Assange Watch

[PS_RalphW]

Let's not forget the one the US already holds

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/au ... sfeed=true

[Little John]

Let's not forget the one the US already holds

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/au ... sfeed=true

The US is already a militarised quasi-fascist state masquerading behind a mountain of consumerist shite.

They call it the American Dream cos you have to be f***ing asleep to believe it

[frank_begbie]

Let's not forget the one the US already holds

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/au ... sfeed=true

Innocent until proven guilty

Prisoners on death row are treated more fairly.

[Little John]

The Swedish authorities already questioned him. He freely went in to see them to be questioned before he left Sweden. Consequently, all charges were thrown out at that point. It is only later, after he left Sweden and the uproar over the leaked Yank papers that, suddenly, the Swedes wanted to question him again and only on Swedish soil. And remember, these so called "rape" charges (which don't actually as yet exist) refer to an act of sex that was indisputably consensual but which allegedly didn't involve him checking with the girls beforehand whether or not to use using a condom. Which, apparently, under Swedish law can be construed as a form of rape.

Utter, utter bullshit.

This is in order to get him onto Swedish soil so that the Yanks can then get hold of him.

We all know it.

[emordnilap]

I spotted a valid comment on a website, the gist being that the Swedish authorities know precisely where Assange is, so there's no problem questioning him, surely?

[Little John]

Anybody else listen to the PM programme on Radio 4 this evening? Unbelievably propagandist interview on the Assange case. I don't mean a little bit either. It was massively unsubtle in its bias verging on essentially propagating half truths and downright untruths about the Swedish authorities' case against him and a major smear campaign mounted against the Ecuadorians for good measure.

Somebody, somewhere high up in the BBC has clearly been given orders about how to report on the Assange case.

This lack of subtlety implies to me that the British government is, for whatever reason, under some pressure to get Assange to Sweden and quickly. This means it is cutting corners on the time taken to build the usual propaganda machine. Either that or the government has realized it has effectively reached the limits of negative propaganda it can build against him and so has decided to get it over with as quickly as possible so as to maximise the amount of time available for people to forget prior to a general election.

Either way, I reckon the UK government is poised to act sooner than people might expect. It's always a balance, of course, and if the public mood moves decisively in Assange's favour then it will get interesting. Is the UK government ultimately more frightened of its own people or of the USA fascist regime? At the moment, the answer to that question is decisively the latter. But, things can change.

[nexus]

Yes Steve, I heard it and thought the same.

[UndercoverElephant]

This lack of subtlety implies to me that the British government is, for whatever reason, under some pressure to get Assange to Sweden and quickly. This means it is cutting corners on the time taken to build the usual propaganda machine. Either that or the government has realized it has effectively reached the limits of negative propaganda it can build against him and so has decided to get it over with as quickly as possible so as to maximise the amount of time available for people to forget prior to a general election.

I think they know that the longer it goes on, and the more people become aware of the ramifications, the bigger the political cost of letting the US get hold of him. They don't want it to become a weeping sore.

Either way, I reckon the UK government is poised to act sooner than people might expect. It's always a balance, of course, and if the public mood moves decisively in Assange's favour then it will get interesting. Is the UK government ultimately more frightened of its own people or of the USA fascist regime? At the moment, the answer to that question is decisively the latter. But, things can change.

Yes. When their own political skin is in the game, things might change. If I was Assange, I'd be preparing to stay there until the next UK general election.

[Lord Beria3]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... risis.html

Sounds unlikely that they will actually invade... it will be in breach of international law.

If they it will be illegal and counter-productive.

[extractorfan]

apparently they can arrest him if he steps out into the lobby, not just outside.

I'm still fearing the worst

[vtsnowedin]

I find both comments a bit odd coming from the former British empire where the sun never sets and the history of all that have gone into the tower of London and never came out.

But wasn't your country founded by people who wanted to get away from all that?

Eight generations ago the pioneer of my family was released from Newgate prison and allowed to emigrate to Boston with several members of his illegal church flock. They arrived on Sept. 18 1634 on the ship "Griffin. " as part of the Great migration of Puritans to New England.
England was indeed an evil empire then and would be today if you had the means.
To state that the USA is an evil empire above all others is to be simplistic at best.

[emordnilap]

To state that the USA is an evil empire above all others is to be simplistic at best.

It's trying it's damndest.

BOT (although America's evil doings are very-much on-topic), the sewage pouring out of the Brit (and Irish and Yankee) media seems overwhelmingly anti-Assange.

As for Hague:

The UK does not accept the principle of diplomatic asylum as such, continued Hague,

Not quite. You have to be well connected, I suppose. Although it can be difficult:

In the UK in 2010, 25% of the people who applied for asylum were granted it.

It's not 'not accepted'. Remember the KGB lads back in the '80s, Mr Hague?

From another source:

The UK is a signatory to the convention (unlike Thailand) and has a long history of recognising asylum seekers who lodge credible claims that they were forced to leave and are unable to return to their homeland because a well-founded fear of persecution because of political opinion, race, religion or nationality.

"We will not allow Mr Assange safe passage out of the UK," said Hague

Note the key word Hague is repeating there.

[emordnilap]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaki ... 6452208998

[emordnilap]

[UndercoverElephant]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaki ... 6452208998

Yep, that's why they wanted this ended quickly. The human rights lawyers are going to have a field day with this case because it is perfectly clear that Assange and Ecuador hold the moral high ground. The United States is now feeling the consequences of its previous human rights abuses. Everybody knows about Guantanamo bay, waterboarding and the treatment of Bradly Manning. The United States actually wanted to people to know about those things, as a means of terrorising other potential enemies. But that now means that it is all too easy for the human rights lawyers who will be lining up to defend him, and the bigger the case gets, the worse the situation will become for the UK government. The only way the UK government could have got out of this one was for Assange to extradited to Sweden on sex charges that people really believe are sex charges, and then say "we never knew that was going to happen" when he ends up in the hands of the CIA. That bird has flown.