Newsnight 16 August

Presented by Kirsty Wark.

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Troop re-deployment

President Bush made a speech in Ohio announcing one of the largest troop realignments since the end of the Cold War. Up to 100,000 troops and their families are to be re-deployed, mainly leaving Europe and Asia. The plans have been in train for a while, but timing is everything. We asked whether the announcement has been timed to boost Republican support at home in the run-up to the Presidential election in a few months time, and we explored the implications for Europe and the volatile situation in Iraq.

The contributors to our discussion were:
Professor Michael Clarke, Director, International Policy Institute
Harlan Ullman, Center for Strategic and International Studies

Najaf

As fighting continued in Najaf, in Baghdad the United Nations special representative, Ashraf Qazi, said he was prepared to take part in negotiations to try to end the continuing stand-off between US forces and militants in the holy city. The crisis again dominated the national conference being held in Baghdad to try to shape the future of Iraq. We spoke to Jamal Benomar, one of the UN representatives in charge of the meeting and asked what can be achieved at the conference.

Surveillance society

In an interview for The Times newspaper, the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, has warned against the danger of what he describes as "sleepwalking into a surveillance society". Part of Mr Thomas' job is to look at the way in which the government collects information on us, and he's concerned that the various methods by which this is done, may not do the job it is intended to. We looked at whether the proliferation of ways to know where we are and what we're up to, will deliver a safer society.

We spoke to:
Martin Linton MP, Aide to the Leader of the House
Vicky Chapman, Head of Law Reform, The Law Society

Sharia Law

And we reported from Canada, where the government of Ontario is considering whether to allow Muslim Courts to resolve civil law disputes by arbitration. That means Canadian Courts would uphold decisions made by Sharia Law on divorce, inheritance and business wrangles, provided those rulings did not violate Canada's charter of rights. This issue is very contentious because many critics claim Sharia discriminates against women, saying their rights are not equal to those of men.

Click here for the report

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