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Foreign Press Calling for President’s Assasination
Posted October 23, 2004 – 8:08 pm by Yakov Shafranovich in PoliticsThe UK’s Guardian, never a friend to the US, has just published an article ending with an assasination threat to President Bush (via Drudge):
On November 2, the entire civilised world will be praying, praying Bush loses. And Sod’s law dictates he’ll probably win, thereby disproving the existence of God once and for all. The world will endure four more years of idiocy, arrogance and unwarranted bloodshed, with no benevolent deity to watch over and save us. John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr - where are you now that we need you? (emphasis added)
They might be unfamiliar with the following US law:
Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. (emphasis added)
Of course the line between freedom of press and this law is a thin one, but then again the Guardian is in the UK, where the First Amendment doesn’t apply. Of course, we may note that this law above does not apply as well, but than again there is the little matter of the MLAT treaty which was sucessfully used against IndyMedia. I also wonder if it is legal to mail copies fo the Guardian in the US since mailing threats is illegal as well.And of course, interfering with a foreign election and inciting an assasination might be a problem as well, but I will all of these matters to the readers.
UPDATE: The Guardian has taken down the column and offered an apology (via Winds of Change):
The final sentence of a column in The Guide on Saturday caused offence to some readers. The Guardian associates itself with the following statement from the writer.
“Charlie Brooker apologises for any offence caused by his comments relating to President Bush in his TV column, Screen Burn. The views expressed in this column are not those of the Guardian. Although flippant and tasteless, his closing comments were intended as an ironic joke, not as a call to action - an intention he believed regular readers of his humorous column would understand. He deplores violence of any kind.”
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One Response to “Foreign Press Calling for President’s Assasination”
Not long ago The Guardian has asked for non-American volunteers to pen letters to undecided voters in Clark County, Ohio–which the Guardian had identified as a crucial region in a battleground election state–urging them to vote against Bush in next month’s presidential election.
By Daniel Goldman on Oct 25, 2004