U.S. Asserts it Has the Right to Kidnap

Our government grows bolder and stupider by the day... Now we say that we can kidnap foreigners if we believe that they are wanted for crimes in the U.S. Talk about opening Pandora's box!

The news broke in the Sunday edition of U.K.'s TimesOnLine.

Most people believe that kidnapping occurred only in the worst cases such as with terrorists. But American legal experts pointed out that kidnapping dates back to the 19th century and Washington believes it is still legal.

Alun Jones QC, representing the U.S. government stated that

"if you kidnap a person outside the United States and you bring him there, the court has no jurisdiction to refuse — it goes back to bounty hunting days in the 1860s. That is United States law."

He went on to cite the case of Humberto Alvarez Machain who was kidnapped by DEA agents in 1990. Mexico attempted to intercede on his behalf but the Supreme Court ruled that it had no legal remedy.

Patrick Mercer, Tory MP, expressed concern stating,

“The very idea of kidnapping is repugnant to us and we must handle these cases with extreme caution and a thorough understanding of the implications in American law.”

The director of the human rights group Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti, said,

“This law may date back to bounty hunting days, but they should sort it out if they claim to be a civilised nation.”

And, of course, our U.S. Justice Department declined to comment because they don't know anything about it.

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