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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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Matt Mounsey
Matt Mounsey
4 years ago

The scepticism on vaccine death numbers from Toby Young has become almost vanishingly small.

The only way you can compare deaths for vaccines with Covid to get a risk/benefit metric is with the same standards for vaccines as for deaths attributed to Covid.

How many deaths occur within 28 days of a Covid vaccine? The government have flat out refused to provide this data, saying that all vaccine related deaths are recorded under the MHRA’s Yellow Card system. Furthermore, there is no way of knowing what the effects of this experimental treatment are at least until the clinical trials have concluded.

The resistance to this incoming tyranny is starting to look infinitesimally small.

40
-1
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  Matt Mounsey

https://dailyexpose.co.uk/2021/03/30/f-o-i-request-shows-2207-died-within-28-days-of-having-the-covid-vaccine-in-scotland-during-february/

F.O.I Request shows 2,207 died within 28 days of having the Covid Vaccine in Scotland during February
It’s not quite correct WRT just during Feb… But I think it IS over 500 a month dying WITH experimental COVID jab in just Scotland alone..

Last edited 4 years ago by TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
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Jonny S.
Jonny S.
4 years ago
Reply to  TheyLiveAndWeLockdown

I took that FOI to mean since the beginning of vaccination. I then went to the governments coronavirus website

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

and from there used 9th December as the start of vaccination and found that approximately 3,300 had died in Scotland within 28 days of a positve test over the same period. This was a while ago I did this though so may require double checking.

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TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  Jonny S.

The above link was sent in reply to a comment I made earlier in the week.

Others looked and it seemed the timeframe (just one month) was off but the numbers weren’t

I’m guessing we still need the numbers for dying without COVID and without being jabbed.

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baboon
baboon
4 years ago
Reply to  TheyLiveAndWeLockdown

Thanks for posting the Daily Expose article, I was going to do so myself. I posted it yesterday as well.

I want to add the caveat again that there is no way of verifying if that document is real or not. The only way to be certain would be to submit a FOI request yourself.

I don’t know if Daily Expose is a reputable website either, so we need to be careful with things like this before making any claims.

With that said:

How many deaths occur within 28 days of a Covid vaccine?

Extrapolating the quoted Scottish numbers across the whole of the UK would give 25,524 deaths. 

63,182,000 – UK population

5,463,300 – Scottish population

Death rate in Scotland for the entire population = 0.00040397 (2,207/5,463,300)

0.00040397*63,182,000 = 25,524

If anyone has a better way of doing it, let me know.

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Splatt
Splatt
4 years ago
Reply to  baboon

The problem with this is the age breakdown.
This is an issue that gets rapidly bigger the younger people get so using an all-age average isn’t going to be that accurate.

4
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baboon
baboon
4 years ago
Reply to  Splatt

I agree, it’s a mess.

Also, I feel extremely bad even talking about this. I hope no-one thinks I’m ever being callous. This BS is breaking my heart, which is why I’m doing all I can to warn people.

2
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RickH
RickH
4 years ago
Reply to  Matt Mounsey

But it’s not just deaths. As Sucharit Bhakdi has pointed out – less severe outcomes can also be associated with a thrombosi(e)s.

11
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Tillysmum
Tillysmum
4 years ago
Reply to  Matt Mounsey

Govt .Yellow Card Vaccine deaths and Adverse Reactions can be found in The Light newspaper monthly.

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TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago

The best alternative is to avoid a jab.

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iane
iane
4 years ago
Reply to  TheyLiveAndWeLockdown

Yup: that’s my strategy!

11
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karenovirus
karenovirus
4 years ago

The more newspaper headlines containing the words Vaccine and Risk the better.

Last edited 4 years ago by karenovirus
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I am Spartacas
I am Spartacas
4 years ago

It just gets worse doesn’t it ?

I mean we’ve gone from complete denial that there was any risk to the vaccines – to admitting that there maybe a tiny risk – to now offering a completely different vaccine to under 40’s because of a potential risk of blood clots from the previous vaccine that was being given to all the over 40’s.

Anyone out there still eager to roll-up there sleeves for this vaccine must be completely insane. I wouldn’t take an asprin from these people if it was offered to me nevermind an experimental jab that appears to have so many question marks hanging over it.

Last edited 4 years ago by Ember von Drake-Dale 22
43
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sophie123
sophie123
4 years ago
Reply to  I am Spartacas

Nobody has started on the more “normal” thrombosis associated with all the spike protein producing vaccines yet. Obviously COVID can also cause these….but it’s quite hard to catch COVID right now. You can’t avoid them in the vaccines though.

17
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RickH
RickH
4 years ago
Reply to  I am Spartacas

“I wouldn’t take an asprin from these people”

In the end – detail apart – this is the sane position, given the stack of reasons not to trust the political and financial issues involved and the sheer lies that have been told.

I mean – buying ‘guaranteed’ snake oil from the producers who have been given immunity against harms on the recommendation of a PR firm that has spent billions on shares in it?

You’d have to be mad.

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sophie123
sophie123
4 years ago

To Toby: I think they meant when they say the risks outweigh the benefits in the under 40s is that VIPIT is more likely (death or not….even if not death, a debilitating stroke that leaves you long term disabled aged under 40 has to be included as a major harm) than a healthy under 40 dying of COVID.

Of course, healthy doesn’t mean low risk. The obese are at far greater risk, so the younger, slimmer and fitter you are, the greater the relative risk of the vaccine. If you are a fit 40, 50 or 60 something, the vaccine may still not make any sense.

And then of course there are all the other risks of the vaccine, that nobody mentions. The people spending a week or more in bed. That’s not normal! And that’s at the mild end of the spectrum.

20
0
Splatt
Splatt
4 years ago

Its not just deaths. You don’t want to end up in hospital for a vaccine you don’t really need even if it doesn’t kill you.

“This might not kill you but you might need 2 weeks in hospital to fix it” isn’t appealing.

The 2 people i know of that have had clotting issues weren’t killed. One ended up in hospital for tests, the other was there over a week until it resolved.

And all of this for a vaccine thats far less effective than the others.

13
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CovidiousAlbion
CovidiousAlbion
4 years ago
Reply to  Splatt

“resolved” – If you’ve small blood clots in the brain, do they not invariably do irreparable damage? Perhaps the impact is not readily discernable, but you’re less of the person you were, and the specific damage may take its toll years later.

9
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peyrole
peyrole
4 years ago
Reply to  Splatt

Wrong. The Az and JJ vaccines may have an immediate effect because of their delivery system. But in the medium and longer term the mRNA vaccines are far more pernicious. The immune system can eventually identify the problem with the AZ and JJ vaccines. But the gel surrounding the mRNA vaccines disguises the effect and the problem may well appear much later in say the brain before the immune system attacks with potentially deadly consequences.

8
0
fiery
fiery
4 years ago
Reply to  Splatt

Yes and people will probably end up on lifelong medication for problems they didn’t have before taking the vaccine.

3
0
James Kreis
James Kreis
4 years ago

If I was still under 40 I’d be demanding my freedom, not an alternative jab.

21
0
Paul B
Paul B
4 years ago
Reply to  James Kreis

My group of sheep (friends) are in the 40 bracket, boy will they be glad they took the AZ poison these last two weeks….

5
0
iane
iane
4 years ago

That’s OK; I’m in my 60s and I have a great alternative to AZ – nada!

18
0
Judy Watson
Judy Watson
4 years ago
Reply to  iane

Me too – absolutely no chance of me having any of the so-called vaccines.

The more I read the more I disagree with them.

Why anyone who is otherwise healthy wish to have these is beyond my comprehension.

14
0
ebygum
ebygum
4 years ago
Reply to  Judy Watson

i agree. What is also baffling is how little it’s mentioned that the Jabz are being rolled out in spring and summer for a winter seasonal disease!
Could this be the amazing reason why they are so ‘effective’.?

1
0
CovidiousAlbion
CovidiousAlbion
4 years ago

Funny that this news didn’t come out just before “Super Thursday”, when it might have slightly flattened the wave of “vaccine” “success” Boris’s party was riding.

Funny too, that the bad news is being broken on results day, when so many people are distracted by the theatre of party politics.

12
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caipirinha17
caipirinha17
4 years ago

What an excellent opportunity to ‘help’ those in a particular populous country where the media say there is a crisis by giving them all the dodgy AZ jabs that would have been given to under 40s… and when I say giving, I mean not challenging them to fulfil the UK’s order and agreeing that they can keep the stuff for themselves…

1
0
NashJ
NashJ
4 years ago

‘If we assume that at least a half of the 35 million Britons who’ve been inoculated got an AZ jab…’ – Why don’t you look it up? It’s 22.6M AZ jabs (twice the amount of Pfizer). There are a ‘reported’ 49 blood clots biut it’s not just blood clots when calculating risk vs. reward of the vaccines. There’s anaphylaxis, Bell’s Palsy, blindness, Guillain-Barre Syndrome and capillary leak syndrome to consider. The Yellow Card currently shows 1102 deaths immediately following vaccination – that’s 6.3/day for AZ and 2.6/day for Pfizer (longer rollout). There were 9,942 (with multiple AEs) single Yellow Card reports in the week April 21-29th alone – which represents only 0.3-0.6% of reporting. For a 0-19 year old, the chances of dying of COVID is 0.00015%. Chances of dying from the vaccine – 0.2%. While the true number of deaths from vaccines (and this won’t include those who developed and died ‘from’ COVID as a result of a weakened immune system following the vaccine – which will go down as COVID deaths) won’t be known until it’s too late for the majority – anyone can look at the ONS and Yellow Card data and judge for themselves. What you will find is that the death toll from COVID for a healthy under 65 year old for the whole of 2020 (Eng & Wales) was 1,549 – once you factor in the 33% over reporting and the under reporting of the Yellow Card, only the highly innumerate would conclude that the rewards of a vaccine outweigh the risks. A healthy under 65 year old is statistically more likely to die from the vaccine than COVID.

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