Following his arrest yesterday in Britain for questioning related to some sexual assault charges, the Obama Administration is said to be seeking to acquire high profile political dissident Julian Assange, in the hopes that they can find something to charge him with.
Assange, whose website WikiLeaks has been leaking embarrassing State Department documents detailing myriad crimes by officials, has been officially condemned, with a number of top US political figures urging either his detention as an “enemy combatant” or his outright assassination as a “terrorist.” An effort to formally criminalize the publication of such documents is also under way in the Congress.
Despite Assange’s detention, the WikiLeaks website has continued to operate without interruption, and has continued to release State Department documents. The organization has promised to continue on even as they defense Assange against extradition.
Even assuming the US manages to obtain Assange through diplomatic machinations, it is unclear what, if anything, he could actually be successfully charges with, as the US Supreme Court has upheld the rights of media outlets to publish such information without fear of government censorship.
Curious that US government didn't put this much effort into the 'hunt' for Usama bin Ladin.
That's because Assange is an adversary far more dangerous to the US government than OBL ever was. OBL was just a boogey man the US government could point to and threaten its citizenry with if they didn't stand behind the war on terror: "If you're not with us, Osama bin Laden will burn down your church, rape your wives and daughters and take away your right to watch pornography and listen to bad music!"
Julian Assange is dangeroous because he speaks truth to power, (like Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, Jr.), and power hates having the truth spoken to it.
Well then. Now he can fight his extradition from the UK to Sweden as there is a danger that he could be delivered to a third country that is currently know for its human rights violations.
Sweden is in the EU. Isn’t it against the law there to extradite a person to a country where they could face torture or capital punishment?
EU is occupied and colonized by the new Evil Empire, a/k/a USA.
very well said!
IMO, before the Olof Palme murder, Sweden was a relatively independent thinking country (I may be wrong since that's a long time ago). Until Sarkozy, France was the almost same. However since France has completely changed its behavior toward the US, other countries like Germany just don't have the backbones for a differnt opinion. Now it seems that the entire EU is subdue in anything to the US. It's almost like the Warshaw Pact under USSR leadership.
I think it is a shame, since the murderer of Olof Palme after his VERY EARLY release from a prison in Sweden became a second ID from the FBI in the US. He was then living undercover in a small village in the Smoky Mountains until he was shot by a jealous Sheriff who had the same mistress. There exist a documentary movie on that killing from the sheriff which was immediately taken over from the FBI even before the Sheriff was identified as the killer. That happened only a few miles from the place in NC where I was living for about 20 years. I read the papers and watched the movie in the US.
W
Excuse me? Complete BS. "became a second ID from the FBI"? "living undercover"? Who is this you're talking about? You are just making things up out of thin air. I live in Sweden and have never heard that particular fabrication before. Don't know who you're talking about there. The only one who came close to being convicted of the murder was the alcoholic Christer Pettersson, who never lived in the U.S.
Good riddance by the way. Few people did as much damage to the Swedish people as the Swede-hating, pro-communist Estonian Olof Palme, known for his hateful remarks of the political opponents that he directed the socialist, tax-funded organizations to harrass.
Have you ever heard of Google?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Gunnarsson
I have seen the movie on Discovery Channel.
Sorry, just because you don't like it, you shouldn't be so offensive;-(
In 1993 I have been living in Nirth Carolina and read the npapers, later I watched the movie on Discovery Channel. Therefore googling found many refernces:
[1] The Wikipedia entry which I already referred to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Gunnarsson
[2] some opinion which may not be shared by you, but nevertheless says something: http://codshit.blogspot.com/2004/06/why-palme-ass…
Haven't the WikiLeaks taught you anything? If nothing else, you should have learned that the US is a rogue bully and what the US wants, the US gets, by extortion, bribery or force.
For a system of justice to be just, the prosecution should be seeking out crime, then finding and convicting those responsible. With our out-of-control rogue regime running things, "justice" entails finding the guy first, then concocting a crime with which to convict him!
Is it my imagination, or have the crime-fighters become the criminals?
Well said! It's horrible to see what our government has become and the worst part is that nobody seems to be aware of the danger. Everyone I know thinks some guy named wikileaks stole some top secert information and got out brave troops in danger so we're going to bring him back to America and put him in Gitmo for life.
One thing this whole wikileaks thing has revealed is a need some better educated friends.
You needed WikiLeaks to tell you that? Wow!
What a shocking surprise. Almost like the Swedish charges may have been pre-planned in some way, totally bogus, or appropriated after they existed for the purpose of acquiring Assange.
The funny thing about all this commotion is that Assange only made the documents public, he did not release or transmit the documents from the government to his organization. Not a peep or voice from the corrupt US media or politicians to search out these people, who provided Wikileaks with the cables. Secondly, politicians leak natural security information to the US main media all the time but no charges have ever been filed against media organization. The arrest of Assange is absolute nonsense, and purely US government designed to destroy the truth.
its just a matter of time before he ends up on a live television broadcast denouncing wikileaks as terrorist and traitors and apologizing for his misguided actions that threaten the glorious freedoms and democracy our beloved leaders have been selflessly trying to spread around the world.
Just wait till China starts playing this card- imagine how many foreigners China'd love to get their hands on for passing Chinese state secrets! Which of course, include the current temperature in Shanghai.
If the US can bully Sweden into turning over Assange- why would the Chinese refrain from bullying about a hundred countries into arresting and extraditing American citizens to them?
Let's hope the Chinese figure out a way to have Bush and Cheney extradited. No doubt they've got plenty to charge 'em with under Chinese law.
In practice, it will be very difficult for the US to extradite Assange, whether from Sweden or from the UK. Leaving aside all questions of journalistic status, in international law, countries are not required to extradite people for political offences and their is no doubt that an offence Assange has committed in publishing the documents is political (hence the need for a honey trap rape charge!). If he were extradited without his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights being respected, he has a right under the Convention to sue the offending state for damages. In addition, of course, he will argue that the US has no jurisdiction over him inasmuch as the alleged offences were not committed in the US. All of this is wonderful free publicity for Assange and has turned him into the Robin Hood of cyberspace. Rumors of US attempts to put him on trial do further damage to the US and it will be interesting to see if the US government makes a complete fool of itself by trying to extradite him.
Great comment Michael Kenny
In practice? What practice? Have you not heard of "extraordinary rendition"? How do you think they've been kidnapping, imprisoning, torturing and murdering brown people from the ME for 9 or so years now?
Yea but extraordinary rendition is done in complete secret and we don't know about it until years later if it leaks out. I'm not sure they would try that with Assange because the whole world is watching.
Ah ha! But Julian is white, so the rules are different!
But anyway, the way the US gvt has been acting as of late I don't think they mind looking foolish as they feverishly try and find some obscure law somewhere to charge him with. "How dare you shed any light on our shady dealings!?!?!?!"
This dangerous man and group must forfeit their WMDs [weapons of mass distributions] so our perpeTRATORS in government can sleep soundly…… National security demands it..!!
What a surprise!
So, I guess Eric Holder figured out a way to write a law to fit the "crime" that has been committed by Assange. And while he's at it, I wonder if he would let his creative writing skills flow some more and also create one that applies to Bush and Cheney too. Of course, he could make his life a lot easier by looking up the law that would apply to them crooks since it's already been written but is only being applied to people from foreign lands with brown skin.
MK_Ultra,
I (and i’m sure millions of others) would love to see China hunt those war cannibals down. And put ’em on trial and then broadcast their executions for the whole world to see.
Now that, my friend, would be some Must See T.V. lmao.
It's so funny to see Holder and HIlary stand right next to Palin and Huckabee, like the idealogical bedfellows they are.
Just like in the movie Wizard Of Oz, Julian Assange has pulled back the curtain to reveal the great lie that is the American government.
Did anyone hear that the State Dept. and “other agencies” are blocking a congressional investigation into how Wikileaks and Pfc. Bradley Manning obtained their information.
In other words, there are moles (Heroes) working at State Dept. and “other agencies” that are fighting this piece of sh¡t govt. from the inside.
We may never know who gave this information to Assange and Manning (the middle-man). Because this mafioso govt. will disappear them. Stay tuned.