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According to his Swedish defence lawyer Per E Samuelson, Assange sent a text immediately after being noticed: "Seriously? Oh my god!" Question kind of still re
by tontonius 9y ago
According to his Swedish defence lawyer Per E Samuelson, Assange sent a text immediately after being noticed: "Seriously? Oh my god!"
Question kind of still remains: how "free" is he now?
- sschueller 9y agoHe still can't leave. The US is just going to kidnap him off the streets of London. Wouldn't be the first time.
- mootothemax 9y ago>He still can't leave. The US is just going to kidnap him off the streets of London. Wouldn't be the first time. When was the last time the US kidnapped someone from London's streets?
- scandox 9y agoI think you're being a tad literal there. The last case I remember was Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr who was kidnapped in Italy and brought to Egypt by the CIA in 2005. Italy's streets are not less intrinsically sacred than England's.
- mootothemax 9y ago>I think you're being a tad literal there. The last case I remember was Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr who was kidnapped in Italy and brought to Egypt by the CIA in 2005. Italy's streets are not less intrinsically sacred than England's. I'm being literal on purpose. Look at the other replies to me; everyone talks about the CIA, yourself included, and ignores the fact that Italy was working hand-in-hand with the CIA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Omar_case https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Omar_case That's very different, and it remains absolutely disgusting nonetheless.
- scandox 9y agoOk, so is it your contention that the UK would not co-operate in similar fashion? And, if so, why? Genuine sense of political autonomy or PR?
- mootothemax 9y ago> Ok, so is it your contention that the UK would not co-operate in similar fashion? And, if so, why? Genuine sense of political autonomy or PR? My contention is that the US would not kidnap him from London's streets. Word choice is important; I'm sick to the back teeth of hyperbole backed up with "wouldn't be the first time."
- angus-prune 9y agoThere was a massive scandal over UK complicity in US extraordinary rendition over here a few years ago. The UK government was roundly condemned and the practice stopped (including refueling US rendition flights from elsewhere). This will not happen to Assange.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- grey-area 9y agoThey've kidnapped people from the streets of Milan, Italy. http://www.businessinsider.com/cia-operative-extradited-to-italy-for-alleged-role-in-kidnapping-2016-4?IR=T http://www.businessinsider.com/cia-operative-extradited-to-i...
- Cthulhu_ 9y ago...that we know of. The CIA and co have means of making people disappear.
- INTPenis 9y agoAlso this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repatriation_of_Ahmed_Agiza_and_Muhammad_al-Zery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repatriation_of_Ahmed_Agiza_an...
- SideburnsOfDoom 9y ago> When was the last time the US kidnapped someone from London's streets? I don't think that they'd need to really. Much easier to have a quiet word with the co-operative British authorities who would assist with the matter and then hand over the individual in question. All soft language and avoidance of publicity, you see. But the same result.
- belorn 9y ago"UK police say WikiLeaks' Assange will be arrested if he leaves Ecuador's embassy" - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-sweden-assange-britain-idUSKCN18F0XM http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-sweden-assange-bri... So while we don't know yet about the US, the intention of the UK is clear.
- catenthusiast 9y agoHe needs to face justice one way or another.
- kybernetikos 9y agoI suspect that he's spent longer in the Embassy than he would have in a Swedish prison if he'd been found guilty of the things he was accused of.
- sschueller 9y agoWhat is his crime? He isn't the one committing war crimes. He is exposing them. Yet we continue to go after whistle blowers and journalist instead of the ones who committed these crimes against humanity.
- matt4077 9y agoWell he was accused of rape, or, more accurately, sexual assault by other countries' definitions. Those charges have now been dropped, for what I can only assume "a preponderance of the evidence suggesting the defendant is permanently insanity". But he may have committed other crimes in his attempt to flee the rape charge (not sure if 'failure to appear' is a crime in the UK, that differs by jurisdiction). None of all that has anything to do with Wikileaks, by the way. A person's good deeds in one domain don't make him immune to criminal charges for unrelated matters. The idea that two average Swedish women are somehow recruited by the CIA to smear him with (rather weak) rape accusations is rather preposterous.
- jpttsn 9y agoWhat makes it preposterous? You're thinking the real CIA would've at least sent Jason Bourne?
- Majestic121 9y agoYou're right when you say that one person's good deed in one domain don't make him immune to criminal charges for unrelated matters. However, Assange did not just did a 'good deed', he became a very high value political target and most of the time such people are protected from unrelated charges, since it is very easy to false flag them/burden them with bs to keep them from doing their job. For example in France the president has partial immunity. The case of diplomatic immunity also comes to mind.
- _ak 9y agoIf they do that, then it would just show that he was right all along. And I say that as someone who doesn't even like Assange.
- rmc 9y agoOr the UK secret service can do it. Wouldn't be the first time.
- iuguy 9y agoOut of interest, when was the last time the UK secret service did this?
- legostormtroopr 9y agoIf he said, then it wouldn't be a secret.
- rmc 9y agoIn 1989 MI5 assisted loyalist paramilitaries in murdering Pat Finucane, human rights lawyer. Not exactly "kidnapped", but in many ways being shot 14 times, at point blank range, in front of your children at home, is pretty bad. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Finucane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_Finucane
- iuguy 9y agoI think I get where you're coming from, but the two situations are really unlike each other. It's not exactly an apples to apples comparison.
- codezero 9y agoWe're in a chaotic political climate, it seems just as likely that a rival nation state would kill him to implicate the US and cause chaos, upset, and confusion.