After announcing on May 28, 2014, that America will no longer function as the world’s policeman, President Obama has evidently decided it’s time for us to become the World’s district attorney.
Newly confirmed AG Loretta Lynch inaugurated her tenure at the Justice Department with a perp walk held outside a Swiss luxury hotel.
I’m sure the Marshalls are looking forward to the flight to Zurich to pick up the prisoners. It certainly beats an overnight in Hidalgo, Texas. But what is in it for the U.S. taxpayers footing the bill?
All the arrestees are members of FIFA, which governs international soccer. Personally, being forced to attend soccer games seems like punishment enough, making the arrests look like piling on.
Here in the states where Lynch actually has jurisdiction over crime, soccer has been The Next Big Sport for the last 40 years, mostly based on optimistic participation numbers in youth soccer. But the truth is as soon as these victimized children are old enough to speak for themselves they bail out of ballerina ball and move on to real American sports like football, baseball, and basketball.
Major League Soccer attendance has increased 39 percent since 2000. Attendance in 2014 was 6,185,773, one-third of NFL attendance and soccer has double the number of games, but that total would plummet if we ever got serious about cracking down on illegals.
It’s ironic that an administration that can’t be bothered to enforce our own immigration statutes on willful lawbreakers in Texas and Arizona is hell-bent on enforcing tax and bribery laws in Switzerland. The list of indicted includes nine from South and Central America, two from the Caribbean, and one each from the U.S. and the U.K.
Lynch’s big accomplishment is she’s managed to round up the handful of South Americans that aren’t trying to sneak across the border and demand they be sent here anyway.
This isn’t a law enforcement issue; it’s taxpayers financing another Obama worldwide publicity effort. Even the fanboys at The Washington Post were a bit queasy regarding the announcement: “How the U.S. can arrest FIFA officials in Switzerland, explained.”
Obamanic Dan Pfeiffer really gave the game away when he told Politico, “By no means am I trying to suggest that these sorts of implications would play a role in the decision-making around such things, but generally speaking, more Americans will consume this information than almost anything else the government will do this month. Between ESPN and the Internet, this will be widely known.”
But that’s exactly how the decision making went. Look at the Politico headline: “For Loretta Lynch, a stunning debut on the world stage.”
Politico Europe: “The pantheon of world soccer has a new hero. To the names of Pele, Maradona, Cruyff and Messi, add another: Loretta Lynch. The U.S. attorney general . . . is destined to go down as the most consequential woman in the history of the game.”
BBC News: “The Woman Who Took on FIFA.”
The Telegraph (UK): “FIFA is about to learn a stern lesson about the vigor of American prosecution.”
What’s more, the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland already had an investigation underway of the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. Since FIFA is headquartered in Zurich and the meeting was in Zurich, it stands to reason the Swiss should be leading the investigation and the Justice Department merely lending assistance, but there are no headlines in being a big helper.
Lynch claims primary jurisdiction because some of the financial transactions involved U.S. banks and some of the planning was allegedly done here.
This makes as much sense as the World Court announcing an investigation of the culture of corruption inside the New England Patriots because the game balls were delivered on an Airbus.
Obama has even forced me to agree with the Putin government! It termed the Lynch mob action: “another case of illegal extraterritorial application of U.S. laws.”
FBI Director James Comey attempted to justify the waste of money and manpower by claiming, “As charged in the indictment, the defendants fostered a culture of corruption and greed that created an uneven playing field for the biggest sport in the world.”
As far as conservatives are concerned that describes Congress, too, and it’s local.
Politico speculates the indictments could damage the U.S. bid for the 2026 Ballerina Ball World Cup, “but that may be a price Americans have to pay in order to try to clean up the game.” If that’s the case I’ll suspend my opposition to Manifest District Attorney if Lynch will find a way to arrest some members of the International Olympic Committee.
Taxachusetts taxpayers need all the help they can get defeating Boston’s Big Dig bid for the 2024 games.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher (for the League of American Voters), and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)." Read more of Michael Shannon's reports — Go Here Now.
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