What Goes Around Comes Around - Blair to be charged with war crimes by International Criminal Court!

newsmax.com ^ | May 29, 2003 | Paul Craig Roberts

[Mister Baredog]

Until recently, charges against a head of state could be laughed away. Unfortunately for Tony Blair, he created the precedent for extraditing heads of state. The Blair government arrested Chile's Augusto Pinochet and ruled that Pinochet could be extradited to Spain on specious charges brought by a Spanish prosecutor.

Bad move Tony, now what? I guess he'll miss the 2004 Olympics in Athens, eh?

If this doesn't wake people up to the IDIOCY of the ICC, well then they're hopelessly doomed.

I wonder if their "New EU Constitution" covers this insanity? LOL

[Dog Gone]

This story about the Greek bar association preparing to file charges was first posted here about a week ago, I think. It's an outrage, but not entirely unexpected by the Greeks.

It also is rather ironic that it is being used against Blair, who endorsed the ICC and, in fact, did make Pinochet's life miserable.

I don't really know that much about Pinochet's record. Certainly it was portrayed by American media in unglowing terms, but that was back when we all thought Walter Cronkite was a straight-shooter and the New York Times was telling us the truth.

But in typical NewsMax fashion, we have a story that is half factual and half editorial, and I don't like it when either the left or the right engages in that. The line between facts and wishful thinking need to be distinct or you will end up believing things that simply can't be supported.

[HardStarboard]

The minute that the International Criminal Court (pushed by the Greek Supreme Court) issues a summons for Tony, the US should bomb Athens and Brussles and do a massive afterburner low overflight of Paris!

[Dog Gone]

I think it's both.

[Mister Baredog]

That last line is just stupid race-baiting. Sorry.

I believe our last President was FOR the ICC, correct me if I'm wrong. I have heard many DEMONCRATS speak in favor of our joining in, perhaps MEG33 meant to put LIBERALS in place of ethnicity, just a guess.

[Mister Baredog]

Is this article for real? It sounds like it was written by someone at The Onion.

Or at least a >sarcasm< tag, LOL Although I think the Greeks think they're series.

[MEG33]

My post said "This is insane!"

[Mister Baredog]

I can't think of a quicker, easier way to turn the ICC into an irrelevant laughingstock than to make its first case one that is so inherently damaging - if it wins and cannot collect Blair, it looks foolish, if it loses, the whole thing is a waste of time. Are these people deliberately setting the ICC up to fail?

You would think they might go after Saddam first, I'm glad they're not that smart. ROTFL

Meanwhile Tony's gonna miss the Olympics in '04.

[Dog Gone]

I think MEG was just responding to the general gist of the action by the Greeks, and I responded to MEG because that was the last visible post at the time.

My comments were really directed at the writer of this wretched piece of so-called journalism.

[Mister Baredog]

My post said "This is insane!"

Color me red, LOL, I am deeply saddened.

[X-USAF]

But in typical NewsMax fashion, we have a story that is half factual and half editorial, ...

I agree. With a 20-some paragraph article, half is about Pinochet.

As for the 10,000 dead, I suppose these numbers come from France perhaps?

There is no hazard here for Blair. No "respectable" nation would apprehend him on their soil if said charges were to slip through the cracks.

[Mister Baredog]

Please see my post #30, LOL

[MEG33]

All is forgiven.

[Tailgunner Joe]

The writer defends Pinochet. Is it possible he is a nationalist rather than a racist?

Is it racist to insist on U.S. sovereignty?

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

NewsMax has most of the details pretty much right. Pinochet was in poor health before he stepped down and he actually was running for re-election in the referendum.

I imagine that the British turning on him was a bitter pill though. Pinochet quietly allowed the UK to use Chile as a base in the Falklands war.

[WoofDog123]

"Pinochet was a victim of Soviet propaganda. He was head of the Chilean army in 1973 when it was forced by popular demand and appeal from the elected legislature to overthrow Salvador Allende, who was turning Chile into a Soviet client state. "

Pinochet certainly did kill a respectable number of civilians; political activists and journalists were rounded up and either deported or shot. As you note, the article very selectively represents these things. I have never read anything to imply that Pinochet killed as many civilians as, say, Castro, but the man wasn't a saint. From reading this article, you wouldn't know any of these things.

Chile under Pinochet also provided signifigant logistic support to the UK during the falkland war.

[Amerigomag]

That last line is just stupid race-baiting

Come again?

In case you didn't know Anglos and Hispanics are members of the same race.

I think you meant to say ethnic bigotry - baiting.

[Dog Gone]

My objection was to the last line of the article. It really has nothing to do with Pinochet, and it really has nothing to do with Blair or the Greeks or the ICC.

It was race-baiting by someone whom I don't really know. Right now, I'm pretty much thinking he's a racist because he went out of his way to throw in that line.

Is my analysis wrong?

[Dan from Michigan]

Blair has my sympathies, and I hope the Brits play a little hardball on this.

It also shows why I can not support signing and ratifying this in any way.

[Tench_Coxe]

"President George Bush escapes being charged, as the United States is not a signatory to the ICC. "

ACtually, I think the truth is that the United States has expressed a resolve against the ICC, and the Military Force to back up any reaction to attempts of the ICC to claim jurisdiction over nationals of the United States ( remember, the ICC claims to have jurisdiction over all countries, whether or not they ratified the treaty ).