America Can Kidnap Foreign Citizens File Sharing Webmasters Beware
Posted on 02 December 2007 by Stuart
According to a report from the Times Online 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 article printed by the Times Online refers to the law being used as an alternative to extradition for foreign citizens facing fraud or tax charges in the US. In February of 2006 UK Lord Justice Laws ruled that three men “The Natwest Three” be extradited to face charges in the US based on American prosecutors allegations that the trio conspired with executives at Enron, the collapsed energy trader, to defraud their then employer. If Lord Justice Laws had ruled against extradition in theory this law would have allowed the US to kidnap the three men from the UK.
Up until now it had been suspected that US law allowed kidnapping but only in the case of “extraordinary rendition” of terror suspects. This week however the US confirmed many suspicions by making it clear in a British court that this law applies to anyone British or otherwise.
With what it deems to be piracy the US already seems to consider laws that have been passed only in the US to extend into Europe and beyond, thepiratebay has some examples of threat’s by US lawyers posted on their legal threats page that I’m sure most of you will have read. Most of these threats are from US law firms quoting that the pirate bay has broken a US law, the pirate bays most popular reply to these threats is that they are located in Sweden and Swedish law differs US.
The US is also the most prominent country in the so called “War Against File Sharing” but would they ever dare to kidnap the webmaster of what they deem to be an illegal site, even if that webmaster lived in a foreign country. It would seem that with this law the US Supreme Court would find nothing wrong with that, i don’t know how well it would go down in the kidnapee country though.
So might we see night raids happening all over the world with webmsaters being snatched from their homes with a black sack over their heads, we highly doubt it, but the USA would find that practice acceptable.
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Tags | file sharing, Foreign Citizens, kidnap, usa, webmaster
December 3rd, 2007 at 11:06 am
“”Up until now it had been suspected that US law allowed kidnapping but only in the case of “extraordinary rendition” of terror suspects.”"
Actually, extraordinary rendition is specifically prohibited under US law.
December 3rd, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Hi Marty,
If you read the link below the CIA has been using extraordinary rendition in the US for years. The US really started using this more in the 90’s and both the CLinton Administration adn the Bush Administration have both used extraordinary rendition and continue to do so.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_rendition
According to Clinton administration official Richard Clarke…
March 13th, 2010 at 12:20 am
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