Breaking: Julian Assange to be extradited to the U.S.
Dec 17, 2021 11:52:16 GMT 10
caskur likes this
Post by Stellar on Dec 17, 2021 11:52:16 GMT 10
He’s not a US citizen and US can’t try Assange for treason
December 15, 2021 www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/he-s-not-a-us-citizen-and-us-can-t-try-assange-for-treason-20211214-p59h9z.html
I have seen Julian Assange portrayed as a journalist, a whistleblower and as a traitor by the US government (“In a decent society, Assange is entitled to justice”, December 14). The fact is that neither he, nor any other Australian citizen, has ever had any formal requirement or commitment of loyalty or allegiance to the US government. It would therefore be an incredible stretch to describe his actions as treasonous. For the US to claim sovereignty over the globe and seek to apply their law to anyone anywhere in the world at will is sheer arrogance. The arrogance succeeds only because of the meek complicity of governments such as ours and that of Britain. Assange released material showing US forces committing atrocities during the Afghan war. This material made the US government look bad. They didn’t like it, expressed confected and selective moral outrage and hunted Assange down. Even if the extradition, the US government will have succeeded in warning off any other potential whistleblowers.
True. He's not a traitor. Chelsea Manning is the only one who - as a US citizen - could be charged with being a traitor. And yet she was charged with espionage instead.
So it would be pretty vindictive of the US govt to treat Assange as a traitor even though they can't charge him as such. However they are vindictive and I don't think he'll get a fair trial.
Surely there must be lots of lefties over there who will take on his case? And the Australian govt should be doing more ... but yes, they're all definitely doing as much as they can to warn off any other potential whistleblowers.