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No, We Shouldn’t Extradite Julian Assange

by Will Jones
14 February 2024 6:14 PM

In the Mail, Peter Hitchens takes up the cause of Julian Assange, arguing that if the boot was on the other foot there’s no chance America would hand the Wikileaks founder over to the U.K. Here’s how he begins.

Even a self-respecting poodle would object to the way we are currently behaving towards the USA. We are on the brink of allowing the American Government to reach into this country and seize a man who has broken no British law.

Once they have hold of him, there is every chance that he will be buried alive in some federal dungeon, quite possibly until he dies. We would not allow Russia, or Saudi Arabia, or Turkey to behave like this. And quite right too. There is every reason to believe that if the circumstances were reversed, the Americans would laugh in our faces and refuse to hand over such a person.

The man involved is the Australian journalist Julian Assange, whose Wikileaks organisation is hated by the USA because he embarrassed them, and who has languished in Belmarsh maximum security prison ever since being arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in 2019.

As I asked in the Mail on Sunday nearly four years ago: “Do we really want the hand of a foreign power to be able to reach into our national territory at will and pluck out anyone it wants to punish? Are we still even an independent country if we allow this?”

You will have heard many bad things about Mr. Assange. I had too, but – while I disagree with him politically about most things – I found when I inquired that he has in fact been the victim of many smears which do not stand up to examination.

Ignore claims that he carelessly endangered the lives of Americans when he released material provided by the U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning. In the words of my distinguished and far-from-Leftist colleague Andrew Neil, who, like me, opposes Mr. Assange’s extradition, the material revealed: “War crimes covered up. Torture. Brutality. The rendition and incarceration of suspects without due process. The corruption of inquiries trying to hold it to account. The bribery of foreign officials to look the other way when America did bad things.”

In short, Julian Assange published scandalous facts which proper journalists in a free society are entitled – and in fact obliged – to disclose, for the benefit of that society.

But Julian Assange took great care to edit the material to prevent individuals being endangered, and no evidence has ever been produced that any such harm resulted.

Interestingly, Chelsea Manning was pardoned by President Barack Obama. His administration also decided not to proceed with charges against Mr. Assange. But they were then revived by President Donald Trump.

This is the clearest possible evidence that the prosecution is openly political, not criminal. As the text of the U.S.-U.K. extradition treaty states, using the American spelling of ‘offence’, in a document bearing the Royal Coat of Arms: (Article 4, clause 1): “Extradition shall not be granted if the offense for which extradition is requested is a political offense.”

It is quite astonishing that the British courts and more than one Home Secretary have been persuaded by lawyers to pretend that this is not such an offence.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: Julian AssangeUnited StatesWikileaks

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22 Comments
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David Tallboys
David Tallboys
2 years ago

Too bad the article was written under a pen name – a form of self
censorship.

Mind you, writing under my own name got me banned by The Times so I do wriggle on the hook of this issue.

The way things are progressing wrongspeak and wrongthought simply won’t be possible soon.

51
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
2 years ago
Reply to  David Tallboys

I fail to see why adopting the language of our oppressors, as in “wrongspeak and wronghtought” aid our cause. Helping to form a 1984 society via their isms is hardly pushing back. Hasn’t the woke vocabulary done enough damage?

21
-5
Lockdown Sceptic
Lockdown Sceptic
2 years ago

Medical Misinformation: telling the truth about pharmaceutical products.

Stand in the Park Make friends & keep sane 

Sundays 10.30am to 11.30am
Elms Field 
near Everyman Cinema & play area
Wokingham RG40 2FE

Last edited 2 years ago by Lockdown Sceptic
49
-5
Dr G
Dr G
2 years ago

It remains remarkable that, despite the plethora of readily available information on the fascism (as in the original meaning) between government, social media, MSM, big business and the technocracy, the majority of the populace remains quite content to believe and do what they are told.
In the end, it remains a case of caveat emptor, or ” we get the politicians we deserve”.

98
0
For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
2 years ago
Reply to  Dr G

We don’t, individually we can only choose one. The one I voted for fights the tide, but is a lone voice.

38
0
Dr G
Dr G
2 years ago
Reply to  For a fist full of roubles

Few and far between.
Congratulations on having a decent representative.

31
0
stewart
stewart
2 years ago
Reply to  Dr G

The idea that we can choose our political representatives is basically a fantasy.

And the idea that our political representatives have any real policy making power another even bigger fantasy.

Our democracy is like an elaborate card trick. You choose the card they want you to pick, and the card ends up where the trickster wants it to.

22
-1
Jane G
Jane G
2 years ago

How would EU members communicate and transact without social media companies like Twitter? Would the EU find themselves in a communication blackspot if Musk pulled out of their jurisdiction?

I realise this is probably a stupid question but would it be inevitable that the likes of Gab and Gettr would simply move in, comply and clean up? I thought G and G prided themselves on their free speech ideals – but I suppose money talks.

I’m really getting to hate the EU more than is reasonable.

28
0
stewart
stewart
2 years ago
Reply to  Jane G

Nothing would please the EU and other establishments more than the disappearance of Twitter, and pretty much all social media.

It would mean they could go back to the good old days when all the information was easy to control – radio, TV, papers.

Social media has exposed the ruling establishment and they are desperate to put the genie back in the bottle with all their digital laws and controls.

The “disinformation” and “misinformation” has rolled the curtain back to reveal the fraud that is our free democratic system and the establishment is cross, very cross.

24
-1
Smudger
Smudger
2 years ago
Reply to  Jane G

Is Twitter UK subject to EU social media censorship rules?

6
0
DevonBlueBoy
DevonBlueBoy
2 years ago

So what did we expect from the unelected and venal bureaucrats in the EC, honesty and openness? The book ‘Adults in the Room’ by Yanis Varoufakis tells us all we need to know about corruption and the abuse of power in the organisation.

12
0
RTSC
RTSC
2 years ago

The EU consists almost entirely of former Fascist or Communist nations. And its run by people who have very close links with the previous generations of Fascists and Communists who ran their countries.

It’s hardly surprising that the EU they’ve built has all the surveillance, authoritarian and dictatorial features of a Fascist/Communist State. It’s all they know.

Thank the Lord we’re out of it.

16
0
Geoff Cox
Geoff Cox
2 years ago

When bureaucracies and politicians get asked or even told to do something they don’t want to do, their best method of counter-action is agree to it, then do nothing. This works at every level government. I hope Twitter is adopting a similar policy – agreeing in public but doing little or nothing in private. Of course, when they are almost alone in challenging the EU over their censorship the heat is fully on them and they have to give a little. But I hope the feet dragging will encourage others to feet drag until such time as online freedom is restored.

8
0
varmint
varmint
2 years ago

Social media is the views of the public is it not? But ofcourse we have known for years that those views are being suppressed. So who do governments think they are to control the views of their citizens? People who say I believe in free speech but………”, don’t believe in free speech at all. ——-There are no “buts”.

8
0
wryobserver
wryobserver
2 years ago

It’s a pity that the disinformation Inquisition can’t develop a lisp. Diffinformation , everybody?

1
0
GMO
GMO
2 years ago

DSA = censorship by another name.

Only the authorities’ opinions will be allowed.
All other opinions will be deemed to be ‘mis(dis)information’.

This presumes the authorities are infallible, are never wrong and can never be criticized and scrutinized.

0
0

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