The Biden Administration will continue to seek the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a Justice Department official said on Tuesday. This means the US will continue to challenge the decision of Vanessa Baraitser, the UK judge who ruled against the extradition, citing the risk of Assange committing suicide if he ends up in a US supermax prison.
“We continue to seek his extradition,” said Justice Department spokesman Marc Raimondi, according to Reuters. Baraitser made her decision on January 4th, and the US formally appealed the ruling on January 15th. The appeal process could take months, and Assange is still being held in London’s Belmarsh prison.
The Trump Administration indicted Assange on 17 counts of espionage and one count of conspiracy to commit a computer crime. If extradited, Assange could face up to 175 years in prison for exposing US war crimes.
While Baraitser ultimately ruled against the extradition, she sided with the US prosecution team in her ruling and said the US would be justified to put Assange on trial for espionage. But Assange used standard journalistic practices to obtain the leaks he was indicted for, something many human rights groups, journalist organizations, and UN officials have pointed out.
With the change in US administrations, Assange supporters appealed to President Biden to drop the charges against the WikiLeaks founder. More than 20 organizations sent a letter to Biden’s Justice Department calling for the release of Assange.
“The indictment of Mr. Assange threatens press freedom because much of the conduct described in the indictment is conduct that journalists engage in routinely — and that they must engage in in order to do the work the public needs them to do,” the letter reads. Signatories to the letter include the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Reporters Without Borders.
Poor Assange. Biden pretends to be different from Trump but the USA cannot bear to allow any criticism, especially true, of its war crimes. The charges are nonsensical, and the fact that so many “journalists” do not fight against this terrible miscarriage of justice which threatens the “free media” they claim to believe in shows their cowardice.
It is not criticism the the US fears. It is the truth that it wants hidden.
One of Trump’s greatest failings.
The truth is always to be found in one’s actions, not their words. So anyone hoping for Trump to pardon Assange was grasping at straws for clues that he might and ignored the fact that he empowered efforts of dubious constitutionality to extradite Assange that Obama was told he couldn’t. The new boss is now proving to be the same as the old boss. Looks like the UK is going to have to spring him if he’s to have any hope at all.
“With the change in US administrations, Assange supporters appealed to President Biden to drop the charges against the WikiLeaks founder”
Ha ha. There are no differences between US presidents. Particularly when it comes to foreign policy which is made in stone in the USA. They are all the same. Its always the JP Morgan candidate vs the Rockefeller candidate. Cancel the Presidency!
Joe,,Cancel the DC GHOULS!!
Was not worth reading. Did anyone really expect Biden to do anything else. Or Trump for that matter. Trump never cared about expanding his base by appealing to conservative population, conservative values and common decency. He could have had the nation behind him if he stood up by promises. Instead of dealing with China on the business like level, trade, manufacturing, international law, UNCLOS. Instead — Trump sailed into ideology, old and stale diversion from real issues. Why? He was just doing Democrats many favors. Spend more time on ME issues, then domestic problems, no time spent on cutting down costs for oodles of pointless bases and reinvesting in sustainable industries. Wasted time on picking unnecessary fights, targeting various groups, not realizing that most of his targets — Chinese, Moslems, Asians could have been his voters for the asking. A large swath of American thinking public is against the wars and war profiteering , yet he did absolutely nothing. What was his interest in Venezuela? US interest in Venezuela? And on it goes. He served Democrats well — as todays love fest between the two parties demonstrates.
He tried to appease his party establishment elite — and lost. They will exorcise him.
Bianca,,so TRUE! Trump, the imbecile!
Who did Assange embarrass? Hillary, and by extension Biden. It was their foreign policy that Assange exposed.
Trump’s only act was to allow the machinery of government to continue as they set it, to go get the guy who embarrassed them.
So now they are back in power, they of course continue to avenge their own exposure for war crimes, and for lies to the American people.
Since ballzless Trump did not Pardon Assange I just figure all the grief coming his way now is just “What goes around comes around” What a P.O.S. he is, along with all DC GHOULS!
The pressure to persecute Assange, Snowden, Manning comes from the “intelligence” community. Every politician, president serves at the pleasure of the CIA, NSA and FBI. Even senator (that turd ) C. Schumer came out directly and revealed this to the press: He said that if you cross them, you will pay “six ways from Sunday”. Pardoning Assange would cross them.
Biden knows this.
Obama knew this.
Trump knew this— For Trump they were out to get him anyway so I thought he might “thumb” them in the eye and pardon anyway, but they must have threatened him in some further way.
The message is the same:
Continue the money.
Continue “us against them”.
Continue the wars. Continue “Russia is bad”, and we will let you retire on Martha’s Vineyard
“Pardoning Assange would cross them.
Biden knows this.
Obama knew this.
Trump knew this”
Actually, Trump sold him out.
“President Donald Trump successfully pressured, or to put it more accurately bribed, Ecuador’s new president, Lenin Moreno, to expel Assange from its embassy in London. Moreno also expunged Assange’s Ecuadoran citizenship. In return, the U.S. saw to it that Ecuador got a much-needed loan from the International Monetary Fund, and improved trade deals. Ecuador would realign its foreign policy to meet U.S. terms, such as recognizing Juan Guadió as the self-declared president of Venezuela, and have Ecuador’s troops trained by the U.S.”
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/12/the-tortured-trial-of-julian-assange/
Yes, as Foodoo points out Obama, Trump, Biden are simply pretty faces along with the usual figments: Law, Human Rights, Morality, Decency, etc.. The Deep State rules bound only by the interest of the Rich.
I get that. But maybe sometimes the man in office is in sync with the deep state. This kind of stuck out to me:
Ecuador would realign its foreign policy to meet U.S. terms, such as recognizing Juan Guadió as the self-declared president of Venezuela, and have Ecuador’s troops trained by the U.S.”
Seemed like business as usual.
But, the point man Eliot Abrams is a blooded (Reagan’s Central Am “death Squads” & 2nd W term Iraq) Deep State operative stuffed down Trump’s throat, like Gen. Kelley, Bolton, Barr, Pompeo, Mnuchin, …etc., etc. Trump couldn’t give a shit about Maduro, Moreno, Lula, Evo, or Assange and never gave a thought to opposing Deep State on these matters.
Trump didn’t/doesn’t give a shit about anything but himself. And maybe Ivanka. So why would Abrams, and the others, have to be “stuffed down Trump’s throat”?
Right. Poor image. Better said The Deep State was cordially obliged by Trump to make the appointments in his name.
There is a Piece missing. Something does not completely explain the US hatred for Assange & Manning.
Did they have access to information that has not yet been revealed ?
It was obvious to almost everybody that the Iraq “War” was a Fraud anyway.
Look at what others have gotten away with, e.g. Jonathan Pollard.
The secret they fear most is 9/11; but, Manning & co. have offered nothing on that head.
Most likely any relevant-nine won won matrial has long ago been scrubbed. I can barely remember the Roster. Still.there is a lot of work that still needs being done.
Yes but there still exists a plethora of participants in US, Israel & Saudi Arabia. You only need remember how Obama’s attempt to declassify the complete remaining file on JFK’s murder was silently set aside. Similarly, now, the 9/11 victims’ families’ court case has slowed to a glacial pace thanks to their inability to extract files and depose witnesses from CIA, FBI, Pentagon, Congressional & Senate Committees, etc..
They get virtually no service. And all know what happened to Director William Colby and Sen. Frank Church, …and, very plausibly, Jeffrey Epstein.
Neither Obama nor Trump “attempted” to declassify the JFK files. They acted like they were going to, they talked like they were going to, then they decided not to.
So. What does “attempt” mean? They said they were declassifying.
Post hoc you can say neither Trump nor Obama had the stones to oppose the Deep State in the matter. But in theory the POTUS has the power. So why even bother to promise it?
The revealing point is that 50 years after the event we are still not allowed the truth. And the inference is obvious and of a magnitude that the custodians of the establishment consider too devastating to see the light of day.
And it is not too much to suspect something similar re 9/11, no?
This simply shows the World, that whether it is Democrat or Republican, the swamp is very deep and filled with every one of them.
And at the bottom of that deep swamp is “The Donald”
A question I would like to ask is:
Why was he President of the USA? How on earth did he manage to get into that position? The Queen gave him a “Joint Banquet”, her Majesty is not an imbecile, there are far more murkier depths to the former Presdent than have been openly published.
Meh? No surprise….Same shiit but better manners ….and ohhh oohhh the diversity! The Diversity!