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Jacob Sullum wonders why the CEO of BetOnSports was arrested for doing nothing wrong, unless you count having a connecting flight in Texas.
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The Wine Commonsewer|7.26.06 @ 12:57AM|#
Again, some things just make my blood boil. This be one.
|7.26.06 @ 2:04AM|#
Everyone who goes to Texas should take out kidnap insurance in case some government agency decides to snatch him and hold him for ransom.
At least when Hezbollah kidnaps people they can hope to be exchanged.
When I was travelling abroad last year I ran into British tourists who bemoaned the fact that they would probably never be able to visit the US again. The reason? They would not go to a place that demanded fingerprints of tourists. Dismiss this if you like, but it's hard to love a nation you never meet personally. Tourism and other casual, personal exchanges have a far greater impact on the US image than the crappy videos Karen Hughes passes off as "public diplomacy."
|7.26.06 @ 2:04AM|#
What has the British response been to all of this?
|7.26.06 @ 2:39AM|#
Carruthers was fired as CEO of BetonSports yesterday. BOS claims it was due to the fact that Carruthers can't perform his duties from prison and that they've had no contact with him. At the same time, *apparently* a group of investors plan to sue BOS for failing to disclose the criminal background of Kaplan. Trading in shares of BOS has been suspended since last Tuesday, and there are reports that they will be investigated for the aforementioned failure to disclose.
Carruthers is the fall guy in all of this, for sure.
And, apparently, the British public sees this arrest (and the likely forthcoming extradition requests) as similar to the case of the NatWest Three. Needless to say, they aren't happy, especially in light of the US gov'ts failure to ratify the new extradition treaty themselves. Further, Blair's Labour Party is a strong adovcate of encouraging online gamblling operations to their shores: for tax collection purposes, of course. To my knowledge, however, there has been no official statement from the British gov't.
|7.26.06 @ 2:44AM|#
Sadly, I am not surprised.
Antigua & Barbuda had previously taken the US to the World Trade Organisation on the grounds that, by barring its citizens from gambling online the US was in violation of WTO rules.
It won the case but the US has appealed.
Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean/news/story/2006/07/060719_antiguagambling.shtml
Again, I am not surprised.
Tourism and other casual, personal exchanges have a far greater impact on the US image than the crappy videos Karen Hughes passes off as "public diplomacy."
I agree. I dont think that the admininstration cares about the U.S. image, they just want the American public to think that they care.
|7.26.06 @ 4:56AM|#
I blame this on Syria.
|7.26.06 @ 7:17AM|#
I'm sure they'd let him go if Congress got their cut...
Thomas Paine's Goiter|7.26.06 @ 9:03AM|#
What % of government spending is directed towards attempting to enforce vice bans?
|7.26.06 @ 9:26AM|#
It would be absolutely "tight", as the kids say, if Britain got uber-angry and just declared war on America to return its citizen. There wouldn't be any actual fighting, I would think, but it would put the U.S. on notice to knock it off.
|7.26.06 @ 9:46AM|#
The U.S. Government will probably lose this case.
If he did not do anything illegal in this country, he's not guilty of anything where the U.S. courts have jurisdiction.
|7.26.06 @ 9:51AM|#
Americans would ask what right these countries have to impose their illiberal policies on us.
That's because their illiberal policies ae crimes against humanity and our are "values".
Jennifer|7.26.06 @ 10:03AM|#
I'm surprised we have not yet arrested the owner of a Dutch cannabis shop where American tourists go to smoke.
I agree with James about how this hurts our standing in the world, but I doubt the administration cares. Maybe it's even a feature, not a bug; the more people hate us, the more civil liberties we can lose because we need to be protected from all those scary people who hate us.
|7.26.06 @ 10:38AM|#
What has the British response been to all of this?
I'm guessing it will be similar to our normal reaction - bend over and take it like a bitch.
|7.26.06 @ 11:18AM|#
If he did not do anything illegal in this country, he's not guilty of anything where the U.S. courts have jurisdiction.
Are you willing to apply that principle to the antitrust laws, so that if European businessmen get together in Zurich or Franfurt and conspire to divide up the American market between them, the Justice Department should leave them alone?
|7.26.06 @ 11:47AM|#
Foreign businessmen meeting in Zurich to manipulate the US market by means of an illegal cartel and being left untouched by the US? Gosh, that reminds me of something. What's it called? Ofay? QuikPik? Optic? Hopi? Something like that.
|7.26.06 @ 12:19PM|#
Seamus, I'm a libertarian. I think anti-trust laws are illegitimate, unless they are dealing with the special case of barriers to entry being enforced by force or its threat.
The gambling online issue is based on a goofy theory of extraterritoriality. I don't think the Justice Dept. should be prosecuting people whose arguably illegal activities take place wholly outside territory of the U.S., as a general rule. The Feds claim that the gambling takes place here, while the WTO disagrees, so far. The government's theory smacks of "if you have U.S citizenship, we own you." If I'm an expatriate, does the IRS demand I pay taxes on my earnings abroad? Hell, yeah! There's an exclusion (I found $80k mentioned on some web-sites) but after that you pay Sammy. They've got this completely backwards. Isn't it the citizenry that's supposed to own the government? Still, Carruthers isn't a U.S. national, and he was acting with the sanction of his government. I could see the Feds going after his U.S.-based customers, and I wouldn't be surprised if they squeeze him for access to BetOnLine's records, so they can hit anyone who ever won anything from them with a tax bill. That may be one reason why his employers have cut him loose.
Kevin
|7.26.06 @ 2:14PM|#
"What has the British response been to all of this?"
"I'm guessing it will be similar to our normal reaction - bend over and take it like a bitch."
Actually, I think they're keeping a stiff upper lip, muddling on, and living lives of quiet desperation.
Larry A|7.26.06 @ 4:40PM|#
Everyone who goes to Texas should take out kidnap insurance in case some government agency decides to snatch him and hold him for ransom.
Texas? Carruthers was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Last time I checked they worked in all of the states.