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The Bothwell Letter News from the Law Offices
of Anthony P. X. Bothwell IN
THIS ISSUE:
The Federal Aviation Administration delayed for more than 15 months before answering charges that it intentionally distorted data regarding safety performance of experienced airline pilots. The charges were thoroughly documented in a June 2002 petition by 12 pilots seeking exemption from an FAA rule that bars them from flying beyond age 59. San Francisco Law Offices of Anthony P. X. Bothwell, joined by the Washington, DC law firm of Klimaski & Associates, prepared a lawsuit accusing the agency of unreasonable delay. Days after getting wind of the impending suit, which would have been filed in US District Court on Oct. 27, the agency issued its long-expected decision refusing any exemptions. “We’ll file our notice of appeal next week in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit,” Bothwell said after reading the FAA ruling. “This FAA decision features internal contradictions, failures of logic, misrepresentations of fact, and misinterpretations of law,” he added. [2] ARNOLD ERA: NEW WORLD, OLD WORLD MEET Arnold Schwarzenegger’s California win was celebrated by Austrians encountered by San Francisco’s Atty. Tony Bothwell, who flew to the incoming governor’s native land on election day, Oct. 7. Many citizens of Vienna and Salzburg said the rise of “Arnie” could improve Austria’s “image” in the US, though other Europeans were said to take a skeptical view of the California voters’ choice. Bothwell visited Austria on his way to take part in an American Bar Association delegation in Belgium and The Netherlands. ABA President Dennis Archer led the lawyers’ delegation to the European Union (EU) capital Oct. 15-18 at Brussels. There they met with officials of the European Parliament, Commission, and Council of Ministers. Bothwell and some of the other US delegates also took part in meetings Oct. 12-14 at the International Court of Justice, the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia, and the new International Criminal Court at The Hague. [3] U.S. TOLERANCE OF IRAQ LOOTING WAS ILLICIT New data disproves claims by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that the looting of Iraq’s treasures was rather trivial. Thousands of objects, some dating from the birth of civilization in pre-Iraq Babylon 5,000 years ago, remain missing, Dr. Niel Brodie of Cambridge University’s Illicit Antiquities Research Center, told ABA delegates in Brussels. Article 4(3) of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict obligates an occupying power “to prohibit, prevent and, if necessary, put a stop to any form of theft, pillage or misappropriation of, and any acts of vandalism directed against, cultural property.” US forces violated the law by allowing the looting of ancient treasures (while dutifully guarding the nearby Oil Ministry Building). Artifacts were stolen from Iraqi museums, libraries and archeological sites. As in the case of Nazi looting of Jewish art, where there is a violation, a remedy should be sought. [4] NATO, E.U. ENVISION COEXISTENCE The London Financial Times reported Oct. 16 that the US was upset at Britain for backing EU military coordination impinging on NATO. Tony Bothwell, in Brussels the next day, asked Nicholas Burns, US ambassador to NATO, to explain. Burns replied that the report was a “leak” that “distorted” his remarks in a classified Oct. 14 meeting. “There are a minority of nations that want Europe to duplicate what NATO has spent many years building up; we think that would be a waste of time,” Burns added. “I don’t think there’s any fight between Washington and No. 10 Downing Street about the fact that NATO must remain the preeminent institution for the security of Europe, with the United States participating and with American forces in Europe.” At dinner that night, Rockwell Schnabel, American ambassador to the EU, told ABA delegates that proposed European military coordination poses “a problem” for the US and NATO. In fact, though, EU humanitarian intervention could help in hotspots lacking US/NATO involvement. Burns and Scnabel speak for a US administration that seems unduly concerned with maintaining American military dominance. [5] E.U. FRAMERS SPEAK BEN FRANKLIN’S LANGUAGE Valery Giscard D’Estang, leader of the current EU constitutional convention, told the ABA delegation that, on Europe’s “middle road” path, nation states won’t fade away. Caesar, Charlemagne and Napoleon sought to unify Europe by the sword, the French ex-president said Oct. 16. “We seek to unify it by the pen.” Describing the drafting process at Brussels, he noted, “We spoke in English, we wrote in French.” D’Estang said he “bought the US Constitution in New York for $9.95,” and read many books about America’s Founders. “Like in Philadelphia,” he said, “we moved from work to improve [an existing system] to work to finalize a constitution.” Observers have said the draft EU constitution is mundane compared to the 1787 Philadelphia Convention’s draft that was to become the world’s oldest surviving written constitution. [6] MILOSEVIC PROSECUTOR URGES U.S. FAIR TRIALS Meeting in The Hague with prosecutors at the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Atty. Tony Bothwell cited evidence of “confusion in Washington” over whether military or civilian law should govern US prosecution of terrorist suspects. Carla del Ponte, the ITCY chief prosecutor, replied that what’s most important is the guarantee of a “fair trial.” Pentagon procedures for US military tribunals designed for terrorism cases are so unfair that the ABA has urged lawyers to refuse to participate. After their Oct. 14 session with ICTY prosecutors and Presiding Judge Richard May, the American delegates went into the courtroom for an eye-to-eye encounter with Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia’s ex-president on trial for crimes against humanity. Milosevic’s cold stare at visitors, in between his sharp, bass-tone cross-examination of a witness describing assassination squads, were unrepenting. [7] ALCATRAZ, THE HAGUE: FOG OF PEACE? Alcatraz, a Civil War era “Guantanamo” originally built to hold US Army prisoners, is visible from Bothwell law office windows. It was hidden in the morning fog over San Francisco Bay, as invisible as the Indians are to most Americans on Oct. 23, the 34th anniversary of the American Indian Movement occupation of Alcatraz Island. But on Oct. 13, American Indian Day, Bothwell obtained some feedback from Hon. Thomas Buergenthal, the American judge on the International Court of Justice, regarding procedural law relevant to a possible new strategy for “dependent” states such as American Indian nations. Bothwell’s study of Native American rights, showing that Indian tribes were states under international law before Columbus landed in the New World, was earlier cited in a UN report by Navajo Nation. Von Clausewitz’ “fog of war” is said to enshroud truth. But fog clears. [8] BOSNIA JOURNAL PUBLISHES ANTI-TERROR STUDY “The Law and Psychology
of Anti-Terror,” by Anthony P. X. Bothwell, Esq., appears in ANTHONY P. X. (TONY) BOTHWELL, Esq. – Member: The State Bar of California, Bar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Bar of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; National Lawyers Guild, American Bar Assn., International Bar Assn.; U.S. Holocaust Museum, Chinese for Affirmative Action, Southern Poverty Law Center. Degrees: Georgetown Univ. School of Foreign Service, B.S.F.S.; Boston Univ. School of Public Communication, M.S.; John F. Kennedy Univ. School of Law, J.D.; Golden Gate Univ. School of Law, LL.M. summa cum laude. Professor of Law, John F. Kennedy Univ. School of Law. Listings include: Who’s Who in the Law, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the World. Descendant of Capt. John P. Dreibelbis, Continental Army, commanded by Gen. George Washington.
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