Chomsky praises Snowden and condemns US hypocrisy

[joshcryer]

27. Got to love Chomsky, but that could go further.

While it starts off fantastic, pointing out that all governments behave this way, he cites US examples, such as the example of Luis Posada, but neglects the example of Julian Conrado. States have their reasons for not extraditing, in particular if those states want to retain the support of groups that support said person. In the case of Posada there is a lot of support for him in the right wing exile community, and in the case of Conrado there is a lot of support for him of the communist persuasion.

So I think the criticism is one sided and misses the best lesson to be learned here. Extradition, or not, is all a show, part of the way states manufacture consent. The US doesn't extradite so many cases because those people have money and supporters here who will make sure that they go unpunished for their crimes. And the system in the US is set up so that criminals can come here and it is very difficult for them to be extradited. (In the case of Posada he's used the double jeopardy clause, which came up in the Amanda Knox case.)

It is interesting, of course, how the US makes extradition extremely difficult for its citizens, but other countries who are happy and willing to extradite to the US through treaties are seen as safe havens for those who ... don't want to be extradited to the US. One need only look at the case of Daniel "El Loco" Barrera to see how silly that is. It's all a show, all about political expediency.