US says it has right to kidnap British citizens

[Ikutiera]

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.

Times Online

[bombadillo]

Originally Posted by Ikutiera

Times Online

Interesting that the US authorities are being candid about it. In the old days we used to call this "extraterritoriality": where one sovereign state could interfere at will (or whim) in the domestic affairs of another (militarily weaker) state, riding roughshod over its claim to be a sovereign state. US extraterroritoriality has being freely exercised in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, but this is the first time I have seen any US official claim it for the entire world (including Europe). And this claim is of course ultimately backed not by international law (a completely impotent thing) but by US armed might. If the US ever was a civilised place, it gave that up a long time ago and has been the evil empire for quite some time.

[Susi]

Britain has told America it can eff off and deal with its (currency) woes in a more productive manner than wasting (soon to be worthless) money in tarnishing its own image.

[bombadillo]

Originally Posted by Susi

Britain has told America it can eff off and deal with its (currency) woes in a more productive manner than wasting (soon to be worthless) money in tarnishing its own image.

Britain had better be careful (and I'm speaking as an Englishman now): modern Britain relies heavily on global financial flows to maintain a semblance of a real economy (since we don't make much of anything any more). And the guarantor of financial flows and the international financial system as a whole (in which British financial capitalists benefit as rentiers) depends on US armed might. That's why the British government hops into bed with the Americans each and every time.

[Menydh]

I wonder if it would work for an English, shooting down an American on the street, and try to get away with it by pointing the court to the the US Supreme Court sanction and excusing the shooting on grounds of social alarm, fear and paranoia.. "I'm so sorry, how could I know for sure? I thought that he was out there to kidnap me and my family.. I overreacted!"