Anyone For A Trial?

Who did Baltasar Garzon want to extradite to Spain?

Why did he want him to stand trial?

Now, these are all questions to be asked at next years LASC pub quiz so pay attention. There might be a bottle of wine in it for you or even a Cuban cigar (health warnings notwithstanding). Well then, what’s the answer? Pinochet, of course and he wanted him to stand trial for the murder of Spanish citizens (Of course Franco had the good sense to die in the job and his acolytes are treated with collective amnesia). So the next question is did he get it right? Well, sort of. You see when a group of mass murderers get together to do a job, they count on others who can provide them with the weapons and the logistics. Safe houses are not needed as anyone can call on Mrs T for some tea.

Right then, for a spot prize, who did Garzon leave off his list? Practically everybody. The list is so long I couldn’t possibly name them all here. Well lets start off with dear old Ted Heath whose government supplied the Hawker Hunters and Chieftain tanks that were used with such deadly effect on the day. Nixon ( I know, he’s dead and can’t stand trial. But he could be dug up, he wasn’t exactly anymore forthcoming when he was alive) and Henry "Peace Prize" Kissinger who bombed Cambodia into the stone age. Of course others kept Pinochet going once started, such as Ford, Carter, Callaghan and Thatcher (that’s Baroness Thatcher to all you sycophants in the respectable press, but she is still Mad Maggie the Belgrano Butcher to us). So here’s to hoping that Pinochet and Maggie are charged.

Is there anyone we left off the list? The banks of course. While the rest of the population has trouble getting money for a mortgage Pinochet could get no end of money for his army and their torture centres. So we can put the IMF and the World Bank in there as well. We are running out of space in the dock so we’ll allow another couple of candidates. Any guesses? Come on, they wear white and green clothes and couldn’t play football to save their lives. Yes! The Irish squad that was the first team to play the Santiago stadium after the last corpse had been removed. Giving moral support to the likes of Pinochet must be a crime and if it isn’t I am sure we could make it so. And while we are at it, we can charge them with something in relation to their football which was in the 70s nothing short of criminal, though we’ll have to ask someone other than Garzon to prosecute that one.

So when Missile Maggie says that Pinochet should be shown compassion and that he was an ally of Britain during its murderous crusade in the Malvinas what she really means is that it is herself and people like her who are equally criminal who should stand trial alongside Pinochet, for he did nothing without their help. Murder Inc. Murder PLC. and Murder Financial Services Ltd (i.e the USA, Britain and the banks) are all equally to blame if not more so and the only compassion Pinochet deserves to be shown is that he be given a lot of co-defendants to keep him company.

Xmas would be a happier time if these people weren’t around ( be careful Pino with those wishbones). However, none of them will be charged, if only because they are still at it today. Arms are still sold to murderous regimes and we all know what oil companies still get up to. We haven’t seen the last of the likes of Pinochet. Right now future Pinochets are being formed. Some call themselves democrats and others work for multinationals. As we gear ourselves up for the next millennium lets not kid ourselves that we will begin it any better than we are finishing off this one. And there is still a year left (two if you count right, but that’s another issue) to get some torture and killing done.