the Syrian people. Will the west never learn from its recent disastrous intervention in Libya – and earlier "liberation" of Iraq – that such actions may not bring about democracy, but on the contrary often worsen the plight of inhabitants living under autocratic regimes?Bryan BowesGlasgow
• George Monbiot appears a little confused. As he observes, Orwell, Lee – and thousands of others – fought in defence of Spain's legitimate government. I'm fairly certain that those arrested on return from Syria would have been acting there against the legitimate government.David LewinOxford• George Monbiot appears a little confused. As he observes, Orwell, Lee – and thousands of others – fought in defence of Spain's legitimate government. I'm fairly certain that those arrested on return from Syria would have been acting there against the legitimate government.David LewinOxford
• George Monbiot's question about "Allied effort in the second world war: how much was known, how much could have been done?" indeed should haunt us still in relation to current horrors. Based on first-hand evidence smuggled out of German-occupied Poland by Jan Karski, the foreign minister of the Polish government in exile, Count Raczynski, was able on December 10 1942, to present a note to the UN entitled "the mass extermination of Jews in German-occupied Poland", which left in no doubt what was being undertaken. In early 1943, Karski met with Anthony Eden and later with Roosevelt and others in the US administration, but with limited effect: Felix Frankfurter simply couldn't believe that what Karski was describing could be true. Disbelief is perhaps forgivable; turning a blind eye is not. And those British nationals who have been drawn to the struggle against Assad and his murderous regime in Syria could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if they live to tell the tale and return to these shores? How good it is to be British.Bruce Ross-SmithOxford• George Monbiot's question about "Allied effort in the second world war: how much was known, how much could have been done?" indeed should haunt us still in relation to current horrors. Based on first-hand evidence smuggled out of German-occupied Poland by Jan Karski, the foreign minister of the Polish government in exile, Count Raczynski, was able on December 10 1942, to present a note to the UN entitled "the mass extermination of Jews in German-occupied Poland", which left in no doubt what was being undertaken. In early 1943, Karski met with Anthony Eden and later with Roosevelt and others in the US administration, but with limited effect: Felix Frankfurter simply couldn't believe that what Karski was describing could be true. Disbelief is perhaps forgivable; turning a blind eye is not. And those British nationals who have been drawn to the struggle against Assad and his murderous regime in Syria could face a maximum sentence of life in prison if they live to tell the tale and return to these shores? How good it is to be British.Bruce Ross-SmithOxford
• I agree with George Monbiot that the Terrorism Act only applies to some terrorist, not all. Anyone motivated by solidarity or ideology to violently remove a foreign head of state risks arrest and a very long term of imprisonment when they return to UK. However, the provisions of the act do not seem to apply to anyone whose motivation is purely mercenary, as in the case of the attempted coup in 2004 against the government of Equatorial Guinea. The coup's leader and planner who stood to make millions – a business associate of Mark Thatcher as it happens – was not arrested or harassed by the law on his return to UK and is still at liberty.John LloydLondon• I agree with George Monbiot that the Terrorism Act only applies to some terrorist, not all. Anyone motivated by solidarity or ideology to violently remove a foreign head of state risks arrest and a very long term of imprisonment when they return to UK. However, the provisions of the act do not seem to apply to anyone whose motivation is purely mercenary, as in the case of the attempted coup in 2004 against the government of Equatorial Guinea. The coup's leader and planner who stood to make millions – a business associate of Mark Thatcher as it happens – was not arrested or harassed by the law on his return to UK and is still at liberty.John LloydLondon
• In the autumn of 2006 we were part of a group assisting Palestinian farmers in the West Bank with their olive harvest.  We were lodged in Bethlehem. During our stay we witnessed a shocking incident. A wedding party in the town was surrounded and attacked by Israeli soldiers. The man they were hunting escaped but in the course of the attack a 70-year-old woman was shot dead and a teenager died later in hospital from a bullet in the head. After the attack, the wedding home and the house next door belonging to relatives were both destroyed. We were told this action would have been perpetrated by a special unit of the Israeli Defence Force charged with hunting and killing anyone the authorities believed to be a "terrorist". Within days of returning to the UK, we read a report in the Guardian about young British Jewish Zionists who volunteered for training and service in the unit whose activities we had only just witnessed. The article was written in largely approving terms. On the face of it, under the Terrorist Act 2006, such volunteers could be seen to be guilty of fighting abroad with a "political, ideological, religious or racial motive". What is the Crown Prosecution Service head of counter-terrorism, Sue Hemming, doing about that?John and Gwen BackwellLiverpool • A letter purporting to be a witness account of an attack on a wedding party in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers has been deleted on 25 March 2014. The writers of the letter have subsequently acknowledged that they did not actually see the incident, of which the facts are disputed, but were told of it later.