Posted on 07/07/2022 8:32:26 AM PDT by Red Badger
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took the occasion of America’s Independence Day to declare that the Statue of Liberty should be torn down if WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is extradited to the United States and convicted of espionage.
Assange is currently facing extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States, where he has been charged under the Espionage Act of 1917 for having published classified material revealing, among other things, potential war crimes committed by the U.S. military. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.
The Australian journalist appealed his extradition to the U.K.’s High Court Friday.
According to the Mexico Daily Post, during a Monday press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, López Obrador called for “conven[ing] a meeting of the most important press in the world to exhort, request, call, so that a pardon be granted to Assange.”
“If they don’t do it,” he added, “they will be tarnished and we will have to start the campaign that if they take him to the U.S., and sentence him to the maximum sentence and die in prison, they will have to dismantle the Statue of Liberty that the French delivered and that is in New York because it is no longer a symbol of freedom.”
López Obrador isn’t alone in coming to Assange’s defense. London-based PEN International, a worldwide writers’ association, “strongly condemn[ed]” U.K. Home Secretary Priti Patel’s decision to extradite Assange and called on the U.S. government to drop all charges against him. Noting that Assange is “the first publisher to be charged under the Espionage Act” in its 105-year existence, the group asserted:
Assange’s prosecution raises profound concerns about freedom of the press. Invoking the Espionage Act for practices that include receiving and publishing classified information sends a dangerous signal to journalists and publishers worldwide. The state’s desire to keep matters secret does not automatically override the public’s right to know, particularly where there is strong evidence of human rights violations or corruption.
Assange’s treatment can hardly be justified under the U.S. Constitution. As columnist Ilana Mercer observed, “First-Amendment jurisprudence is clear-cut with respect to the guerrilla journalism of WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks operators have committed no crime in publishing what is undeniably true, newsworthy information, with probative value. Besides, why has America any jurisdiction over a foreign entity (WikiLeaks) and a foreign national (Julian Assange)?”
López Obrador has gone beyond merely stumping for a pardon for Assange. At least twice, he has offered to grant Assange humanitarian asylum and Mexican citizenship — assuming Assange can get to Mexico or one of its embassies. In 2020, he wrote a letter to then-U.S. President Donald Trump asking him to pardon Assange; he claims Trump never responded. On Monday, he said he was also “going to ask President [Joe] Biden to address this matter.”
“I am aware that it goes against the severe hardliners that exist in the United States as in all countries, but humanism must also prevail,” he declared.
The Mexican president, while undeniably a man of the Left, has made other sensible statements in recent years.
In January 2021, after Trump was kicked off social media, López Obrador also invoked the Lady of the Harbor, saying, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed that since they took these decisions, the Statue of Liberty in New York is turning green with anger, because it doesn’t want to become an empty symbol.”
“What we want in Mexico is that liberties are guaranteed,” he said. “Zero censorship. Prohibition is prohibited.”
In addition, López Obrador has been a longtime opponent of foreign interventionism. Last month, he condemned NATO’s involvement in provoking and extending the war in Ukraine, saying it amounted to “I’ll supply the weapons, and you supply the dead,” a policy he deemed “immoral.”
“I believe in the need to change the policy that has been imposed for centuries, the exclusion, the desire to dominate … the lack of respect for the sovereignty of the countries, the independence of every country,” he explained.
Assange could do far worse than to have López Obrador in his corner. Besides, he’s getting considerably more help from Mexico’s leader than he is from his own prime minister.
It’s obvious Mexico’s idea of freedom is forcing its
citizens to escape.
I’m sure they’re already working on dismantling it anyway.
Trump should have pardoned him.
NONE of his business.
Maybe a complete BOYCOTT of Mexican vacations would get his attention.
He seems much smarter than our president. Maybe we can trade?
So, who was the scotus roe v wade leaker anyway? Guess that isn’t important eh?
A dog’s recycled food is smarter than our pResident.
Yup...
But dems were accusing trump of collusion with assange to beat Hillary.
Assange should have outed her murdered campaign team member as the source of his alleged leaking.
This commie twat can’t run anything in his own country.
He just nods yes to the cartels who really do.
He doesn’t get a say on anything in America
Mexico would fail overnight if it couldn’t rely on the US dollars sent back to it.
If Assange is convicted, Bush and Cheney should share his cell.
It’s noteworthy how frequently Mexico’s Pres. Obrador is sticking his nose in our business these days.
“Maybe a complete BOYCOTT of Mexican vacations would get his attention.”
The largest U.S. exports to Mexico are petroleum and coal products at $12.1B a year. Plus LNG and other petroleum gases for an additional $4.5B. How about we get his attention with a price increase? After all, what’s right for the US citizen should be equally delved out to our “friends” to the south. This way we can be just one big dysfunctional family. And passing gifts across the border wall can be filmed on CNN.
wy69
Sniffer is in charge.
Anything to keep his people’s eyes off Mexico’s problems...
“He has been railroaded.”
In March 2017, WikiLeaks published a series of documents which detailed the CIA’s electronic surveillance and cyber warfare capabilities.
On 11 April 2019, Assange’s asylum was withdrawn following a series of disputes with the Ecuadorian authorities. The police were invited into the embassy and he was arrested. He was found guilty of breaching the Bail Act and sentenced to 50 weeks in prison. The United States government unsealed an indictment against Assange related to the leaks provided by Chelsea Manning. On 23 May 2019, the United States government further charged Assange with violating the Espionage Act of 1917. Assange loses his first amendment rights when he displays information concerning the capacity and effectiveness of the federal law enforcement agencies. And by doing it, he put American people in harms way and destroyed our future of safety through discovery.
He was aware of it when he did it and then, since he was so sure of himself, he ran like a scared rabbit. He needs imprisonment. A few years ago he would have been executed for espionage.
wy69
Actually he thinks he has a right to speak concerning our business....his remark was an indirect comment regarding the border invasion.
“If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison.”
Yet Hillary had Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information on an unsecure server in her bathroom thus allowing Russia, china, and God knows who else access to such information.
And thanks to Hillary, china was able to roll our entire HUMINT (HUMan INTelligence) network that took decades to create.
She’s still free as a bird.
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