I Thought This Was a Spoof--There Is No Way It Could Be True of My Country
From The Sunday (London) Times
December 2, 2007
US says it has right to kidnap British citizens
David Leppard
AMERICA has told Britain that it can “kidnap” British citizens if they are wanted for crimes in the United States.
A senior lawyer for the American government has told the Court of Appeal in London that kidnapping foreign citizens is permissible under American law because the US Supreme Court has sanctioned it.
. . . During a hearing last month Lord Justice Moses, one of the Court of Appeal judges, asked Alun Jones QC, representing the US government, about its treatment of . . . was the subject of an attempted abduction during a visit to Canada in 2005.
Jones replied that it was acceptable under American law to kidnap people if they were wanted for offences in America. “The United States does have a view about procuring people to its own shores which is not shared,” he said.
He said that if a person was kidnapped by the US authorities in another country and was brought back to face charges in America, no US court could rule that the abduction was illegal and free him: “If you kidnap a person outside the United States and you bring him there, the court has no jurisdiction to refuse — it goes back to bounty hunting days in the 1860s.”
______________________________________________________________
This is an absolutely stunning revelation--that the Bush administration, in direct violation of all current extradition treaties with foreign nations, depends instead on 'bounty hunting' custom from the Civil War days of the American west.
Of as great concern is that under newly sworn Attorney General Mike Mukasey, "the US Justice Department declined to comment."
As we sink nationally into lawlessness, the Bush strategy is to stonewall and the congressional strategy is to be confused. Senator Pat Leahy, do you have a comment on this newest of outrages?
* For more in-depth articles by Jim on Civil Rights, check out Opinion-Columns.com