posted
I think the man has some serious mental health issues, but I swear we've got better things to do than to try to extradite him back to the US so he can face charges for playing a match in Yugoslavia.
Why create an international incident over this guy? He doesn't want to be a US citizen...fine. Let it go!
quote:Japanese Release Bobby Fischer Ex-Chess Champ Heads to Iceland
By Anthony Faiola Washington Post Foreign Service Thursday, March 24, 2005; Page A14
NAGOYA, Japan, March 24 -- Bobby Fischer, the chess legend who feared deportation to face charges in the United States, was freed Thursday by Japanese authorities after eight months in prison, the Justice Ministry said. He left immediately for the airport to fly to Iceland.
The deal to free Fischer came after Iceland -- a chess-loving nation that hosted his historic Cold War-era victory over the Soviet Union's Boris Spassky in 1972 -- granted Fischer citizenship this week in a move to help him avoid trial in the United States. Fischer, 62, who grew up in New York, has dodged a U.S. arrest warrant since playing a chess match in Yugoslavia in 1992 in violation of U.S. sanctions.
Fischer left a detention center on the outskirts of Tokyo accompanied by Miyoko Watai, a women's chess champion in Japan, and an Icelandic official, news services reported. "I won't be free until I get out of Japan. This was not an arrest. It was a kidnapping cooked up by Bush and Koizumi," the Associated Press quoted him as saying at the airport, referring to President Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. His flight left soon afterward.
Fischer evaded U.S. authorities for more than a decade with the help of chess fans from Argentina to the Philippines, who offered him shelter even as he stepped into public view on occasion to offer scathing anti-American and anti-Jewish rants. He was finally nabbed in July at an airport outside Tokyo for traveling on a voided U.S. passport.
Fischer's violation of U.S. sanctions was not considered an extraditable offense in Japan. American authorities instead had counted on Japanese laws mandating deportation of persons detained for traveling on false documents to their countries of citizenship.
Fischer had tried various maneuvers to block his return, including seeking refugee status, renouncing his U.S. citizenship and announcing plans to marry Watai.
But he found success in Iceland, where, at his request, the parliament honored his "historic connection" with the tiny island nation, voting 40 to 0 Monday to grant him citizenship. The move came despite U.S. protests. "Mr. Fischer is a true Icelander now," the country's ambassador to Japan, Thordur Oskarsson, told reporters in Tokyo.
Japan agreed to allow Fischer to travel to his adopted homeland as long as he withdrew a lawsuit against the Japanese government seeking to block his deportation. John Bosnitch of the Tokyo-based Committee to Free Bobby Fischer said Wednesday that Fischer would do so.
The case had become an irritation for Japan, with Fischer alleging -- falsely, according to the Japanese -- that he had been physically abused by his captors. A Japanese official familiar with the case said the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo had been informed that Fischer would be freed.
Fischer's deep resentment of the United States is well known. He has said he regards it as part of the "global Jewish conspiracy," despite the fact that his mother was Jewish. He had insisted that U.S. officials were persecuting him for his political beliefs.
U.S. officials have suggested they may file tax evasion charges against Fischer, who has said he has not paid U.S. taxes in years. Such charges, U.S. officials say, may fall under extraditable crimes in Iceland.
posted
While I agree with you Bob that this is a waste of our resources to pursue him, I can also see the flip side.
Because he is celebrity - the media has made a big deal of where he is and where he is going. It wasn't like he could just quietly "slip" off to Iceland and we could quietly turn our backs and it would go away.
Since it is so public just who he is, where he is going and that he is wanted, if we failed to then follow through, everyone else would use this as a "see? you let HIM get by with it." and it would become precedent.
posted
He played a chess match in Yugoslavia which was under sanction at the time. He also is very anti-Israel, but that's more along the mental problems Bob alluded to.
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quote:On September 1, 1992, Bobby Fischer came out of his 20 year retirement and gave a press conference in Yugoslavia. He pulled out an order from the U.S. Treasury Department warning him that he would be violating U.N sanctions if he played Chess in Yugoslavia. He spit on the order and now faces ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine if he returns to the U.S.
In addition, he must forfeit his $3.65 million to the U.S. Treasury and forfeit 10% of any match royalties earned. On September 30, Bobby Fischer began his rematch with Boris Spassky in Sveti Stefan, Yugoslavia. The match was organized by banker Jedzimir Vasiljevic. On November 11, Fischer won the match with 10 wins, 5 losses, and 15 draws. He received $3.65 million for his winnings and Spassky received $1.5 million.
posted
I'm somewhat Anti-Israel, and I don't have mental issues.
Probably.
Seriously though, it was a friggin chess match. I doubt anyone would try to arrest Stephie Graff for playing a tennis match in Libya (bad example I know we're lifting/lifted sanctions, but still).
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posted
Being anti-Israel isn't what makes me concerned about Bobby Fischer's mental health. It's all the strange things he's done and said over the years. He appears to be more than just a little bit paranoid.
There's just somethin' not quite right about that boy, y'know.
But...he's a brilliant chess player. That doesn't make him brilliant at anything else, per se. In fact, so much of his processing power is devoted to chess, I'd be surprised to find him capable of much else.
He's technically not dysfunctional, as he can still earn a living and manage to provide for his food and shelter. So, whatever his mental problems are, they don't necessitate confinement or even serious treatment.
But to take him seriously when he spouts off? Nah. He's nuts.
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posted
My mistake. I though you were asking why there is a difference between hating Jews and hating Israel.
As for why Fischer hates Jews, I couldn't claim to know -- or care. He's hardly the first self-hating Jew.
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