Open
Letter to the American Ambassador to Iceland
RJF-Kommitee: M. Skúlason; G.Thorarinsson; H. Olafsson, Lilja
Gretarsdottir, G. Sverrisson, S. Palsson, I. Asmundsson; H. Jökulsson;
E.Einarsson
Garðar Sverrisson writes about
Bobby Fischer’s affairs: “… I hope the American authorities will not need to
remind us, any more than they have already, of their prisons at home and
abroad.”
Dear Mr.
Ambassador, James I. Gadsden,
There was a
time when the authorities in your country were passionately interested in
getting Robert J. Fischer to compete for the title of world champion in chess.
It was so important that the Secretary of State himself, Henry Kissinger, made
phone calls in all directions so that the world could see America’s national
hero bring the Soviets to their knees in their own national sport. When it came
to facing off against the Soviet system, it was difficult to conceive of a
genius who was more independent in his words and actions, an individual who
heeded nothing other than his own convictions, no matter whether he himself
profited by it or paid for it dearly.
And now
those same character traits in the personality of the selfsame individual have
occasioned fiercer vengeance tactics against that individual than the Soviet
Union itself could imagine employing against its most disobedient chess masters.
Formally, Fischer’s crime is that he played chess in the Balkans twelve years
ago, thereby violating the economic sanctions then in force.
Perhaps
violating economic sanctions is behavior one shouldn’t emulate. This could be
the case, for example, if one were to go so far as to sell weapons to the
parties to whom the sanctions apply. On the other hand, it happens to be the
case that there is a precedent for just this. The gravest example from
contemporary history is, of course, the instance when the cabinet members and
closest colleagues of the former president of the United States sold weapons to
the theocratic Iranian government, in blatant violation of laws that the United
States itself had passed precisely to ban such commerce. To perfect the act, the
profits of the weapon sales were used to finance death squads in Central
America, which was also, of course, blatantly illegal.
You are
familiar with this story, of course. But to refresh our memories and those of
our readers, let us recollect the happy ending that ensued during the Advent
season twelve years ago. The ink on the warrant for Fischer’s arrest was hardly
dry when then-current President George Bush granted the ringleaders in the Iran
Contra case (and himself into the bargain) a full pardon in advance.
In a spirit
of genuine amicability, I now ask you to give us Icelanders a sensible
explanation of the gross inconsistency that appears to be afoot here. Without
such an explanation, there is no way to close one’s eyes to the wealth of
indications suggesting that Fischer’s case represents an instance of misapplying
American administrative policy in order to punish an individual for opinions
that are not considered politically correct.
Those of us who
have had friendly feelings toward the United States, who have studied there and
enjoyed American hospitality, must surely make the minimum demand that your
office be willing to inform us how many American citizens have been sentenced to
prison for their interactions with erstwhile Yugoslavia, and what
