Thursday, August 16, 2012

The Bizarre, Surreal Persecution of Julian Assange

Earlier today, Britain said it might revoke Ecuador's diplomatic status and stage an assault on the embassy to get Julian Assange out. (link)

This is over an extradition request by Sweden on a charge that even if true would not be a crime in Britain... and there is much evidence that it is not true.

How far will Britain and Sweden go to help the US get their hands on Assange? So far:
  • A dozen US financial institutions, including MasterCard and Visa, blocked transfers of money to WikiLeaks.
  • Sweden is pursuing obviously false trumped up rape charges with a vigor that is never seen even for real, serious rape charges.
  • Sweden refused to interview Assange about the charges over video phone or in the UK, and insisted he return to Swedish soil.
  • Interpol issued an arrest warrant - unheard of for someone wanted for questioning in a case like this.
  • Sweden demanded extradition, and spent over a year in court
  • Britain puts Assange under house arrest for over a year, and eventually decides to extradite him.
  • When Assange takes refuge in an embassy, Britain threatens to revoke Ecuador's diplomatic status and storm the embassy!
  • Britain has 50 police outside the Ecuadorian embassy, making sure Assange doesn't escape.
All because Assange embarrassed the US. This is the most outrageous anti-democratic event of the century. We the people need to stand up for Julian Assange. The US has made a massive effort to discredit him, but his work stands for itself, and the world will be a poorer place if he is stopped from persuing his work of exposing the secrets of big corrupt organizations. Even I have to wonder: What will the US do to me for writing this? Where is free speech now?
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4 comments:

The Rat said...

He is under investigation in Sweden, the paragon of neutrality and leftist feminist ideology, for sex crimes. Yes, they aren't crimes in the UK or Canada but doesn't that just mean that Sweden is more progressive than us when it comes to women's rights?

Yappa said...

Ha-ha. Unfortunately, this is all about the US pressuring its allies, not about Sweden's feminism.

The original prosecutor refused to prosecute and then someone else was parachuted in. The women's description of what happened is far from what I would consider a crime. Worse, one of the women published a blog post the same year as the incident in which she proposed that women should accuse a man of rape if he cheated on her.

Yappa said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
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