UK wants to avoid embarrassment over Edward Snowden rather than uphold the law
Friday 14 June 2013
Theresa May wants to avoid embarrassment over Edward Snowden rather than uphold the law
The Home Secretary's premature decision is enough to show she has prejudged the issue and her bias would make any subsequent decision open to challenge, says Geoffrey Robertson
Theresa May's secret (until it was leaked) threat to punish airlines if they dared to fly Mr Snowden to London and her promise that he “is highly likely to be refused entry to the UK” if they do, shows the length to which the Home Office will now go to avoid the rule of law.
Governments find it easier to bully commercial operators (the US pressured MasterCard and PayPal to drop WikiLeaks) to avoid embarrassment rather than apply the principles (in this case, freedom of speech) which they purport to believe.
Snowden would have a better chance of resisting extradition were he to enter the UK, where judges are fiercely independent and the European Court acts as a human rights longstop. In Hong Kong, judges are not noted for anti-government rulings and the Final Court of Appeal's decisions are reversible by the Chinese government, which might cut a deal with the US.
Were Snowden to reach Europe, however, he could resist extradition on charges under the US Espionage Act on the ground that this would be a breach of his Article 10 right to communicate information of importance to the European public (eg that their privacy was infringed by the NSA without the checks in place for American citizens) and contrary to Article 8 of the Convention.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/theresa-may-wants-to-avoid-embarrassment-over-edward-snowden-rather-than-uphold-the-law-8659783.html
Pepe Escobar discusses this here
= new reply since forum marked as read
Disneyland...but that was okay, because he is a Repuke and they get special immunity and privileges when they are trying to usurp the State. 
Note to UK - you already are a joke the world over...just ask Rupert Murdoch. Or America. He did they same thing to us...but ya you got such BIGGER FISH to fry! The guy that fucked around with Scotland Yard? Meh, whatever he is uber rich and in the land of capitalists, the richest guy never does any wrong nor gets punished for any wrong doing.
The double standard is embarrassing.
And the Reports are that Obama and Cameron are Tight with Each Other.....sort of the same thing all over again. Cameron does a "No Fly" for to "make good cover for Obama" with Snowden...and pretty soon Cameron will come out with the "evidence" that Assad used Sarin Gas on his People. "HE GASSED HIS PEOPLE" and the Brits line up and fall into place because we were ALLIED IN WWII! Times have changed since then. Not that Brits aren't our friends but that we USE YOU ALL OVER THERE for EFFORTS that do Neither Side any good...these days. We are INVITING TERRORISTS... The mistakes of both of us. But, we freed ourselves from BRITS long ago. This is a dangerous alliance between the Old Empire Seekers and We of America...the NEW EMPIRE SEEKERS. It ended badly before...and if we, here, keep it up...we will end badly, also.
There are much better Alliances for Progress between our Two Countries than the "War Alliances of the Past." (I have an Anglophile Past...but, reject what it turned into) ...just so you know.
What's changed? 
The UK government is as deeply committed to these programs as the US is. Sheesh. Get a clue. I've been telling people to look up certain things. Funny, as I've been doing that, links on Wikipedia have been mysteriously disappearing, too. 
Like the one on Switzerland's Echelon system. You have to get to it in a round about way now.
Anyway, we all share hardware, software and people. Duh.
