Bobby Fischer Going Home To Iceland!
Bobby Fischer has won his unprecedented one-man battle against the sole
world superpower, the United States. After his unlawful jailing for over
eight months in Japan on U.S. orders, Bobby won his freedom by appealing to
the independent people of Iceland to remember and protect an old friend. The
Icelanders have responded in a manner that to them is merely normal, but
which to the rest of the world constitutes nothing less than outstanding
bravery.
Demonstrating its society's deep respect for every human being's right to
freedom of thought and expression, Iceland responded with action, not merely
empty words. Its grant of citizenship and a new passport has freed Bobby
Fischer from a trap set for him by the U.S. and Japanese governments.
On Thursday, March 24, 2005, Bobby Fischer will be released from the East
Japan Immigration Detention Center in Ushiku, north of Tokyo, and he will
drive to Narita Airport, to the east of Tokyo, for onward travel to his new
home in Iceland. He will be joined by his fiancée, the women's chess
champion of Japan, Ms. Miyoko Watai, who will fly to Iceland with him.
They should be leaving the detention center at 9:00 AM Japan time and arrive
at Narita Airport sometime after 10:00 AM. At the airport, we will be trying
to give Bobby Fischer a chance to speak to the media sometime between 10:00
AM and 12:00 noon. We hope he will be able to describe his Japanese ordeal
and the two decades of harassment by the U.S. government for holding
unapproved political views.
When he won the World Chess Championship in 1972 and took the title away
from the Soviet Union, this true U.S. national hero showed the world how one
freethinking man can defeat any system, no matter how powerful. By going
forward, despite U.S. sanctions, with his rematch chess championship against
Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992, he demonstrated that no government can
stop a man from freely practicing his art anywhere on this planet. And now,
over the past nine months, Bobby Fischer has proven that the individual can
withstand the combined forces of the world's mightiest governments, whenever
he has justice on his side.
We have witnessed a historic battle.
Bobby Fischer will be flying out of Tokyo's Narita Airport on the
Scandinavian Airways flight to Copenhagen that leaves at 12:40 PM on
Thursday. His many supporters here in Japan and around the world salute him.
Media Contact:
John Bosnitch
Chairman
The Committee to Free Bobby Fischer
http://www.freebobbyfischer.net
Mobile telephone: +81(90)8119-6679
Bobby Fischer has won his unprecedented one-man battle against the sole
world superpower, the United States. After his unlawful jailing for over
eight months in Japan on U.S. orders, Bobby won his freedom by appealing to
the independent people of Iceland to remember and protect an old friend. The
Icelanders have responded in a manner that to them is merely normal, but
which to the rest of the world constitutes nothing less than outstanding
bravery.
Demonstrating its society's deep respect for every human being's right to
freedom of thought and expression, Iceland responded with action, not merely
empty words. Its grant of citizenship and a new passport has freed Bobby
Fischer from a trap set for him by the U.S. and Japanese governments.
On Thursday, March 24, 2005, Bobby Fischer will be released from the East
Japan Immigration Detention Center in Ushiku, north of Tokyo, and he will
drive to Narita Airport, to the east of Tokyo, for onward travel to his new
home in Iceland. He will be joined by his fiancée, the women's chess
champion of Japan, Ms. Miyoko Watai, who will fly to Iceland with him.
They should be leaving the detention center at 9:00 AM Japan time and arrive
at Narita Airport sometime after 10:00 AM. At the airport, we will be trying
to give Bobby Fischer a chance to speak to the media sometime between 10:00
AM and 12:00 noon. We hope he will be able to describe his Japanese ordeal
and the two decades of harassment by the U.S. government for holding
unapproved political views.
When he won the World Chess Championship in 1972 and took the title away
from the Soviet Union, this true U.S. national hero showed the world how one
freethinking man can defeat any system, no matter how powerful. By going
forward, despite U.S. sanctions, with his rematch chess championship against
Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia in 1992, he demonstrated that no government can
stop a man from freely practicing his art anywhere on this planet. And now,
over the past nine months, Bobby Fischer has proven that the individual can
withstand the combined forces of the world's mightiest governments, whenever
he has justice on his side.
We have witnessed a historic battle.
Bobby Fischer will be flying out of Tokyo's Narita Airport on the
Scandinavian Airways flight to Copenhagen that leaves at 12:40 PM on
Thursday. His many supporters here in Japan and around the world salute him.
Media Contact:
John Bosnitch
Chairman
The Committee to Free Bobby Fischer
http://www.freebobbyfischer.net
Mobile telephone: +81(90)8119-6679