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Your Drug War At Work

By Jeralyn, Section Crime Policy
Posted on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 10:50:36 AM EST
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The U.S. is about to extradite a British man for a 20 year old drug offense. Giles Carlyle-Clarke, a British aristocrat, says he is part of a secret deal between the U.S. and Britain in which he is being sacrficed in exchange for the release of the British prisoners at Guantanamo.

Carlyle-Clarke, 47, a furniture importer and former racing yachtsman, will present a 2,000-name petition to the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, this week, to protest against his deportation to Alabama. If convicted he could face 25 years....

Carlyle-Clarke, whose family has owned the ancient Winterborne Clenston estate in Dorset since 1066, told The Observer: 'I am sole parent to an eight-year-old child I have brought up from birth. My over-riding concern is the welfare of Max. There has never been another figure in his life. He has no one else and would be effectively orphaned by my extradition.'

Carlyle-Clarke has no prior criminal record. If the House of Lords does not act on his petition, he could be in the U.S. by February.

Was there a deal between Bush and Blair for his extradtion? The British authorities deny it, but Carlyle-Clark says:

Carlyle-Clarke believes his extradition could be part of the deal that led to the release of British detainees held in Guantanamo. The deportation was approved by the Home Office at the end of November 2003, 10 days after the controversial visit of President Bush to London, when the Guantanamo prisoners were discussed. During the visit, Tony Blair announced that the fate of the detainees would soon be resolved. The first five prisoners returned to Britain last March and the release of the remaining four British detainees was announced last week.

How much will we spend to incarcerate Mr. Carlyle-Clark? What a waste.

[hat tip to Cliff]

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    Your Drug War At Work | 21 comments (21 topical)
    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 11:27:31 AM EST
    Best argument I've seen for legalizing pot in a while. That said, I don't see why his family should be held as less vulnerable/less able to tolerate his incarceration than the families of less notable inmates. However, extradition and conviction to a chain gang for 25 years is a preposterous waste of taxpayer money considering the charges. Why else but a deal re: Gitmo could account for such prosocutorial zeal?

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 11:34:36 AM EST
    How bad is it when the DOJ can't find a guy whose family has had the same address since the Battle of Hastings;-)

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 11:39:34 AM EST
    LoL Rocker. Doesn't give us much hope for finding Osama, does it?

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 11:50:51 AM EST
    This is assinine, to say the least. The DOJ must have something better to do with its time. With that said, I can't help but wonder why that great feeler of pain let his DOJ go after this guy. Maybe he didn't inhale after all.

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#5)
    by pigwiggle on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 12:46:26 PM EST
    Wow, £60 million is a lot of grass. Bizarro world; where businessmen are criminals and criminals masquerade as businessmen. I see no evidence to link this to a ‘trade’, the timing is only coincidental, to be generous. The Guardian is this side of the Enquire. Once publishing a story about and Australian that was convinced he was being forced to pay his back taxes because he was building a ‘cruise’ missile in his garage, and yes it was linked to US pressure. Another time publishing OBL’s 1998 fatwa in the op-ed page, posting it like any other; quaintly listing his occupation as ‘engineer’. Bizarre.

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#6)
    by kdog on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 12:46:41 PM EST
    Very very odd. Where are our criminal justice priorities?

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 01:54:00 PM EST
    I found this via Daily Ablution (a very quirky English blog) where he pointed out that this is the first "Domesday Defence" he's ever heard. Badaboom. -C

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#8)
    by cp on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 02:38:55 PM EST
    hard to feel too much sympathy for a guy that lives in a property stolen by william of normandy, at the end of a sword, and given to his ancestors, in compensation for their bloody handiwork crushing the angles & saxons. hmmmmmm! that said, isn't there a statute of limitations on this? geez, it isn't a capital crime. or does the statute stop tolling if you leave the country?

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#9)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 02:47:36 PM EST
    OH MY GAWD!!!!! CP:...property stolen by YOUR ANCESTORS NAME HERE, at the end of a sword, and given to his ancestors, So where exactly did the property YOU live on come from?

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 02:50:07 PM EST
    Apologies for the nitpick, cp. Bells Toll (reference: Hemingway). Statutes expire. The "clock on the statute" could theoretically keep ticking. LoL An old friend of mine got me hooked on this mixed metaphor alert thing - I just can't help it!!

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#11)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 02:52:44 PM EST
    CP writes:
    isn't there a statute of limitations on this?
    LoL You mean stealing property from William of Normandy?? Maybe the Magna Carta can tell us something!

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#12)
    by Ray Radlein on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 03:37:51 PM EST
    I also wondered about the whole "Statute of Limitations" thing. I mean, if you give the authorities your home address, and it takes them nine years to come after you, something is definitely wrong. Especially when that home address has been your home address for nearly a thousand years, and the actual house has been your family's house for more than five hundred years. How hard can it be to track that down? I wonder if he has any recourse of appeal to the ECHR over this?

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 05:05:37 PM EST
    Hey J, how about changing "a 20 year old drug offense" to "a 20 year old ALLEDGED drug offense"?

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#14)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 05:08:56 PM EST
    Statutes of limitations are easily tolled - especially if one fless the jurisdiction, in which case the clock effectively stops ticking - until you return. Funny, but my pet peeve here is this guy's defense is basically, because I didn't have my kid's best interests at heart before, the state should NOW, AND it should determine that those best interests are ill-served by justice being done to me. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight. You just gotta love parents that hide behind their children. No matter how you paint him, this man is scum.

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#15)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 05:35:25 PM EST
    Lavocat, that's Lord Scum to you.

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#16)
    by cp on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 06:58:01 PM EST
    actually, statutes and bells both toll. and the statute tolls for you. i bought my house from someone who bought it from someone, etc., all the way back to when it was originally stolen from the potowmack indian tribe, by john smith's people. it is a much more muddied title trail. no blood directly on my ancestor's hands. 1066 was the year william of normandy defeated king harold, at the decisive battle of hastings, shortly after harold had successfully defended his kingdom against the viking incursion. william promised his lords property, in return for supporting his invasion of britain. so, if this guy's family has lived in the same property since 1066, it was taken by william, and given to his ancestor, as reward for his service, not stolen from william. hey, this is what i get from watching way, way too much educational television. that, and i was denied the opportunity, because i enjoy eating regularly, of double-majoring in history and english! as a side note, had harold not had to take on the vikings, and william sailed sooner, it might be harold's victory the british celebrate today, not the norman conquest. hard to keep an army interested after a hard fought battle, crops need to be harvested, and no enemy directly in sight. just goes to show that timing has always been everything!

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#17)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue Jan 18, 2005 at 09:16:06 PM EST
    And Harold's army had to fight the Viking at Stanford Bridge (Yorkshire) and march (no C130s in those days) to Kent. 250 miles? to fight William the B*stard, as he was known. Good thing William won or he would have been known as Willian the Loosing B*stard.

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#19)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 19, 2005 at 01:12:38 AM EST
    I worry where our legal system is going. Same place as everything else, to hell.

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#20)
    by kdog on Wed Jan 19, 2005 at 06:04:37 AM EST
    Seems like a lot of trouble over a twenty year old boatload of reefer that's long since been smoked.

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#21)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 19, 2005 at 08:24:37 AM EST
    Drug war hype: "...we have to send a message..." I've never been fully capable of understanding exactly what that message is/was.

    Re: Your Drug War At Work (none / 0) (#22)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed Jan 19, 2005 at 08:55:58 AM EST
    Hey cp: You wrote: "hard to feel too much sympathy for a guy that lives in a property stolen by william of normandy, at the end of a sword, and given to his ancestors, in compensation for their bloody handiwork crushing the angles & saxons. hmmmmmm! that said, isn't there a statute of limitations on this? geez, it isn't a capital crime. or does the statute stop tolling if you leave the country?" Sort of ironic that you castigate the man for sins of 1000 years ago, yet wonder about a statute of limitations?

    Your Drug War At Work | 21 comments (21 topical)