David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I take the point, but that is the general context. It is blackmail. There are no two ways about it. We see similar instances from China and it happens in other countries as well.

I am interested in the question of adverse effects because of people like me speaking out. What is Mr. Cotter's view of people like myself raising these issues? I intend to continue to raise them, not in away that is hostile to the United States but because I believe it is important that they be kept up to the moral standard, in the same way as I believe that the State of Israel is betraying the moral ethos of Judaism in the way it is treating the Palestinians at present. I welcome the slight move by President Obama in the last few days on Guantanamo. I know it is a very difficult problem but the United States walked itself into it.

The West stands for the right to due process and the right to proper trial. Most people, certainly in Europe and liberal people in America - I am not at all ashamed of the label "liberal" - would take offence at the idea that one can make a decision in some basement in the White House to blow away a few dozen people every so often, every Tuesday and it is done mechanically from the sky without any exposure to danger on the part of the warriors from the United States. I wonder how does Mr. Cotter read that situation? I have only one question, but I have given the context.