US Media: "The International Manhunt Is Over"

[kpete]

"Whatever you think of WikiLeaks, they have not been charged with a crime, let alone indicted or convicted. Yet look what has happened to them. They have been removed from Internet … their funds have been frozen … media figures and politicians have called for their assassination and to be labeled a terrorist organization. What is really going on here is a war over control of the Internet, and whether or not the Internet can actually serve its ultimate purpose—which is to allow citizens to band together and democratize the checks on the world’s most powerful factions."

....................

AMY GOODMAN: Glenn, if you could just respond to this latest news on the arrest of Julian Assange in Britain.

GLENN GREENWALD: Well, what's interesting is it's being depicted in the media as some kind of an international manhunt that finally concluded. That's what Matt Lauer announced this morning on NBC News, the international manhunt is over. The reality is that although this case has been around for quite some time, there was really only a valid arrest warrant for the first time in England, the country where he's been located, as of yesterday, and last night his attorneys negotiated his turning himself in with the police department in London. So it was entirely voluntary. There was never any manhunt of any kind, nor has he been actually charged with a crime. The arrest warrant has been issued by the Swedish authorities in order to question him about the accusations that have been made. There's no judgment that he's guilty or that there should be a prosecution at all. They're simply seeking to interrogate him.

And one of the most-the strangest and most interesting aspects of all of this is that it's extremely unusual for Interpol, the international police agency used in Europe and other places, to be used in this manner. I mean, he was put on the, quote, "most wanted" list, even though, as I just said, he's not charged with any crime.

They're simply seeking to interrogate him. And for months now, his attorneys have offered to the Swedish police and to prosecutors to make him available for questioning, whether it be by telephone or by Skype or by appearing in some other technologically suitable means, and yet they've been extremely insistent, very oddly so, that that isn't good enough, that he actually make himself physically available in the jurisdiction of Sweden in order to be detained and interrogated.

more:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/12/7/glenn_greenwald_julian_assange_arrest_and
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/07/wikileaks/index.html

[Supersedeas]

1. most in need to be SILENCED list --and the American Media is leading the charge for silence

[malaise]

5. It's breath-taking to watch

while M$Greedia hacks talk about freedom and democracy.

[Desertrose]

2. I must be living in alternate reality Earth.......

I hope he hits the insurance "release button".....

[Reacher]

3. Isn't it a bit ironic that a "leaker" has been arrested

for not wearing a condom?

[Luminous Animal]

4. See also Greenwalds article today with commentary in this vein and more.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/07/wikileaks/index.html
"1) In The New Republic today, Todd Gitlin writes an entire anti-WikiLeaks column that is based on an absolute factual falsehood. Anyone listening to most media accounts would believe that WikiLeaks has indiscriminately published all 250,000 of the diplomatic cables it possesses, and Gitlin -- in the course of denouncing Julian Assange -- bolsters this falsehood: "Wikileaks’s huge data dump, including the names of agents and recent diplomatic cables, is indiscriminate" and Assange is "fighting for a world of total transparency."

The reality is the exact opposite -- literally -- of what Gitlin told TNR readers. WikiLeaks has posted to its website only 960 of the 251,297 diplomatic cables it has. Almost every one of these cables was first published by one of its newspaper partners which are disclosing them (The Guardian, the NYT, El Pais, Le Monde, Der Speigel, etc.). Moreover, the cables posted by WikiLeaks were not only first published by these newspapers, but contain the redactions applied by those papers to protect innocent people and otherwise minimize harm. Here is an AP article from yesterday detailing this process:"

[glitch]

6. Expecting nothing less than full court spin from the corpse media. SOP for Gitlin.

Thanks for the Greenwald link.

[jotsy]

7. Love that intro!

Recommended on that alone. The historical component of the Salon link speaks volumes, thanx.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[Octafish]

9. Assange is heading for Gitmo.

We are citizens of a police state, one that is global in nature. The one thing they fear is the truth getting in the wrong hands, ours.