Now that Julian Assange is in custody of British authorities on a warrant for alleged sex crimes in Sweden, Obama Administration officials may well be working behind the scenes to secure his extradition to the United States, an international criminal law expert tells Salon.
"I can't think of two people they want more right now -- other than bin Laden -- than Assange and Viktor Bout, and they got Bout," said Attorney Douglas McNabb, who specializes in federal criminal defense and international extradition cases. Bout is the notorious international arms dealer who was extradited from Thailand to the United States last month.
Assange has not been charged with a crime in the United States -- though it's possible that there is an arrest warrant or indictment under seal. The Obama Justice Department has repeatedly suggested that it is going after Assange, though offiicals have not said what law they believe Assange has broken (and experts say that making any case against him could prove difficult).
McNabb says that extradition requests can also be made under seal. And he has had clients who have been the subject of Interpol Red Notices -- the international call for arrest that Sweden used to pursue Assange last week -- that have not been released publicly. So it's possible that the U.S. is already using these avenues.
As a practical matter, high-profile extradition requests are as much political as legal matters. If the U.S. does want to intervene and prosecute Assange before the Swedish case goes forward, the Bout case is a useful study in how the Obama Administration could be exerting pressure on the British and Swedish governments. Ironically, what we know about the Bout case comes from secret cables released by Wikileaks.
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http://www.salon.com/news/wikileaks/?story=/politics/war_room/2010/12/07/julian_assange_extradition