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 STOP US/UK EXTRADITION TREATY NOW! 
  
 Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit 
  
 sent by Francis A. Boyle - Jul 27, 2006 
  
 "The committee will act. They could report it out to the Senate before 
 the Senate goes on vacation August fourth," Boyle said....Boyle said he 
 believed there was "a window of extreme danger" between now and August 4. 
  
 The Irish Echo 
  
 Critics wait as panel mulls treaty 
  
 By Ray O'Hanlon 
  
 Irish American critics of the controversial revised U.S./U.K. 
 Extradition  Treaty were this week waiting for word on the treaty's fate 
 at the hands of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. 
  
 The treaty was both attacked and defended at a committee hearing on 
 Capitol Hill last week held by chairman Richard Lugar from Indiana and 
 Connecticut's Chris Dodd. 
  
 In the case of Professor Francis Boyle, it was all out attack -- 
 but from a distance. 
  
 Boyle was to join leaders of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and 
 Irish American Unity Conference in delivering Irish America's critical 
 view of the revised pact, but he ended up being stranded at Chicago's 
 O'Hare airport as a result of stormy weather. 
  
 Nevertheless, Boyle was able to email both a statement and his 
 testimony to the committee and is this week waiting to answer questions 
 that the committee will be sending to him at his base of operations: the 
 University of Illinois in Champaign. 
  
 "I don't know where it stands right now. Lugar has stated that the 
 government will submit more questions that he and Dodd have asked but as 
 of Friday the case file is closed," Boyle told the Echo. 
  
 "The committee will act. They could report it out to the Senate 
 before the Senate goes on vacation August fourth," Boyle said. 
  
 Boyle said that in the next few days Irish American organization 
 concerned over the treaty would be putting pressure on all 100 senators 
 to oppose the treaty. 
  
 "The British do not vote. This is not a legal issue, it is a 
 political one, he said. 
  
 "Meantime I am waiting for questions from the committee. When they 
 send them to me I will respond." 
  
 Boyle said he believed there was "a window of extreme danger" 
 between now and August 4. 
  
 "I have offered to travel to Washington to meet with committee 
 staff lawyers but that was rejected. I was told to stand by for 
 questions and I am doing that." 
  
                      *** 
  
 Treaty threatens U.S. liberties: activists 
  
 By Caitriona Palmer 
  
 WASHINGTON D.C. -- Irish-American activists last week urged U.S. 
 lawmakers to reject a controversial U.S.-U.K. extradition treaty saying 
 it would violate civil liberties and single out Irish Americans critical 
 of British policy in Northern Ireland. 
  
 At an emotional hearing before the Senate foreign relations 
 committee, representatives from two leading Irish-American groups told 
 senators that because the treaty transfers ultimate authority on 
 extradition requests from the federal courts to the executive branch, 
 Irish Americans could be at risk for their political activities. 
  
 "If this treaty is ratified, no American citizen who is or ever has 
 been active in Irish political affairs and who has publicly spoken in 
 opposition to British governmental policy in the North of Ireland will 
 be safe from the possibility of being extradited to Britain for merely 
 exercising the right to free speech," said Jack Meehan, president of the 
 Ancient Order of Hibernians. 
  
 "It would appear that the only logical reason for the ratification 
 of this proposed treaty is to make it easier for the British government 
 to extradite American citizens," Meehan said. 
  
 The Irish-American presence at the hearing suffered a setback when 
 their primary legal expert, Professor Francis Boyle of the University of 
 Illinois, was unable to attend due to bad weather in the Midwest. 
 Originally scheduled to occur two days earlier, the hearing was moved 
 forward when Boyle complained to the committee that there was 
 insufficient representation of Irish-American interest groups on the 
 panel. 
  
 In written testimony submitted beforehand, Boyle condemned the 
 treaty as an assault on civil liberties that would jeopardize 
 Irish-Americans who have been actively supporting the republican cause 
 in Northern Ireland. 
  
 The "real agenda" of the treaty was, Boyle said: "British 
 retaliation against Irish-American citizens, voters and taxpayers 
 because of our near universal support for Joe Doherty and other IRA 
 soldiers who fled to the United States of America seeking refuge from 
 fighting their own revolution against British tyranny in Ireland..." 
  
 Boyle was referring to former IRA member Joseph Doherty who was 
 convicted in Northern Ireland in the killing of a British soldier in 
 1980 and was deported back to the United Kingdom by the U.S. in 1992 
 following a protracted legal battle. 
  
 Responding to the fierce criticism leveled at the treaty, Bush 
 administration officials at the hearing strenuously denied that the 
 treaty targeted Irish Americans arguing instead that it was a "critical" 
 element in the war on terror. 
  
 "I must refute in unequivocal terms the suggestion of opponents that 
 the United States has entered into this treaty in order to collude with 
 the United Kingdom in a campaign of retaliation against Irish-American 
 citizens," said Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty. "This is not 
 true." 
  
 The officials warned the committee that further delays in ratifying 
 the treaty could harm the administration's relationship with the U.K., 
 its most important ally in the war on terror. 
  
 "What we are doing here is nothing more than attempting to bring the 
 UK treaty into line with other treaties," said McNulty. 
  
 At stake is a revised treaty that would remove a safeguard 
 protecting persons from extradition if it is proved that the request has 
 been made with a view to try an individual on account of race, religion, 
 nationality or political opinions. 
  
 The treaty would also grant the final decision on British 
 extradition requests to the U.S. secretary of state, authority that 
 customarily rests with federal courts. 
  
 But Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd from Connecticut raised the 
 concern that any extradition decision by the secretary of state could be 
 "colored" by political allies or events. 
  
 "There is a danger...once you've asked someone whose portfolio is 
 much larger than just deciding what the law is, then you run into 
 further complications into making that decision. These are matters of 
 law, as to whether or not a persons rights are being violated," he said. 
  
 The committee chairman, Senator Dick Lugar echoed Irish-American 
 concerns that the proposed treaty could limit free speech rights enjoyed 
 by American citizens under the First Amendment. 
  
 But Duke University law professor Madeline Morris, who was 
 testifying in favor of the treaty, said that American citizens 
 "absolutely" could not be extradited under American law under such 
  
 [continued in next message] 
  
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