The Former U.S. Ambassador To The United Nations Is In Wales:

John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, faces a citizen's arrest when he addresses an audience at the Hay Festival in Wales this evening.

George Monbiot, the journalist and activist, is planning the action because he believes Mr Bolton is a "war criminal".

He said he was surprised that Mr Bolton would be allowed to "swim through the politest of polite soirees – which is of course Hay."

Mr Bolton, who was the American ambassador to the UN from August 2005 to January 2006, is due to talk at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival at 6.30pm on international relations.

Alright, let's iron this one out in real-time. Currently, as I type this, it's 4:20PM in Wales so we've got about 2 hours to go. Now on to the event, this Hay-on-Wye festival that Bolton has, for some unknown reason, agreed to speak at is an anti-American jamboree. Jimmy Carter was also invited and pressed at length on whether or not he thought George Bush was a war criminal. The crowd became giddy and excited as Carter said that Bush would likely live out a 'peaceful, productive life in our country'. Why? Because they figured he was hinting that international prosecution may be possible. Sounds like a great place for John Bolton to speak, right?

The reporter who is planning on performing a 'citizens arrest' on Bolton works for the UK Guardian. His name is George Monbiot and he's clearly desperate for attention. He's calling for others at this event to join him as he attempts to detain John Bolton and charge him with war crimes.

Section 24A of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 permits any citizen to "arrest without a warrant ... anyone whom he has reasonable grounds for suspecting to be guilty" of an offence.

I do not want to advocate something I am not prepared to do myself. I was planning to stay at home on Wednesday, but I now intend to come back, listen to Mr Bolton speak, and then carry out this arrest. I hope that others at Hay might join me.

Moonbiot is a radical on both political and environmental issues and there's a decent chance that he will cause a scene in less than two hours, possibly leading to some kind of low-scale international incident. There's also a solid chance that the creators of this festival, who pledge a 'safe and free' environment for all speakers are likely to let this whole fiasco go down to get some much needed press before the event wraps up this weekend. The idea that he's 'surprised' that Bolton would be allowed to speak at the festival is an outright joke as he lobbied for the appearance. The guy's out of his mind...

Less than two hours away from the speech now and there's no telling what will happen. I'll be watch the wires and keep you in the loop.