Legal process keeps Assange free for now

[maddezmom]

Source: AP

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange remains free while his website spews daily embarrassment and potential diplomatic damage to the United States, his liberty protected for now by the slowly grinding wheels of the law.

Assange, who is now in Britain, according to his British lawyer, is wanted in Sweden to face allegations of sexual offenses against two women, charges he denies, but the United States has not lodged any charges against him. Nor has Britain.

In the Swedish case, Assange is the target of a European extradition process which normally takes months to produce an arrest.

"It's just paperwork. It has to go into the Foreign Office, then goes to go to the Home Office, then goes to SOCA (the Serious Organized Crime Agency), then goes to the magistrates' court," Karen Todner, a lawyer who has been involved in several high-profile cases, told The Associated Press on Saturday.



Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/world/article_b009c133-b355-5538-a3fd-ee12e2987f5a.html

[Poll_Blind]

1. Uh huh, Suuuuuuuuuuuure! n/t

PB

[asjr]

2. Gee, I wonder how much longer we have to

wait until glass store windows are broken and books are burned.

[mbperrin]

5. Not long, by my estimate. Just remember, Big Brother loves you!

They don't even read 1984 in schools anymore. Why bother when you live it, I guess.

[Goldstein1984]

8. I don't know about Outside

but my Liberal friends in Alaska are suddenly preaching the necessity of stockpiling food and ammunition.

The civil unrest will happen suddenly. One day the worker/consumer units will be doing what they're told, then some event will serve as the trigger. The government will respond with violence, and it will escalate.

[go west young man]

10. Sounds a bit like "V for Vendetta".

The scenario in the movie may be much more of a future reality than we all want to realize.

[Igel]

21. Dunno.

My views are leaning to looking out for the RAPP, a rollback of the NEP, and raskulachivanie. That snuck up on people much more easily, I think, and most people seemed to support it.

One side had much more generalized deep oppression; the other had mostly more shallow oppression with some real trenches. They average out to be not too different in many respects, for as long they were in control of significant territories, and both required that you not only act right but think right; I'd dislike being in either. But one was easier to get along in than the other, apart from that whole WWII/Wehrmacht business. Perhaps that's just because one lasted longer than the other.

[Moonbat2]

3. TICK TOCK

I would not be making any long term loans to him right now:d

[HankyDubs]

4. the AP

sucks. If the "mainstream" press had been doing its job, wikileaks would be completely unnecessary.

[TexasObserver]

6. Everyone knows the arrest is a pretense, too.

That's the most remarkable aspect of this event. The entire world knows that Assange has been targeted, and this hunt for him would never occur unless US intel forces were not making the prosecution in Sweden happen.

We all know that this is a trumped up arrest warrant which has as its only purpose showing the world that they can seize anyone, anywhere, if they breach US intel. This is about controlling the message, which is why most classified documents exist. Classify it, and that allows you to control access sought by snooping citizens and journalists.

[bemildred]

7. But it's interesting, it lets you know who is for sale and who is not.

I am somewhat suprised to see Sweden in this role.

[TexasObserver]

9. You have to wonder what they have on someone important in Sweden.

I suspect it is a matter of exigencies. They've probably been tailing and investigating him for months, so they knew of the unhappy lovers in Sweden, and used that to create something they could use. It's a measure of how little there is on Assange otherwise. Broken condoms and unreturned phone calls don't usually lead to status on the Interpol Most Wanted list.

[midnight]

16. "Broken condoms and unreturned phone calls don't usually lead to status on the Interpol Most Wanted"

Your right, and I think the rest of the world is coming to this concusion too.

[caseymoz]

18. If he weren't Caucasian, they wouldn't even bother with a warrant.

Shameful but true how racism works. He would have disappeared by now and the news would never have never cooperated putting him at the center of this. He would be forgotten. Just sayin'. The race card is working for Assange.

I noticed that the charge seems to be one designed to divide the progressives against him. I mean, rape or sexual assault and the like are things that the left will usually rally against.

I would think by now the women at the center of this case would have come forward and said something to the press. The temptation to do so would have to be overwhelming, but no, it hasn't happened.

At least it looks like the Europeans are dragging their feet on this as much as they possibly can. Whatever strings the US is pulling, it has no control over the people who actually get things done. But I wonder if even that wouldn't be done if Assange had a dark complexion.

[TheeHazelnut]

11. nice objective reporting with "his website spews" in the opening line nt

[midnight]

12. Serious Organized Crime Agency VS A man and a broken condom

Does something sound even more crazy this second time around for those behind this prosecution?

[EFerrari]

13. Thanks, Authorized Propaganda!

Now we know what to think today.

[populistdriven]

dupe

[populistdriven]

14. hey ruling elite and your government enforcement thugs - FUCK YOU

[bhikkhu]

15. Asinine article.

As if the only reason any of us have liberty is because the "slowly grinding wheels of the law" haven't gotten to us yet. But when they do, we are all sure to be slowly ground up, as, again, we are only free if they allow us to be free.

"Spews" in the opening line is kind of a tip-off - the writer is a hack tool, not a journalist.

[sirthomas66]

17. We are getting perilously close to the time when We the People

will have to protect ourselves from our own government. What form that will take, I do not know... But, for sure, if Assange is apprehended I will go to rallies held on his behalf. I am surprised there haven't been more now. This dude is like a Johnny Tremayne and his efforts should be celebrated in words and song. I am not talented that way; but I would bet someone here is.

[caseymoz]

19. Thank you for that objective reporting, Associated Pravda.

The corporate/state press is showing their contempt for an organization that's doing their job now.

[Matilda]

20. Assange claims that Australia has abandoned him.

"As authorities close in on Julian Assange, the controversial WikiLeaks founder has blasted Australia's response to the scandal, saying the Federal Government has thrown away his rights in an attempt to pander to US interests."

(snip)

"This brings into question what does it mean to be an Australian citizen - does that mean anything at all," he wrote.

"Or are we all to be treated like David Hicks at the first possible opportunity merely so that Australian politicians and diplomats can be invited to the best US embassy cocktail parties."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/05/3084934.htm


Every word he says is true - every Australian citizen in trouble overseas is entitled to consular help, and to have their rights protected. Not, it seems, if the offended party is the United States.

The response from the Gillard government is worthy of the most cringe-making sycophancy of John Howard.