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The Julian Assange extradition hearings begin today

droodzilla said:
Lots of other stuff happening, but this is bad news:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2...d-permission-to-appeal-against-us-extradition

In case anyone's forgotten what this is really about:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/22/iraq-war-logs-military-leaks

It's grimly ironic that, while Russia is rightly being denounced for its war crimes in Ukraine, a man who helped to expose US war crimes remains in jail and is likely to be deported to the US, and who knows what?
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Disgraceful.
 
droodzilla said:
It's grimly ironic that, while Russia is rightly being denounced for its war crimes in Ukraine, a man who helped to expose US war crimes remains in jail and is likely to be deported to the US, and who knows what?
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Agreed, but he ended up one of Putin’s useful idiots in many ways. No journalist should ever face charges for speaking truth to power, but that doesn’t stop Assange being an utter cock. Regardless the extradition is highly dubious and I’m sure he’ll win the case in the US. I’m pleased he is no longer going to be a financial burden on the UK state. I’m sure we could have built a hospital or two with the money wasted on this case. It was never any of our business, we should just have hoofed him out to face the multiple rape charges.
 
Tony L said:
Agreed, but he ended up one of Putin’s useful idiots in many ways. No journalist should ever face charges for speaking truth to power, but that doesn’t stop Assange being an utter cock. Regardless the extradition is highly dubious and I’m sure he’ll win the case in the US. I’m pleased he is no longer going to be a financial burden on the UK state. I’m sure we could have built a hospital or two with the money wasted on this case. It was never any of our business, we should just have hoofed him out to face the multiple rape charges.
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The Government could have had him released anytime they wanted to, of course.
 
Even an old Tory like Peter Oborne can see the massive red danger signs in what's happening to Assange:

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...an-assange-investigative-journalism-wikileaks
In the course of the next few days, Priti Patel will make the most important ruling on free speech made by any home secretary in recent memory. She must resolve whether to comply with a US request to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges.

The consequences for Assange will be profound. Once in the US he will almost certainly be sent to a maximum-security prison for the rest of his life. He will die in jail.


The impact on British journalism will also be profound. It will become lethally dangerous to handle, let alone publish, documents from US government sources. Reporters who do so, and their editors, will risk the same fate as Assange and become subject to extradition followed by lifelong incarceration.
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Lot of respect for Oborne - his politics are probably horrible but he really does seem to believe that the role of journalists is to seek truth and speak it to power.
 
Oborne is right in the right of journalists (and everyone) to speak truth to power, but I’d still be very surprised if Assange sees any jail time. He is exceptionally high profile globally, has access to all the wealth required to fund the very best legal defence in a country where free speech is actually a constitutional right. He’ll get a high-profile show trial and win it. Chelsea Manning, the person who actually broke US military law in leaking the material this is about, is already free. Assange’s role was journalism (albeit highly partisan and rather dubious) and really not that different to the Guardian which also published much of the core content.

The trial could be quite interesting as Assange’s links to Putin, Trump, Farage, Bannon etc will likely be flushed out. I don’t think he is in much real danger, but as a ‘useful idiot’ to some remarkably nasty people a lot of other stuff may come out.

I’d put money on him either getting off or getting a very, very light sentence. This doesn’t in anyway alter the fact Preti Patel is a hell monster and the Conservative Party alt-right authoritarians with zero interest in human rights or civil liberties. In the USA he is at least protected by a constitutional right to free speech.
 
The point is that this should not be happening at all. The mere fact that Assange is being hounded for revealing the abuse of state power is a threat to liberal democracies everywhere.
 
droodzilla said:
Even an old Tory like Peter Oborne can see the massive red danger signs in what's happening to Assange:

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...an-assange-investigative-journalism-wikileaks

Lot of respect for Oborne - his politics are probably horrible but he really does seem to believe that the role of journalists is to seek truth and speak it to power.
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The trouble with Oborne is that he sees each new PM or party leader as a knight in shining armour who will clean up the political system. Then, inevitably, he is disappointed.
 
droodzilla said:
The point is that this should not be happening at all. The mere fact that Assange is being hounded for revealing the abuse of state power is a threat to liberal democracies everywhere.
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I agree. I really can’t stand the guy but a state criminalising journalism is never good, and that is what this is. I firmly believe he should have been hoofed out to Sweden a decade or more ago to face his rape accusers, but he should be protected as a journalist. Even a really bad partisan one!

PS I also don’t really understand the case against him. Chelsea Manning was the law-breaker in this case, Assange just an editor/publisher/journalist. Manning has done her time and has moved on. Whatever they throw at Assange it can not be as severe as he was clearly not bound by US military law or any form of NDA.
 
Looks like Patel took some time off her vile far-right Rwanda human trafficking scheme and Assange is signed-off for extradition (The Register). I guess it will go to appeal now, so he won’t be going anywhere any time soon.
 
I'm old enough to remember when suggesting Assange could be deported to the US was dismissed as a swivel-eyed left-wing conspiracy theory:

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On the current situation, Assange's ultimate fate does not matter so much now (though it matters to him, of course). The US has already achieved its primary goal of showing that it will destroy the life of any journalist or publisher who exposes its war crimes.

I bekive the phrase is : Mission Accomplished.
 
I was perfectly happy to see a rapist extradited to Sweden, that should have happened, but I do not support a journalist/publisher extradited anywhere for basic publishing. As stated countless times I utterly detest Assange, he’s a total creep and has to take some blame for installing Trump in the Whitehouse, but there is a journalistic precedent here and the fact he is an arsehole should not be a factor at all.

In many ways I suspect he will be safer in the USA than here as freedom of speech/freedom to publish is protected under the constitution. Not being an American citizen he was a signatory to no military NDA, no official secrets act etc, and he only published content he was given. He stole no material himself. The person who did leak the content, Chelsea Manning, is alive, well, and as I understand it dating Elon Musk’s ex Grimes! As such the idea Assange will be locked up for life or whatever is just yet more narcissism from one of the most egotistical attention seekers on the planet. I bet he walks free vindicated as he can certainly afford the very best lawyers, it is the very definition of a ‘free speech’ case and is protected by the US constitution.

PS He really is an utter prick.
 
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