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.
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Who is bringing Keir Starmer down?
Who recently gave “new information” to the London Metropolitan Police?
Does Starmer’s “social media expert” Assaf Kaplan, “formerly” of Israel’s 8200 Unit, know anything about any of the above?
Today I learnt that Keir Starmer is a member of the St John’s Wood Synagogue.
Hahaha!! Guess who the “Durham undergraduate” who supposedly shot the video of Keir Starmer is!
He is Ivo Delingpole, son of James Delingpole who writes for the far right Breitbart News – and also for the Spectator, where he has proclaimed his love for Israeli TV.
‘Who is bringing Keir Starmer down?’ Keir Starmer!
“…..(Starmer) joined South Hampstead Synagogue for an online Q&A on Sunday, February 21” doesn’t mean that he is a member of the synagogue or its congregation. If he joined the BMA, for example, for an online Q&A, it doesn’t mean he’s joined the medical profession.
Meanwhile, I see that he has added a sophisticated form of pressure on the Durham Police (aka “blackmail”) with his lawyer-tricksy resignation threat.
This is a bit of an outsider bet, for sure, but if the loony crown prince ascends the throne, might he call himself “King Arthur”? Or even King Arthur II? (His full list of forenames runs “Charles Philip Arthur George”.)
This sounds ludicrous and absurd, I know, but so do many things in Britain. Apparently he thinks the name “Charles” is “unlucky”, which doubtless connects with his belief in reincarnation – a topic that no “responsible” critics are daring to touch, except in jest.
If anybody reading this needs a nudge to stop thinking “That would be so crazy that I won’t bother thinking about it”, one place they might start is the role of a representation of Glastonbury Tor in the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic games in London.
I read, years ago, (can’t think where) that being he loved his great uncle Louis Mountbatten so much, he said he may choose his name when he became king.
Taking ‘Keeboots’ for his Monarchic name might be more appropriate.
No sorry that was Andrew…
I guess you’re speaking of the “Louis” christian name. Apart from his assassinated great uncle, he might be aiming for the lustre of Louis XIV, the Sun King, and hoping to avoid the fate of Louis XVI, who, like the earlier Charles, parted company with his head. Fairly poor auguries for the Louis name, I’d say.
I believe that he wants to be known as George VII.
Parr for the course for that pratt.
He comes well-equipped and qualified for “The Madness of King George, Part the Second”.
Sadly the establishment has embraced Sinn Féin. Terrorism pays. Devolution was yet another of Tony Blair’s disasters .
Now Boris John is finishing off what Blair started. He has used Brexit to let the EU annex Northern Ireland. He does not believe in Brexit, freedom or anything else. His Climate Change nonsense we mean most people will never be able to leave there own local area.
He has turned Tony Blair’s’ Ofcom into the Ministry of Truth. Covid lockdowns were just the start.
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