Psyche, Science, and Society

US claims right to kidnap around the world

December 2nd, 2007

In another of those “I know they do it but I can’t believe they actually say it moments, the Times (of London) report that the US government claims the right to kidnap people anywhere it wants, if they are accused of a “crime” in the US. Like the ban against torture, the legal remedy of extradition is another of those needless legal niceties to be thrown overboard by the all-powerful US government:

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.

The admission will alarm the British business community after the case of the so-called NatWest Three, bankers who were extradited to America on fraud charges. More than a dozen other British executives, including senior managers at British Airways and BAE Systems, are under investigation by the US authorities and could face criminal charges in America.

Until now it was commonly assumed that US law permitted kidnapping only in the “extraordinary rendition” of terrorist suspects.

he American government has for the first time made it clear in a British court that the law applies to anyone, British or otherwise, suspected of a crime by Washington.

Legal experts confirmed this weekend that America viewed extradition as just one way of getting foreign suspects back to face trial. Rendition, or kidnapping, dates back to 19th-century bounty hunting and Washington believes it is still legitimate.

The article concludes:

Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human rights group Liberty, said: “This law may date back to bounty hunting days, but they should sort it out if they claim to be a civilised nation.

Of course, “civilization,” never a particular strength of strong powers, has become, like the Geneva Conventions, another of those “quaint” relics of a bye-gone era.

To see how ridiculous this is, just imagine the outrage if another country kidnapped a criminal in the US for trial elsewhere. Suppose, for example, that Cuba or Venezuela kidnapped likely terrorist-murderer Luis Posada for the trial that he undoubtedly deserves. Can one imagine the US blithely accepting this “right” on another country to act in a way analogous to US claims? Of course not.

Scott Horton, over at No Comment at Harpers, expresss the outrage of those who think, in that outmoded fashion, that laws apply to the powerful and not just the weak:

his is not U.S. law, it is a Bush Administration hallucination as to U.S. law. The sort of nightmare that comes flowing freely from the pen of John Yoo or David Addington. The sort of nightmare which refuses to recognize the sovereignty of foreign states or the solemn commitments of U.S. governments over the last two centuries in treaties and conventions. The sort of nightmare that refuses to recognize the “law of nations” referred to by the Founding Fathers and incorporated into the Constitution. Alas, it is the attitude of a criminal who imagines himself busy enforcing the law, even as he holds himself above the law.

It is the attitude which has brought our nation low in the world and threatens more damage still.

Entry Filed under: Bush administration, International Law, Law, Rights and Liberties