I think this has built up into some huge kind of melodrama. The way Assange paints himself as some kind of saviour of Western society is highly dubious in my opinion. He is just an attention seeker at heart. If I'd had that messed up a childhood I would probably be the same way. The world isn't going to end if Julian Assange disappears tomorrow. The technology exists and in fact is being improved on. Wikileaks is just the leading edge. I don't want to see an injustice, but I think people are making way too many assumptions as regard to his innocence. Not saying he's guilty, but I don't think anyone here knows the truth of the matter. And I think Assange is deliberately feeding the melodrama. I'm sitting firmly on the fence until more facts come to light.
No offense but it bothers me is when i read your signature below your comments "1 Peter 1 If you call on the Father, He judges without partiality, according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. sorry to be off topic for one moment, but ???? I'm scratching my head :/
What crime do you think Assange may have committed? Is it the sexual-related crime that he may have committed that prevents you from feeling sorry for him being persecuted? Or is it that his organisation released many 'secret' documents (or rather 'leaked' documents) that paint corrupt Govts in a bad light? Meanwhile... Jon Corzine is considering opening a new hedge fund, and Assange is fearful for his life. As one person said (roughly) 'This is really about sending a message to journalists that you must be careful what you say/report about the Govt' (specifically the US Govt). So 'Up with Fascism! Down with Assange!' ?
Yes, the sexual-related crime. I don't know so I'm not going to go around claiming he is innocent or guilty. But making a huge deal of it that it's some kind of conspiracy just seems a bit suspicious to me. Like a guilty man trying to drum up support from his followers to get away with something. I don't know if that's true and I could be misreading it, so I'm just going to let the facts (hopefully) come out before I advocate either way.
Are we saying that the 2 women in Sweden are part of a plot to get Assange into the US? How does that even work? Can someone just put forth a theory on how possibly this might be happening because I'm having trouble figuring out the logistics? And honestly, if the US was to shut down Assange does anyone honestly think that the leaks would suddenly stop and that no-one else would start this kind of thing? I'm sure the top people in the US realise that he would be a martyr for the cause. The people quoted above are just the usual bunch of idiots spouting off. All I'm saying is that things don't add up for me right now. The truth is yet to be revealed imo. And as for angels and devils. They only exist in the bible. People are much more complex.
hello hawkeye, have you seen this 4 corners show ? It goes into the sex allegations and I ask you does this make sense ? http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/07/19/3549280.htm edit to add link.
As some random person who only has access to the public media on this, I'm with Hawkeye I'm afraid. I'll admit I'm leaning a bit more on one side of the fence more than the other but I'm not signing any petitions to set him free (or vice versa) just yet. Have seen enough people who looked truly innocent up until the point of the court case (and vice versa).
Unless I'm mistaken the argument is that the US will try to extradite him from Sweden. Am I incorrect? My question is, aren't the US and Britain best friends? If the US wanted to extradite him, why not straight from London? Why is there any need to extradite him to Sweden and from there extradite him to the US? There are a lot of aspects that aren't adding up for me at this point.
If you watch the 4 Corners show, they talk about that. Basically Sweden is like a US lap dog. And they've done it before, against even their own laws.
UK lets the US do what they want but since they know that the US is highly likely to execute Assange, they are hesitant to hand him over, since they will not allow extradition for execution. Besides the US had to dig up old, old laws to draw up charges so they have a wobbly case under UK law. Not so Sweden who have a legal system that easily allows railroading by large fascist imperialist bullies. I wonder how those women will feel when they realise that it was them alone that sent him to his death.
As I understand it, the UK have signed an undertaking not to extradite someone to a country where they may face the death penalty for their alleged crime, hence no extradition to the USA. Aparrently this does not apply to Sweden but you can't extradite someone unless they are actually accused of a crime and since no offence apparently has been comitted against a law applicable in the UK , Assange can't be accused. Therefore we have had this charade where an unprecedented dubious decision has been made for him to be extradited for questioning, and obviously, once he had been "questioned" in Sweden, he will be charged with an offence. Apparently Assange has offered himself to be questioned in the UK by Swedish prosecutors. This seems reasonable but the Swedes want him on Swedish soil before questioning. At least that's my layman's understanding of the situation. I'm very open too be corrected on any of the above points.
Of course it's a charade to get him in a position to be extradited to the USA. There's not even any charges against him, which means there is no evidence against him, which means the rejection of his offer to be questioned shows the extradition effort is not about the questioning. What I want to know is where he is placed on Obama's Kill List? I mean, the US president has a list of people from which he authorises the extrajudicial murder of people and some think Mr Assange should willingly stroll into the pit of post World Trade Centre USA summary justice? Or is this the famous Australian tall-poppy-syndrome? Because his fight for freedom and justice increases his prominence he should be condemned? The guy is obviously fighting for his freedom and possibly his life against the USA that would have executed him in a heartbeat if the eyes of the world weren't so closely watching him.
Luckily for us, our lovely AG Nicola Roxon recently signed up Australia to some new treaty with the US that enables them to extradite anyone who commits any (half-baked) crime against the US, even if the so called crime is not against the law in Australia... Woohoo!
I agree - we need a true libertarian party to head the country... where the rights of individuals (and their property) are held above those of the coercive state. Coercive states (left and right wing alike) are the cause of 99.9999% of the world's problems!
Really?? So the fact that the Swedish officials have not take up repeated offers/requests to question Assange whilst in the UK as well as during his stay in the Ecuadorian embassy does not at all sound suspicious to you and provide at least some hint that this has sweet. f..l to do with sexual assault charges?? :lol:
The coercive state is highly dependant on a high concentration of "useful idiots" amongst the populace... This is ensured by owning the mass media as well as the low levels of common sense out there.