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When you consider the intensity with which England is hunting down Julian Assange — on behalf of Sweden, over alleged sexual crimes that have not even created formal charges yet* — you start to realize that something is up. Julian Assange needs the protection of a country which won’t hand him over the the US, and Julian Assange needs the support and attention of people who believe in Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press.
(excerpt from) Brisbane Times
Tensions mount ahead of Assange asylum decision
Philip Dorling / August 16, 2012 – 2:19PM
The Ecuadorean government will announce its decision on Julian Assange’s appeal for political asylum at 10 o’clock tonight, Eastern Australian time…
[The decision from Ecuador: Assange can stay. See article: here]
The Ecuadorean government has expressed “shock” at what it described as a “written threat” by the British government to send police into Ecuador’s London embassy to seize Mr Assange, who sought refuge there two months ago…
Australian National University international law expert Don Rothwell described the UK threat as extraordinary and without precedent in modern history…
The Swedish, British and Australian governments have all denied knowledge of any US intention to seek Assange’s extradition.
However, other declassified Australian diplomatic cables show that in December 2010 the Australian embassy in Washington reported that the US Justice Department had confirmed WikiLeaks and Assange were targets of an espionage investigation of “unprecedented scale and nature”.Last month the [United States] Justice Department publicly confirmed that a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks was continuing…
* I changed this sentence to scale it back to the basic facts I am more clear about. Julian Assange has not even been charged yet. And, it has also been proposed by people on his side that Sweden could come to the Ecuadorean Embassy and question him.
[My previous sentence alluded to the fact that some articles have asserted that Swedish Law is so adamant, that some of the allegations made against Julian Assange may not be prosecutable situations under US or English law. Though, I believe that without that information, you can still see that Julian Assange is being unfairly and oddly hunted down. Regardless of the facts of the Swedish case against him, there are alternatives to extraditing Julian Assange. And, many of us see the big picture that extraditing Julian Assange is probably a back-door way for the US government to drag him in and get punished for being a whistle-blower against war. So, I have corrected my statement in the text above, and will try to find out more information and details on the Swedish Law point. Though, it will take some research, and I just got bogged down with a new job assignment.]
Filed under: international politics, media, News, politics, progressive politics, US Politics Tagged: | Ecuador, Government of the United Kingdom, Julian Assange, UK politics, Wikileaks
“on behalf of Sweden, over alleged sexual crimes that wouldn’t be crimes in England nor America ” Would you please stop lying. Holding someone down to rape them – not have ‘sex’ with them – is a crime here in the United States. You’ve bought the hype because you are so small minded and uninformed. It would be so wonderful if you could stop taking your marching orders from Amy Goodman and posting as you watch Democracy Now. I can’t begin to tell you what a joke you are to me right now.
I don’t appreciate liars who deny rape. That’s what you do when you write so ignorantly. Get your facts straight and stop doing so much damage.
http://prospect.org/article/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-rape-0
For a supposed feminist, Ms. Wilder, I note that you never spend a lot of time doing much on feminist issues in your posts here.
Heather and all,
Thank you for your careful observations about this story. Please see my asterisk which I inserted above based on your concerns. I will study the situation and answer more fully in the next day or two, when I can find some time.
Thanks,
Kimberly
PS – I am also a supposed flute player, and I do not post near enough about fluting.
[…] Wikileaks is serious stuff: England threatens Ecuadorean Embassy over Julian Assange […]
Some people are so narrow minded and blinded by bigoted ignorance they have lost sight of what criminal process is. Send him to Sweden. He needs to man up to these allegations instead of acting like a big wimp….
[…] who knows the actual details. In addition, you make others look foolish for believing you. Kimberly Wilder (On The Wilder Side) is an intelligent and caring person. And she believed she could trust that ‘trusted voices’ were telling the truth. She […]
[…] who knows the actual details. In addition, you make others look foolish for believing you. Kimberly Wilder (On The Wilder Side) is an intelligent and caring person. And she believed she could trust that ‘trusted voices’ were telling the truth. She […]
[…] who knows the actual details. In addition, you make others look foolish for believing you. Kimberly Wilder (On The Wilder Side) is an intelligent and caring person. And she believed she could trust that ‘trusted voices’ were telling the truth. She […]
I do not remember that I heard information about the charges against Julian Assange from Naomi Wolf. I think it was from a different source. Though, I am going to look into the details of the charges and what I had heard about them. Thanks for your interest. -Kimberly