The leftwing European chattering classes have been seething in outrage over the State of California’s recent execution of convicted murderer (and Nobel Peace Prize nominee) Stanley “Tookie” Williams, and the Bush Administration’s treatment of terrorists.
Writing in the German news magazine Stern, Florian GüÃu0178gen condemns the harshness of American methods of dealing with malefactors. (Ray D. translates –and responds– in Davids Medienkritik):
Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. The same principle is also used by the USA in the worldwide hunt for criminals. Because George W. Bush and the CIA are hunting terrorists – mass murderers, they allow themselves the right to kidnap and torture – without consideration for principles of justice or international rights. The ends justify the means. There that German al-Masri is just kidnapped for a short time from the Balkans, dragged to Afghanistan, shut-in, interrogated, probably also tortured. The USA, the home of the “West” works with the same methods of the dark rogues of the Russian mafia.
As the Stern editorial demonstrates, anti-American PC is particularly strong in the territories of the former Reich. Leftwing politicians in his hometown of Graz, Austria, responded to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to decline clemency for Tookie Williams with a petition-drive to remove Schwarzenegger’s name from a local stadium re-christened in his honor in 1997. The naturalized-American governor responded in unmelted-American fashion:
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday told officials in his hometown in Austria to remove his name from a sports stadium and stop using his name to promote the city.
The governor’s request came after politicians in Graz began a petition drive to rename the stadium, reacting to Schwarzenegger’s decision last week to deny clemency to condemned inmate Stanley Tookie Williams. Opposition to the death penalty is strong in Austria.
In a letter that began “Dear Mister Mayor,” Schwarzenegger said he decided to spare the Graz city council “further concern” should he be forced to make other clemency decisions while serving as California’s governor. He faces another such decision regarding a 75-year-old inmate scheduled to be executed Jan. 17.
“In all likelihood, during my term as governor, I will have to make similar and equally difficult decisions,” Schwarzenegger said in the letter. “In order to spare the responsible politicians of the city of Graz further concern, I withdraw from them as of this day the right to use my name in association with the Liebenauer Stadium.”
Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson said the letter was faxed to Graz city hall on Monday.
In it, Schwarzenegger also said he would no longer permit the use of his name “to advertise or promote the city of Graz in any way” and would return the city’s “ring of honor.”“Since, however, the official Graz appears to no longer accept me as one of their own, this ring has lost its meaning and value to me. It is already in the mail,” the governor wrote.
The letter notes that city officials will receive a follow-up letter from Schwarzenegger’s attorney.
Charley G.
The US does not torture. Apparently only the scapegoats get credit for that. See supportmpscapegoats.com
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