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Julian Assange: Wikileaks co-founder jailed over bail breach

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Re: Julian Assange: Wikileaks co-founder jailed over bail breach

#101
post #98
post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your point then? Sweden were pursuing their original case until he became a fugitive. If he hadn't run, he would (most likely) have been extradited to Sweden, not the US.

The case was ridiculous. The way they pursued it was ridiculous. The way Sweden pursued extradition was ridiculous. The only lens through which it makes any sense is when you realise it’s a ruse to limit or remove his freedom, because he crossed the US government.

Sweden followed all normal procedures for an extradition request within the EU. Both the UK high court and the appeals court ruled he should be extradited to answer for accusations of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.

If he feared the US, why the heck did he flee from Sweden to the UK in the first place? The UK is notorious for its one sided extradition treaty with the US.

Re: Julian Assange: Wikileaks co-founder jailed over bail breach

#102
post #11

While I am saddened by this decision I hope he now is able to get proper medical care and fight the case against extradition. As long as he is not on London streets the US can't just snatch him up. [1] [2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_El-Masri [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Omar_case

There may not be and extradition case. It doesn't seem like Sweden is still keen, and on balance, the US mightn't want him either at this point. It's not a guaranteed conviction. The president has an embarrassing YouTube reel where he "loves WikiLeaks" 50 times. It'll drag the contents of contentious leaks back into the spotlight. It could be more convenient to let it go.

>There may not be and extradition case.

You should probably let the Met know. They seem to think there is one.

>UPDATE: Julian Assange arrest.

>Julian Assange, 47, (03.07.71) has today, Thursday 11 April, been further arrested on behalf of the United States authorities, at 10:53hrs after his arrival at a central London police station. This is an extradition warrant under Section 73 of the Extradition Act. He will appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates' Court later today (Thursday, 11 April).

http://news.met.police.uk/news/update-arrest-of-julian-assan...

Re: Julian Assange: Wikileaks co-founder jailed over bail breach

#103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For whatever reason, the UK has been extremely against extraordinary rendition despite being aligned with the US. It was a decent sized scandal that rendition flights had even just refueled in Diego Garcia (a UK territory). These sorts of things can't be looked at in terms of broad 'alignment'.

Come on, they also went through Prestwick Airport, just outside Glasgow. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/police-told-to-stay-off-u... https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jun/29/msps-demand-... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22680924

Word, I didn't see that last year.

So yes, even just refueling is something the MSPs demand action over.

Not sure why that's worthy of "come on" like it invalidates my point.

Re: Julian Assange: Wikileaks co-founder jailed over bail breach

#104
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, you've nitpicked one minor detail in the above quote. The subtantive point still hands. Why is Assange not now wanted for questioning in Sweden?

It's a substantial part of the Swedish legal system, not a 'minor detail'.

A minor detail in the original quote!, not a minor detail in life. Please don't take the comment out of context.

Re: Julian Assange: Wikileaks co-founder jailed over bail breach

#105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, you've nitpicked one minor detail in the above quote. The subtantive point still hands. Why is Assange not now wanted for questioning in Sweden?

He is. Even by one of your own sources, Swedish prosecutors started preparing the extradition warrant a couple of weeks ago.

Not my sources, I merely replied. The gp was another commenter.

Re: Julian Assange: Wikileaks co-founder jailed over bail breach

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come on, they also went through Prestwick Airport, just outside Glasgow. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/police-told-to-stay-off-u... https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jun/29/msps-demand-... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22680924

Word, I didn't see that last year. So yes, even just refueling is something the MSPs demand action over. Not sure why that's worthy of "come on" like it invalidates my point.

>even just refueling is something the MSPs demand action over.

Yep, Members of the Scottish Parliament have been pissed off. Scottish police were blocked from doing anything however. Westminster unfortunately rides roughshod over both of them and has been a supporter of the rendition flights, as noted in the article from The Times.

>"The CIA has been accused of using Scottish airports to facilitate the transfer of terrorism suspects to overseas black sites for interrogation and torture.

>A report by Westminster’s intelligence and security committee (ISC) says that MI5 or MI6 was involved in at least 50 rendition operations."

Re: Julian Assange: Wikileaks co-founder jailed over bail breach

#107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He can always issue a pardon, which would end the entire thing.

Thanks; today I learned the US President can pardon a non-US-citizen. Your post made me go look it up. I would never have thought...

The President can pardon all crimes against the United States- the citizenship of the perpetrator doesn't come into it.

Re: Julian Assange: Wikileaks co-founder jailed over bail breach

#108
post #76

What a disgraceful episode for our governments, the media, and the public who seem to have fallen hook, line and sinker for a blatantly orchestrated smear campaign. I don’t understand what the hell goes through people’s minds when they see such blatantly trumped up and unprovable charges levied against a big-time persona non grata of the CIA/Pentagon and decide to take them at face value. No matter that the US sprung…

Hubris and self-loathing: Julian weaponised these human emotions against the American people, and they despise him for it.

Re: Julian Assange: Wikileaks co-founder jailed over bail breach

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can be certain that after the failure of MKUltra, no freedom loving first world government ever engaged in such an experiment again. And even if they had, they surely would have informed us of the fruits of such research if any were found.

Well, no, but I feel like there's a huge jump between that, which clearly was a failure and "we can mind control people now and were going to do it on Assange". If the US were capable of such actions with ease, I feel like we'd see a lot less conflict in the world as political opponents were slowly stifled, and that doesn't seem the case. Also, what benefit would that have? If the people who Assange truly speaks to a…

>If the US were capable of such actions with ease, I feel like we'd see a lot less conflict in the world as political opponents were slowly stifled, and that doesn't seem the case.

This is assuming the less conflict is the desired result. It seems that having conflict leads to greater voter support of taxes being spent to protect against that conflict and to adoption of more authoritarian policies.

There is also far more instances of conspiracy theories being true than just MKUltra, some of which serve to fill in the gap.

As for the why him... why would they have gotten a CIA agent tied up into the whole mess to begin with?

Re: Julian Assange: Wikileaks co-founder jailed over bail breach

#110
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the case of the allegation in Sweden that did fall through the statute of limitation, the accusation was that during the act of consensual sex Julian Assange deliberately split the condom with his fingers, without consent. ... But the split condom given to Swedish police as evidence had none of Assange’s DNA on it – a physical impossibility if he had worn it during sex. And the person making the accusation had p…

This is not a quote from the article? It seems to be taken from Craig Murray's website. Murray is no expert on forensics. See for example his embarrassing analysis here: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/09/the-impossib...

Presumably the staff of the two separate forensics teams that found no DNA on the split condom were quoted in the 100 page police report are qualified.

They did find DNA in the other woman's condom, but that condom was not split and there was no claim by her of condom sabotage.

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