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The long arm of the USA again?

In recent times we've seen an extraordinary number of cases where the USA has exercised its might to have foreign nationals extradited to face trial in US courts, despite, in some cases, them never having even visited that country before.

Their alleged crimes vary from conspiring to supply military equipment to Iran through hacking and copyright breach.

Here's a short list of some that I'm aware of...

• Christopher Tappin
• Richard O'Dwyer
• Gary McKinnon
• Babar Ahmad
• Julian Assange

Yes, that's right... Julian Assange has seemingly lost his appeal against extradition to the USA.

And let's not forget about the pending extradition hearing for NZ resident Kim Dotcom.

Now I've got nothing against reciprocal extradition treaties with countries such as the USA -- so long as they're not abused.

I think it's long overdue that such treaties be revisited and their terms changed to reflect the nature of a world that is now far different to that which existed when such agreements were first negotiated.

Surely the intent of such extradition treaties was to ensure that offenders or suspects who had fled the country in which their crimes allegedly occurred could be returned to that country to face trial.

Unfortunately, the way the USA is exercising its rights under existing treaties is an abuse of that power.

If someone undertakes an action that is completely legal in the country where that act is performed, they ought not face extradition and prosecution by the USA -- simply because their laws are different. Unfortunately, this is the situation that some of those in the above list face.

It is not the job nor the right of the USA to inflict its laws on citizens or residents of other countries "simply because they can".

Indeed, governments owe their citizens and residents protection from a rogue nation like the USA who seeks to impose its own laws on other nations.

Now I'm sure many are tapping away on their keyboards right now to tell me that Julian Assange hasn't been extradited to the USA. He's actually being sent to Sweden.

Well hold onto your popcorn folks -- and just watch what happens next!

There is a strong belief that Sweden is simply a convenient "stop-over" that is being used to get Assange out of the UK. The US government will already be twisting Sweden's arm to pass him on to them -- because they want him "so bad" due to the harm Wikileaks has done to their own reputation.

Right now I'm thinking that the eventual decision by NZ courts in respect to the requested extradition of Kim Dotcom has the potential to be a turning-point in this nation's relations with the USA.

I'd like to think that if KD is extradited, Kiwis will rise up, march in the streets and mailbomb the relevant members of parliament with their outrage.

Sadly, I fear that apathy will rule and that won't happen.

However, I do hold hope that some of our more savvy judges will realise the fact that the USA is severely abusing their extradition treaty with us and deny the motion. We can but cross our fingers and hope.

It would not be appropriate for the government to step in and over-ride the courts (either way) since the courts ought to be above the influence of any government but it is the job of government to ensure that all laws, regulations, policies and treaties are in the best interests of the citizens and residents of NZ. If KD is extradited, the NZ people ought to speak with a unified voice and demand that the extradition treaty be re-written in a way that eliminates the potential for this type of abuse.

Someone needs to tell the USA to pull its head in.

Unfortunately, given the "bend over? Certainly -- is this far enough" attitude of successive NZ governments to US political pressure, it's unlikely to be us who initiate a global move to put the USA back in its rightful place.

If KD is extradited to the USA - what (if any) action will you take to voice your outrage?

Or will you not be at all outraged and figure that these judges and politicians must know what they're doing?

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