Snowden not the only one wanted for extradition

Recently there has been a lot of finger pointing and feigned hurt feelings over the case of Edward Snowden. Snowden revealed that the United States has been spying on its citizens for years and has now been accused of spying.

Criminalizing Whistle Blowing

By classifying things that Americans should know about, the government grants itself the ability to punish whistle blowers. Allowing people to find out about atrocities, war crimes and illegal spying can now be considered espionage, but that's the topic for another article.

Extradition Treaties

By and large most countries comply with a reciprocal extradition treaty that allows accused criminals to be extradited from one country to another where the criminal will face a trial. Some exclusions include countries that refuse to return political refugees or to return accused criminals to face the death penalty. This practice works well because most countries agree to the practice, especially when it comes to accused war criminals. That reciprocity is what makes the arrangement so attractive for all of the countries involved.

The United States has made clear that it is upset with Russia and Hong Kong for not immediately extraditing Edward Snowden. Politicians and legal analysts are eager to declare that any country that aids Snowden is violating a mutual treaty.

This would seem on its face to be a legitimate complaint of unfulfilled reciprocity because there have been no complaints against the United States for not honoring the treaties. In fact, several countries are clamoring for the arrest, extradition and trial of top Bush administration officials for crimes including the violation of the international treaty banning torture.

America ignores requests for extradition

Many of the officials in the Bush administration, including President George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, have been accused of war crimes, for crimes against humanity and for violating the international treaties banning torture. Not only has a War Crimes Suit been brought against them in the International Criminal Court in the Hague and in Brussels under Belgium's "universal competence law", but Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have already been convicted by a war crimes tribunal in Kuala Lumpur.

Hypocrisy at its finest

Violating international treaties has been the hallmark of America's international policies for over a decade. Any outrage over the refusal to extradite Edward Snowden has surely been earned.