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 Chess Legend Bobby Fischer Avoids Prison


Games

By Drog (Canada), Section International
Posted on Wed Mar 23, 2005 at 06:23:12 AM PST

Wikinews reports that former world chess champion Bobby Fischer, will move from Japan to his new home of Iceland despite requests from the USA for his extradition. Mr Fischer had been held in Japan since last July when he was arrested on what US officials claimed was an invalid US passport.

Mr Fischer is wanted in the USA for violating sanctions on the former Yugoslavia by playing an exhibition match in 1992 against Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union. If Mr Fischer had been extradited, he would have faced a ten year prison term.

The Icelandic embassy in Japan said that it will issue Mr Fischer an Icelandic passport by the weekend. Their decision follows the Icelandic parliament's decision to grant citizenship to Mr Fischer on Monday. Mr Fischer won the world championship in Iceland in 1972, against Boris Spassky.

Iceland's ambassador to Japan, Thordur Oskarsson, said that the US government had sent a message of displeasure to the Icelandic government before its parliament passed the bill allowing for Mr Fischer's citizenship. Mr Oskarsson went on to say that, "Despite the message, the decision was put through Parliament on humanitarian grounds".

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You've got to be kidding me (5.00 / 1) (#3)
by Unknown User () on Wed Mar 23, 2005 at 07:59:44 AM PST

The world gets annoyed when the United States uses force against evil.  The world wants the US to use non-violent means like embargos.  But then they undermine the US when it attempts to enforce the embargos.

Lets keep this clear.  Yugoslavia was committing genocide.  The president of Yugoslavia at the time is on trial at the ICJ.

Not to mention that Bobby Fischer has made racist public statements.

This is not some poor victim.  If I was a citizen of Iceland I'd be embarressed.

I didn't mean to post that anonymously (4.00 / 1) (#4)
by RevMike (USA) on Wed Mar 23, 2005 at 08:15:11 AM PST

It was my first time using this site.  I claim this post...

The world gets annoyed when the United States uses force against evil.  The world wants the US to use non-violent means like embargos.  But then they undermine the US when it attempts to enforce the embargos.

Lets keep this clear.  Yugoslavia was committing genocide.  The president of Yugoslavia at the time is on trial at the ICJ.

Not to mention that Bobby Fischer has made racist public statements.

This is not some poor victim.  If I was a citizen of Iceland I'd be embarressed.

[ Parent ]

Racist comments (none / 0) (#5)
by Drog (Canada) on Wed Mar 23, 2005 at 08:42:25 AM PST

I had known that Fischer was a little "nuts", believing in conspiracies perpetrated against him by the CIA and the KGB, and had spoken out harshly against the U.S. government, but I hadn't known about his racist comments. A little googling, though, has educated me on this. Seems the man makes anti-Semetic comments at every turn.

There's an interesting story on this here.

So what are my thought on him now? Well, I have zero tolerance for people making racist comments. And yet reading his comments, such as how Jews are bent on world domination through such insidious schemes as the Holocaust, the mass murder of Christian children, and junk food, and how Gary Kasparov is a "crook" and former KGB spy who hasn't played a chess match in his life in which the outcome wasn't prearranged, he seems to me to be not simply a racist, but someone who is clearly suffering from paranoia and in need of psychiatric help. As such, I pity the man more than anything else.

But regardless, nobody deserves to imprisoned for 10 years for the crime of playing chess. You might say it's not for the crime of playing chess, but for the crime of breaking the embargo, which included sanctions on sporting events. I'm all in favour of nations using sanctions against nations commiting atrocities, but this had nothing to do with trade, business or even official national sports. He was a private citizen whose freedom of movement was being restricted by his government. I don't like that. I don't like it with regards to Cuba either. A government can refuse to deal with another nation's government. It can even force its nation's companies to not do business with companies of that embargoed nation. But it should not prohibit its citizens from travelling freely to wherever they want in the world unless it is a matter of national security, which this case was clearly not.

If I could be convinced that allowing him to play in Yugoslavia during the embargo would have set a very dangerous precedent, I would still argue that the punishment does not fit the crime. Jail time is way too harsh. A fine would be much more appropriate. And considering how Fischer won $3.3 million at that chess tournament, I'm sure a judge could have levied a hefty fine indeed.

[ Parent ]

He was paid $3.3 million (5.00 / 1) (#7)
by RevMike (USA) on Wed Mar 23, 2005 at 09:10:45 AM PST

How is that not "trade, business"?  And why would he paid that money unless the people holding the tournament thought they would make it back in other ways?

Part of the intention of the embargo is to make the country a pariah.  Fischer undermined that.  He allowed the Serbs to point at him and say "See! We aren't so bad.  Bobby Fischer even came here to play a chess tournament."  They wanted him there as a public relations tool.  He knowingly collaborated with that.

Roughly 100,000 Bosnians were killed during the genocide.  Killed in concentration camps.  I won't hazard to guess how many more more raped, how many more lost their homes and everything they own.

If Fischer, in his capacity as public relations tool, extended the rule of the genocidal regime even one minute, he is responsible for some portion of that death toll.

The international community has decided that the proper way to respond to mass murder and systematic rape is a boycott.  If a boycott is to be successful, however, it can't be porous.  He knowingly undermined the boycott, and he should be held accountable.

Ten years in prison for aiding and abetting genocide seems like a pretty generous deal to me.

[ Parent ]

Good points (none / 0) (#8)
by Drog (Canada) on Wed Mar 23, 2005 at 12:00:45 PM PST

You have definitely made some good points and given me a lot to think about. I will agree that being paid to play chess in a tournament is participating in a business, even if the business is a short, in-and-out venture. I will agree that Fischer's decision to participate in the tournament being held in Yugoslavia during a horrible time of genocide, was extremely distasteful, and that by doing so he allowed himself to be used as a public relations tool. But did it warrant prosecution?

Interestingly, French authorities did not regard Spassky's participation as a violation of the sanctions. Indeed, nobody involved in the tournament was ever charged with anything, except for Fischer. That's because Fischer was charged for having violated an Executive Order signed by President Bush (at a press conference, he actually spit on the Department of the Treasury letter forbidding him to play). It is worth noting that there is no constitutional law or statute that explicitly permits presidential executive orders -- presidents have often been accused of abusing them, and courts have twice overturned them. It is also worth noting that just a month before the 1992 chess tournament, another U.S. citizen, former ICN Chairman and CEO Milan Panic, went to Belgrade to become the country's Prime Minister under Milosevic's presidency -- and Washington did not object. So Washington said it was okay to join Milosevic in Yugoslavia as Prime Minister during a time of genocide... but not to play chess there.

As this editorial states, "Where and how to play chess should be left to the individual conscience. Our conscience would not permit us to play chess in the Yugoslavia of ethnic cleansers; Bobby's conscience, assuming that he has one, permits him to take money from evil men who do evil things. Bobby may not be a man whose hand you would shake. But he is not a criminal."

[ Parent ]

Consequences (5.00 / 1) (#15)
by you look like a nail (Canada) on Thu Mar 24, 2005 at 07:02:09 AM PST

Fischer is an American citizen and as such he is subject to the laws of his nation.  Whatever anyone else thinks of those laws is not really relevant to the discussion, so long as those laws do not contravene his universal human rights.

The one commonly used criteria to withhold extradition is the possibility that the country to which the individual is being extradited would subject that individual to torture or other cruel and unusual treatment.  I don't believe that Fischer would be subject to that kind of treatment, although the US has demonstrated recently that it is not as opposed to the application of torture as one might like.  A ten year prison term may well seem unduly harsh but I don't believe it meets the standards of cruel and unusual punishment.

So, is there any compelling reason for Iceland (or Japan for that matter) to refuse to extradite Fischer to the US, to let him answer for the consequences of his actions under the laws of his own nation?  Remember, the question is not what punishment Fischer should receive; the question is whether there is a valid reason why an American citizen should not be answerable to American laws.

-- Your Reality Check is in the mail.
[ Parent ]

He may still be extradited (none / 0) (#18)
by Drog (Canada) on Thu Mar 24, 2005 at 10:17:11 AM PST

The New York Times was saying the same thing today:

It is unclear how Mr. Fischer would avoid extradition by living in Iceland, a windswept North Atlantic nation with a population of only 300,000. Iceland, like Japan, maintains close military ties with the United States and has an extradition treaty with Washington.


[ Parent ]
Not fair to Panic (4.00 / 1) (#9)
by RevMike (USA) on Wed Mar 23, 2005 at 01:10:09 PM PST

It is also worth noting that just a month before the 1992 chess tournament, another U.S. citizen, former ICN Chairman and CEO Milan Panic, went to Belgrade to become the country's Prime Minister under Milosevic's presidency -- and Washington did not object. So Washington said it was okay to join Milosevic in Yugoslavia as Prime Minister during a time of genocide... but not to play chess there.

Now that isn't really fair.  First, Panic became Prime Minister of what was left of Yugoslavia while Milosovic was President of Serbia, still a part of Yugoslavia.  Second, Panic was an enemy of Milosovic who sought to remove him.  It seems that Panic also tried to defuse and avoid the ethnic conflicts.

Here us an interesting link: Kosovo: The Long Road to War



[ Parent ]
Maybe not in hindsight, but... (none / 0) (#11)
by Drog (Canada) on Wed Mar 23, 2005 at 07:00:06 PM PST

Panic definitely became Milosevic's enemy and tried to unseat him, but it was Milosevic that brought Panic there -- to appease the international community as well as the Serbian opposition -- for the purpose of forming the government of the national unity, with members from both his regime and the opposition's.

So in the summer of 1992, during the UN embargo, when Panic went to Yugoslavia to become federal prime minister, he was going there at the behest of Milosevic to help him. Unless Washington had secret talks with Panic beforehand and knew that he was already secretly planning to attempt to remove Milosevic from power, Washington should have had a problem with his going during the embargo, shouldn't they?

[ Parent ]

But he was the State Department's man (none / 0) (#12)
by RevMike (USA) on Wed Mar 23, 2005 at 08:30:38 PM PST

One of Panic's most senior advisors, the rough equivalent of which would be the National Security Advisor in the US, was a guy by the name of Scanlon.  Scanlon was a career diplomat who had, about one year earlier, finished an assignment as US Ambassador to Yugoslavia.

So the rough jist of the situation was that Panic told the State Department "I'd like to go to Yugoslavia and be Prime Minister.  I'd like to take along your own guy as my most senior advisor."  Of course the State Department agreed.

Unfortunately, however, it appears that Secs. of State Baker and Eagleberger fumbled the ball, probably because they were too busy with Gulf War I and the collapse of the Soviet Union to pay enough attention to Yugoslavia.  Had they percieved the situation more clearly they might have been able to use Panic to topple Milosovic then.

Of course there is also the theory among the tin foil hat wearing conspiracy buffs that Scanlon actually worked for the CIA (not unreasonable, lots of CIA agents work under cover as diplomats) and that Scanlon and the CIA were working to insure that the genocides took place.  I don't think they express a clear motive, except that the CIA doing evil things must just be a habit.

[ Parent ]

Yugoslavia (4.00 / 1) (#14)
by you look like a nail (Canada) on Thu Mar 24, 2005 at 06:53:57 AM PST

I don't think it's realistic to believe that the CIA's efforts to encourage matters (and if they did such a thing, their motivation is not evident to me) would have changed anything.  The violent dissolution of Yugoslavia was more or less an inevitable consequence of its inequitable formation in the aftermath of World War I.  The great powers of many ages have tried to intervene in the Balkans for one reason or another, inevitably to unfortunate consequence.

-- Your Reality Check is in the mail.
[ Parent ]

But he was the State Department's man (none / 0) (#13)
by RevMike (USA) on Thu Mar 24, 2005 at 04:25:41 AM PST

One of Panic's most senior advisors, the rough equivalent of which would be the National Security Advisor in the US, was a guy by the name of Scanlon.  Scanlon was a career diplomat who had, about one year earlier, finished an assignment as US Ambassador to Yugoslavia.

So the rough jist of the situation was that Panic told the State Department "I'd like to go to Yugoslavia and be Prime Minister.  I'd like to take along your own guy as my most senior advisor."  Of course the State Department agreed.

Unfortunately, however, it appears that Secs. of State Baker and Eagleberger fumbled the ball, probably because they were too busy with Gulf War I and the collapse of the Soviet Union to pay enough attention to Yugoslavia.  Had they percieved the situation more clearly they might have been able to use Panic to topple Milosovic then.

Of course there is also the theory among the tin foil hat wearing conspiracy buffs that Scanlon actually worked for the CIA (not unreasonable, lots of CIA agents work under cover as diplomats) and that Scanlon and the CIA were working to insure that the genocides took place.  I don't think they express a clear motive, except that the CIA doing evil things must just be a habit.

[ Parent ]

That I did not know (none / 0) (#16)
by Drog (Canada) on Thu Mar 24, 2005 at 08:22:47 AM PST

I can see now why Washington didn't object. This has been a very educational debate for me -- and I think I lost. :)

Thanks, RevMike. I hope you choose to stick around here!

[ Parent ]

Executive orders (4.00 / 1) (#10)
by RevMike (USA) on Wed Mar 23, 2005 at 01:42:41 PM PST

Sorry to reply twice :)

It is worth noting that there is no constitutional law or statute that explicitly permits presidential executive orders -- presidents have often been accused of abusing them, and courts have twice overturned them.

While it is true that the some presidents have abused Executive Orders, in this case Bush was wielding a power explicitly given to him by Congress in Title 50 of the US Code, sections 1701..

1701(a)Any authority granted to the President by section 1702 of this title may be exercised to deal with any unusual and extraordinary threat, which has its source in whole or substantial part outside the United States, to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States, if the President declares a national emergency with respect to such threat.

1702(a)  In general

(1) At the times and to the extent specified in section 1701 of this title, the President may, under such regulations as he may prescribe, by means of instructions, licenses, or otherwise--

(A) investigate, regulate, or prohibit--

(i) any transactions in foreign exchange,

(ii) transfers of credit or payments between, by, through, or to any banking institution, to the extent that such transfers or payments involve any interest of any foreign country or a national thereof,

(iii) the importing or exporting of currency or securities,
by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States;

B) investigate, block during the pendency of an investigation, regulate, direct and compel, nullify, void, prevent or prohibit, any acquisition, holding, withholding, use, transfer, withdrawal, transportation, importation or exportation of, or dealing in, or exercising any right, power, or privilege with respect to, or transactions involving, any property in which any foreign country or a national thereof has any interest by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States; and...

The theory that the executive order was somehow invalid or an abuse of power does not hold water.  Congress has granted the president the power to grant a state of emergency to deal with the threats to the foreign policy of the United States.  Furthermore, in such an emergency the President has been granted by congress the power to prohibit economic transactions with a foreign power.



[ Parent ]
Another good point (none / 0) (#17)
by Drog (Canada) on Thu Mar 24, 2005 at 08:35:16 AM PST

I still don't like the idea of Executive Orders and how presidents have been using them to usurp the legislative power of Congress, Clinton included. But that does not seem to be the cas in this instance.

[ Parent ]
Racism and democracy (1.00 / 1) (#20)
by Unknown User () on Tue May 24, 2005 at 12:53:02 PM PST

Americans have lost all perspective.
Who knows who was the first idiot, or group of idiots, to turn definitions into something better to facilitate the prosecution of other Americans... bun since then, it looks like nobody else dared to re-think them. Why do they say that Fisher is racist? Because he talks about the Jew controlled US? Is that so far from reality after all? Are there not existent ties between Israel and US that make the last one favor the first one every single time an important issue is on the table or the Middle East? What is to be racist after all? Jews are not even a race after all. I was shopping somewhere in LA and I saw a demonstration against "racism against Latinos". Latinos are not a race!!! Are parts of a culture that includes since some Native American looking Mexican to my 100% Irish friends whose families have lived in Argentina or centuries? Another word that this government has strongly contributed to misunderstand is democracy. Now we have democracy in Iraq according to Bush, yeah right. How come a guy that needed the supreme court of his brother to get to power dares to say that word so many times a day!!! He does it anyway, and it is important to notice that he does so because he wants us to keep on the misunderstanding about that. In any other free country in the world, where 18 year old people are not put into Jail because they dated 17 year old people, democracy has nothing to do with elections, but with respect for each other, whatever is what an individual wants to do, whether we like it or not, if he is not going to hurt other people. But here is the trick, since Americans have become so sensitive that a prostitute can take you to court if you dare to call her a whore, cannot be tolerated that Bobby Fisher has a big mouth for a chess player. "Yugoslavia was committing genocide!!!" says a writer down there, not noticing that many US backed governments committed genocide too (including the one that overthrew the oldest Latin American democracy, Chile, in 1973 with the help of the American government). Has anyone ever been prosecuted for that? Not really, but many have been awarded. But getting back to respect for each other, that is a line that you cannot cross if you want to be called democratic, and that's why this government, that is not so, does not want to define it that way. Bobby Fisher makes nasty comments, so what? He is a nasty guy, and as a nasty guy deserves respect, we like it or not. If I meet a Nazi, and he says Jews are inferior, I can take him to the library and use all my time there to show them why he is mistaken, but if he does not want to hear it, or if he does not want to change his mind after I say my part, should I put him in a concentration camp? There is no way we can force people to say or to do what we want, and call this a democracy. We cannot create a dictatorship in the name of democracy. Democracy cannot be enforced, because the result of that is anything but democracy. Bobby Fisher, and other examples, can be consider very positive, since they are a great opportunity to see how fucked up we are in this country, repeating brainless CNN style definitions as is we knew anything about it.


Some sanity (none / 0) (#1)
by Drog (Canada) on Wed Mar 23, 2005 at 06:42:21 AM PST

I've always thought it a travesty that Bobby Fisher had to go into hiding just because he wanted to play chess in a tournament held, unfortunately, in Yugoslavia during the UN embargo.

Yey for Iceland! (none / 0) (#2)
by Machi (Canada) on Wed Mar 23, 2005 at 07:07:36 AM PST

Thank goodness Iceland is a country with brains. I just can't understand the waste of time and money this case must impose on the US court system. I think whoever is persuing and persisting with this case has lost perspective.

Bobby Fisher (none / 0) (#6)
by Unknown User () on Wed Mar 23, 2005 at 08:59:06 AM PST

Fisher is one of the most racist, anti-semitic individuals on the planet. Based on the things he says, there is no doubt that he is absolutely insane.

On 911 he cheered for the terrorists. He felt all the people in the towers deserved to die.

He regularly blames Jews for all the evils of the world. Come on Mr. Fisher, anti-semitisim is so 20th century.

He recently even said that Michael Jackson being on trial for child molestation was a Jewish plot! The guy is completely nuts!

He's even written his on version of Mein Kampf.

"Jews are evil anti-social bastards. I don't think there will be any peace until these Jews are dealt with. "
- Bobby Fisher

After he read his version of Mein Kampf on the radio, he started singing "All you need is love."

Yeah, good for Iceland. They deserve him.

Fischer sues U.S. government (none / 0) (#19)
by Drog (Canada) on Thu Mar 24, 2005 at 03:55:13 PM PST

Well here's a twist. According to the Associated Press, Bobby Fischer has filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. government, calling his nine-month detention in Japan illegal and "under harsh conditions, amounting to torture."

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