Friday, March 31, 2017

The obvious question

The US has designated a kiwi as a "global terrorist":
An expat New Zealander who has spent years fighting for Islamic State (Isis) has been declared a "global terrorist" by the US government.

Mark John Taylor, 42, is known as the "bumbling jihadi" after accidentally revealing his locations in the Middle East on social media during at least three years involved with Isis.

Taylor, originally from Hamilton, is believed to now be in Raqqa, Syria. He has previously urged Kiwis to carry out terrorist attacks.

On Friday morning (NZ time), the US State Department declared him a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" alongside four other men.


Which raise the obvious question: is he on a US kill-list? And if so, is the New Zealand government going to stand by and let one of our "allies" extrajudicially murder a New Zealand citizen?

It also raises questions about what information the New Zealand government has provided to the US about him, and whether by doing so they have violated Taylor's right not to be deprived of life. If he is murdered by a US drone strike, the question of their collusion is going to become a serious issue.