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The Long Reach of US Extradition
CuteSteveJobs writes "The New Matilda reports how the U.S. is now able to extradite people for minor offences, and asks why foreign governments so willingly give up their nationals to the U.S. to 'face justice' over minor crimes committed outside U.S. borders? Lawyer Kellie Tranter writes, 'the long arm of the Government is using criminal enforcement powers to enforce commercial interests at the behest of corporations and their lobbyists.' A former NSW Chief Judge said it was bizarre 'that people are being extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges when they have never been to the U.S. and the alleged act occurred wholly outside the U.S.' He said although copyright violations are a great problem, a country 'must protect its nationals from being removed from their homeland to a foreign country merely because the commercial interests of that foreign country.' Australia recently 'streamlined' its laws to make extradition to the U.S. even easier."
Australia has been the US's lap dog for quite a few decades now. They say jump, we say 'how high?'.
What do the elites care if a few plebs get sent abroad?
Mods: Before you mod me down, google "plebgate" or "pleb uk"
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
Nothing in this discussion will be alarmist or overstated in any way.
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Countries allow this sort of abuse because the right people (or entities) have been bribed. Of that, you can be sure. The real question is, is it legal bribery (AKA "foreign aid," or other forms of government money), quasi-legal bribery ($13,000 sex parties paid for by lobbyists, anyone?), or the good, old-fashioned, illegal sort ?
Sorry. Not sure how that happened, but it was supposed to go here:
... The FOI decision-maker has censored 1 1/2 pages of the preliminary advice to Ms Roxon, fearing the contests would harm international relations."
"ATTORNEY-GENERAL Nicola Roxon has authorised the extradition of an ethnic Tamil, wanted by the US on offshore terrorism charges, despite his fears he will be deported to Sri Lanka and punished. Ms Roxon signed the extradition order in February, sparking a legal challenge by the man's lawyers, who insist he has never been a threat to the US or Australia and that the alleged offences are more political than security-related. Documents obtained by The Australian under Freedom of Information laws show the extradition case was considered especially sensitive by Australian bureaucrats
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/foi/roxon-clears-tamils-extradition-to-us/story-fn8r0e18-1226438076806
One of the main reasons why the united states is not well liked by a lot of countries.
Think for a moment, imagine say, China, Russia, or say Norway, bullied its way into other countries in such a way that non-citizens of these countries could be 'deported' to them to face punishment. Punishment for laws they did not know about, or are not against the law in their own countries but against the law there.
Those who have already lived in US sponsored dictatorships may better realize that the US government is already far more dangerous than the Nazis in terms of surveillance capability and raw power. So far, too few US citizens seem to recognize that millions of people suffered, or died, in a blatantly illegal, ruinously expensive war with Iraq that appears to be preparatory for domestic use. At least realize enough to stop it, permanently.
...but I'll bite.
You can have either three* economies, in today's world, and still have a country:
Bronze/aluminum age -- agrarian
Iron age -- manufacturing
Silicon age -- information tech and design
The highest standards of living are in IT economies. Ask yourself this: do you want to live in bronze age India? Of course not. You'd rather live in iron age Brazil, or, even better, siicon age Boston. Most world leaders understand this, and that is why they are cool with draconian copyright laws. And in fact, if you protect innovation abroad, you in theory protect innovation at home, as well, and create the possibility of a local market. Most 2nd world countries WANT to become like America. They WANT an innovative and productive economy -- and that is why they support strong IP laws -- to hopefully boost their own economy into a knowledge-based economy, and out of 2nd or 3rd world stagnation.
The sad thing is though, innovation doesn't just come from a good marketplace. It comes from an intelligent, inspired, hopeful, dreaming, confident and curious populace, with time and ways to experiment. Innovation is no longer happening in America because we are not confident anymore. We are dumbed down, crushed and we have no more dreams. College was our only formal gateway to a better life, but that has suffered the fate of most monopolies and destroyed the market by overgouging consumers. Increased corporatism and restrictive patent laws have hurt individual inventors and made college a requirement for any white collar job, due to the fact that only big companies with many lawyers on retainer can survive amidst these insane IP laws. Those few big companies are flooded with applicants, and only distinguish between candidates by education level (read, debt/wealth background). In addition to a dumbing down college tax** and a noncompetitive marketplace (which rewards suing your competitor instead of inventing/refining a product), we also have the dilemma that there are fewer and fewer hobbyists being creative with stuff. Increasingly, everything is locked down, and single use. Even our water bottles are stamped "do not reuse." Not to mention the TV instant gratification culture which discourages critical intellectual activity, like reading a book instead of buying things from commercials.
So, no, wannabe 1st world countries, please do not copy us. We are not a knowledge economy, we are a consumer economy. We no longer create much, anymore. Yes, protecting IP is a good idea. But like anything else, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. We need sane copyright and patent laws, not an elimination of them all together.
(And we also need local manufacturing, and less corporate litigation -- and less big business domination, period.)
*I'm not including stone age hunter-gather societies, because a) they got their butts kicked by everyone else, and lost almost all their sovereignty, and b) no one really wants to go back to the stone age, and there isn't enough spare flora and fauna to support that move, anyway.
** College has basically become a tax which everyone who wants to get ahead pays. And frankly, it is so insanely bad, that it's aproaching indentured servitude. Many first world people are actually advocating returning to a bronze age civilization, because the american college-industrial complex is so crushingly destructive, restrictive, and empoverishing.
No, the main political groupings there are Inmates and Guards.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Copyright infringement is being prosecuted in the country where the server is... Extradition .99 Euro and not overseas for .99 $)... Not allowed to use a global market
Alleged spying is prosecuted where the hacked (cracked) machine/network was (Gary McKinnon, etc.)... Extradition
University must be accredited in a state (Free Online Education Unwelcome In Minnesota)... Being on an out-of-state server does not matter
Parallel Imports not allowed (must buy songs for
Somehow everything is turned in a way that does not benefit the common people. We should finally once and for all declare a world-wide decree that either you are on foreign soil when you use a specific server or that you are on home turf and the location of the keyboard counts. Then it would be clear what laws apply. The current situation is a complete mess.