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Chessville
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An Open Letter, Written on Behalf of the the RJF COMMITTEE – Iceland
Dear Mr. Ambassador,
But as you know, the violations of the United States government did not involve playing chess. The US government’s violations involved paving the way for arms shipments to the very battlefields of the bloody war being fought in that country. Even if there were no other reason to call the proceedings a travesty, it is abundantly clear that any trial held over the act of playing chess would instantly dissolve into pure farce, as Fischer’s inevitable companions at the defendants’ table would be former US cabinet members. You must surely be able to explain why it can be considered a more serious violation of economic sanctions to play chess in full view of the entire world than to engage in the clandestine shipment of arms. If that is too much to ask, then as a minimum, it must be possible for you to provide information on why 8 months have proven insufficient time for your administration to show – much less, to prove – that Fischer’s passport was revoked in a normal and lawful manner. You can hardly expect us to believe that the man can be held like an animal in a cage for 8 months without there being a sensible explanation of such a crucial aspect of the case. Instead of demonstrating genuine diplomacy and answering honestly, you made it a priority to meet with Iceland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs in order to express your disapprobation that a free and independent nation should have the audacity to offer an old friend a residence permit. Looking back, it is obvious that the minister should have taken you seriously to task for such inappropriate interference in Iceland’s domestic affairs. But very likely it caught him entirely off guard that you had actually come to meet with him on such an unworthy errand. Now that Bobby Fischer has spent 8 months in a Japanese dungeon, the latest news is that your administration has given up on its original tack of pursuing him on the previously stated grounds for his arrest; the new twist is that they intend instead to create a new and totally unrelated claim against him: a tax-related case that they are hoping to be able to present in court on April 5 of this year. In order to camouflage the blatant abuse of judicial procedure already committed, they have decided to dig up old tax returns in the hope of using them to ruin the life a man who is best known for having, through his accomplishments, given millions of young people immeasurable satisfaction and kept them away from the corrosive effects of life on the streets. We recognize the tactics. How many people’s lives did you ruin with just these techniques during the government-driven persecution campaign that you later chose to hang on a single drunken senator? You saw a communist in virtually every thinking individual during that debacle. And now it’s Cold War hero Bobby Fischer who is threatening world peace by no longer professing doctrinally correct opinions on your administrative policies and activities, and the ensuing nightmare is characterized by a vindictiveness and a prison camp mentality that are unparalleled in Western history since the time of World War II. Honorable Mr. Ambassador. If you should be tempted to assert that this case is being driven forward by respect for the law, it would not be inappropriate for you to tell us how many American heroes have been in exile for 13 years for their art – how many of them have been unable even to attend the funerals of their nearest, and only, relatives. It would be worth the trouble if you told us how common it is that your countrymen are held in cages for 8 months without the government’s being able to show that their arrest and suffering are based on normal and lawful grounds. And finally, it is unavoidable that you inform us how common it has become once again that American government officials hop from one point of defense to another instead of sticking fast to their formally presented reasons for arresting a man and depriving him of his freedom. For three months, Bobby Fischer’s supporters have awaited answers to these questions. Instead of providing those answers, you have wielded your pen to extol the excellence of your own government; indeed, you have been eloquent in the service of that goal. But as long as you choose to remain silent on the subject of the way your government has treated Bobby Fischer, it is hardly possible to draw any conclusion other than that you actually agree with us when we maintain that this treatment represents an inhumane attack on a fellow human being.
Gardar Sverrisson The author
is a political scientist
Read More on the Fischer Freedom Watch
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For
three months you have delayed in providing an answer to the simple question
of who, other than Bobby Fischer, has been indicted for violating the
so-called economic sanctions against the countries formerly known as
Yugoslavia. After the media’s unveiling, former President Bill Clinton has
been unable to do otherwise than to admit your government’s violation of
those same sanctions.
