The Obama Administation’s efforts to find some sort of crime they can actually charge WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with will undoubtedly continue, but it is unlikely that those charges will include “conspiracy,” despite previous comments to the contrary.
That is because NBC News has been told by US military officials that the investigation into Pfc. Bradley Manning found absolutely no evidence that he ever had contact with Assange, let alone that he and Assange directly conspired with one another.
US officials had hoped to convince Manning that he could bargain down to a lighter sentence for his leaking of classified material while an active member of the Army, a violation of a US Military Code of Justice, in return for his help in tying Assange to some sort of crime. Officials claimed to have found some evidence that Manning downloaded the documents, but nothing related to Assange.
Lacking any evidence to support such an allegation, officials will likely have to invent some other charge to lay against Assange, who is currently in Britain pending extradition. Assange has promised to oppose any effort that would end with his being sent to the US, fearing that he would be executed as a “terrorist” by the Obama Administration even though they don’t appear to have evidence to charge him even with a minor offense.
Which all boils down to the honesty, courage, and tenacity of one Bradley Manning for not taking the bait and refusing to falsely implicate Assange, even though in doing so he would have eased the restrictions placed on him in order to force the 'confession'.
Now it remains to be seen what the US military will do now that it's clear their methods failed- midnight rendition to one of the 'stans so they can torture it out of him? Of course, naturally this would be without our knowing what would be in store for him, wouldn't it?
We all understand by now that Obama needs no evidence whatsoever to have someone outright killed, much less kidnapped and imprisoned. He just needs to dislike the target, and his administration has admitted as much. Anwar Al Laki comes to mind here. Assange's concerns are well justified. Unfortunately, he's going to be a target for a long time, so I hope he can find somewhere safe to go. I wonder who they'll get first, OBL (remember him?) or Julian Assange.
Maybe Assange should find OBL and hide with him. After all, it's been 10 years, a trillion bucks and they still can't find him. He must have a really, really, really good hiding spot. 🙂
Everybody following this knew it. Now, watch out Assange. Here comes your "suicide"