person:geoffrey robertson

Edward Snowden’s fear of flying is justified | Geoffrey Robertson | Comment is free | The Guardian
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/23/snowden-asylum-america-international-law

So far #Snowden has had three offers of asylum from Latin America, but to travel there means dangerous hours in the air. International law (and the Chicago Convention regulating air traffic) emphatically asserts freedom to traverse international airspace, but America tends to treat international law as binding on everyone except America (and Israel). Thus when Egypt did a deal with the Achille Lauro hijackers and sent them on a commercial flight to Tunis, US F-14 jets intercepted the plane in international airspace and forced it to land in Italy, where the hijackers were tried and jailed. President Mubarak condemned the action as “air piracy contrary to international law” and demanded an apology, to which Reagan replied: “Never.” The UK supported the action as designed to bring terrorists to trial.

In 1986 Israel forced down a Libyan commercial plane in the mistaken belief that PLO leaders were among its passengers, and the US vetoed UN security council condemnation.

So there must be a real concern, particularly after Nato allies collaborated in forcing down the Bolivian president’s jet, that the US will intercept any plane believed to be carrying Snowden to asylum, either because he is tantamount to a terrorist (Vice-President Biden has described Julian Assange as a “hi-tech terrorist”) or simply because they want to put him on trial as a spy.

#violation du #droit_international #Israël #Etats-Unis #pirates_de_l'air

Depuis des décennies ces gens imposent des règles économiques « globales » délétères, envahissent des pays étrangers sous des prétextes mensongers, en sortent après y avoir semé la mort et la désolation non sans les laisser littéralement exsangues et mortellement divisés, y créent des escadrons de la mort, maintiennent dans des conditions inhumaines des innocents au gnouf, utilisent des drones pour assassiner les ennemis fanatisés de leurs amis sans foi ni loi sans souci des civils, n’ont jour et nuit que louanges à la bouche pour lesdits amis, n’ont de cesse jour et nuit que de légaliser la corruption en faveur de l’"élite" et au détriment de madame et monsieur tout le monde chez eux, mais, jour et nuit, on leur demande de se montrer dignes de leurs « valeurs fondamentales » ou encore de tenir le rôle de « leader mondial des droits humains. »

Un des derniers exemples en date :

Saudi Arabia vs. China : America can’t play favorites with human rights - CSMonitor.com
▻http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2013/0328/Saudi-Arabia-vs.-China-America-can-t-play-favorites-with-human-rights

Rupert Murdoch letter to News International staff “full of legal errors”
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/18/rupert-murdoch-letter-legal-errors

Rupert Murdoch is not legally obliged to hand over evidence of wrongdoing in his newspapers to the police, contrary to claims he made in a letter to News International staff, a leading human rights lawyer has said.

Geoffrey Robertson has said that Murdoch’s letter in relation to this issue “is full of errors, both of law and history”.

He added that the media baron was “ill-advisedly and unethically throwing away the shield that parliament gave to journalists in 1984 so they could protect their sources”.

On Friday, Murdoch told staff that his internal investigations unit, which had already handed over evidence that has led to the arrest of nine Sun journalists in the past month, would continue to disclose material to the police because the company was “obligated” to do so.