Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Dutch Central Bank Sale Announcement Imminent? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (18334)	5/20/2003 9:58:19 PM
From: sea_urchin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81956

> the USD has to be boss and "The US government does not respect the law between nations. It is the law." informationclearinghouse.info >>>....while the US forbids other nations to proscribe the actions of its citizens, it also insists that its own laws should apply abroad. The Foreign Sovereignty Immunities Act, for example, permits the US courts to prosecute foreigners for harming commercial interests in the United States, even if they are breaking no laws within their own countries. The Helms-Burton Act allows the courts in America to confiscate the property of foreign companies which do business with Cuba. The Iran-Libya Sanctions Act instructs the government to punish foreign firms investing in the oil or gas sectors in those countries. The message these laws send is this: you can't prosecute us, but we can prosecute you. Of course, the sensible means of resolving legal disputes between nations is the use of impartial, multinational tribunals, such as the International Criminal Court in the Hague. But impartial legislation is precisely what the US government will not contemplate. When the ICC treaty was being negotiated, the United States demanded that its troops should be exempt from prosecution, and the UN Security Council gave it what it wanted. The US also helped to ensure that the court's writ runs only in the nations which have ratified the treaty. Its soldiers in Iraq would thus have been exempt in any case, as Saddam Hussein's government was one of seven which voted against the formation of the court in 1998. The others were China, Israel, Libya, Qatar, Yemen and the United States. This is the company the American government keeps when it comes to international law. To ensure that there was not the slightest possibility that his servicemen need fear the rule of law, last year George Bush signed a new piece of extra-territorial legislation, which permits the US "to use all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release" of US citizens being tried in the court. This appears to include the invasion of the capital of the Netherlands.<<< So now you know --- the dollar is the boss and the US is the law --- for all of us.