caretaker

Part of the deal between those with diplomatic protection and the host country is that they don't break the law.

scrubbedexpat091

But we all know that is not how it works in reality. Just ask NYC how successful they are in getting immunity waived so they can charge people for crimes they commit, they are very unsuccessful in getting immunity waived.

Had some in Canada such as the Philippine diplomat accused of human trafficking in Canada using her official residence, they fled back home, not sure if immunity was ever waived, as of the articles from 2014 it wasn't and I failed to find anything more recent.

In early 2000's a Russian diplomat driving drunk killed a Canadian lawyer walking on the sidewalk, immunity and fled back to Russia.

The German in NYC who beat his wife, claimed immunity and fled back to Germany

macliam

Yep, but this is someone who killed another by dangerous driviing and sneaked out of the UK to avoid the consequences.
Now it's a willy-waving contest for the US government.
Be proud....

Hiro11

I agree that the US should try Scoolas. I'll readily admit I'm wallowing in "whataboutary" and deflection. I also agree that the UK is well within their rights when they fight extradition for the likes of Love or McKinnon.

Still, I could have done without UK politicians posturing around McKinnon and Love. They certainly didn't seem to mind offending the US. I found the McKInnon case particularly infuriating. I could have done without McKinnon's mother's mawkish book "A Mother's Story". I could have done without ridiculously using a convenient Aspergers diagnosis somehow as a defense for breaking into military computers. I could have done without his interviews saying he was looking for evidence of UFO, ignoring the political messages he had posted. I could have done without the eye-rolling speeches from Sting and the like and David Gilmour releasing a song about his hero McKinnon.

I also don't appreciate the banana republic depiction of the US justice system that the UK press (and many here) wholeheartedly embraces, especially if a patently guilty UK citizen is involved.

I'll be over here drooling on myself while machine-gunning baby seals.

lansbury

I see it has finally been revealed Anne Sacoolas is former CIA herself.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics...las-cia-agent/

scrubbedexpat091

May explain a bit more about the US not wanting her to return and whisking her away quickly, who knows what she knows or what she did in the CIA.

tom169

Yeah, that's a very interesting development in this story.

Giantaxe

ex-CIA wouldn't automatically give her diplomatic immunity, but if the US thinks she's vulnerable to a third country extradition based on prior CIA activities, that would likely be a factor.

DaveLovesDee

And look at the effort they were putting into getting Assange extradited back to Sweden to face alleged charges, so that the US government could take him from there to the US..... Of course, the US doesn't like it when it's own dirty tricks are turned back on them.

BritInParis

That narrative never held water at the time and still doesn't now. Why bother extraditing him to Sweden only to then extradite him to the US then he could just be extradited directly from the UK, as is happening now?

andyrebell

And she also knows many secrets just like Paul Burrell and the "stolen" stuff from princess Diana. He had the goods on the royal family and they knew it. She has the goods on CIA ops over here and elsewhere. They will never risk her bringing that out in a UK court especially if she was doing something spy related which she probably was.

Hiro11

Suddenly this story makes a lot more sense. I think the argument to date has been that her status as a wife with someone with diplomatic immunity grants her the same protection. Still, the stonewalling resistance of the US government to honor her extradition made no sense to me. Now it's clear that she's a bit more than a non-involved diplomat's wife. Did the UK government know she was a CIA employee?

Oakvillian

Almost certainly yes. And equally likely that they knew in advance that extradition requests would fall on deaf ears for precisely that reason, but had to be seen to be going through the motions. It would also make some more (though admittedly not very much more) sense of the bizarrely Trumpian White House moment when the parents of the deceased youth were blindsided by the fact Sacoolas was in the next room and had offered to meet them.

I wonder how much of a "former" CIA employee she is/was? Until how recently was she active? Reports seem to indicate that her role was more senior than that of her husband when she was on active duty.

andyrebell

The impeachment hearing might have gone differently if that meeting had turned into the title of that wesley snipes movie.

Oakvillian

"White Men Can't Jump?"