Deleted User 298457
Deleted User 298457
He isn't is he?
Julian Assange cannot be extradited
- Thread starter Moley
- Start date
Soldato
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- 13 May 2003
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Irrespective of the case the US UK Extradition Treaty is a travesty and should be got rid of. It is an embarrassment that this has been the law for so long. I forget where we are on the EU Arrest Warrant, did we replace that equally awful piece of crap with some hideous new arrangement.
He's been in Belmarsh for 2 years.
It's entirely, 100%, his own fault he has been in prison. Had he not skipped bail, and squatted in an embassy for years, in order to avoid a fair trial for rape then he would have been granted bail but since he's a serious flight risk he's been deprived of his liberty. Consequences.
The US-UK treaty is a travesty. How we managed to sign up to a treaty where our implementation wasn't dependent on theirs I have no idea. Nothing wrong with the EU arrest warrant though but we're not part of that any more so I guess that's moot.
The whole rape aspect of this is a whole episode of its own. It's obvious from reading the history that other actions were at play, especially when Sweden wanted to drop the detention order and drop the European arrest warrant, yet the UK tried to dissuade the prosecutor from doing so. Ask yourself why the UK would do that? It had nothing to do with the UK. The whole case was eventually dropped by Sweden. He's never even been charged with rape or the particular offense in Sweden.
It was all a sham to get Assange to Sweden so they would extradite him to the US. As soon as that path failed they have gone back to trying to force the issue directly with the UK.
There is no doubt the guy has issues and is probably on the spectrum by how he carries himself (in my opinion). But there is no doubt he exposed a lot of war abuses the US was doing, and they don't like it.
I don't care to retread this crap again, we went over it ad naseum at the time.
In reality extradition to Sweden would have made it harder not easier to extradite him and if they actually wanted to extradite him at that time, they'd have simply put in the extradition request to the UK.
We don't need to go over it again. No charges were ever brought so its a non-issue.
Here is a question that as got me thinking, and maybe you know the answer...
Assange as been indicted in the US with 18 charges, 17 under the Espionage Act.
Can you explain to me how a non-US citizen is charged under the Espionage Act? It's a law that applies to US citizens. How can he be a traitor when its not a country he as any allegiance to?
The whole case is a farce.
Soldato
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Weird how committing war crimes & crimes against humanity gets you a nice career & retirement (Bush & Blair), while simply exposing the truth of what happened gets you 175 years in jail - he did literally nothing wrong.
Humanity really needs to have a word with itself to be honest, committing crimes gets you no consequences? bizarre.
Humanity really needs to have a word with itself to be honest, committing crimes gets you no consequences? bizarre.
Soldato
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- 16 Aug 2009
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Yeah, and if anyone thinks he won't actually be tossed in solitary and the key thrown away are deluding themselves. US won't care what our judiciary think one jot.
Indeed. And that's likely to be a major question in the trial. The charge over computer hacking seems more grounded.
I think it's highly unlikely that the US would ignore its commitments to the UK on these matters. It would undermine all future attempts to extradite anyone else and, ultimately, they'll have got want they want from Assange by that point.
Soldato
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Oh dear. Oh well, see ya.
He dared challenge the system and now an example must be made
The trouble with Assange - apart from the whole hiding for a rape trial thing - is that he's completely selfish and reckless. He's enabled whistleblowing, yes, but he also helped release the personal details of a great many people whose lives he put at risk, leading to the likes of Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders condemning Wikileaks for their release of this information. His grudge against Clinton didn't exactly cover him in glory either. This contrasts sharply with the efforts that Edward Snowden went to in order to ensure that any release of information was done responsibly and through the correct channels.
Soldato
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- 7 Aug 2004
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Yep, we can't show the industrial capitalist war machine to be anything other than wonderful to the people of the west
I don’t know enough about the situation to really comment but I always assumed the notion he put peoples lives in danger was anti leak propaganda, but within the context of Snowden and how well he’s done things, it makes a lot of sense.
He probably is a dick, but that's not reason to extradite him to spend the rest of his life in solitary.
We should value whistle-blowers, when our governments are conspiring against their own people. They can also expose corruption and other illegal activities.
If we want whistle-blowers to effectively be banned, then we're saying we want unaccountable governments that can act (badly) with total impunity.
I don't want that.
He is charged on indictment under United States Code Title 18 S.793 which is referred to as the "Espionage Act" as that is the origin of the section. It reads "Whoever , for the purpose of obtaining information...." there is no reference to Nationality of the subject. Indeed previous Non US citizens have been succesfully prosecuted under the "Espionage Act": cf Albert Zehe, he ran this at trial: he lost.
Thank you for the information.
It sounds like they really need a new law instead of expanding existing laws. But we do that as well in this country as well.