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So, Ecuador have granted Julian Assange's request for political asylum, much to the outrage of the British and Swedish authorities. Assange is wanted in Sweden for questioning over allegations of sexual assault made by 2 former WikiLeaks volunteers, but Assange believes that if he is extradited to Sweden on the basis of the sexual assault charges, that he will be further extradited to the US where he could face prosecution over WikiLeaks and he could ultimately face the death sentence. Although Assange has been granted asylum, he still has to travel through UK territory to reach an airport, and he could be detained by authorities in the process of doing so. Earlier in the week the UK government threatened to remove the Ecuadorean embassy's diplomatic immunity in order to gain entry to the building an arrest Assange.

 

 

What do you people think about the Assange case?

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I think that any government that hides information from it's people (read: ALL of them) is worthy of being disassembled; therefore, I am on Assange's side, and I am glad at least that Ecuador is taking him in.

 

~Revan

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<_<

 

I thought he would throw himself to the US-lions so to speak once he had all the media coverage.....like "oh, I'm the most wrongfully accused guy since jesuz....goodbye cruel world, the USA is going to execute me for telling the truth and everyone sees it....."

I mean you can't get a bigger halo than that these days, can you? (at least in the eyes of some)

Kind of disappointing that he rather wants to sleep on the ecuadoran ambassadors couch for the next decade or so. :D

Edited by 130671
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I hope he is extradited to Sweden to stand trial in his rape cases. But I actually hope that subsequently, the US won't try to get hold of him in some clandestine way. That would only further fuel his conspiracy theories.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, I think Ecuador has blatantly disregarded the British Legal system, however, they claim to have good reason to do so. There is the argument that Julian Assange has not been charged with any offense in Sweden, he is simply wanted for questioning. There is also the argument that he was effectively cleared of the offense a while ago but then, suddenly, he was once again wanted for questioning.

 

This has raised suspicion around the world that the United States, using Sweden as a go-to, is trying to covertly get him to America where he will be tried for treason because of the thousands of confidential files he leaked online and there is reason to believe that because Sweden handed terrorists suspects to the US in 2001.

 

There is also the argument that he has repeatedly offered to be questioned by the Swedish authorities but in the United Kingdom and all such offers have been refused which again puts the spotlight on a covert US operation.

 

However, I do believe he should and will go to Sweden to answer the charges against him because the UK has already refused categorically to offer no safe passage out of this country for Assange. So the moment he steps outside that embassy (the police are surrounding the building inside and out) he will be arrested for breach of bail and then sent onto Sweden. He cannot escape this. His alleged victims, if they are telling the truth, deserve justice.

 

Julian Assange knew what he was doing when he released those files, he knew was taking on governments around the world and, like it or not, the governments of the world, the elite are and will forever be more powerful that one organization. So whatever happens to him regarding that matter is self inflicted. He knew he would make very powerful enemies, and he has, all of whom want him jailed or killed and they don't care which.

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In my opinion, he should be allowed out of the UK. The last thing the government here want to do is screw up diplomatic/economic relations with South America, they've caused enough trouble and they know it, so I think, eventually they will have to cave into giving Assange a safe passage out of the UK. If they do not however, the consequences for the British economy could be huge, potentially, we could lose vital trading with South America.

 

I think that what Assange has done with WikiLeaks is a very brave thing and it is for the greater good, governments hide things that they don't want to be seen by the public, and by exposing some of the hidden documents, the public have been able to see what their governments are up to.

 

 

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For me, the biggest point of irritation was the disclosure of documents pertaining to military actions, i.e. American air strikes. There are good reasons for keeping such information classified, and by publishing them Wikileaks put the whole operation at risk and endangered the lives of Westerners in the Middle East. That incident showed that Wikileaks didn't handle their material responsibly.

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So it's all okay for the US government to go around air striking the locations of supposed terrorists, causing a great deal of collateral damage and killing civilians in the process, and it's okay for the CIA and MI6 to go around torturing prisoners that are being held WITHOUT trial, and it's okay for the governments to spy on civilians but it's suddenly "wrong" that WikiLeaks to publish leaked documents on US air strikes?

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No it's not right, but I think there has to be some security for soldiers in a campaign abroad. According to the pilots, they mistook civilians for combatants because they thought their cameras were weapons. Calling that 'Collateral Murder' is a ways off. I can understand if such incidents don't result in disciplinary measures/ a trial until all forces have pulled out of a country.

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The soldiers that a fighting out there won't give a monkey bollocks as to whether some document was leaked, all they care about is getting out of their shitholes of bases and arriving home to see their families. A leaked document about an air strike or two isn't going to make the blindest bit of difference to the security of an infantryman patrolling the villages of Afghanistan.

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I seriously doubt that it doesn't get to some servicemen if their entire engagement is called into doubt. It certainly hasn't gone past the veterans of other wars when they returned home and met with a hostile public opinion. Assange has expressed the view that the pros of disclosure outweigh these drawbacks, but I personally suspect he's just a bit too megalomanical to even consider them. Unsurprisingly the charges against him by those women in Sweden fit into this picture.

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