US criticises court that may decide on Julian Assange extradition, WikiLeaks cables show

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

Leaked dispatches reveal diplomats' disdain for Council of Europe's stance against extraditions to US and secret renditions

Afua Hirsch, legal affairs correspondent
Friday December 17 2010 21.30 GMT

US officials regard European human rights standards as an "irritant", secret cables show, and have strongly objected to the safeguards which could protect WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from extradition. In a confidential cable from the US embassy in Strasbourg, US consul general Vincent Carver criticised the Council of Europe, the most authoritative human-rights body for European countries, for its stance against extraditions to America, as well as secret renditions and prisons used to hold terrorist suspects.

He blamed the council for creating anti-US sentiment and hampering the US war on terror. "The Council of Europe (COE) likes to portray itself as a bastion of democracy, a promoter of human rights, and the last best hope for defending the rule of law in Europe – and beyond," Carver said. "(But) it is an organisation with an inferiority complex and, simultaneously, an overambitious agenda. An investigation (by the Council of Europe) into renditions and 'secret prisons' in Europe connected to the US war on terrorism … created a great deal of controversy and anti-US sentiment in the Council of Europe," wrote Carver.

The European court of human rights, the final court of appeal for human rights claims from the UK, whose judgments include the decision to ban deportations to countries which practise torture, is also singled out by the cables.

=snip=

Amid growing speculation over whether Assange could face extradition to the US, the cables make clear America's opposition to any attempts to interfere on human rights grounds, out of concern for prison conditions in the country. Assange would have the right to appeal against any extradition decision to the European court of human rights if all other legal avenues failed. His lawyers are already forming human rights arguments to block his extradition within the EU.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/17/wikileaks-european-human-rights-standards

---

US embassy cables: European human rights body 'an irritant', says US diplomat
guardian.co.uk, Friday December 17 2010 21.30 GMT

Summary
A senior US diplomat reveals contempt for Europe's principal human rights watchdog and its secretary general. Key passage highlighted in yellow: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/196054

Looks like Julian's made his latest move. Check mate in ....?

As I've been saying recently, extradition to the US from any European country is impossible if there is any suggestion whatsoever of an execution and/or if there is any possibility of him being treated in treated in an inhumane or degrading way.

Although a totally different case, the failed attempts by the US to extradite Abu Hamza is a contemporary example of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Hamza_al-Masri#Extradition_to_US

[midnight]

1. If these leaks are nothing new.... Why so much effort to silence him?

[atreides1]

2. Let me guess

Even from his cell at Quantico, with no access to a computer, PFC Manning is going to be blamed for this too!


My theory is that Manning had nothing to do with the release of State Department documents. Someone in at State did that and they can't find them.

[glinda]

3. Just keep the truth coming..... it would be a travesty to extradite him to here.

I would have laughed but I fear for him.

[defendandprotect]

4. Must be something very explosive in those cables ...

US should stop the fascist play book antics --

[struggle4progress]

5. So about two years ago, Vincent Carver sent a cable regarding Terry Davis's visit to the US, Davis

then being Secretary General of COE and now retired from that position

Carver noted a number of things we already knew, for example: Europe, not having the death penalty, does not extradite to the US in cases where capital punishment is possible; and the revelation of US secret prisons in Europe damaged the US image there

Carver apparently considers such matters irritating and expresses his personal view on these and other issues

The headline "US criticises court that may decide on Julian Assange extradition" is misleading, since the cables are the personal views of their authors, not official policy, and since Carver writing nearly two years ago cannot have had wikileaks in mind

[Turborama]

6. There is a motive for releasing this cable which you seem to have missed

Don't worry yourself about the title, The Guardian article itself gives a lot of context to what's going on.

[pacalo]

7. I hope Tony Blair's lapdog relationship to the boy king has stigmatized Britain

when it comes to jumping at the whims of the U.S. Our government has become too dictatorial & it will seemingly stoop to the lowest levels to protect its secrecy.

[sabrina 1]

15. The cables show why the U.S. will have, as many of us have been saying,

great difficulty extraditing Assange to this country. Sadly we are viewed as a country that violates human rights.

The release of this particular cable right now, is most likely a message to the U.S. from Assange. Perfectly timed to show how the U.S. most certainly cannot be trusted to treat someone like him humanely, and how they view the very existence of the COE as something that gets in their way. Now, why would a country feel that way about an issue that the entire civilized world has agreed upon?

Because we DO torture and treat people inhumanely. The news this week about the cruel and inhuman treatment of Manning, the soldier accused of handing over the documents to Wikileaks, is also going to be considered if there is any attempt to extradite him.

By releasing these cables now, Assange is making his case, WITH documentation, that the U.S. has no respect for Human Rights and has criticized some highly respected and decent people who work hard to preserve the rights of human beings to proper treatment when in custody.

That makes them inelligible to request the extradition of Assange by the standards of every country in Europe that has signed treaties regarding extradition.

To see members of the State Dept. dis-respect some of the most respected people in Europe, the protectors of human rights, will anger millions of people and make any suggestion by the U.S. that it would treat Assange in a humane fashion, simply not believable. I think he is fairly safe from extradition to the U.S. and was, even before these cables were released. Our human rights record is among the worst in the world. And these cables show a complete disregard for the humane treatment of human beings.

This subject will be discussed now, with the additional, incriminating evidence found in these cables against the U.S. by legal scholars all over the world.

I would call it an excellent chess move. Maybe even a stalemate.

[daleo]

8. Every new day, the US acts more like the USSR

But without the guarantee of jobs for the population.

[Pavulon]

9. or the death of tens of millions or starving the

Ukraine. that would be a poor comparison.. you are missing thousands of tons of rotting flesh to make that work.

kitty loves apt comparisons..

[Turborama]

10. Tens of millions?

Where did you get that figure from?

Good cat gif, btw. I'm going to keep that one.

[Pavulon]

12. 5 million in Ukraine, million in the great purge, and an easy 12 million from his alliance with

germany. Comparing stuff the the USSR or WW2 Germany is generally bad..

I am going to run out of cat gifs at this pace and will need to start creating my own..

[Turborama]

13. Where do you get those figures from?

It's important to be able to back statistics like that up when making such assertions.

Even without sources your numbers don't add up to "tens of millions".

[wikileaksfan]

22. What about all the native Americans we killed?

[Turborama]

11. Self delete of dupe n/t

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ronnie624]

18. The "thousands of tons of rotting flesh" was not "missing".

It was in the Philippines, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Central America, Afghanistan, Iraq and other places where U.S. Americans could neither see it nor smell it. Out of sight, out of mind.

[daleo]

28. The U.S. and western governments have been responsible for millions of innocent deaths

But the point of the post was that we are losing the rights that we used to take for granted in the western world, in the name of security. We are taking on many of the characteristics of the Soviet police state - e.g. undeclared wars around the world, acceptance of torture, mistrust of citizens going about their routine business, surveillance, suspicion of potential treason, police searches without cause, impunity from the law among political elites, and fear of a free press or other dissent.

Irrelevant pictures of cats don't change those facts.

[micraphone]

14. Carver is a waste of skin

Who appointed this idiot blowhard?

Oh wait, I think I know...

[ronnie624]

17. You think correctly.

He was appointed U.S. Consul General in Strasbourg in August, 2008, by guess who? Which is why he prattles exactly like your garden variety Republican.

[No Elephants]

19. Oh, Mama don't allow no pesky human rights in here.

[Turborama]

21. JJ, is that you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88tA5zql6CQ

[EFerrari]

20. lol

The humor is welcome. :)

[BetsysGhost]

23. COE Report

This report takes a moment to load. It is a scathing collection of War Crimes Evidence. If Bush is ever indicted in Europe it will be in large part to this report.

http://assembly.coe.int//Main.asp?link=http://assembly.coe.int/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc07/edoc11302.htm

Why does America have such a strong dislike for Justice? An "irritant", Human Rights and Justice are what Bush took when he unsigned the Rome Statute. The Hague may still hear and judge these crimes. The USA believes the Europeans are too humane and
their Courts are inadequate in measuring justice. What exactly are our Core Values?

[sabrina 1]

24. 'what exactly are our core values'.

Did we ever have any? I thought so, but even here on a democratic board, you will now find people dismissing torture and extra-judicial assassinations ordered by the president, even of U.S. citizens.

These cables clearly show that those representing this country, including democrats, have no respect for the law or other human beings.

I keep saying it, but there is little hope of this country ever holding itself accountable for the misery it has brought to innocent people around the world. That will have to come from outside.

Sadly, I once thought that by electing Democrats we could start to prosecute the criminals only to learn that it is U.S. policy to torture and harm people when they get in the way of U.S. 'interests'.

[ronnie624]

25. VERY informative. Thanks for posting. n/t

[kestrel91316]

26. Prediction: US is gonna declare him a terraist and kidnap him and bring him here

for a military tribunal.

Probably working overtime right now to figure out how to do that, what laws to twist and distort......

[Ruperto31]

27. Wouldn't it be great if the Council of Europe protected Assange

from extradition to the US? Especially on the grounds that the US is a country that uses torture, secret renditions, etc. How sweet would that be? :)

[daleo]

29. They would have to get rid of religious sites too

The Bible is full of lurid sexual references and sex scenes.