The Harry Dunn Case Sequel Gets Off To a Slow Start But Shows Promise

It isn't the biggest international extradition case, but it's the only one we have right now, and it might yet offer a few tricky plot twists. 

Today a little bit of news came out on the matter of that American driver who left the UK before he could be charged in a traffic accident, all of it attributed to an interview with the driver's father.

Firstly, no one should ever talk to a hostile news media, any more than he should (voluntarily) talk to the authorities. I hope the father in the case will get that message. But, from what he said today we can confirm a few facts that were only hinted at weeks ago when this first became news.

The driver, Issac Calderon, is a private citizen who was working on a contract job in the UK - not further identified - which he obtained due to the security clearance he had been granted as a member of the Texas National Guard. He was released from that job after the traffic accident, leaving him unemployed in the UK. 

His former employer provided him a ticket home, possibly in accordance with whatever terms of employment he had with them. That employer is potentially a major party of interest in this case, if the accident occurred while Calderon was driving on company business, and especially if the employer owned the vehicle he was driving. If that is so, then there must be a UK insurance company involved, you might assume. 

Moreover, the driver was left indigent in the UK, having been released from his job by the time he got out of medical treatment for a concussion and other injuries. That puts a new spin on his decision to leave for home on 25 November rather than wait for a court appearance on 1 December. With no job and no money, was he supposed to live on the street while going through the UK's legal process? 

Here's the gist of the story:

The father of a US citizen who left the UK after being charged with causing a mental health nurse serious injury by dangerous driving has pleaded for donations after the FBI contacted the family about “extraditing him”.

Issac Calderon, 22, is accused of being responsible for a car crash in July which left 56-year-old Elizabeth Donowho unable to walk for six weeks.

Calderon was due to appear at Kidderminster Magistrates’ Court on December 1 following the incident on the A4103 near Shucknall in Herefordshire.

He was labelled a potential “flight risk” by police, but was able to leave the UK on a commercial flight to Texas on November 25.

A fundraiser has since been set up on the crowdfunding site GoFundMe by the suspect’s father, Manuel Calderon, in which the family are asking for 15,000 US dollars (£11,760) to help with legal fees.

Calderon’s father said the suspect was able to return to the US because “the company that contracted him purchased him a ticket”.

Manuel Calderon said his son, whom he called “Isac”, had been offered a contract job in the UK “due to his security clearance with the Texas National Guard”.

-- snip --

Calderon’s father said his son still has problems with concussion and a fractured humerus following the collision.

In his plea for donations on the crowdfunding page, he said: “My son was released from the contract job shortly after and could no longer support himself in the UK.

“He reported this to the court but they were not concerned with his financial problems. “My son was able to return home because the company that contracted him purchased him a ticket.”

-- snip --

Mr Calderon continued: “My concern for my son was for his wellbeing since at that time he had no funds and still needed his injuries to be looked at.”

Here are some FAQs regarding extradition courtesy of the U.S. Justice Department. It sounds like the process can get very prolonged, what with separate judicial and executive phases to be completed before the final decision is made by the SecState. 

And that SecState has quite a bit of latitude since, according to this publicly available source of information, he "may consider issues properly raised before the extradition court or a habeas court as well as any humanitarian or other considerations for or against surrender ... [and] also will consider any written materials submitted by the fugitive, his or her counsel, or other interested parties." 

Hum. Assume for a moment that all the UK tabloid gossip about 'activities coming under the Official Secrets Act' isn't complete nonsense after all. Were the SecState to find that some U.S. national security interest would be implicated by a trial of Calderon, he would then have to weight that in the balance against the non-fatal injuries done to the British motorist, which hardly rise to the level of serious international crime, after all. 

Throw in some humanitarian concern for our unemployed and convalescing Texas National Guardsman, plus practical consideration of the UK insurance settlement that we may presume to have been made to the victim, and who knows if he might not decline extradition?

Anyway, there would be enough of an argument there to fuel a good old rousing social media circus. 

A. Blinken's Surprisingly Direct Statement: Why Does Virtually No One Demand Hamas Surrender?

Everyone would like to see this conflict end as quickly as possible. But if it ends with Hamas remaining in place, and having the capacity and the stated intent to repeat October 7th again and again and again, that’s not in the interests of Israel, it’s not in the interests of the region, it’s not in the interests of the world. And what is striking to me is that even as, again, we hear many countries urging to end this conflict, which we would all like to see, I hear virtually no one saying, demanding, of Hamas, that it stop hiding behind civilians, that it lay down its arms, that it surrender. This is over tomorrow, if Hamas does that. This would have been over a month ago, six weeks ago, if Hamas had done that. And how can it be that there are no demands made of the aggressor, and only demands made of the victim? So it would be good if there was a strong international voice pressing Hamas to do what is necessary to end this. And, again — that could be tomorrow.

I have to say that I have strange new respect for our SecState after hearing that short statement. No equivocating there, no hedging, no 'constructive ambiguity' about his meaning.  

There's probably a story there about how that text got drafted and cleared before he delivered it. What parties in State and the White House agreed with it? Who tried to water it down? Who thought it didn't go far enough? 

That will all have to wait for his memoirs, I suppose.

 

The Remake Is Never As Good As The Original (Disappointing Review For Harry Dunn Case Sequel)

You may have seen the news about another car crash in England in which an American driver injured a local citizen. Despite the UK news media's best efforts to make some drama out of it - as in, the driver is 'associated with secret services,' was on his way to visit the SAS base at Hereford, and doing work that might be covered by the Official Secrets Act - all of that is complete bollocks. There's nothing to see here, folks. It's a bland traffic accident.

The only interesting thing about the case is that the driver returned to the U.S. after he was released from hospital, resulting in an arrest warrant being issued for him when he failed to show up at his court date.  

This isn't a case of Harry Dunn redux, with all sorts of interesting matters involving diplomatic immunity, international politics, Britain's Small Man Syndrome, and the ability of social media to make people lose their minds. No, this one is just about a 22-year old private citizen in the UK on a work visa for a job of some kind (TBD) on a U.S. base of some kind (also TBD), who will in due course be rendered back to England to face criminal and civil penalties for injuring, seriously but non-fatally, a fellow motorist. 

Here's as good a news article as any with the few details that are known with any reliability, plus all the baseless speculation and heavy-breathing insinuations of deep, dark, U.S. government skullduggery that the tabloid media, aided by the Dunn family's buffoon of a spokesman, can invent. 

The latest twist in this unremarkable tale is that the UK media have tracked the driver down to the wonderfully named town of Humble, Texas. 

By the way, the original cast of the Harry Dunn Story will get together one more time for the curiously late inquest into his death, which seems to be lightly penciled in for next June. See more on that here. I'll be there with bells on.

"Secretary Anthony Lincoln" Visits Jerusalem, According to U.S. Embassy Jerusalem's Facebook

Okay, his name is "A. Blinken," and I suppose that does present opportunities for screw-ups, but that one screw-up is particularly choice. 

Abe Blinken?

'Gold Bar Bob' Menendez Switches Lawyers, Plus a Co-Defendant Eats Some Cheese

Senator Robert Menendez's legal troubles increase. From the WaPo:

Now The Post can disclose that one of Daibes’ former business partners, who was also a Menendez donor, has been cooperating with Manhattan prosecutors since February 2022, four months before the raid.

Please read the whole article, since it describes a New Jersey nest of organized crime that rivals The Sopranos. 

Given today's news about a rat, my least favorite corrupt public official might well be channeling Paulie Walnuts: “How much more betrayal can I take?”

 

From Kindergarten Plays to GoPros on Home Invaders, It's All a Performance to HAMAS

Hamas has many fewer allies these days, but at least it can still count on the western news media to play the sympathy card for them. Of course, that focuses almost exclusively on the children in Gaza. A smart decision, considering how often the adults of Gaza cannot resist the urge to be openly monstrous in front of a camera or microphone.

See, for example, these recent stories about Gaza's children by NPR, the NYT, and the BBC. 

But here's a question you don't hear much about those kids. Where does Hamas get adult men who will commit the most horrible atrocities imaginable against defenseless victims and even live-stream themselves in the act? A large part of the answer must be that they are the product of a society that raised them from childhood to do just that.  

Take the military summer camps, for instance. When they aren’t getting anti-Semitic classroom material in UNWRA schools, they can take in some fresh air along with instruction in small arms.   

It's never too early to start tomorrow's monsters out on the right course. Here's a video of a Gaza Kindergarten graduation skit from May, 2018, one apparently posted to the internet by a proud parent, in which those adorable tykes enact invading Israel. Note that at the end they take a hostage back to Gaza - that's a very important element of the drama.   

   

 

Those little cuties will be around ten years old now, and so – probably – are still too young to have participated in the pogrom of four weeks ago. Give it time. They are the future. 

We’re constantly told that Hamas does not represent Palestinians, despite it having gotten most of the vote in the only election Palestinians ever held, and contrary to all the data gathered by opinion polling. 

Frankly – and I say this after reflection – even the worst of Hamas' troops seem to represent its population quite well. The abominable monsters who committed those atrocities four weeks ago did not rise up out of nothing. They were the kindergarten kommandos of 10 or 15 or 20 years ago, now live-streaming it and still making their parents proud.

Maryland Wins the Race For FBI HQ, But FBI Director Calls a Foul

Director Wray is blowing his whistle for all he's worth, even sending a message to FBI employees yesterday.  

He's presenting his objection to the Greenbelt site as one to the process and transparency of GSA's decision, and, for the moment at least, not raising the practical objections to locating a new HQ some distance away from the places the FBI needs to visit daily in order to do its business.

Throughout the selection process, the FBI coordinated closely with GSA with a clear focus on what’s best for our workforce, the mission, and the American people. Paramount for us were fairness and transparency in the process. In the course of our work with GSA, however, we identified concerns about a potential conflict of interest involving the site selection authority and whether changes that individual made in the final stage of the process adhered to the site selection criteria. Despite our engagement with GSA over the last two months on these issues, our concerns about the process remain unresolved. 

-- snip -- 

Congress initiated the site selection process, so, moving forward, it will control the next steps. For our part, we will continue to be clear about our process concerns, even as we work with GSA toward the design and construction of a facility.

Note the reference to "changes that individual made" to the site selection criteria. According to news reports yesterday, the individual is a former Metro employee who is now a political appointee at GSA, and that may implicate a conflict of interest because Metro owns the Greenbelt site that GSA will now purchase. 

Or anyway, they'll now purchase it if Congress appropriates the very considerable funds necessary. Wray's veiled reference to Congress tells us where this conflict is headed next. 

Putting the new FBI HQ in Greenbelt makes no sense at all - I mean, not unless you own the site, or would collect revenue from land development there. The FBI officials who'll work at that HQ need to be close to the DOJ, relevant U.S. Courts, Congress, and the existing FBI and assorted other USG facilities they need to visit, all of which are in DC and Virginia.

And then there are the political realities, starting with the fact that the House of Representatives is normally where appropriations must begin, and the House right now is, ah, not favorably inclined toward the FBI or its Director. Furthermore, Washington is now entering an election year, and that destabilizes everything on the legislative agenda.

At best, Congress will table the FBI HQ project for another year. Or maybe the Republican majority will start another oversight investigation, this time partnering with Director Wray to tag-team the GSA and Biden Administration. It looks like they could find plenty of red meat there for a good old election year scandal, and one with the strategic advantage of turning the FBI against the White House.

Or even, and it takes an effort to control myself as I imagine this option, that Republican majority could go ahead and appropriate the millions to buy the Greenbelt site just to screw over the FBI for decades to come by saddling them with the worst site option that's on the table. 

As Robert E. Lee once said of war, it is well that partisan politics is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it.