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 US-UK Extradition Treaty: ACT TODAY; Blaire at White House 
  
 Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit 
  
 sent by Francis A. Boyle - Jul 28, 2006 
  
 EXTREME DANGER! STOP US/UK EXTRADITION TREATY NOW! 
  
 Blair is at the White House meeting with Bush today, Friday, July 28, as 
 I speak to you. Today's  New York Times article has already reported his 
 domestic problems with the U.S. non-ratification of the Treaty. I am 
 certain that Blair will ask Bush for movement on the Treaty, and that 
 Bush and the Republican controlled Senate will give it to Bush and 
 Blair. Every time Blair has met with Bush, Bush has pushed the Senate to 
 take the next  step on the Treaty. We must go all out to stop this 
 Treaty immediately. Contact your 2 U. S. Senators now, today,   by phone 
 and fax and in person, both in DC and in their state offices, to oppose 
 this Treaty.  Tomorrow might be to late! Anything could happen between 
 now and August 4 when the Senate goes out on vacation. We must fight 
 this Treaty to the death during the next week! 
  
 Francis A. Boyle 
 Professor of International Law 
  
 Statement in Opposition to the Ratification of the 
 Proposed Extradition Treaty Between the United States 
 and the United Kingdom (31 March 2003) 
  
 by Professor Francis A. Boyle 
 Before the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 
 United States Senate 
  
 21 July 2006 
  
 The United States of America was founded by means of a Declaration of 
 Independence and a Revolutionary War fought against the British 
 Monarchy. 
  
 But under the terms of this proposed Extradition Treaty, our Founding 
 Fathers and Mothers such as John Hancock, George Washington, Thomas 
 Jefferson, James and Dolly Madison would be extradited to the British 
 Monarchy for prosecution and persecution for the very revolutionary 
 activities that founded the United States of America itself. 
  
 Because of this American legacy of revolution against British Tyranny, 
 we, Americans, have always been wary of efforts by foreign powers to 
 transport Americans and foreigners for prosecution abroad.  In the 
 Declaration of Independence, one of the specific complaints against 
 British Tyranny made by Thomas Jefferson was directed at the British 
 outrage of "transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended 
 offences." Such is the case for this Treaty! 
  
 For that reason, several episodes in the early history of our Republic, 
 such as that of Citizen Genet under Thomas Jefferson, laid the 
 foundation for the uniquely American notion of the "political offense 
 exception" to extradition.  Today, this bedrock principle of American 
 Justice is now under assault by means of this Treaty.  Although it pays 
 lip-service to the political offense exception, the Treaty effectively 
 eliminates it for all practical purposes. 
  
 The political offense exception is eliminated for any offense allegedly 
 involving violence or weapons, including any solicitation, conspiracy, 
 or attempt to commit such crimes.  As we Irish Americans have repeatedly 
 seen in Chicago, Florida, New York, and elsewhere, undercover government 
 agents infiltrate peaceful Irish American groups, suggest criminal 
 activity to them, and then falsely claim that innocent members of these 
 groups agreed with their suggestions.  That is all it takes for a 
 conspiracy to be extraditable under this Treaty.  Even worse, all it 
 would take for any of the people in this room to get extradited under 
 this Treaty is a false allegation from the British Monarchy that one of 
 its spies overheard them say something reckless about weapons or the 
 armed struggle in Ireland. 
  
 In addition, this Treaty wipes out a number of constitutional and 
 procedural safeguards.  It eliminates any statute of limitations, 
 eliminates the need for any showing of probable cause, permits 
 indefinite preventive detention, applies retroactively to offenses 
 allegedly committed before the Treaty's ratification, eliminates the 
 time-honored Rule of Specialty in all but name, allows for the 
 unconstitutional seizure of assets, and permits extradition under 
 Article 2(4) for conduct that is perfectly lawful in the United States. 
 This Treaty retroactively criminalizes perfectly lawful conduct in 
 violation of the constitutional prohibition on Ex Post Facto laws set 
 forth in Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution as well as the 
 basic principle of public international law and human rights - no crime 
 without law, no punishment without law. 
  
 Most outrageously, under this Treaty, responsibility for determining 
 whether a prosecution is politically motivated is transferred from the 
 U.S. Federal Courts to the executive branch of government.  This means 
 that instead of having your day in court before a neutral Federal Judge 
 you will be required to rely on the not-so-tender mercies of the 
 Department of State, which historically has always been stridently 
 pro-British, anti-Irish, and against Irish Americans and Irish America. 
 There are now over twenty million Irish American Citizens, Voters, and 
 Taxpayers, and we all especially like to vote. 
  
 As the current U.S. Irish deportation cases show, Britain can easily 
 return Irish and British citizens to Britain.  So why is the British 
 Monarchy now trying now to shift the extradition decision from the U.S. 
 Federal Courts to the State Department?  Because you cannot deport a 
 U.S. citizen.  A U.S. citizen has to be extradited.  Article 3 of the 
 proposed Treaty makes it crystal clear that the British Monarchy wants 
 to target Irish American Citizens for persecution in Crown courts, which 
 have a long history of perpetrating legal atrocities against innocent 
 Irish People.  That is precisely why the U.S. Senate deliberately put 
 the so-called Rule of Inquiry by a U.S. Federal Judge into Article 3 of 
 the 1986 Supplementary Extradition Treaty with Britain.  This proposed 
 Treaty eliminates the Senate's well-grounded Rule of Inquiry.  This 
 Treaty has been designed by the British government to overturn and 
 reverse the delicately crafted constitutional and human rights 
 guarantees that were deliberately built into the 1986 Supplementary 
 Extradition Treaty by the U.S. Senate. 
  
 Furthermore, unlike Article VIIIbis of the proposed Extradition Protocol 
 with Israel, for some mysterious reason Article 6 of the Extradition 
 Treaty with the British Monarchy eliminates any statute of limitations 
 requirements.  So citizens of Israel get to benefit from a statute of 
 limitations, but we Irish American Citizens of the United States do not. 
  
 Why? 
  
 The answer becomes quite clear in Article 2(2) and Article 4(2)(g) of 
 the Extradition Treaty which renders extraditable an accessory after the 
 fact to an extraditable offense.  Since there are no statute of 
 limitations requirements and the proposed Treaty is retroactive, any 
  
 [continued in next message] 
  
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