Friday, July 5, 2013

Extradite Union Carbide's Warren Anderson

While the U.S. is busy wetting its pants over Edward Snowden and trying to get him extradited by bullying every other country, an actual criminal who actually harmed people -- unlike Snowden -- goes free. In -- where else? -- the Land of the Free. And one luxury home isn't enough. No, he has three.

Former Union Carbide Chairman / CEO Warren Anderson skipped bail in India and fled to the US more than 20 years ago. In 1992 and again in 2009 the Indian government issued warrants for Anderson’s arrest for manslaughter.
The 1984 Bhopal disaster has killed as many as 20,000 people; and 120,000 people have lived with birth defects, blindness, breathing and other serious health problems related to this corporate criminal negligence.
Anderson lives comfortably in his three homes in the Hamptons, Florida, and Connecticut.
But as we know, corporate crime doesn't count. Only the Little People need concern themselves with quaint notions like the rule of law. Because if they don't, they end up in the legalized slavery known as the U.S. prison system (a for-profit industry, no less, but that's a topic for another day).

Warren Anderson gets to run around the country freely while people who've kited checks are in jail. India has been asking the U.S. to extradite Anderson for years. (But hey, when you're busy trying to persecute whistleblowers, how can you possibly take time out to extradite murderers?)

I don't put much stock in petitions. Still, they do serve some useful purposes: they indicate to other like-minded people that "you're not alone"; they publicize injustices; they poke a finger in the eye of the powers-that-be and alert them that not all of their crimes go unnoticed. Petitions aren't revolution, but they can't hurt. I don't see how they're any less effective than writing to the worthless wankers in Congress.

If you think Warren Anderson should be held accountable for his crimes, then sign the petition here.