John Bolton escapes citizen's arrest at Hay Festival

Stephen Adams
London Telegraph
Thursday, May 29, 2008

John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, has escaped an attempted citizen's arrest as he appeared at the Hay Festival.

Security guards blocked the path of columnist and activist George Monbiot, who tried to make the arrest as Mr Bolton left the stage.

The former ambassador - a key advisor to President George W Bush who argued strongly in favour of invading Iraq - had been giving a talk on international relations to more than 600 people at the literary festival.

Mr Monbiot was blocked by two heavily-built security guards at the end of the one-and-a-half hour appearance, before he could serve a "charge sheet" on him.

After being released by the guards the columnist - a fierce critic of the 2003 American-led invasion - made a dash through the rain-soaked tented village in a failed attempt to catch up with Mr Bolton.

A crowd of about 20 protestors, one dressed in a latex George Bush mask, chanted "war criminal" as Mr Bolton was ushered away.

Mr Monbiot said moments later he was "disappointed" that he had been blocked from making the citizen's arrest.

"This was a serious attempt to bring one of the perpetrators of the Iraq war to justice, for what is described under the Nuremberg Principles as an international crime," he said.

During Mr Bolton's talk, to a packed-out audience, Mr Monbiot had asked Mr Bolton what difference there was between him and a Nazi war criminal.

Mr Bolton said the war was legal, partly because Iraq had failed to comply with a key and binding UN resolution after the end of the Gulf War in 1991.

On the war's legality, he added: "This is not my personal opinion, this is the opinion of the entire legal apparatus of the US government."

A citizen's arrest can be carried out under certain circumstances by a member of the public, if they believe a person had carried out a crime, under the Serious and Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.

Earlier, festival director Peter Florence had said they had sought legal advice and been told carrying out such an arrest would be "completely unlawful" given the circumstances.

He said: ""The Hay Festival encourages visitors to voice their opinions, but also requires that, in their expression, they respect both the law and the speaker."

A spokesman for The Guardian, for which Mr Monbiot writes a regular column, said he was acting in a "personal capacity".

No, I wasn't comparing the wars in Iraq and Afgahnistan to WWII as far as civilian response except to point out that it was not a well supported war. The direct war comparison is to the unwillingness of the government to actually fight a conventional war.

If you are going to occupy a country, as we did in Veitnam or as we are doing now in Iraq, you must destroy the will of the people to wage war. The old adage "you can not defeat insurgents on their home soil" comes to mind. If that doesn't ring any bells try this one: One man defending his own home is worth ten hired soldiers." Political correctness has destroyed our militaries ability to do its job. We cannot tell our generals too win a war, and then say "oh, but no American soldier can die and you can't use bombs, unless they are smart weapons, but you can only use smart weapons if you call ahead and tell them what you are bombing." Which is exactly what we are doing now. It makes us look weak to our enemies, to be politically correct.

And why are we paying to rebuild the nation we blew up? Didn't we learn our lesson after WWII? We rebuilt Japan, our enemy, but our ally (China) we offered no aid too. Ever wonder why China and the U.S. have such a tenuious relationship? There is your answer, we insulted our ally after the war by not offering aid. Once again, our policies seem strange.

Since I haven't been here in a while I'll add one more thing. I'd of like to seen Bolton arrested. If for no other reason, than one person would have to explain to the entire populace in a public forum what the government's reasons were for going to war in the first place. I don't believe we went for UN resolutions (they used to ask us to become involved before we went), and we seem to be able to agree it had nothing to do with sept. 11. So why?

These lies are more from the politically correct LIARS who want to bring down anyone they disagree with. Bring down anyone who is honorable & marginalize the truth.

Americans are due for their kick in the arse...starting with politically correct cowards who hide behind their own hatred of anything good. I hope you get moved to the frontline.

It just goes to show how badly things can turn out when freedom gives voice to corrupt thinking & lies.

Can anyone explain to me just what the he** she was talking about here? I read this twice, I know she was insulting me (don't have a problem with it, if I could've passed the physical, I'd have of joined in 2003), but couldn't figure out over what.

It is always nice to see someone post in a political topic that only believes freedom of speech applies to their side of the arguement though. Must be a republican (I'm registared that way, so I can say that), only they are fool enough to believe that any talk against the war is talk against the troops.

Tar and feathers for them all