Recent reports indicate that the US government is preparing to put Julian Assange on trial in the US on espionage charges. Recently leaked photos have shown the delicate care with which the US government is proceeding.
The Julian Assange Trial
Recent reports indicate that the US government is preparing to put Julian Assange on trial in the US on espionage charges. Recently leaked photos have shown the delicate care with which the US government is proceeding.
Boadicea's Chariot 
I hope they intend to prosecute every newspaper editor who has published the material that was leaked by an American at the same time.
Such cynicism in folk so mature!
Anybody seen this yet?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8199545/WikiLeaks-Julian-Assanges-online-dating-profile-I-am-danger-achtung.html
Boadicea: it is highly unlikely that any of the editors will be put to trial. The espionage law is rather archaic, it has not changed much since 1917. Essentially the way that US courts have interpreted it in the cyber-age is that the original publisher/receiver of the information will be held liable but not any of the other subsequent publishers. Because Assange published it first only he will be held to account under that interpretation. This issue has put me even more at odds with the American way of doing things. Rather than trying to hold an even standard the Americans seem to get everything backwards before twisting it some more. The number of people calling for his assassination is chilling and makes me wonder if this is a society in which I can really continue to live.
Sadly, I am inclined to agree with Bearsy. The United States has grown increasingly reactionary over the past decade. I doubt that there would be hesitation to get rid of anyone perceived as a threat — even if the actual threat is so minimal and the reality is that the situation, while embarrassing, would pass before the end of the next year.
It transpires that the Banks have frozen Assange’s account. He has not even been charged with a crime let alone been convicted. And people say he is not being persecuted…
The old saw that power corrupts applies in spades to the Yanks.
Boa, on a matter of order, I don’t believe banks in general have frozen his account, have they? It is the credit card companies, Visa, Mastercard, and so on, and payment transmission systems such as paypal, who have boycotted Wikileaks as beneficiary of their clients’ payment instructions.
I could be worng, and there may be some fresh development I am unaware of. One Swiss bank has frozen his account with them because he lied on the account opening form, claiming to be a resident of Switzerland, when in fact he is not. It is apparently no longer lawful to open an account in a Swiss bank unless resident (REALLY????!!!)
I could be worng, if I knew what that meant: wrong!
CWJ – I’m only going on what was reported on the News here, It was said that even if the Swedish appeal against against giving him bail fails he will have trouble raising the cash needed for the bond because the banks have frozen his accounts.
Assange is an Rsehole. If you p*ss on the shoes of the biggest kid in the schoolyard, you’d better be ready to have it away on your toes. (At least you can see the big kid coming – if you do the same to the most sly kid in the schoolyard, you’d better watch your back. Check the list of countries that have been embarrassed by Wikileaks…)
That said, I would also oppose extraditing him to the US because he will definitely not get a fair trial should that happen. Not because I believe that the US Courts are corrupt*, or that due process is any worse there than any place in Europe – and, it is undeniably better than some – but because he will be facing Federal charges rather than State Criminal Charges. I say, ‘charges,’ because Federal Prosecutors in the States have developed a particularly nasty trick. Instead of putting up one charge, or a few related charges, they have developed a process of putting someone on trial for a whole book-full of charges in which some of the charges at the end of the list might bear the only the most flimsy of connections to the original charge through a tortuous process of derivation from others in the list. Facts are confused, juries bewildered and if the accused is found guilty on one charge, it generates an atmosphere of , ‘Well, if he did that…
Corruption Index. USA. Rank 22. Score 7.1.
Bravo: yes, Assange has been playing with fire for some time. It was inevitable that he would get burnt. I suspect that if he had been toying around with the Mossad that he would be fertiliser already. What disturbs me is not so much that the US government is trying to press ahead with charges. What the problem for me is is that the charges will be applied so unevenly and the tone the US is taking. Assange, while he is no angel, is still an Australian citizen and Australia is a critical US ally. Australia is, justifiably, less than pleased about the threats against his life.