Sameh Ashour Quotes
We must declare that all the agreements that were signed are null and void. We must banish them from our conscience and trample them underfoot. We do not recognize them.
This quotation illustrates a great problem with treaties in international law. Here an opponent of the Egyptian regime and one who disapproves of the regime before it, wants to repudiate the treaties that had been signed by previous Egyptian governments. So when there is a regime change, can a new regime repudiate earlier treaties? International law says no, but if a new government refuses to follow its obligations, then it is left to the other treaty partners to put pressure on them--breaking diplomatic relations, trade sanctions, even war. For example, President Thomas Jefferson made a treaty with the French Dictator Napoleon and bought the Louisiana Territory which includes a number of current American states. If a new French government abrogated the treaty of the dictator on the grounds that it did not represent the will of the French people and tried to take back their land, war could ensue. Nations very rarely repudiate treaties for if they did, who would sign any new ones?
Sameh Ashour, Egyptian Chairman of the Union of Arab Lawyers, Speech, Syrian TV, January 23, 2006
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
When accused of being a baby killer for her views on abortion:
As Secretary of State, Powell was going to address the UN Security Council on the 5th and he was coordinating his speech with the other agencies of the government. His criterion was that he only wanted to make accusations that were backed up by incontrovertible evidence. However, VP Richard Cheney and his aide, Scooter Libby, kept inserting an accusation that Iraq was involved with and supported Al Qaeda. This was one of the many speculations that those who wanted to justify attacking Iraq kept using as Domestic propaganda. When Powell asked for proof or intelligence reports and none could be provided, he removed the accusation from the speech explaining why. However, at the last minute, Cheney and his staff put the accusation back in, and that triggered the quotation. Unfortunately, Powell was so busy fending off totally absurd accusations, that he accepted the CIA assurances {79468} that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons that were about to be operationalized and never heard from those who questioned the credibility of the sources for the basic accusation. Powell had great trust among the diplomats of the world then gave the United States version to the Security Council and justified our coming invasion of Iraq. But the intelligence report, despite the assurances of the CIA and the Vice President, was false and Iraq not only was not close to a nuclear weapon but he had no program at all at that time to try and develop one. Powell resigned and his credibility about the world was ruined as he was then seen as just another lying politician.
Asked if "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau, who was highly critical of President George W. Bush, would be invited to the White House with other editorial cartoonists to have lunch with President Bush:
After coming to power in a coup, he had been in office for 22 years, and had been elected in less than "fres and fair" elections. As in many dictatorial nations, the ruler so contols the media and surpresses significant opposition so that he can obtain the "ligitimacy" of having been elected. However in 2016, despit his control of the entire system, public opinion was so much against him, that even with the various devices and artifices to control; the election, he lost. His repose was to claim that the election was fraudulent and tained and pointed to evidence of such. However the actions he claimed tainted the elections were all done by his minions tryiing to rig the election in his favor.
Sameh Mohamed Ashour (born in Sohag) is an Egyptian lawyer who completed his LLB in 1975. He was the Vice President of Supreme Consultancy Council, Egypt Bar association, head of lawyers syndicate, vice president of International Bar association and African Bar Association and president of the Arab Lawyers Association.
