Tag Archive for 'extraordinary rendition'

Dear Mr Obama, about that extradition treaty

Published on 4 November 2009 in Civil Liberties and terrorbollocks. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

There is news that 13 member of the infamous US state terrorist organisation the CIA have been convicted in absentia of kidnapping an Italian citizen in order to rendite him for torture by Egyptian proxies. It raises the issue of whether or not these thugs will ever see justice. The American Society for International Law thinks not. Geeklawyer disagrees with their view that his abduction was not kidnap because the US Supreme Court requires there to be some benefit to the CIA agents themselves, whether or not pecuniary. Presumably career enhancement is a benefit; and presumably a suitably structured argument could be made that a benefit to a third party, the US, would also be an enabling benefit, for kidnap definition purposes.

In the UK, of course, none of this would matter our own dear Neo-Labour would never presume to ask our beloved US overlords to extradite their citizens to Blighty. The converse, as Mckinnon is finding out, is not true. Thanks to dear Brown-nosing war criminal Tony Blair, UK citizens will find themselves extradited to the US for practically anything and without anyone having to prove there was any serious allegation at all.

Do you still have the words to say what you mean?

Published on 16 April 2007 in books. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

RIP Kurt Vonnegut, most famous as the author of Slaughterhouse Five, a novel published in 1969 during the height of American protests about Vietnam and the futility of war. The novel was inspired by his experiences as a prisoner of war sent to the apparent safety of Dresden, when it was razed by British/US forces on the night of 13th-14th February 1945. The novel comments on the failure of war as a means of achieving either State policy or human good. Thank goodness humanity has learned some lessons and we’ve moved on in the thirty years since.

Its also 25 years since the death of Philip K. Dick, author of “Do androids dream of electric sheep?” the novel upon which the iconic film Bladerunner was based. From his novel “How to build a universe that doesn’t fall apart two days later” (1978) comes the following

“The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words you can control the people who must use the words. ”

Extraordinary rendition anyone?

extraordinary rendition

Published on 7 June 2006 in Civil liberties & human rights. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

When he first heard this phrase Geeklawyer though it to be some rarified technique taught to painters. No, sadly, the only thing being framed here are likely to be legions of innocents along with a small number of the guilty. And the sense of decency we once regarded as inviolable.

The Americans don’t deny performing extraordinary rendition but justify it by saying “we are after bad guys and it’s useful” without so much the decency to blush or look groundward when mumbling this admission. What’s galling is the extend of collaboration from European countries. Brown-nose Blair saying of the report “it adds nothing new to the information we have”: well of course it doesn’t you malodorous turd since you obstructed the investigation.

One only hopes that one day like Pinochet Blair and Bush will find their true reward.