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Can someone explain this to me?

I

Insane3D

Elite Member
I was just reading this story about this famous chess player, Bobby Fischer, being released from jail in Japan, and flying to Iceland where he was offered citizenship.

It seems the US want to prosecute him for playing a chess match in Yugoslavia in violation of sanctions that were imposed at the time on Milosevich.

What I can't seem to understand is why we are (the US) even bothering to get this guy, and prosecute him. The guy played a chess match, but we are pursuing him like he was some sort of international terrorist.

Anyone know why we seem to want to get this guy so bad?

😕

Link to story...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7266699/
 
This reminds me of last night's mini-speech by Lewis Black on the Daily Show

it's on comedycentral.com . . .
 
in the big scheme of things, it seems like a waste of money to try to get him, but i'm sure someone out there is saying that we shouldn't bend our principles on something like this. bobby fischer was a big deal when he first took the world chess title, and so he's an important person to a lot of people.
 
Yeah, but all he did was play a chess game....A CHESS GAME. I'd like to hear how that weakened the sactions we had on Yugoslavia...
 
He was a vocal opponent of U.S. policy.

He purposely defied the laws of the land to voice his opposition. By being so public in this he must have wanted to be arrested to foment the opposition.


If a government allows its citizens to publicly mock it's laws, where is the rule of order?

 
Originally posted by: Squisher
He was a vocal opponent of U.S. policy.

He purposely defied the laws of the land to voice his opposition. By being so public in this he must have wanted to be arrested to foment the opposition.


If a government allows its citizens to publicly mock it's laws, where is the rule of order?
Click to expand...

well...once upon a time, we had this thing called "free speech" where we could say and believe in whatever we wanted. now it's "unpatriotic" to believe in what you want to, especially if it goes angainst what your government says.
*shakes head*crazy kids
 
Originally posted by: Squisher
He was a vocal opponent of U.S. policy.

He purposely defied the laws of the land to voice his opposition. By being so public in this he must have wanted to be arrested to foment the opposition.


If a government allows its citizens to publicly mock it's laws, where is the rule of order?
Click to expand...

He played a chess game. This warrants his being being actively pursued all these years later? How were the sanctions weakened?

The last line of your post is pure BS...ever hear of free speech? So because he was vocal, we are going to actively pursue him and seek extradition?
 
Originally posted by: Squisher
He was a vocal opponent of U.S. policy.

He purposely defied the laws of the land to voice his opposition. By being so public in this he must have wanted to be arrested to foment the opposition.


If a government allows its citizens to publicly mock it's laws, where is the rule of order?
Click to expand...

sometimes our rules our really stupid
i think this is a good example of one of those time, because the only worse thing would be to try and arrest him for playing hopscotch
 
I think we were looking to make an example of him - he was one of the few really great American chess players and brought a lot of interest back to the game, and thus he had a lot of eyes on him.

Edit: IIRC, he also progressively became more insane as he became more famous, something else that garnered him a lot of attention.
 
Originally posted by: TheLonelyPhoenix
I think we were looking to make an example of him - he was one of the few really great American chess players and brought a lot of interest back to the game, and thus he had a lot of eyes on him.

Edit: IIRC, he also progressively became more insane as he became more famous, something else that garnered him a lot of attention.
Click to expand...

So why are we wasting time and resources to extradite him and charge him for a chess game? Aren't their other more important fugitives out there? I can think of one off hand that we seem to have trouble finding...glad he didn't play chess.

Edit:

Sorry, I just realized this is the same government that had a "emergency session" to pass one law, for one specific person, while important legislative duties seem to take years or longer...
 
Ahhh..that explains a lot. He does sound like he's a few cards short of a full deck. I still say, after something that took place so long ago, and really had no effect on the embargo/sanctions, it seems like we are just going after him on principle. It seems like the more effort we make to get him, he just gets more publicity. Why don't we stop actively trying to get him and let him stay in Iceland...Czar can keep an eye on him and make sure he keeps his chess peices to himself. 😛

Keep the warrant, and if he ever comes back to the US, arrest him, but otherwise, it seems pointless to waste time and resources trying to get him back.
 
It's sort of like when Rosa Parks wouldn't give up her seat on the bus...
It was a bad law, and she intentionally disobeyed it. 20 years later, we realize that the law was stupid.

Unfortunately, all these years later, our government doesn't recognize that defying sanctions to play an important chess game really isn't that big of a deal.
 
Originally posted by: Insane3D
Originally posted by: Squisher
He was a vocal opponent of U.S. policy.

He purposely defied the laws of the land to voice his opposition. By being so public in this he must have wanted to be arrested to foment the opposition.


If a government allows its citizens to publicly mock it's laws, where is the rule of order?
Click to expand...

He played a chess game. This warrants his being being actively pursued all these years later? How were the sanctions weakened?

The last line of your post is pure BS...ever hear of free speech? So because he was vocal, we are going to actively pursue him and seek extradition?
Click to expand...

He broke the law of this country. It doesn't matter if he's a chess player or not. He is a deranged moron who attacks and ridicules this country and said he was delighted about the 9/11 attacks.

Don't forget, he broke the law by not giving up his US citizenship.
 
Why, you ask? Because Bobby Fischer is an idiot (albeit an extremely intelligent one). He could have lived his life just fine, but he chose to not only break the law, but to flaunt it in front of the authorities as well. Perhaps we shouldn't worry about it nearly 12 years later, but I can certainly understand why the government has a vendetta against him. Hopefully he will be happy in Iceland, and maybe, just maybe he will never be heard from again.
 
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