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<div class="row clearfix"> [The Exceptional US has perhaps upset
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<h1 class="title-news"> </h1>
<h1 class="title-news">Britons Hope Obama Will Address Controversial
U.S.-UK Extradition Treaty </h1>
<div class="comments_datetime_new border_none relative v05">
<p> <span class="posted-and-updated"> Posted: <span
itemprop="datePublished">19/01/2013 04:02 GMT</span> </span>
</p>
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<p>LONDON -- Last October, shortly after midday, Theresa May,
Britain's Home Secretary, stood up in the House of Commons and
made an announcement that, in the words of Gary McKinnon's mother,
required "guts".</p>
<p>May announced that she was withdrawing the extradition order
against McKinnon on computer hacking charges in the United States,
a contentious issue that she and her government had inherited more
than a decade after the systems administrator and his family were
first told he faced trial abroad for hacking into U.S. military
and NASA computers between 2001 and 2002.</p>
<p>"As soon as Theresa May had the guts to reject Gary's
extradition, you had [U.S. Attorney General] Eric Holder saying
'this is not on'," McKinnon's mother, Janis Sharp, told The
Huffington Post UK.</p>
<p>Holder has admitted he was "disappointed" with the decision -- he
reportedly refused to take May's calls immediately after she
declined to extradite McKinnon on health grounds -- but has
memorably <a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/11/21/eric-holder-theresa-may-gary-mckinnon_n_2169853.html"
target="_hplink">denied feeling "completely screwed" by the Home
Secretary's decision</a> not to send the 46-year-old Brit, who
has Asperger's syndrome, to the U.S. for trial.</p>
<p>Tony Blair's Labour government created the 2003 U.S.-UK
Extradition Act in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the
United States. The law allows the U.S. to extradite UK citizens
for breaking American laws, even if the offence was committed in
Britain -- even if it was committed in Britain by a UK citizen.</p>
<p>British politicians and the families of Britons facing trial
abroad have criticized the act as unworthy of the "special
relationship" the U.S. and Britain arguably share.</p>
<p>According to Home Office figures, 95 British citizens have been
taken to the U.S. for trial under the 2003 law, while 44 people in
America have been released for trial in Britain. British
anti-extradition campaigners question those figures, arguing that
they overcount the number of people extradited from the U.S. to
the UK because some of those suspects have dual nationality.</p>
<p>Regardless of the exact numbers involved, how President Barack
Obama plans to address concerns in the UK about the act in
particular and extraditions more generally is of great interest
here. </p>
<p>A ComRes poll, conducted on behalf of the British human rights
group Liberty, found in September 2010 that 83 percent of British
MPs surveyed <a
href="http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/media/press/2011/uk-extradition-arrangements-human-rights-abuses-and-hypo.php"
target="_hplink">agreed or agreed strongly that changes should
be made to extradition laws</a>, and 66 percent agreed or agreed
strongly that extradition should occur only if the requesting
country first provides evidence in a UK court.</p>
<p>Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK have signed petitions
supporting individual fights against extradition, with 149,000
signing the petition against the extradition of one British
citizen, Talha Ahsan, and 250,000 against the extradition of
another, Richard O'Dwyer. </p>
<p>There is much support for change across all parties in the House
of Commons, most recently with the Home Affairs select committee
voting to support a change in extradition arrangements in March.</p>
<p>For her part, Sharp said she has lived with 10 years of very real
fear for her son, who she said has withdrawn "further and further"
into himself under the cloud of a possible extradition.</p>
<p>"Gary has never gone abroad," she said. </p>
<p>"The fear of your son being taken to me reminds me of how Jewish
people must have felt when they were dragged away by the Germans.</p>
<p>"How slaves must have felt. You can be dragged away from your own
country, your own people, without any evidence. You lose your
flat, you lose your job, you lose everything you've ever known.
You are suddenly in a country when you don't know anyone, you are
an enemy of the state," said Sharp.</p>
<p>Others subject to the act's mandates have faced similar
hardships. Talha Ahsan and his family fought for six years before
he was sent to the U.S. to face terrorism charges in October 2012.
</p>
<p>Ahsan also has Asperger's syndrome, and was arrested in July 2006
for allegedly being involved with Azzam Publications between 1997
and 2004. Azzam, according to the <a
href="http://www.justice.gov/usao/ct/atac.html" target="_hplink">U.S.
Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut</a>,
"allegedly provided material support to the Taliban and the
Chechen Mujahideen through various means, including the
administration and operation of various web sites promoting
violent jihad." Ahsan is accused of "providing, and conspiring to
provide, material support and resources to persons engaged in acts
of terrorism in Afghanistan, Chechnya and elsewhere ... through
the creation and use of various internet websites, e-mail
communications, and other means," <a
href="http://www.ice.gov/doclib/news/releases/2012/121009newhaven2.pdf"
target="_hplink">according to the indictment</a>.</p>
<p>One of those websites was located on a server in Connecticut.
Ahsan has never visited the U.S., but is accused of conspiring to
provide material support to terrorists and to kill, kidnap, maim
or injure persons in a foreign country.</p>
<p>"It's like a collective punishment for the whole family, before
anyone's been convicted of anything. It's psychological hell,"
said his brother, London-based art curator Hamja Ahsan. "The UK is
not the 51st state of America and should be respected as such."</p>
<p>Even the most pro-American MPs, such as Dominic Raab, a
Conservative member of Parliament's Joint Committee on Human
Rights, see the flaws in the extradition arrangement.</p>
<p>Raab has spoken out against the extradition of UK citizens who
commit crimes on British soil to America. While he believes the
Obama administration has shown "modest but welcome flexibility",
there's more to be done, he said.</p>
<p>"Ironing out the creases so it operates more fairly is important
for Britain, won't harm U.S. law enforcement, and removes a
diplomatic thorn in the side of the special relationship," Raab
told HuffPost UK.</p>
<p>Specifically, the MP wants a subtle change that wouldn't require
an amendment to the act, just Obama's agreement. </p>
<p>"The critical change is to allow the UK to introduce a 'forum'
clause, so in cross-border cases where the alleged criminal
activity all took place here, a judge has grounds to deny
extradition in the interests of justice," said Raab. "We wouldn't
need to amend the UK-U.S. treaty for that; we just need
acquiescence. The Home Secretary has announced this change, and I
haven't heard any public objection [from the U.S. government]."</p>
<p>Even so, for some British families like the O'Dwyers, Obama has
simply not done enough. Julia O'Dwyer's son Richard was accused of
setting up a website that violated copyright laws by offering free
access to films and TV shows, and American authorities sought to
extradite him in May 2011. </p>
<p>Richard O'Dwyer avoided trial in the U.S. by making a deal in
which he agreed to travel to New York in November 2012 under a
deferred-prosecution agreement, which required him to pay a small
fine and agree to never infringe again on a copyright. He has not
been convicted of any crime.</p>
<p>Julia O'Dwyer had petitioned the White House since 2010 to save
her son from the personal burdens and legal implications of
extradition. Her son was also <a
href="http://www.change.org/petitions/ukhomeoffice-stop-the-extradition-of-richard-o-dwyer-to-the-usa-saverichard?utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=url_share&utm_campaign=url_share_before_sign"
target="_hplink">the subject of an online petition</a> against
his extradition, launched by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales. More
than 253,000 people signed it.</p>
<p>O'Dwyer said the White House has remained silent about her son's
case, as did the president himself when he was asked directly
about it during a Google hangout early last year. </p>
<p>The president said that <a
href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/31/obama_odwyer_extradition/"
target="_hplink">he did not get personally involved</a>, but
added, "We want to make sure that intellectual property is
protected, we want to make sure that the creative works of people
in this country aren't expropriated, but we want to do it in a way
that's consistent with internet freedom. We're going to keep on
working on it."</p>
<p>"Obama has done nothing on extradition, and <a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/obama-google-plus_n_1242816.html"
target="_hplink">he stated at the Google hangout</a> when asked
about Richard 'the president doesn't get involved'," Julia O'Dwyer
told HuffPost UK via email.</p>
<p>Not all see the extradition act as one-sided. In October 2011 an
independent legal committee appointed by the Home Secretary found
the laws governing the extradition of Brits to be fair, according
to former Court of Appeal judge Sir Scott Baker. Baker, who led
the review, said that the laws were "misunderstood" and the treaty
"does not operate in an unbalanced manner".</p>
<p>In the wake of the Baker review and prior to a debate in the
House of Commons over extradition, Louis Susman, the U.S.
ambassador to the UK, wrote in an op-ed in <a
href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/8934847/US-UK-extradition-treaty-is-fair-and-balanced.html"
target="_hplink">The Daily Telegraph</a> that "the existing
U.S.-UK Extradition Treaty works, is fair and balanced, promotes
justice in both countries, and does not need to be changed."</p>
<p>Susman said that UK citizens were protected by the "probable
cause" standard in the U.S. He also noted that "In all extradition
cases, the UK authorities always begin by considering whether an
individual can and should be tried in the UK instead of being
extradited. Once the UK authorities decide that the case should be
tried in the U.S., all extradition hearings are then held in UK
courts -- as are subsequent appeals. It is only when these avenues
have been exhausted -- when UK prosecutors, the courts, and the
Home Secretary have all affirmed that the request is proper --
that an extradition goes ahead."</p>
<p>Still, for many here, extradition remains a hot-button issue, and
some think action from Obama would enhance his stature
internationally -- especially in comparison to his predecessor,
George W. Bush, who had low popularity ratings overseas.</p>
<p>Karl Watkin MBE, a wealthy and prominent British entrepreneur,
said the average cost for families fighting trial abroad is around
$200,000 to $300,000 (£124,000 to £186,000), and he has invested
£250,000 (about $401,000) of his money to fight extradition cases.</p>
<p>"Obama needs to decide if he is a leader or does he share the
same values as Bush," Watkin said. "If he is truly a leader, he
should start by agreeing to tear up the insidious extradition
treaty with the UK.</p>
<p>"Obama was sold to the world as the first president with a truly
international perspective. Currently he will go down in history as
even more myopic than his predecessor."</p>
<p>The British government has recently taken efforts to review
extradition cases more closely. In October 2012, Home Secretary
May announced the extradition treaty would be changed to require a
court hearing to decide whether a person should stand trial in the
UK or abroad.</p>
<p>Melanie Riley, co-ordinator of the anti-extradition activist
group Friends Extradited, said that "warm words about the
importance of cross-border cooperation" don't help defendants
taken thousands of miles away from home or their families.</p>
<p>"President Obama, as a lawyer himself, may recognize the
irrationality of seeking the extradition to the U.S. of British
citizens on allegations of criminal conduct in the UK, rather than
allowing a British trial under British law," she told HuffPost UK.
</p>
<p>"He may also reflect that the reverse scenario is highly
improbable. If the UK were to seek the extradition of an American
for alleged criminal conduct on American soil, Obama might well
concede the U.S. authorities would not authorise the extradition
request -- so why does the Department of Justice consider it so
wrong for the UK to prosecute our own?"</p>
<p>And Sharp, McKinnon's mother, said, "A bit of compassion from the
government across the pond wouldn't go amiss."</p>
<p><em>This article is part of a series produced by The Huffington
Post that closely examines the most pressing challenges facing
President Obama in his second term. To read other posts in the
series, click <a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/the-road-forward/"
target="_hplink">here</a></em>.</p>
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