DISCUSS: The Extradition of Julian Assange
A UK court has ordered that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange can be extradited to the United States.
The decision overturns an earlier ruling, from January this year, that found Assange could not be extradited due to the impact confined US prison conditions could have on his mental health.
Assurances from the US that Assange would not be held in confined conditions, unless he committed a further crime, were accepted by the high court as the basis for overturning the original verdict.
If extradited, Assange faces charges of conspiracy and computer hacking (you can read the full indictment here).
Assange has been in Belmarsh prison since 2019, and detained in one manner or another since 2010 when he sought political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture, has publicly called Assange’s treatment at the hands of the British government “inhumane” and repeatedly demanded his immediate release.
Opinion is divided, in the alternate media world, on whether or not WikiLeaks was truly organic in its origins, and some allege ties to the US Deep State. But whether or not you trust Assange and his organisation the story, as it is presented to us, should be cause for alarm.
Julian Assange is a journalist, who is accused of nothing but doing journalism. That this could ever be considered a crime is very dangerous ground.
This case could set a very damaging precedent, one that seeks to pre-emptively bully journalists and publishers into silence. It could even be seen to be just as much about intimidating future journalists as punishing current ones.
However, at least it gives the “Lockdown Left” something to talk about again whilst they pretend to continued relevance.
One wonders how they will justify protesting the long-term inhumane othering & incarceration of one man, while approving the same treatment for millions of the ‘unvaxxed’ all over the world.
In fact, the US and UK governments have missed a trick here. If they’d simply called Assange a public health risk, rather than a Russian spy or whatever nonsense he’s accused of being, then the lockdown left wouldn’t only have applauded the removal of his human rights, they’d have demanded it be stricter and suggested he be subject to medical experiments too.
But what do you guys think?
- Will Assange be extradited?
- If so, will he face trial
- How will this impact future whistleblowers or independent journalists
- Will pro-lockdown, pro-Assange campaigners realise their hypocrisy?
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