Sweden tried to drop Assange extradition in 2013

[randcraw]

The persistence of the British CPS in pursuing Assange shows how tight the militaries are between the US and Commonwealth nations. AFAIK, Britain had no personal stake in Wikileaks / Assange. But because America badly wanted to suppress Wikileaks and its ilk from future revelations, Britain has persisted in its surrogate prosecution of Assange.

I wonder, is there no blowback among Brits for the Crown so baldly adopting the role of America's attack dog? Or is that de rigueur now?

[jacquesm]

I don't think it is that simple. You thumb your nose at a judge at your own peril, regardless of how much merit there was to the original case and regardless of where your sympathies lie with respect to WL and Assange the fact is that there is absolutely no way the UK govt/judicial branch would let a known fugitive skip like this even after the original case was dropped.

It is bordering on the farcical how much money they have spent on this and just because of that they eventually have to show a result. The only other alternative is that Assange leaves the embassy in a coffin.

[untog]

That's one way of looking at it. Another: a warrant was issued for his arrest in relation to a crime that was accused. He used a foreign embassy to avoid that arrest. Giving up would not be setting a fantastic precedent for future alleged criminals who do not wish to answer questions.

(EDIT: changed "committed" to "accused" as per discussion below)

[greggarious]

>The persistence of the British CPS in pursuing Assange shows how tight the militaries are between the US and Commonwealth nations. AFAIK, Britain had no personal stake in Wikileaks

They're members of Five Eyes and NATO. So yes, they do have a "personal stake".

[mmjaa]

I think you need to take a closer look at the Coalition - Five Eyes nations, plus a few lap dogs - and see just how nefarious the relationship has become.

Australian Defence Force troops, for example, are a puppet military force deployed in places where it would be illegal to have American troops. ADF can get away with doing a lot of things the Americans cannot - just like their counterparts in the Israeli Defence Forces.

The truth of the matter is, there really is an inner state within our states, consisting of the coalition of military entities, and yes: they do rely on each other to do each others' dirty work. This should come as no surprise to any citizen of a Five-Eyes state; the new world order is well and truly upon us.

[gaius]

The Lauri Love case proves there’s zero probability of Assange being extradited to the US. He’s wanted here for skipping bail. The government can’t let the precedent be set that you can get away with it, or everyone would do it.

[jacquesm]

I don't think it proves that. I think that the US would like to get their hands on JA a lot more than they ever wanted to get their hands on Lauri Love.

[toyg]

“Everyone” is not going to have an embassy aiding and abetting you; and any diplomat or spy worth his/her salt already has procedures to skip the country.

The principle is a fig leaf on top of a political issue. This situation will not change until a different party gets in power, carrying a different view of the UK’s relationship with their traditional military allies.

[alex_hitchins]

I completely agree. It would set a terrible example. Thing I find annoying the most, is that as there is no US extradition warrant placed, if he did come out he'd probably do 18 months for missing bail and be released. If the US wanted him, really wanted him then they would have a warrant out now for him.

EDIT : Down voters - why are you down voting? Are you down voting because I've made an error or breached the posting guidelines or just because you don't agree with me?

[belorn]

> The CPS lawyer also told Ny that year: “It is simply amazing how much work this case is generating. It sometimes seems like an industry. Please do not think this case is being dealt with as just another extradition.”

Pure government corruption and waste. If those lawyers was speaking of an official policy decision of the CPS, how many laws would they be breaking?

[callesgg]

I don't like when things that are clearly not nation state issues is written about as if it was nation state issues.

[acct1771]

Who would you put the blame on?

[barking]

I'd like the press to shine a light on the lawyer who was so keen to get Sweden to pursue the case. I'm sure he prefers being nameless.

[guitarbill]

Or the CPS' policy of email "retention". In this day and age, something like that cannot be allowed to happen by accident. There should be backups, and there's no reason not to keep emails he wrote in his professional capacity as a part of the judiciary.

By the way, the lawyer's name is Paul Close [0], and it's shockingly difficult to find anything about him on on search engines, but more so on Google than others IMO. (Although given his age, this isn't too surprising in context to personal artefacts, but journalistically speaking it's interesting why he's mentioned so little.)

[0] https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/oct/19/julian-assange...

[jacquesm]

It wasn't a lawyer, it was the Swedish prosecutor that did this, and it wasn't a 'he' but a 'she' (Marianne Ny).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assange_v_Swedish_Prosecution_...

[RuggeroAltair]

I am just sad for all the victims of rape in the UK that haven't probably seen, even remotely, the same police efforts made for this accusation. It happened in a different country, and parts of the accusation wouldn't even be a crime in the UK, and obviously there are political goals behind, given the strange sequence of police work.

I'm thinking about what would happen if instead of Assange we were dealing with a person from a country where religion and government are intertwined, and that person was asking for asylum to the UK for accusations that are not crimes in the UK.

[Tomte]

My prediction is the same that it has been for the last years: At some point, Assange will leave the embassy, possibly for medical reasons, be arrested and extradited to Sweden

In Sweden he will be interrogated and set free without any conditions. Not "illegally rendered" to America, but "you're free, go wherever you want".

At that point Assange will be able to ponder his need for drama and attention on the one hand. And all those lost years on the other hand. But hey, he got Pamela Anderson!

I would find that ending almost poetic.

[tmalsburg2]

The article says (paragraph 4) that Sweden dropped the arrest warrant last year. So I'm afraid that your preferred ending of the story is unlikely.

[singularity2001]

Separately, Pompeo described WikiLeaks as a “non-state hostile intelligence service”. ... as opposed to a certain state-hostile intelligence service

[jvehent]

This is much more complex than a lone hacker being persecuted by an oppressive US government. There is suspicion that Wikileaks is one arm of Russian propaganda, and while I do not know if this is true or not, it does turn the entire Assange story into an intricate mess of international politics and power plays.

[achileas]

While circumstantial, the timeline of WL threatening to release leaked Putin documents (~2010, IIRC), never releasing those docs, then getting spots on RT is fairly damning, as well as the Russian bot amplification of WL document drops, especially during the 2016 election.

[sschueller]

This one arm of Russian propaganda is US propaganda. Just another current "enemy" that the US is trying to link with Wikileaks because it's convenient.

Watch this shift to China or NK when Russia is no longer a "current enemy".

[jacquesm]

> There is suspicion that Wikileaks is one arm of Russian propaganda

You can sufficiently explain all WL actions by simply assuming that they will do whatever it takes to hurt US interests.

[pas]

This is much older though, started (as in WikiLeaks become a sort of household name) with the release of US military fuckup videos in Iraq, and the US handling it like dumbasses, then the diplomatic cables.

Though they also published climate scientists' emails, which was not a sign of great rationality on behalf of Assagne.

[wu-ikkyu]

>There is suspicion that Wikileaks is one arm of Russian propaganda

They also said Snowden and MLK were working for the Russians/Soviets

[felipelemos]

This whole situation is a laugh at the "democratic freedom" situation that we live today. At least in some countries ruled by a dictatorship there is no such hypocrisy.

[IntronExon]

Oh yeah, dictatorships are famously irony-free.

cough Democratic People’s Republic of Korea cough

[slivym]

Everyone is owed due process to some extent. But in this case, are we really bothered about a guy who isn't in the UK, has broken UK bail conditions, and is quite likely to have actively participated in attacks against some of the UK's closest allies.

I think he should go round to his local lawyer and ask about taking the UK police to court. He deserves to see stand in that court room and hear them answer for why this happened.

He doesn't seem to want to though... He just seems to want to moan on twitter without leaving his home...

[sschueller]

Stop spreading FUD. Wikileaks has not actively participated in any attacks.

Wikileaks has exposed some of the most horrific crimes committed by the Unites States and others yet we are still trying to kill the messenger.

[elif]

Which publication do you consider an attack?

[Retric]

As an activist the goal is often to create noise rather than to avoid prison. People don't want to portray him in that light as it elevates his position and might not be accurate.