According to his lawyers, who completed a release of the case against his extradition to the media, caution that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange faces a real risk of “rendition” by the United States if turned over to Swedish custody and that afterwards he might well wind up in Guantanamo Bay, or executed.
“It is well known that prominent figures have implied, if not stated outright, that Mr. Assange should be executed,” the report noted. Assange has not been charged with any crimes in the US (or in Sweden, for that matter), but officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, have called him a “terrorist.”
The document details Sweden’s history of renditioning suspects under the guise of the War on Terror, even when they knew perfectly well those suspects were liable to be tortured. It is believed that Sweden would be keen on the notion of shipping Assange to the United States should they obtain him.
The argument becomes relevant to the extradition of Assange from Britain, as the Extradition Act bars the transfer of a detainee when he could face violation of his human rights. Given the number of US officials who are putting Assange on the same footing as Osama bin Laden, such a risk appears to be extremely real.
Assange faces a new extradition hearing in February, following a procedural hearing today. Assange reported in the wake of today’s hearing that the group will “speed up” its release of documents, which won’t be hard to do given that the whistleblower hasn’t released a single document on its website in nearly a week.
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If Assange is tortured and murdered that is the line in the sand that should have not been crossed. I truly believe that if America does this there will be a revolution. If there is, the politicians who supported Assange's torture and murder should face the same actions.
Assange = Nobel Peace Prize 2011
In his recent counterpunch essay, "Julian Assange's deal with the devil"– http://www.counterpunch.com/shamir01052011.html — Israel Shamir writes:
"Moreover, if Swedish authorities are primarily concerned about prosecuting Julian for rape, why do they attach a special condition to their demands of extradition, specifically reserving the right to pass him on to US authorities?"
I have looked, but not been able to find any documentary support for the above claimed "special condition".
If any of the readers of this site have a link supporting this claimed "special condition", could you provide it?
Thanks, jeff davis
Assange is the mouse that scratched the cat. The assassins and the torturers are watching and working behind the scenes to set their traps. Maybe a 'crazy loner' will appear, maybe he will simply be locked away in some secret prison followed by a deafening 'silence'. Some superstar will do something outrageous and divert the media's attention. The media is not patient. It searches out other 'entertainments' for its public. It will not wait for the truth, or dig to find it. It will simply 'move on'.
If the USG could come up with any- ANY- charges against JA I might be tempted to listen to this sort of tough-guy talk for the fun of it. However, since there ARE no real charges, JA's extradition would very quickly be held up as pure government bullying and nothing else. Sure there are those who would crow about his being 'brought to justice'- but who's justice, and on what charges? Rendition to Gitmo is certainly plausible, of course, but JA being such a high-profile inmate would bring tons of international scrutiny to the US system that I'm sure it doesn't want.
Then again, Britain has it's own part to play in this, in that they- like the US- aren't supposed to be sending prisoners to places where they know they will be abused. Britain to Sweden, Sweden to the US- and then where? Bagram or some other black site or to another nation who doesn't have any qualms about using drills on kneecaps and rape rooms and such? Oh wait- that would be Iraq, where the US has already sent prisoners knowing what fate awaited them. So Britain cannot in good conscience be a part of this, and neither should Sweden.