(If this list is incomplete, please don't bother emailing - it is surely long enough to be going on with.)
The curious thing, if that's the expression I'm looking for, about Mr Qatada is that he has been in prison in Britain on and off for six years, fighting deportation to Jordan. The British Courts were persuaded that Qatada was too dangerous to release on bail. Only the other week the European Court ruled that Qatada couldn't be deported, because the Jordanian Court might admit evidence obtained by torture, and now the British Government has had to release him on "control order" bail, whatever that is, with total release in three months if there is no progress on the Jordanian trial negotiations.
A number of things strike me. One, I really don't like the idea of someone being detained for six years without trial just because the Government thinks they might be too dangerous to release on bail. "Control orders" are indefensible. Two, Qatada would rather languish in jail here without trial than take his chances with Jordanian justice. Three, Qatada and people like him tend to be very keen on the rule of law when it can be used in their favour, but are paradoxically quite happy to violate it by blowing other people up (or exhorting others to blow people up) when it suits them.
Fourthly, how short sighted is the European Court? After all, if there's a risk that evidence against a person has been obtained by torture, any lawyer worth their salt will have a field day discrediting the witnesses. Many a defendant going through the British courts would give their right arm to be able to cast such a slur. The proper course surely would be to let the Jordanian witnesses have their say, and then let Qatada's Defence lawyers off the leash. Assessing the evidence - whether it's any good or not - is the Court's function.
Of course if half the things our government says about Qatada are true, he would not last long on the outside in Britain without putting his foot in it somehow. Perhaps Qatada is a kind of Joey Barton of the Islamist world, unable to open his mouth without urging Jihad or the killing of all infidels. Given a decent amount of surveillance by Scotland Yard, it wouldn't be long before he had committed an imprisonable offence.
On the other hand it's perfectly possible that Qatada might come out and live peaceably amongst his family, doing nothing more dangerous than claiming benefits, going to the mosqe, keeping his nose clean and watching daytime Al Jazeera. What a life.
