Posted on 12/02/2010 5:37:15 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
As if Interpol didn’t have its hands full with the global search for Wikileaks leader Julian Assange, the agency will soon be tasked with transmitting a Nigerian arrest warrant for former vice president Dick Cheney.
This seemingly fanciful international incident could quite easily become a serious domestic headache for the Obama administration.
Officials in the African nation want to try Cheney for his alleged role in a bribe scandal in which Halliburton-owned company KBR gave $180 million to Nigerian officials between 1994 and 2004 in exchange for lucrative natural gas contracts.
Cheney was KBR’s CEO between 1995 and 2000, when he stepped down to run with George W. Bush. KBR and Halliburton pled guilty to the charges last year, and paid a whopping $579 million fine, but this latest development calls Cheney’s direct actions into question, and the Nigerians are dead set on getting justice.
We are filing charges against Cheney,” insisted Femi Babafemi, spokesman for Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The idea Cheney being arrested sounds absurd, and the Nigerian news has been received by many with an amused shrug, and no small amount of dismissal. ‘Washington Post’ reporter Al Kamen, for example, wrote, “It’s not as if Cheney, now suffering from some very serious heart problems, was planning to take the family on a cruise up the Niger Delta any time soon. The odds of his showing up in Africa – except maybe for a hunting trip – are zero.” I doubt the Obama administration’s taking this as lightly.
Despite what you may think about Interpol, the group does not command an international army of coppers and flatfoots. Its more of an information-sharing agency, one that helps coordinate information and efforts among its 188 member countries, whose own governments are meant to enforce potential warrants. It’s not Interpol‘s responsibility to arrest Cheney. That honor goes to the associated government, which puts Obama’s Department of Justice in a compromising position.
Political implications of arresting a former vice president aside, Obama and company are presented with two choices.
First, it can ignore the warrant, thereby straining relations with resource-rich Nigeria, and also undercut its current leadership role in Interpol, which is currently headed by American Ronald Noble, who worked for the Treasury Department during Bill Clinton’s presidential tenure.
The second option: move forward and nab Cheney. This would only inflame the right wing, though, and not simply because of revered Cheney’s elevated status among the conservative set.
Obama inflamed Republicans last year by extending certain diplomatic immunities to Interpol agents in the U.S., leading conservatives to claim the President was eroding the Constitution.
‘The Washington Examiner’ suggested the move “may be the most destructive blow ever struck against American constitutional civil liberties,” while Andrew C. McCarthy from ‘The National Review’ claimed an “international police force” would be working “unrestrained by the U.S. Constitution and American law.”
While their message was grossly misguided — again, Interpol doesn’t arrest — it echoes the current conservative claims that the President’s chipping away at our liberties, and could prove catchy enough to complicate Obama’s standing among the GOP and their allies.
When the Nigerian government issues their warrant, which could come this week, the White House will be forced to defend any action or inaction, and this apparently frivolous case will become a bigger political brouhaha than anyone imagines.
Nigeria - just about the most corrupt nation in the universe.
The Nigerians got their pot of money. It is time they shut up.
That was the longest 24 business hours ever! The DUmp must be buzzing with this.....
What ever became of 0bamma letting interpol arrest suspects in the US?
I will bet you that the Africans were working KBR against someone else.... pushing KBR into paying the highest price in order to get the work. The Africans are not stupid. For Africans? Its milk the white guy to the max. Dollars to donuts they pushed other contractors too. Guaranteed!
For Nigeria to whine now is ridiculous, Nigerian GOT the money!
If there is an issue they should be chasing the nigerians who took the money. KBR did their end, paid the cash and got the rights.
Still today, Nigeria continues to function like that. No controls.
When you don’t wire the SOLICITOR the $3,000 needed to release all that money your relative left you, there ARE CONSEQUENCES!
Talk about your Nigerian scams. Charge you millions in “fees” and then millions more because you paid the fees.
There you have it. Obama has positioned an international police force above American law. He has freed Interpol from the limitations that constrain our own FBI and police agencies. He has created, within the Justice Department, a safe haven for files with are beyond the ability of Congress or our courts to access. Wonder why.
At the rate they’re giving it away, I’m sure Nigeria must need the money. Hardly a week goes by that some nice Nigerian doesn’t send me an email offering me millions of dollars.
Don’t worry, I’ll have the money back next week. All I have to do is wire over 30k for the shipping charges, I got an e-mail today that told me all about it.
As if Interpol didn't have its hands full with the global search for Wikileaks leader Julian Assange, the agency will soon be tasked with transmitting a Nigerian arrest warrant for former vice president Dick Cheney. This seemingly fanciful international incident could quite easily become a serious domestic headache for the Obama administration. Officials in the African nation want to try Cheney for his alleged role in a bribe scandal in which Halliburton-owned company KBR gave $180 million to Nigerian officials between 1994 and 2004 in exchange for lucrative natural gas contracts.
If we had a true “justice” department millions of warrants would be issued against Nigerians for email fraud.
Issue "Interpol" ID to someone, and suddenly he is above the law. Now.
What a clueless bast**d zero is. I loathe this man more and more every day.
One more reason not to trust anything from Nigeria . . .
“union Bank Of Nig. Plc
Union House Marina
Lagos State
Nigeria.
FROM THE DESK OF: DR.IBRAHIM MARTIN
POSITION: SENIOR MANAGER, BILLS AND EXCHANGE
REPLY TO: (dr_martins@nyc.com )
Dear Sir,
I sincerely write to seek your co-operation and trust
to enable my colleagues and I carry out an urgent
business opportunity in my department. I work with the
Union Bank of Nigeria PLC, currently I am the senior
manager of bills and exchange at the foreign
remittance department of my bank. I have an urgent and confidential
business proposal for you. On June 6, 1998, an Australian oil
consultant/contractor with via National Petroleum cooperation
(NNPC) Mr. Ali B. Ashraf
made a numbered time (fixed) deposit for twelve calenderer
month valued at US$51,000,000.00(fifty _one Million US Dollars) in my
branch. On maturity, I sent a routine notification tohis forwarded
address but got no reply after months we send a reminder and finally we
discovered from his contract employee (Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation)
that MR. Ali B. Ashrafdied from an automobile accident. On further
investigation, it was clear that he died without making a WILL.
All attempts by the Australian to trace his next of kin were fruitless.
I therefore made further investigation and discovered that Mr. Ali B. Ashraf did
not declare any next of kin or relations in all his official documents
including his deposit document in my bank. The total sum
US$51,000,000.00 is still in my bank as dormant acct.
No one will ever come forward to claim it . . .
Good luck arresting a man who owns over 100 machine guns.
Seriously, what’s the legal basis for this warrant? Do the procedures involved in Nigeria have any basis in US law? What assurance is there that the indictment and trial would be fair in any way? What assurance is there that there would be no coercion in getting a man who possesses intelligence secrets to talk?
The whole idea of an arrest warrant from outside this nation for a citizen of this nation is abhorent to our Constitution. Convict in abstencia and then extradict, a procedure guaranteed to take place under US law with all of the protections it offers.
Oh, and SCREW Nigeria, all it is good for is fraudulent emails and general lawlessness. Let them stew in their own juices. Let them also account for that fat, juicy fine.
My take is that Obama is behind this.
Bribery is a common and necessary business practice in Africa. Without looking it all up I suspect the new party is upset the bribe money went to the old party.
Any company doing business of any type in Nigeria is paying bribes.
Of course he is. He might want to remember all the rants from the nutroots about Vice President Cheney and figure there might be some there there. George Soros isn’t the only rich white guy who can make things happen if he really wants to. LOL
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