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William Shawcross

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William Shawcross is a widely renowned writer and broadcaster. His articles have appeared in the Sunday Times, the Sunday Telegraph, the Washington Post and the Sydney Morning Herald. His books include Dubcek (1970), Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon and the Destruction of Cambodia (1979), The Shah’s Last Ride (1989) and Deliver Us From Evil: Warlords and Peacekeepers in a World of Endless Conflict (2001). In 1995 he wrote and presented the three-part BBC television series Monarchy and in 2002, to tie-in with the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, he again wrote and presented a landmark four-part BBC television series, Queen and Country, a revealing and intimate portrait of the Queen, and an absorbing study of the changing face of monarchy and of Britain during the past half-century. He lives in London and Cornwall.

'Shawcross stands as the foremost journalist of his generation.'
Irish Times

'...Shawcross holds a mirror up to ourselves as we respond ineffectively to the world's horrors.'
Glasgow Herald

Latest news

Coming in January 2012 from

Justice and the Enemy

Nuremberg, 9/11, and the Trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

William Shawcross

Publication date: January 10, 2012
$26.99/$31.50 CAN; ISBN 978-1-58648-975-5

The bestselling author – son of a lead prosecutor at Nuremberg – considers the issues surrounding the pending trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and asks: How does society deal lawfully with the lawless?

“Justice and the Enemy is genius. William Shawcross dares to take on the hot-button topic of justice for the most diabolical of our enemies in the age of terrorism. Drawing on his own father’s experience as prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials, Shawcross is never afraid to provoke an urgent call to conscience with laser reasoning and lightning prose. An invaluable contribution to the here and now.”

—Marie Brenner

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Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes Lyon, the youngest daughter of the Earl of Strathmore, was born on 4 August 1900. It might reasonably have been expected that she would lead a life of ease and privilege but few could have imagined the profound effect she would have on Britain and its people.

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Osama Bin Laden


May 9th, 2011

Sir,

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, is a wise and good man. He need not be concerned about the legality of the US killing of Osama bin Laden.

Bin Laden has consistently boasted of his role in the murder of almost 3,000 people on 9/11, as well as many more thousands around the world before and since. He has also often repeated his ambition to carry out more such attacks. 

The United States has full legal justification to take action against him. Immediately after 9/11, on September 18 2001, the Congress passed the Authorisation for Use of Military Force which allowed the president to use "all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organisations or persons" he determines assisted in mass murders of 9/11. 

The legislation also authorised the president to take any action necessary "to prevent any future acts of international terrorism" against the United States.

William Shawcross
St Mawes
Cornwall

Leading articles

Some reflections on Justice and the Enemy
In November 2009 Attorney General Eric Holder announced that he would put Khaled Sheikh Mohammed on trial in Manhattan and immediately drew protests from New Yorkers who did not relish a return visit of al Qaida in any fashion.
Powerlineblog.com, January, 2012

Justice and the Enemy: The Case for Guantanamo
Pre-trial proceedings against Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and other 9/11 suspects held in Guantanamo are likely to begin as early as March. As arguments continue to rage today over Obama's reversal of his commitment in 2009 to put these suspects on trial in U.S. federal courts, distinguished author and historian William Shawcross offers a defense of Obama's decision. In an excerpt from his just-released book, JUSTICE AND THE ENEMY: Nuremberg, 9/11, and the Trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Shawcross draws lessons from the famous trials of Nazi war criminals, over which his father, Hartley, presided as lead prosecutor.
Huffington Post, January 17, 2012

Terror on Trial
Expect to hear a lot about Nuremberg in the months ahead. The war-crimes trials of leading Nazis, begun in that German city in 1945, will form an important subtext as we approach the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of 9/11, and his associates. The pretrial proceedings at Guantánamo may start as soon as March.
Wall Street Journal, 7 January, 2012

Murdoch - you’ll miss him when he’s gone
Beware of what you wish for. If Murdoch’s business is destroyed, the diversity of British media will suffer seriously. Who might gather up the wreckage of the Times? Well, maybe Oleg Deripaska.
The Spectator, July 16th, 2011

Not everything Murdoch has done is from the dark side
Peter Oborne should have considered Rupert Murdoch more carefully before writing him off as someone from "the sewer" with whom "no Prime Minister should be seen dead"
Letter to the Daily Telegraph, 9th July, 2011

Underrated...Rupert Murdoch
William Shawcross says that the media mogul gets up the noses of the chattering classes for doing the right thing.
Standpoint, December 2010

Winston knew it was duff
A famous commentator from the BBC was contemptuous when I recently told him I would be voting against  A.V, the alternative vote, in the referendum on May 5th.
“If you’re against AV, you’re an enemy of progress,” he said. “An enemy  of progress.”
What arrogant nonsense!
The Sun, 18 April, 2011

Lessons From Nuremberg
GEORGE ORWELL is usually a footsure guide across political battlegrounds. In late 1943, when the tide had turned in the Allies’ favor, he wrote about postwar trials. Oddly, he advocated Hitler and Mussolini slipping away.
The New York Times, 9 April, 2011

Obama has gone Awol, just when it matters most
The fecklessness of President Obama threatens the core international relationship — the Western alliance — on which the freedom and prosperity of the postwar world has been built. The crisis is coming to a head in the maelstrom of Libya.
The Times, 26 March, 2011.

Bush, Blair, Iraq and Obama
...the criticisms of President Bush and Tony Blair are often hysterical and disproportionate, particularly in regard to Iraq and the post 9/11 “war on terror”.

Are the sponsors of the mosque wise?
Enthusiasm for the Islamic centre and mosque near Ground Zero (Editorial Comment, August 17) is misplaced. It is not just easy hate figures of the right such as Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich who are opposed to this mosque – CNN’s poll showed 70 per cent of Americans to be against it and the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, has joined them. President Barack Obama has shilly-shallied.
Financial Times, 24 August, 2010

The victory of Coleman prison’s famous professor, Conrad Black
They had a party in Coleman prison, north Florida on June 24. The guest of honour was the prison's most famous inmate, Conrad Black, Lord Black of Coldharbour, former media mogul. The occasion was a unanimous decision by the US Supreme Court that day which called into question Black's 2008 conviction on fraud.
Evening Standard, 6 July, 2010

Britain's humiliation
A Foreign Office diplomat’s proposal to mark the Pope’s visit to Britain with Benedict condoms and by having him bless a gay marriage, open an abortion clinic, and set up a hotline for abused children is a perfect example of the ruling Labour party’s degradation of Britain.
National Review online, 29 April , 2010

An irrational, obscene hatred
Israel is a cartoon villain, beyond sympathy, beyond even redemption. What is shocking – and frightening – is that the narrative the world accepts is always that of Israel as the evildoer.
Jerusalem Post, 8 June , 2010

Even Obama holds Israel to a double standard
"Shut up. Go back to Auschwitz." That was the response from the "peace flotilla" when the Israelis broadcast a radio message warning the Turkish ships that they were about to enter an area under naval blockade.
Washington Examiner, 7 June, 2010

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Iraq is, even in its present condition, a rebuke to the dynasties and dictatorships of the Arab world'
Evening Standard, 5 March, 2010

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