18 Jan 2008

A Dead FISHer

Bobby Fischer R.I.P.

Hours after the September 11, 2001, attacks Fischer was interviewed live by Pablo Mercado on the Baguio City station of the Bombo Radyo network, shortly after midnight 12 September 2001 Philippines local time (or shortly after noon on 11 September 2001, New York time). Fischer commented on U.S and Israeli foreign policy that "nobody cares ... [that] the US and Israel have been slaughtering the Palestinians for years". Informed that "the White House and Pentagon have been attacked", he proclaimed "This is all wonderful news." Fischer stated "What goes around comes around even for the United States" and said that if the U.S. fails to change its foreign policy, it "has to be destroyed." After calling for President Bush's death, Fischer also stated he hoped for a coup d' etat in the U.S., and that the military government would then execute "hundreds of thousands of American Jewish leaders", "arrest all the Jews", and "close all synagogues".

Subsequent to that interview, Fischer's "right to membership in the United States Chess Federation [was] canceled" by a unanimous 7-0 of the USCF, taken on 28 October 2001. In 2006, that decision was subsequently "vacated" by the same Board.

Detention in 2004 and 2005

Fischer was arrested at Narita International Airport in Narita, Japan, near Tokyo for allegedly using a revoked U.S. passport while trying to board a Japan Airlines flight to Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, Philippines. The passport, issued in 1997, had been revoked in 2003, although Fischer asserts that it was valid and that he never received any notification that it had been canceled. Like most passports, U.S. Passports are property of the issuing government, and can be revoked without notification.

Bobby Fischer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia