- Joined
- Sep 28, 2011
- Messages
- 14,139
- Likes
- 8,594
Anything there to warrant the USG to ask for death penalty? I don't see it. AFAIK, Bradley Manning does not face the death penalty.
Anything there to warrant the USG to ask for death penalty? I don't see it. AFAIK, Bradley Manning does not face the death penalty.
It's news to most of us that Mr Assange's will is to go to Sweden and face Swedish justice, but who's complaining? Perhaps the elements of a deal emerge:
"¢ Assange is given 'safe passage' from the Embassy to a plane taking him to Sweden to face Swedish justice
"¢ He also is given a guarantee by the UK and Sweden that en route to Sweden he will not be extradited to the USA or anywhere else
Ecuador gets its heroic and principled 'demands' met. UK and Sweden fulfil their legal obligations. Assange then has to start his prolonged legal battle in Sweden (or anywhere else he goes) to avoid extradition to the USA, as and when the USA requests it. Sorted.
Meanwhile what is Australia doing to help Assange, an Australian citizen?
"¢ First, what precisely is he alleged to have done in Sweden — and how are such accusations normally handled? Are the targets of similar allegations always treated like top-drawer international fugitives, or is Assange unusually privileged? And why can't he be questioned in London?
"¢ Second, what is the Washington connection? Have U.S. officials urged the Swedes to get him to Stockholm? Does the United States have plans to seek his extradition? Has any reporter asked?
(And while we're asking, what pressure did the administration bring to bear on the money handlers who cut off WikiLeaks' flow of funds?)
"¢ Third, has Assange been indicted? It's reported that a sealed indictment exists, and since he is resisting extradition because he already assumes that to be true, it's hard to see why it should remain under seal.
"¢ Finally, and most important, isn't it time for a dispassionate assessment of WikiLeaks' impact? It has been two years since the massive leaks of military and diplomatic data. The moment is ripe for an accounting. Did the leaks do harm or do good? Did Wikileaks demoralize dedicated officials and expose trusting intelligence assets to risk and reprisal? Or did it blow whistles that needed blowing, embolden dissidents worldwide, fuel the Arab Spring, encourage lackluster news media to defy official controls, help chase despots from power?
According to the judgment of the International Court of Justice in Colombia v. Peru 1950, Ecuador can legally grant asylum to Julian Assange, who is clearly not a common criminal, in its embassy in London ("The way forward in the Assange case," Aug. 27). But what Ecuador cannot do is ensure his safe passage out of London. England, in exercise of its sovereignty, can arrest Mr. Assange if he steps out of the embassy.
Ecuador cannot grant permanent asylum to Mr. Assange in its embassy. The situation has reached a deadlock. Any move by either of the two parties will lead to a violation of international law.
Nine people who put up bail for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, including two members of the British aristocracy and a Nobel Prize winner, were ordered to pay £93 000 on Monday after Assange took refuge in Ecuador's embassy.
The guarantors - who include Nobel prize-winning biologist John Sulston - are liable for part of the £140 000 pound bail fee they pledged, Westminster Magistrate's Court ruled.
They were given until 6 November to pay up.
Assange, whose whistleblowing website angered the United States by releasing thousands of US diplomatic cables, was arrested in December 2010 on an extradition warrant from Sweden where he is wanted for questioning over allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women.
He denies wrongdoing and says he fears that if he is extradited to Sweden he could be transferred to the United States where he could face criminal charges punishable by death.
The 41-year-old Australian broke the conditions of his bail when he entered the Ecuadorean embassy in June shortly after running out of legal options to avoid being sent to Sweden. He was later granted diplomatic asylum by Ecuador.
"Having seen and heard from the sureties, I cannot avoid taking some account of their integrity," Judge Howard Riddle said of the nine guarantors.
"I accept that they trusted Mr Assange to surrender himself as required. I accept that they followed the proceedings and made necessary arrangements to remain in contact with him," he said.
"However, they failed in their basic duty, to ensure his surrender. They must have understood the risk and the concerns of the courts.
The stooges appear to be those people who put up the coward's bail and now have lost their money, hmmmm?So the british threatened to storm the embassy and all that ... bunch of shameless stooges
If you are blinded by rabid nationalism it will appear that way. Since you already made the judgement (coward), you still expect others to believe that he will receive a fair trial? And thats irrespective of whether he is really what he claims to be or if he is a former US stooge gone rogue.The stooges appear to be those people who put up the coward's bail and now have lost their money, hmmmm?
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has lost another high-profile supporter as Anonymous, the hacking collective, said the whistleblowing site had been "ruined by egos".
Anonymous, a loose group of internet "hacktivists", has been one of WikiLeaks' closest allies during the past two years, launching cyber attacks against the site's opponents and, some claim, becoming a source of its material.
How can Julian Assange stand and fight from the embassy of Ecuador, and not in a courtroom? His supporters posted bail for him and are going to lose their money.Lost among all the noise, accusations and lies are the ideals that Wikileaks, Julian Assange and the hundreds of volunteer staff of that organization from all over the world stood and fought for all these years.
Assange is not charged with anything. This entire witchunt and expense of millions of dollars by the prosecuting agencies of Sweden and Britain, British police forces and courts is all merely because the Swedish prosecutor would like to question Assange-but only in Sweden. The questioning could be conducted anywhere-in Britain, Sweden, or via video link. But the prosecutor refuses to do so.How can Julian Assange stand and fight from the embassy of Ecuador, and not in a courtroom? His supporters posted bail for him and are going to lose their money.
Where is the lie related to that fact?
Pussy Riot has more credibility than Assange.Assange is not charged with anything. This entire witchunt and expense of millions of dollars by the prosecuting agencies of Sweden and Britain, British police forces and courts is all merely because the Swedish prosecutor would like to question Assange-but only in Sweden. The questioning could be conducted anywhere-in Britain, Sweden, or via video link. But the prosecutor refuses to do so.
Assange has said that he will travel to Sweden if the Swedish government guarantees that they will not extradite him to the US to face trumped up charges of espionage. Sweden refuses to provide that guarantee.
Even a blind man can see that something is wrong here. Assange has been willing to compromise-but why should he be suicidal and let himself be trapped, kidnapped or be the victim of rendition to the US?
I really don't equate nationalism with disdain for Assange. Like so many "martyrs", he doesn't want to face consequences for what he claims are his beliefs.If you are blinded by rabid nationalism it will appear that way. Since you already made the judgement (coward), you still expect others to believe that he will receive a fair trial? And thats irrespective of whether he is really what he claims to be or if he is a former US stooge gone rogue.
Wikileaks is yesterday's news and getting staler by the day.Anything "exposed" by Wikileaks to warrant the USG to ask for death penalty? I don't see it. AFAIK, Bradley Manning does not face the death penalty.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sees no reason to celebrate the reelection of US President Barack Obama. The US aggressively pursued and "persecuted" the whistleblower site under a Democratic administration, he explained.
"Obama seems to be a nice man, and that is precisely the problem," the 41-year-old told AFP, speaking from his room in London's Ecuadorian embassy.
"It's better to have a sheep in wolf's clothing than a wolf in sheep's clothing," he said. "All of the activities against WikiLeaks by the United States have occurred under an Obama administration."
Assange was equally critical of the Republican, saying it "has not been an effective restraining force on government excesses over the last four years."
"There is no reason to believe that will change – in fact, the Republicans will push the administration into ever greater excesses," he added.
The WikiLeaks founder sounded hoarse, but refused to comment on his health. Last month, Ecuador said it had requested a meeting with British officials to discuss claims that Assange was losing weight and suffering vision problems.
Assange claimed asylum in the embassy in June to escape extradition to Sweden for questioning over sex crimes allegations. He denies the charges, and believes that if extradited he would then be sent to the US, which regards him as an enemy of the state, where he would face prosecution and possibly the death penalty.
WikiLeaks angered Washington in 2010 by publishing hundreds of thousands of classified US documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world. Washington retaliated by forcing companies to cut off WikiLeaks' sources of funding.
Addressing an Oxford Union debate via videolink on Wednesday night, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange called DreamWorks' upcoming Bill Condon-directed The Fifth Estate a "massive propaganda attack on WikiLeaks and the character of my staff." Throughout the address, Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since it offered him asylum in August, had what was purported to be a copy of the film's script — though The Guardian says he never showed it to the camera. He told students the film was "fanning the flames" of war since, he claims, it starts inside a military complex in Iran with the suggestion a nuclear bomb is being built. He then asked, "How does this have anything to do with us? It is a lie upon lie." The Fifth Estate started shooting this week with Benedict Cumberbatch as Assange and Daniel Bruhl as his confidant Daniel Domscheit-Berg and traces the early days of WikiLeaks through to the release of a series of controversial and history-changing information disclosures. The script is written by Josh Singer and based on Domscheit-Berg's book Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange At The World's Most Dangerous Website, and WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange's War On Secrecy by Guardian writers David Leigh and Luke Harding.
WikiLeaks – whose mission statement was "to produce a more just society based upon truth" – has been guilty of the same obfuscation and misinformation as those it sought to expose, while its supporters are expected to follow, unquestioningly, in blinkered, cultish devotion.