Posted on 01/11/2011 11:31:34 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
LONDON — Lawyers acting for Julian Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks antisecrecy group, said on Tuesday they would argue against a demand for his extradition to Sweden on the grounds that he might subsequently face “illegal rendition” to the United States, risking imprisonment at Guantánamo Bay, or even the death penalty.
[snip]
Prosecutors have gone to court to demand records of the Twitter account activity of several people linked to WikiLeaks, including Mr. Assange, according to the group and a copy of a subpoena made public late last Friday.
The subpoena is the first public evidence of a criminal investigation, announced last month by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., that has been urged on by members of Congress of both parties but is fraught with legal and political difficulties for the Obama administration.
It was denounced by WikiLeaks, which has so far made public only about 1 percent of the quarter-million diplomatic cables in its possession but has threatened to post them all on the Web if criminal charges are brought. .........
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Rendition? I’d rather see him rendered.
Assange is tweaking the system for all its worth.
Or even just rended....:)
http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article1081187.ece
Assange lawyers highlight execution risk
“In a skeleton summary of their defence against attempts by the Swedish director of public prosecution to extradite him, released on Tuesday, Assange’s legal team argue that there is a similar likelihood that the US would subsequently seek his extradition “and/or illegal rendition”, “where there will be a real risk of him being detained at Guantanamo Bay or elsewhere”.
“Indeed, if Mr Assange were rendered to the USA, without assurances that the death penalty would not be carried out, there is a real risk that he could be made subject to the death penalty. It is well known that prominent figures have implied, if not stated outright, that Mr Assange should be executed.” The 35—page skeleton argument was released by Mark Stephens, Assange’s lawyer, following a brief review hearing this morning at Belmarsh magistrates court, south London.
The WikiLeaks founder, who is currently on conditional bail while his extradition case is being considered, appeared for no more than 15 minutes in the dock, while supporters including Jemima Khan and Bianca Jagger looked on and waved support from the public gallery.....”
He should join the New Black Panther Party...instant immunity.
U.S. journalists back away from WikiLeaks founder
Jan 9, 2011 WASHINGTON-Not so long ago, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could count on American journalists to support his campaign to publish secret documents that banks and governments didn’t want the world to see.
But just three years after a major court confrontation in which many of America’s most important journalism organizations file briefs on WikiLeaks’ behalf, much of the U.S. journalistic community has shunned Assange - even as reporters write scores of stories based on WikiLeaks’ trove of leaked State Department cables.
Some say he is responsible for what’s arguably one of the biggest U.S. national security breaches ever. Others say a man who calls for government transparency has been too opaque about how he obtained the documents.
The freedom of the press committee of the Overseas Press Club of America in New York City declared him “not one of us.” The Associated Press, which once filed legal briefs on Assange’s behalf, refuses to comment about him. And the National Press Club in Washington, the venue less than a year ago for an Assange news conference, has decided not to speak out about the possibility that he’ll be charged with a crime.
With a few notable exceptions, it’s been left to foreign journalism organizations to offer the loudest calls for the U.S. to recognize WikiLeaks’ and Assange’s right to publish under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
Assange supporters see U.S. journalists’ ambivalence as inviting other government efforts that could lead one day to the prosecution of journalists for doing something that happens fairly routinely now - writing news stories based on leaked government documents.....................
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/01/09/2007863/us-journalists-back-away-from.html
Or do a real rape on a child ala Roman Polanski and then get protection from Holder justice dept
Assange weighs in on Tucson Shooting:
........Outside the court however, Mr Assange said he was happy with the outcome of proceedings so far: “I would also like to say that our work with WikiLeaks continues unabated and we are stepping up our publishing for matters relating to ‘cablegate’ and other materials. This will shortly be occurring through our newspaper partners around the world, big and small newspapers and some human rights organisations.”
The hearing was held just hours after Mr Assange, issued a call for calmer political rhetoric in the US, expressing anxiety about violent threats made against him and his colleagues and offering condolences for Arizona’s shooting victims.
In a statement issued in the early hours via Twitter under the headline ‘Wikileaks: Treat incitement seriously or expect more Gabrielle Gifford killing sprees’, Mr Assange said that no organisation anywhere in the world is a more devoted advocate of free speech than Wikileaks.
“But when senior politicians and attention seeking media commentators call for specific individuals or groups of people to be killed they should be charged with incitement - to murder. Those who call for an act of murder deserve as significant share of the guilt as those raising a gun to pull the trigger,” he said.
“WikiLeaks has many young staff, volunteers and supporters in the same geographic vicinity as these the broadcast or circulation of these incitements to kill. We have also seen mentally unstable people travel from the US and other counties to other locations. Consequently we have to engage in extreme security measures,
“We call on US authorities and others to protect the rule of law by aggressively prosecuting these and similar incitements to kill. A civil nation of laws can not have prominent members of society constantly calling for the murder and assassination of other individuals or groups.”
In the one page statement, Mr Assange also offered sympathy and condolences to the victims of the Tucson shooting on behalf of Wikileaks, together with best wishes for the recovery of US Representative Gabrielle Giffords. the Democrat from Arizona’s 8th district who was the target of the shooting spree in which six others, including a nine year old girl, were killed.
He also quoted Tucson Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, who is leading the investigation into the shooting, who said that “vitriolic rhetoric” intended to “inflame the public on a daily basis ... has [an] impact on people, especially who are unbalanced personalities to begin with.”
Dupnik also observed that officials and media personalities engaging in violent rhetoric “have to consider that they have some responsibility when incidents like this occur and may occur in the future.”
Mr Assange said WikiLeaks staff and contributors have collected examples of unprecedented violent rhetoric by US prominent media personalities against them, collecting the details on http://www.peopleokwithmurderingassange.com/.
He cited Sarah Palin, who urged the US administration to “Hunt down the WikiLeaks chief like the Taliban”.
Prominent US politician Mike Huckabee called for his execution on his Fox News program last November, and Fox News commentator Bob Beckel, publicly called for people to “illegally shoot the son of a bitch”.
US radio personality Rush Limbaugh has called for pressure to “Give [Fox News President Roger] Ailes the order and [then] there is no Assange, I’ll guarantee you, and there will be no fingerprints on it.”, while the Washington Times columnist Jeffery T. Kuhner titled his column “Assassinate Assange” captioned with a picture Julian Assange overlayed with a gun site, blood spatters, and “WANTED DEAD or ALIVE” with the alive crossed out.
John Hawkins of Townhall.com has stated “If Julian Assange is shot in the head tomorrow or if his car is blown up when he turns the key, what message do you think that would send about releasing sensitive American data?” Christian Whiton in a Fox News opinion piece called for violence against WikiLeaks publishers and editors, saying the US should “designate WikiLeaks and its officers as enemy combatants, paving the way for non-judicial actions against them.”
How about legal rendition? What do they call that again? Oh, yeah. Extradition. Probably afraid of that one, too...
Good one!
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