As for Ms. Redgrave, perhaps she ought to take a look at what her new found friends did to this poor Russian young man:
Click for Video of Execution of Russian Hostage by Chechen Terrorists - WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC
Regards, Ivan
Posted on 12/06/2002 11:34:20 PM PST by MadIvan
Film star Vanessa Redgrave stepped in to help in the release of fellow actor Ahmed Zakayev, a Chechen rebel envoy accused of mass murder, who is seeking political asylum in the UK.
It is not the first time the actress has spoken out publicly on causes she supports. BBC News Online takes a look at the political episodes that have featured in her life.
Vanessa Redgrave, born in 1937, is a fully-fledged member of an acting dynasty.
She is the daughter of actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, sister of Corin and Lynn Redgrave, and mother of Natasha and Joely Richardson.
She shared another passion with her father, that of politics, but has gone on to become far more involved in causes than he ever was.
Serious
These causes have often been controversial.
And utterly stupid - Ivan
In 1977 during her acceptance speech at the Academy Award ceremony, she attacked "Zionist hoodlums" who had campaigned against her because she had defended the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.
She has supported the exploited and oppressed, from Sarajevo to Tibet.
Or in the case of Chechniya, the murderous and the vile - Ivan
She is also a Unicef special representative and takes seriously her role to be at the service of children from any country.
To use an old American expression, "gag me with a spoon" - Ivan
More recently, she was among several actors who voiced their support for the return of the Elgin Marbles to Greece.
Traitor too, oh well - Ivan
The Parthenon 2004 campaign pledged to make the British government and museum curators send back the ancient sculptures in time for the Olympics in Athens in 2004.
But Redgrave's left-wing politics have probably not helped her screen career, and some admirers have pointed out that most other actresses of her eminence have been made Dames.
Her Majesty is notoriously allergic to giving titles to people who are renowned only for their idiocy - Ivan
Sense of justice
It is debatable whether her political forays have helped her career in Hollywood.
Others admire her strong sense of justice.
Mark Rylance, director of London's Globe Theatre, was moved to cast Redgrave in the male role of Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest (2000) because "Prospero is a man with immense power who is moved to mercy. Vanessa understands that".
And the production was a flop. Tradition, old boy, tradition, Prospero's a bloody man! - Ivan
In an interview with the BBC's Women's Hour in 1991, Redgrave herself admitted that sometimes her forays into political causes, coupled with her acting commitments had taken its toll on family life.
But she said: "As a mother you have got to have a view for now and a view for the future."
She added: "The people I admire most are those who struggle for everyone ... to have their democratic rights (to say what they think).
As for Ms. Redgrave, perhaps she ought to take a look at what her new found friends did to this poor Russian young man:
Click for Video of Execution of Russian Hostage by Chechen Terrorists - WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC
Regards, Ivan
She admires murders???
By WARREN HOGE
ONDON, Dec. 6 — A senior Chechen envoy, Akhmed Zakayev, arrested upon arrival at Heathrow Airport on Thursday night, was free today after the actress Vanessa Redgrave posted the equivalent of $78,000 bail and guaranteed that he would appear in court next Wednesday for an extradition hearing on Russian terrorism charges.
Mr. Zakayev, 43, had flown in from Denmark, where he was freed on Tuesday after a month in custody on charges of insurrection, murder, kidnapping and other crimes in Chechnya's separatist struggle, which Moscow asserts is a campaign of terror against Russia.
Ms. Redgrave, long known for her political activism, had accompanied him on the flight from Copenhagen.
"I'm Akhmed's host," she said of Mr. Zakayev, who was a professional actor before becoming involved in Chechnya's independence movement in the early 1990's. "I'm his friend. I'm his guarantor."
Russia's foreign minister, Igor S. Ivanov, attending a meeting in Portugal of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, sharply criticized the British decision to release him on bail.
"I would like to ask," he said, "what would happen if another terrorist, bin Laden, who is also on the international wanted list, arrived in London and said that new terror attacks on nonmilitary targets in the United States were in preparation? What would happen to him? Would he have a quiet talk in a police station and then be allowed to go free?"
A 10 Downing Street spokesman said Prime Minister Tony Blair had spoken to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on the telephone today, but he refused to say whether the arrest was mentioned during the 15-minute conversation.
Mr. Zakayev, 43, was the deputy premier of Chechnya's elected government until Russian forces stormed the republic in 1999, and now serves as chief representative and spokesman-in-exile for the Chechen separatist president, Aslan Maskhadov.
He was first arrested on Oct. 30 in Denmark, where he had gone to attend a congress of Chechen exiles in Copenhagen. Russia had requested the arrest after the 57-hour siege of a theater in Moscow by Chechen guerrillas in which at least 129 of the 800 hostages and all 41 captors died, most of them victims of the gas that Russian troops used to subdue the guerrillas.
In Moscow today, the Russian Foreign Ministry lashed out at Denmark for releasing Mr. Zakayev, and at the Danish news media for hailing the action as a victory for democracy. "How many more innocent people must be sacrificed for `Danish democracy' before Copenhagen understands it is responsible for carrying out a policy of `double standards' in the fight against terrorism?" it said in a statement.
But the chairman of the upper house of the Russian Parliament's foreign affairs committee, Mikhail V. Margelov, expressed hope that his country would prepare a more convincing case for Britain.
The international warrant, issued through Interpol, lists 10 charges against Mr. Zakayev from 1995 to 2000, when he was a leading Chechen field commander. One accusation is that he took part in the killing of a Russian Orthodox priest in Grozny and "no fewer than 300 militia officers" in August 1996.
Apparently. Someone must have spiked her champagne with LSD down at the Old Vic.
Regards, Ivan
Regards, Ivan
Regards, Ivan
Okay. Here goes.
Could Vanessa be the daughter of George Bernard Shaw and Isadora Duncan?
There. I've said it.
More like Joseph Stalin and a whinnying horse, but never mind. ;)
Regards, Ivan
In America, we have this legal doctrine called the presumption of innocence. The actor that Redgrave is standing up for is innocent until proven guilty and I really don't care that Russia doesn't believe in it. England doesn't either and it is the main reason we kicked your forefather's sorry asses off of our continent.
Secondly, what the bloody hell do you want - the fellow was indeed in the Chechen government, the same people who have been responsible for terrorist incidents throughout Russia.
Your absurd defence of Redgrave and the Chechens is just a further indication of detachment from reality.
Ivan
Finally, I am not proud to be showing this around. I am trying to make a point about what Redgrave is defending. And by stepping out like you have, you've shown precisely the sort of thing you're willing to ignore as well.
Ivan
Oh give it a rest. As I said, I am trying to make a point about what the Chechens are, and what Redgrave has defended. If anyone needed further proof, the hostage taking in the Moscow theatre should have been enough for anyone.
Secondly, are you going to deny that this fellow was part of the Chechen government and separatist "movement"?
Ivan
No, you are attempting to link two totally un-connected events. The video has nothing to do with the actor accused here or Redgrave.
Obviously you were a poor student in school. Let's try this again:
You may not want to acknowledge this, but what you want to acknowledge, given that you are a libertarian and a wacky one at that, is thankfully irrelevant.
Ivan
Yet you haven't even laid out what she has defended. The US has supported officially the PLO for quite a few years. How would this be relevant to the accused actor in question? The fact that she supported the PLO has no bearing here. It is simply inflammatory to include it as somehow relevant to this particular case. It is the same with the video.
Secondly, are you going to deny that this fellow was part of the Chechen government and separatist "movement"?
Why would it be important if he was part of the Chechen government? Has he been convicted of a crime?
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