Bush avoids visiting Switzerland

[Tender Branson]

Protest Threats Derail Bush Speech in Switzerland

By JAMES RISEN
Published: February 5, 2011

WASHINGTON — A planned trip by former President George W. Bush to Switzerland this week has been canceled in the face of threatened large-scale protests and calls for an investigation into whether his administration committed human rights abuses in the fight against terrorism.

A spokesman for Mr. Bush said Saturday that the trip was canceled after the United Israel Appeal, an international Jewish charity organizing the Geneva event where he had been scheduled to speak next Saturday, told him on Friday that it was canceling the speech because of security concerns.

“We regret that the speech has been canceled,” said David Sherzer, a spokesman for Mr. Bush. “President Bush was looking forward to speaking about freedom and offering reflections from his time in office.”

The visit to Geneva was to have been Mr. Bush’s first trip to Europe since his memoir, “Decision Points,” was published in November, and the first since he publicly stated in interviews on his book tour that he had personally authorized the use of waterboarding in the questioning of terrorism detainees.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/06/world/europe/06bush.html

[Tender Branson]

"He's avoiding the handcuffs," Reed Brody, counsel for Human Rights Watch, told Reuters.

The action in Switzerland showed Bush had reason to fear legal complaints against him if he travelled to countries that have ratified an international treaty banning torture, he said.

Brody is an American-trained lawyer specialized in pursuing war crimes worldwide, especially those allegedly ordered by former leaders, including Chile's late dictator Augusto Pinochet and Chad's ousted president Hissene Habre. Habre has been charged by Belgium with crimes against humanity and torture, and is currently exiled in Senegal.

"President Bush has admitted he ordered waterboarding which everyone considers to be a form of torture under international law. Under the Convention against Torture, authorities would have been obliged to open an investigation and either prosecute or extradite George Bush," Brody said.

Swiss judicial officials have said that Bush would still enjoy a certain diplomatic immunity as a former head of state.

Dominique Baettig, a member of the Swiss parliament from the right-wing People's Party, wrote to the Swiss federal government last week calling for the arrest of Bush for alleged war crimes if he came to the neutral country.

Bush, in his "Decision Points" memoirs on his 2001-2009 presidency, strongly defends the use of waterboarding as key to preventing a repeat of the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Most human rights experts consider the practice a form of torture, banned by the Convention on Torture, an international pact prohibiting torture and other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment. Switzerland and the United States are among 147 countries to have ratified the 1987 treaty.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/05/us-bush-torture-idUSTRE7141CU20110205

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Please, stay at your ranch, dude.

[King]

Aw, come on Dubya.  You could've stayed at Roman Polanski's house.

[Franzl]

Amusing.

[minionofmidas]

Anybody in their right mind (and not born there) avoids visiting Switzerland except for tax evasion purposes. So Bush is demonstrating an unusual (for him) amount of common sense here.

Please, stay at your ranch, dude.

He doesn't own that "ranch" anymore. Sold as soon as the term was out and its pr value was gone.
Or so I read someplace, anyways.

[Silent Hunter]

I've been to Switzerland and I wasn't avoiding taxes.

Seriously, if it's going to cost the locals a lot in security, it's probably best to stay away.

[danny]

Anybody in their right mind (and not born there) avoids visiting Switzerland except for tax evasion purposes. So Bush is demonstrating an unusual (for him) amount of common sense here.

What's wrong with Switzerland? I have been there several times and always had a good time.

[Brittain33]

He doesn't own that "ranch" anymore. Sold as soon as the term was out and its pr value was gone.
Or so I read someplace, anyways.

They kept it--no compelling reason to sell it--but they built a mansion in suburban Dallas for their real life instead of living full-time in Crawford. Can't blame them.

[opebo]

Anybody in their right mind (and not born there) avoids visiting Switzerland except for tax evasion purposes. So Bush is demonstrating an unusual (for him) amount of common sense here.

What's wrong with Switzerland? I have been there several times and always had a good time.

Switzerland is very nice if you are very, very rich.  Otherwise, there are much better values.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Amusing.

Especially this part:

"He's avoiding the handcuffs," Reed Brody, counsel for Human Rights Watch, told Reuters.

The action in Switzerland showed Bush had reason to fear legal complaints against him if he travelled to countries that have ratified an international treaty banning torture, he said.

The Swiss weren't going to do a thing to him

[Landslide Lyndon]

The Swiss weren't going to do a thing to him

Pinochet believed the same thing when he went to England.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

The Swiss weren't going to do a thing to him

Pinochet believed the same thing when he went to England.

Dude, forget your fantasies........no one outside of our declared enemies (and even that would be questionable) is touching a former U.S. President.

[Landslide Lyndon]

The Swiss weren't going to do a thing to him

Pinochet believed the same thing when he went to England.

Dude, forget your fantasies........no one outside of our declared enemies (and even that would be questionable) is touching a former U.S. President.

Well, Bush himself doesn't seem to share your confidence.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

The Swiss weren't going to do a thing to him

Pinochet believed the same thing when he went to England.

Dude, forget your fantasies........no one outside of our declared enemies (and even that would be questionable) is touching a former U.S. President.

Well, Bush himself doesn't seem to share your confidence.

Do you fall for everything you read, or argue just to argue?  

You and Mr. Brody can enjoy your fantasy.

[Landslide Lyndon]

The Swiss weren't going to do a thing to him

Pinochet believed the same thing when he went to England.

Dude, forget your fantasies........no one outside of our declared enemies (and even that would be questionable) is touching a former U.S. President.

Well, Bush himself doesn't seem to share your confidence.

Do you fall for everything you read, or argue just to argue?  

You and Mr. Brody can enjoy your fantasy.

NYT and Reuters seem to think that there is a legitimate story here. Are they fools too?

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

The Swiss weren't going to do a thing to him

Pinochet believed the same thing when he went to England.

Dude, forget your fantasies........no one outside of our declared enemies (and even that would be questionable) is touching a former U.S. President.

Well, Bush himself doesn't seem to share your confidence.

Do you fall for everything you read, or argue just to argue?  

You and Mr. Brody can enjoy your fantasy.

NYT and Reuters seem to think that there is a legitimate story here. Are they fools too?

Quoting some guy from Human Rights watch is a legitimate part of the story.  Actually believing the Swiss would throw him in cuffs isn't something either news organization says THEY believe. 

[Landslide Lyndon]

Quoting some guy from Human Rights watch is a legitimate part of the story.  Actually believing the Swiss would throw him in cuffs isn't something either news organization says THEY believe. 

Maybe. But the potential for an embarrassing incident seems to be there, otherwise such high profile media wouldn't bother to run such a story.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Quoting some guy from Human Rights watch is a legitimate part of the story.  Actually believing the Swiss would throw him in cuffs isn't something either news organization says THEY believe. 

Maybe. But the potential for an embarrassing incident seems to be there, otherwise such high profile media wouldn't bother to run such a story.

Finally!  Yes, it's embarrassing to have your speech protested against by people calling for your head or who want you hung up in the streets like Mussolini was, so sure, embarrassing is something it would have been.   Saying the Swiss have the balls to put him in cuffs isn't very realistic.

[Landslide Lyndon]

Quoting some guy from Human Rights watch is a legitimate part of the story.  Actually believing the Swiss would throw him in cuffs isn't something either news organization says THEY believe.  

Maybe. But the potential for an embarrassing incident seems to be there, otherwise such high profile media wouldn't bother to run such a story.

Finally!  Yes, it's embarrassing to have your speech protested against by people calling for your head or who want you hung up in the streets like Mussolini was, so sure, embarrassing is something it would have been.   Saying the Swiss have the balls to put him in cuffs isn't very realistic.

I don't know if the Swiss put cuffs on Bush. But maybe some "crazy" prosecutor like Baltazar Garzon would drag him to a police station until someone from the administration made a few phone calls to "clarify the misunderstanding".

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

I don't know if the Swiss put cuffs on Bush. But maybe some "crazy" prosecutor like Baltazar Garzon would drag him to a police station until someone from the administration made a few phone calls to "clarify the misunderstanding".

Maybe the Ghost of Abu Graib will cuff him.......ok I'm done......enjoy your Dub fantasy.

[Frink]

If only..

[Landslide Lyndon]

I don't know if the Swiss put cuffs on Bush. But maybe some "crazy" prosecutor like Baltazar Garzon would drag him to a police station until someone from the administration made a few phone calls to "clarify the misunderstanding".

Maybe the Ghost of Abu Graib will cuff him.......ok I'm done......enjoy your Dub fantasy.

Gramps, there is a difference between improbable and impossible.
Just ask Dick Cheney (1% doctrine).

[Franzl]

No way would Switzerland actually do it. Forget it.

[Boris]

Why do people still waste their time over stuff like this? What happened during the Bush administration happened. We've spent the last decade anguishing over it. Just let it go. It's like pining over an ex that dumped you five years ago.