Mehdi Hasan

Mehdi Hasan’s polemical take on politics, economics and foreign affairs

Licence to kill

President Obama has assassinated a US citizen via drone strike. Yet his supporters are shamefully si

By Mehdi Hasan Published 01 October 2011 13:42

Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American Muslim cleric of Yemeni descent and alleged al-Qaeda commander, was assasinated by a CIA drone yesterday on the orders of the US commander-in-chief. Once again, Barack Obama, the Drone President, has been given a pass by liberals.

Where was the trial?

Where was the evidence or indictment in a court of law?

Where was the attempt at an arrest or extradition?

Where was due process?

Even George W Bush didn't assassinate US citizens, terror suspects or otherwise, in this brazen manner. And I can assure you that if he had done, most US liberals would have been up in arms, protesting and hollering.

To understand why, consider the legal and moral arguments offered by Glenn Greenwald, Adam Serwer and Michael Ratner, below:

1) From Glenn Greenwald's Salon blog:

After several unsuccessful efforts to assassinate its own citizen, the US succeeded today (and it was the US). It almost certainly was able to find and kill Awlaki with the help of its long-time close friend President Saleh, who took a little time off from murdering his own citizens to help the US murder its. The US thus transformed someone who was, at best, a marginal figure into a martyr, and again showed its true face to the world. The government and media search for the Next Bin Laden has undoubtedly already commenced.

What's most striking about this is not that the US government has seized and exercised exactly the power the Fifth Amendment was designed to bar ("No person shall be deprived of life without due process of law"), and did so in a way that almost certainly violates core First Amendment protections (questions that will now never be decided in a court of law). What's most amazing is that its citizens will not merely refrain from objecting but will stand and cheer the US government's new power to assassinate their fellow citizens, far from any battlefield, literally without a shred of due process from the US government. Many will celebrate the strong, decisive, tough president's ability to eradicate the life of Anwar al-Awlaki -- including many who just so righteously condemned those Republican audience members as so terribly barbaric and crass for cheering Governor Perry's execution of scores of serial murderers and rapists: criminals who were at least given a trial and appeals and the other trappings of due process before being killed.

From an authoritarian perspective, that's the genius of America's political culture. It not only finds ways to obliterate the most basic individual liberties designed to safeguard citizens from consummate abuses of power (such as extinguishing the lives of citizens without due process). It actually gets its citizens to stand up and clap and even celebrate the destruction of those safeguards.

2) From Adam Serwer's Mother Jones blog:

The central question in the death of American extremist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki is not his innocence. That really misses the point. Awlaki was the only publicly known name on a covert list of American citizens the US government believes it can legally kill without charge or trial. Awlaki's killing can't be viewed as a one-off situation; what we're talking about is the establishment of a precedent by which a US president can secretly order the death of an American citizen unchecked by any outside process. Rules that get established on the basis that they only apply to the "bad guys" tend to be ripe for abuse, particularly when they're secret.

. . . Uncritically endorsing the administration's authority to kill Awlaki on the basis that he was likely guilty, or an obviously terrible human being, is short-sighted. Because what we're talking about here is not whether Awlaki in particular deserved to die. What we're talking about is trusting the president with the authority to decide, with the minor bureaucratic burden of asking "specific permission", whether an American citizen is or isn't a terrorist and then quietly rendering a lethal sanction against them.

The question is not whether or not you trust that President Obama made the right decision here. It's whether or not you trust him, and all future presidents, to do so -- and to do so in complete secrecy.

3) From Michael Ratner's CIF post:

Is this the world we want? Where the president of the United States can place an American citizen, or anyone else for that matter, living outside a war zone on a targeted assassination list, and then have him murdered by drone strike.

. . . Yes, Anwar al-Awlaki was a radical Muslim cleric. Yes, his language and speeches were incendiary. He may even have engaged in plots against the United States -- but we do not know that because he was never indicted for a crime.

This profile should not have made him a target for a killing without due process and without any effort to capture, arrest and try him. The US government knew his location for purposes of a drone strike, so why was no effort made to arrest him in Yemen, a country that apparently was allied in the US efforts to track him down?

. . . We know the government makes mistakes, lots of them, in giving people a "terrorist" label. Hundreds of men were wrongfully detained at Guantánamo. Should this same government, or any government, be allowed to order people's killing without due process?

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Tags: Anwar al-Awlaki al-Qaeda Barack Obama

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Tue, 2011-10-04 09:29 — Coleridge (not verified)

Gideon Polya: insane lunatic.

Tue, 2011-10-04 10:47 — JP3

I think Gideon and Julia should have child, with her racism and his mentalism it would be a sight to behold.

Sun, 2011-10-02 17:49 — Randomz (not verified)

I think extra judicial killings are wrong. Where does it stop? I thought that us liberal democracies had risen above that and accepted the rule of law.

Ok. Some idiot who was anything but liberal is gone. No major loss IMHO. I don't claim to know everything but what was his crime exactly apart from spouting deluded claptrap which may it may not have influenced other idiots.

Can we expect the same to happen to others who do the same and their followers bomb a synagogue, a mosque, a church, a public building. Can we expect the same to the likes Beck and O'Reilly who go on tv and spew shite and someone upon hearing this goes and does something murderous?

Breivik claimed EDL links. Probably even had some of their shite on his PC. Perhaps even other right wing nationalist broadcasts etc. Would it be acceptable to have right wing leaderships wiped out?

Sun, 2011-10-02 17:59 — Buckskins (not verified)

He was given a fairer trial than the innocents he murdered. He was a traitor who deserved being hunted down and exterminated like the vermin he was.

Sun, 2011-10-02 18:25 — Ian5

"outside the war zone", you mean like the London Underground, or the World Trade Centre.

can't stop to expand on the subject, must go and lash my wife for driving the car, then got to sell my daughter to the highest bidder.

Mon, 2011-10-10 23:32 — Lox (not verified)

Jesus, Gideon, you really are stretching it a bit, aren't you? Let's assume that, were the Taliban still in power in Afghanistan, no opium would be produced. So by your logic, they should have been allowed to stay in power to prevent americans and europeans overdosing? Perhaps europeans and americans-individuals who're addicted to opiates, governments pursuing failed criminalisation strategies-might be more to blame for drug related deaths than zionists?
I know you've a successful academic career, and you must be a very intelligent man. Take you away from science though, and you're a blinkered, humourless obsessive: you have that gift, coomon to fanatics, of seeing further proof of your interpretation of the world around you everywhere. I think you could do with some help. Seriously.

Sun, 2011-10-02 19:25 — EnragedBrit (not verified)

According to Islam - nothing happens in this world unless it is the will of Allah. So what are you whining about, Mehdi? Are you saying Allah got this one wrong?

Sun, 2011-10-02 19:35 — Randomz (not verified)

Ian. You moving to Saudi Arabia? Good. Dont bother to come back.

Sun, 2011-10-02 21:17 — sean drew (not verified)

you're just jealous mehdi 'cause he's in paradise and you're not!

better get your skates on bonny lad, before they run out of virgins.

Sun, 2011-10-02 21:34 — Julia Harris (not verified)

Its war Mehdi, wake up.

The rest of the world is cottoning on to the Global Jihad. We kill these people before they kill us, simple.

We know your sympathy's are with your Muslim brothers.

We also know your Hard left Islamic supremacists leanings and in the right circumstances you'd be adhering to the Koran and waging Jihad against us???

Tue, 2011-10-04 14:13 — Bruce

Good for O'bama. The rat was hiding in his hole - how on earth could he be brought to trial? Did O'bama not have reliable intelligence - as in the case of that other notorious murder, Osama Bin Laden.
The sicly and weak bleating about justice being accorded to those who know nothing about the concept is getting tiresome and droning on is another pathetic display of misguided justice.

Sun, 2011-10-02 23:18 — JoeDeMocritus

Well done the USA !!!

The fight against terror must continue.

Tue, 2011-10-04 16:50 — Agoodword (not verified)

Ian, I'm not here to defend Mehdi, you can say it was poor journalism I will concede but that still doesn't weaken the main point. I don't need Mehdis article to tell me that the US is on a dangerous course, he only reaffirmed my position, though be it through poor journalism.

I also find it astonishing how people can allow their reality to be framed by what they see on TV. I don't suppose you've ever considered that tv and most media, even when covering news is really entertainment. structurally speaking, within the giant jigsaw of culture and society, mass media is one of the pieces from entertainment. That is its main function and for anyone to base their opinions about an entire civilization and 1.2 billion and the billions before who died on that faith is pretty misguided I would say.

few have grasped truth and understanding and to think you can get that from popular culture without exerting real effort is to belittle truth and understanding.

Tue, 2011-10-04 14:19 — Ansell (not verified)

I believe that everyone should have the right to a fair trial. Except Islamist fanatics.

Sun, 2011-10-02 23:27 — Gideon Polya

Obama is not just involved in extra-judicial killing of Americans like al-Awliki but is also turning a blind eye to the extrajudicial killing of Americans by others, notably by US-backed, racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel.

If CIA creature and mass murderer Obama were a genuine American patriot he would demand extradition of the Israeli state terrorists who murdered 34 US servicemen in cold blood and wounded 179 in the attack on the USS Liberty and the Israeli state terrorists who killed an American citizen in the murderous attack on the Gaza Flotilla.

Science, engineering, architecture, aviation, military and intelligence experts say the US did 9-11 (for an alphabetical compendium of such expert opinions see "Experts: US did 9-11": https://sites.google.com/site/expertsusdid911/home ). Obama, who knew the exact location of Al-Awliki's car in the Yemeni desert, must surely know the extent of US complicity in 9-11 and has become an accessory after the fact of that atrocity that killed about 3,000 Americans.

Thus Major general Albert Stubblebine (former head of US Army intelligence) on 9-11: "You look at the buildings falling, they didn’t fall down because of an airplane hit them, they fell down because explosives went off inside. Demolition. Look at Building 7 for God sakes … I do not believe the free press is free anymore… The press is saying what they have been told to say about this. Now do I have proof about this? No. But I believe that all the stories that were told about 9/11 were false… What is it they do not want the public to know?”"

Obama's racist hatred for Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Africans and Asians (as evidenced by continuing mass murder of such people by Obama and his Zionist-perverted associates) also extends to an evident hatred of fellow Americans. Thus it can be estimated that about 1 million Americans still die preventably each year under Obama whose fiscal priorities are about mass murdering Asians and Africans rather than keeping Americans alive (for a recent analysis see "9-11 10th anniversary. 9 million dead in US War on Terror": http://mwcnews.net/focus/politics/13335-9-11-10th-anniversary.html ).

Thus, for example, data from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UN ODC) show that about 60,000 Americans have died opiate drug-related deaths under Obama due to US restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan industry to about 90% of world share. Indeed among Obama's first acts as president was to order cessation of any destruction of poppy crops in Afghanistan (see "Afghan Holocaust, Afghan Genocide": http://afghangenocide.blogspot.com/2010/01/january-2010-45-million-dead-... ).

Tue, 2011-10-04 14:54 — Agoodword (not verified)

Ian maybe you missed the point of the article which is about the US engaging in very dubious and frankly unconstitutional behaviour.

Try as you may, simply changing the the discussion, and every discussion for that matter, to one about Muslim terrorists blah blah blah, does nothing to diminish the strength of the claim made by Mehdi and the three he cited.

There are Muslim terrorists and more Muslims are killing themselves than western forces, but what does that have to do with this.

Are we really that narrow minded that we can't talk about other dangerous ramifications of this war on terror, without the simple minded chorus about Muslim terrorists doing this and that.

This is'nt just about the other, our response is changing us, its changing our society and ultimately its changing our politics. We may not directly feel it because we live in the present, but take an extended look and try at least to see how it threatens the core of our ideals.

Wed, 2011-10-05 16:09 — Ian5

Agoodword; you stated " for anyone to base their opinions about an entire civilization and 1.2 billion and the billions before who died on that faith is pretty misguided I would say." Firstly I've lived and worked alongside Muslims, Christians, Hindu, Sikhs and Buddhists and to be honest, most make me extremely grateful that I'm an atheist. secondly, I'd say the billions who have died in the name of their religion are the misguided ones, I find it difficult to believe in an omnipotent being, that needs to use a single flawed human as his mouth piece. surely which ever one is the true god could plant what ever he wanted in all our brains in a flash. Surely he would be at least be able to make clear who his chosen people are. Jew, Catholic, Protestant, Sunni or Shia. As for believing what the media throw at me...no, I'm not that big a fool.

I just grateful my parents refused to brain wash me as a child into believing in any of the religions.

Wed, 2011-10-05 16:20 — Progressive Tory (not verified)

"I wonder who Obama, or a future 'liberal' President will target next? Will it be the guy who disagrees with him over dinner? Will it be the guy challenging him at the next election? Will it be anyone the President deems an enemy?"

Somehow, I doubt that. It seems a bit more likely the next person who is extra-judicially executed will also be a radical extremist hate-preaching muslim cleric with links to terrorist groups, rather than a person who doesn't threaten national security and hasn't committed any crime. That's sort of the whole point.

Tue, 2011-10-04 15:52 — Ian5

Agoodword, I actually do not think I've missed the point, the article is a) lazy and b)biased . It lacks both the "authors" own opinion (though I feel its implied quite strongly), nor does it include any balance. all three pieces hold the life of an American to be of greater value than that of any other race. I for one am feed up with liberal apologists for genocidal maniacs, ie the War in Iraq, so wrong, NO, the whole world should have removed that regime years before it actually happened. The shame expressed by UK forces having to stand by in Bosnia and witness the murder of Muslims, I'm fed up with the apologists and the feeble UN.

I feed up with the conspiracy theorists that find it even conceivable that the twin towers were blown up by the US, practically ignoring the terrorists that flew into the towers, those who claim 9 million Muslims killed in war on terror, where!!!!!! Those who will not see the heinous crimes committed on women on a daily basis in the name of Islam. your right our responses are changing us, but if Islam is the religion I see daily on the TV, in the News Papers and in articles by Mr Hasan, you can keep it. That Islam is evil.

Tue, 2011-10-04 16:14 — Sally (not verified)

Mehdi Hasan is a bigot who thinks that all non Muslims are 'kaffars' and 'animals' with 'no intelligence'. Why he is employed by the New Statesman, supposedly of the Left, after making hate speeches about non Muslims, beggars belief.

Tue, 2011-10-04 16:47 — Frederick (not verified)

Sally - its because the NS is no longer a left-wing mag. Its an islamist rag. It is violently anti-Israeli, anti-American, supports islamofascists like Hamas and Islamic Jihad and attracts comments from phsycopathic Jew-haters like Gideon Polya, Maria, Arminius and danielle who believe variously that Jews invented gas chambers, should be ethnically cleansed from Israel and are responsible for all the world's ills. It also supports the existence of apartheid states like Pakistan.

Sat, 2011-10-01 16:20 — charlesfrith

Mehdi is under the illusion that the electorate chooses its presidents. That's not the case. US liberals know they get on term for every GOP two and because they have no backbone they stomach any treachery just to have their man in power.

Fortunately for me this framework is falling apart and so time will prove me right or wrong.

As an aside Obama does many interesting symbolic gestures that point towards a poker player holding his best cards till the end. A detail not lost on those who read his fave political biography. I've no idea whether he is the real deal or not but I haven't given up hope. Just don't expect me to keep quiet on the people his administration kills.

Sat, 2011-10-01 17:08 — Grumpy Bob (not verified)

I don't see that the US Government should order extra-judicial of any individual, whether or not that individual is an American citizen. And the same goes for any government that claims to be democratic and civilised.

Sat, 2011-10-01 17:23 — dillon (not verified)

one less hate preaching bigoted terrorist scum off the face of the earth..whats your problerm medhi hassan..not a relative of yours is he??

Sat, 2011-10-01 17:33 — vinny 8 (not verified)

where was the evidence?

he was preaching love and peace to all in all those videos being aired, the guy was also calling on jihadists to murder and slaughter his fellow american citizens

why should liberals stand up for these sort of people i bet mehdi wouldnt stand up for muslim hating people would he.. and no dont say you would you want to ban ,rightly , edl marches

Mon, 2011-10-03 12:15 — Coleridge (not verified)

Gideon Polya: the lunatic returns!

Sat, 2011-10-01 18:37 — AncientBriton

Presumably, as an Islamist, Anwar al-Awlaki would not recognise US courts anyway so why should victims of his hate concern themselves? Martyrdom through a touch of his own medicine would surely be his preference. Unlike the Kafir he despised so much he was mistaken in his beliefs. He will have his just reward but it will not 70 virgins.

Sat, 2011-10-01 19:54 — Arturo Bandini (not verified)

If only extra-judicial executions could be restricted to fuckwits like Dillon... oh, wait a minute, they can't. That's the problem, isn't it?

Sat, 2011-10-01 19:59 — gerry (not verified)

Mehdi - you just dont get it on this, do you?

That US born nutjob murderer is now - according to his interpretation of your religion Islam - sitting by Allah in paradise going through his 72 virgins.

You should be thanking Obama - Awlaki has got exactly what he wants, and deserves. More please!

Sat, 2011-10-01 20:28 — sven king (not verified)

Mehdi's getting worried...thinks he can hear a buzzing noise over his home at night...

Tue, 2011-10-04 18:21 — SiDevilIam

President Barack Obama's bravery, emanates from his Muslim Father and a Christian (non-practicing white mother). He has been accused of being a Muslim, as his step father was also a practicing Muslim.

He has been accused of many other things, among them, letting a Muslim prayer hall-cum-Muslim cultural center in the vicinity of the so called, Ground Zero, former Twin Towers location.

Barack Obama is trying hard to appease Muslim nations of the world. The secretary of state, Hilary Rodham Clinton was on the move, visiting smaller and larger Muslim countries and asking for compassion for America.

That policy did not bring any noticeable dividends. On the contrary, Obama was repudiated by the right wing, Christian fundamentalists of the OP, Tea Party and only a Christian God knows who else.

Please, give him a break. He is running for a second term and wants to win the detractors mentioned above.

...and I am Sid Harth@cogitoergosumdesign.com

Mon, 2011-10-03 13:09 — Uncle Sam (not verified)

The US drone should receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Mon, 2011-10-03 13:53 — Ian5

Gideon, can you be truly that moronic and blinkered.

I thought all those who believed the twin towers were collapsed by demolition charges were receiving medical help...obviously not, You are aware I suppose of HE pressure waves? No, well look them up on google, you do seem to be able to use google.

Israel in theory paid compensation to the US and the victims family of the USS Liberty incident, though most likely came out of the vast sums of money gifted to Israel each and every year by the US. So in reality the US compensated itself. And as for your own pile of crap on Afgan genocide and opium crops, what a load of crap. Afgan population is actually growing at quite a fast rate, and the highest death rate was during the Russian -afgan war. Quoting your own warped blog, thats really sad.

Mon, 2011-10-03 14:13 — Actionfitz

You have no Rights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWiBt-pqp0E&feature=related

George Carlin tells the truth.

Sat, 2011-10-01 21:00 — Barny

There are some seriously twisted and murderous types posting on this one, eh?

Mon, 2011-10-03 16:04 — Ian5

sorry, did not know Obama was president when 9/11 occurred, surely it should be mass murdering Bush, your words Gideon "“the United States saw 38,400 deaths from illicit drug use in 2006", I think your just a racist Obama hater.

Mon, 2011-10-03 14:36 — Andyb (not verified)

@Vinny 8

"why should liberals stand up for these sort of people"

Liberals don't stand up for terrorists. We stand up for the principle of justice, rule of law, and due process. There is a difference.

Wherever possible the US should capture terrorist suspsects to stand trial in the US. Having said that, in this particular case, he was hiding in Yemen. So I do not know how feasible a capture operation would have been.

Wed, 2011-10-05 21:20 — MurdochZionistConspiracy Inc (not verified)

Following the malicious as hominem abuse hurled at our empire by the lunatic Gideon Polya we have decided to boycott his blog. We hope that all other zionistApartheidAmericans (ZAA) will follow suit.

Mon, 2011-10-03 14:46 — Coleridge (not verified)

Ian, Polya is apparently a scientist who has written a seminal study comprising of 1000's pages on the masturbatory habits of mice.

Wed, 2011-10-05 21:57 — Gideon Polya

More defamatory identity theft in the above thread that will be reported to the NS and the UK police.

Sat, 2011-10-01 22:57 — Hairywoodbutcher (not verified)

The trick is to take the natural human disire for blood and redemtion and them run it through the brain.

We can then turn around and day " fuck you, you kill, we have trials. we win"

Then you kill him.

Mon, 2011-10-03 15:52 — Gideon Polya

According to the UNODC (2009) (see: http://www.unodc.org/documents/southerncone//Topics_drugs/WDR/2011/Regio... ) “the United States saw 38,400 deaths from illicit drug use in 2006”. About 0.6 (60%) of these involved opiates. Accordingly this corresponds to 0.6 x 0.9 x 38,400 = 20,740 pa and 201,000 US opiate drug deaths since October 2001 due to US restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry. Global deaths from US Alliance restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry now total about 1 million (for details and documentation see "26 June UN Anti-Drugs Day: 1 million dead from US-backed Afghan opium industry, 200,000 (US), 11,900 (UK)": http://bellaciao.org/en/spip.php?article20894 ).

In contrast, US Alliance military deaths in Afghanistan now total 27 (Australia), 156 (Canada), 1,637 (the US), 374 (the UK), 62 (France), 53 (Germany), 36 (Italy) and 25 (the Netherlands) (see: http://icasualties.org/OEF/index.aspx ) .

Of course the Neocon American and Zionist Imperialists (NAZIs) and their supporters, including mass murderer Obama, evidently do not give a jot for the roughly 200,000 Americans and 12,000 Brits who have died since 9-11 due to US restoration of the Taliban-destroyed Afghan opium industry. Such callous contempt for the lives of their fellow countrymen adds a new dimension to the meaning of the word "traitor".

Sun, 2011-10-02 00:01 — David Lindsay

First I had to amend part of my next book in order to remove a reference to the newly deceased Osama Bin Laden, and then, just as the bloody thing has finally gone to the publisher with that and other unanticipated amendments, Anwar al-Awlaki goes and THE SAME SENTENCE AGAIN. Ho, hum.

Al-Awlaki was no more (if anything, somewhat less) the "leader" or "head" of anything than Justin Bieber is. Like the shoe bomb, neither the ink cartridge bomb nor the underpants bomb that he is said to have inspired ever actually went off.

Yet all three, in common with the 7/7 bombings that the police and MI5 cannot not have known were going to happen, are regularly invoked by those who have dusted down the old Michael Howard Play Book in order to steal yet more of our liberties.

However, with him out of the way, only the unreconstructed Stalinists now remain as an alternative to the present regime in Yemen. And with him and Bin Laden (not to mention Saddam and Gaddafi) out of the way, we must all be as safe as houses now. Mustn't we?

But over in The American Conservative, Kelley Vlahos has it right - http://www.theamericanconservative.com/blog/2011/09/30/a-dark-day-for-th...

Mon, 2011-10-03 16:09 — Ansell (not verified)

@Coleridge. How exactly did Gideon Polya discover how mice wank? Don't they have very small arms?

Wed, 2011-10-05 23:37 — Ad123456

Dear me, Mehdi. Your blogs really do attract a fair number of nutters, don't they? (Not counting the ones who've tried to engage in some kind of rational argument)I've been left quite speechless reading them! Could they be the same person using different names? And do they/he/she get off on vicious, puerile rantings? Makes one quite despair.

Mon, 2011-10-03 17:36 — betterdeadthanred (not verified)

Another Copy and Paste effort from Mr Hasan. Am I the only one that is bothered by this?

Sun, 2011-10-02 09:54 — Uncle Sam (not verified)

Drone on USA. One less islamoNazi terrorist scum walking on this planet is a benefit to all who support the non-Moslem Free World.

Mon, 2011-10-03 18:00 — Coleridge (not verified)

He apparently used very small rubber tweezers to get them excited.

Mon, 2011-10-03 18:23 — Agoodword (not verified)

There are some really obtuse people here offering really puerile assessments. The point couldn't be clear enough and it isn't just made by Mehdi, but three people who, it appears are more informed than most posting there comments here.

Its amazing how so many people have the inability to move beyond the level of facts - ie who Al Awlaki is what he preaches - to more substantive issues about values and principals that underpin what a democracy is meant to be about.

How and why this should lead to an outburst of innuendos about Mehdi is beyond me. I guess for many, they jut haven't managed to leave the school playground behind them.