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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=dlj725@hughes.net href="mailto:dlj725@hughes.net">David Johnson</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=dlj725@hughes.net href="mailto:dlj725@hughes.net">david
johnson</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Monday, August 27, 2012 8:53 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Glen Greenwald on the Assange case and Sweden's past
complicity with U.S.</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
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<DIV class=relative-series-navigation><A
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<H1><A
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<DIV id=Frame2 class=" hide-on-popup"><A
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<H1 itemprop="name">Julian Assange's right to asylum</H1>
<P id=stand-first class=stand-first-alone itemprop="description"
data-component="comp : r2 : Article : standfirst_cta">Given the travesty that is
American justice, WikiLeaks' founder is entitled to seek asylum and well-advised
to fear extradition</P></DIV></DIV>
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<LI><A href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/glenn-greenwald" rel=author
itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><IMG
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<LI class=byline><IMG alt="WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange"
src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/6/19/1340145403866/WikiLeaks-founder-Julian--008.jpg"
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<DIV class=caption itemprop="caption">WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has
taken refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Photograph: Finbarr
O'Reilly/Reuters</DIV></DIV>
<DIV id=article-body-blocks>
<P>If one asks current or former <A
title="More from guardian.co.uk on WikiLeaks"
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/wikileaks">WikiLeaks</A> associates what
their greatest fear is, almost none cites prosecution by their own country. Most
trust their own nation's justice system to recognize that they have committed no
crime. The primary fear is being turned over to the US. That is the crucial
context for understanding <A title="More from guardian.co.uk on Julian Assange"
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/julian-assange">Julian Assange</A>'s
16-month fight to avoid extradition to <A
title="More from guardian.co.uk on Sweden"
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/sweden">Sweden</A>, a fight that led him
to seek asylum, Tuesday, in the London Embassy of Ecuador.</P>
<P>The evidence that the US seeks to prosecute and extradite Assange is
substantial. <A
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/29/AR2010112905973.html">There
is no question that</A> the Obama justice department <A
href="http://www.salon.com/2011/06/09/wikileaks_27/">has convened an
active grand jury</A> to investigate whether WikiLeaks violated the
draconian Espionage Act of 1917. Key senators from President Obama's party,
including Senate intelligence committee chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, <A
href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703989004575653280626335258.html">have publicly
called for his prosecution</A> under that statute. A leaked email from the
security firm Stratfor – hardly a dispositive source, but still probative
– <A
href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/wikileaks-stratfor-emails-a-secret-indictment-against-assange-20120228">indicated that
a sealed indictment</A> has already been obtained against him. <A
href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40467957/ns/us_news-wikileaks_in_security/t/assange-lawyer-condemns-calls-assassination-wikileaks-founder/">Prominent
American figures in both parties have demanded</A> Assange's lifelong
imprisonment, <A
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/19/assange-high-tech-terrorist-biden">called
him a terrorist</A>, and <A
href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2010/1130/WikiLeaks-Julian-Assange-Does-Sarah-Palin-think-CIA-should-neutralize-him">even advocated</A> his <A
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/07/fox-news-bob-beckel-calls_n_793467.html">assassination</A>.</P>
<P>For several reasons, Assange has long feared that the US would be able to
coerce Sweden into handing him over far more easily than if he were in Britain.
For one, smaller countries such as Sweden are generally more susceptible to
American pressure and bullying. </P>
<P>For another, that country has a disturbing history of lawlessly handing over
suspects to the US. A <A
href="http://www.hrw.org/news/2006/11/09/sweden-violated-torture-ban-cia-rendition">2006
UN ruling found Sweden</A> in violation of the global ban on torture
for helping the CIA render two suspected terrorists to Egypt, where they were
brutally tortured (both individuals, asylum-seekers in Sweden, were ultimately
found to be innocent of any connection to terrorism and received a monetary
settlement from the Swedish government). </P>
<P>Perhaps most disturbingly of all, <A
href="http://ggdrafts.blogspot.com.br/2012/06/swedish-justice.html">Swedish law
permits extreme levels of secrecy in judicial proceedings</A> and
oppressive pre-trial conditions, enabling any Swedish-US transactions concerning
Assange to be conducted beyond public scrutiny. Ironically, even the <A
href="http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/eur/154453.htm">US State
Department condemned Sweden's</A> "restrictive conditions for
prisoners held in pretrial custody", including severe restrictions on their
communications with the outside world.</P>
<P>Assange's fear of ending up in the clutches of the US is plainly rational and
well-grounded. One need only look at the treatment over the last decade of
foreign nationals accused of harming American national security to know that's
true; such individuals are still routinely imprisoned for lengthy periods
without any charges or due process. Or consider the treatment of <A
title="More from guardian.co.uk on Bradley Manning"
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/bradley-manning">Bradley Manning</A>,
accused of leaking to WikiLeaks: a <A
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/12/bradley-manning-cruel-inhuman-treatment-un">formal
UN investigation found</A> that his pre-trial conditions of severe
solitary confinement were "cruel, inhuman and degrading", and he now faces
capital charges of aiding al-Qaida. The Obama administration's unprecedented
obsession with persecuting whistleblowers and preventing transparency – what <A
href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/06/obamas-whistleblowers-stuxnet-leaks-drones">even generally
supportive, liberal magazines call</A> "Obama's war on whistleblowers" –
makes those concerns all the more valid.</P>
<P>No responsible person should have formed a judgment one way or the other as
to whether Assange is guilty of anything in Sweden. He has not even been
charged, let alone tried or convicted, of sexual assault, and he is entitled to
a presumption of innocence. The accusations made against him are serious ones,
and deserve to be taken seriously and accorded a fair and legal resolution.</P>
<P>But the WikiLeaks founder, like everyone else, is fully entitled to invoke
all of his legal rights, and it's profoundly reckless and irresponsible to
suggest, <A
href="http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/human-rights/2012/06/desperation-julian-assange">as some
have</A>, that he has done anything wrong by doing so. Seeking asylum on the
grounds of claimed <A title="More from guardian.co.uk on Human rights"
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/human-rights">human rights</A> violations is
a <A
href="http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/04/30/gimme_shelter?page=0,1">longstanding
and well-recognized right</A> in international law. It is unseemly, at
best, to insist that he forego his rights in order to herd him as quickly as
possible to Sweden. </P>
<P>Assange is not a fugitive and has not fled. Everyone knows where he is. If
Ecuador rejects his asylum request, he will be right back in the hands of
British authorities, who will presumably extradite him to Sweden without delay.
At every step of the process, he has adhered to, rather than violated, the rule
of law. His asylum request of yesterday is no exception.</P>
<P>Julian Assange has sparked intense personal animosity, especially in media
circles – a revealing irony, given that he has helped to bring about more
transparency and generated more newsworthy scoops than all media outlets
combined over the last several years. That animosity often leads media
commentators to toss aside their professed beliefs and principles out of an
eagerness to see him shamed or punished.</P>
<P>But ego clashes and media personality conflicts are pitifully trivial when
weighed against what is at stake in this case: both for Assange personally and
for the greater cause of transparency. If he's guilty of any crimes in Sweden,
he should be held to account. But until then, he has every right to invoke the
legal protections available to everyone else. Even more so, as a foreign
national accused of harming <A
title="More from guardian.co.uk on US national security"
href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-national-security">US national
security</A>, he has every reason to want to avoid ending up in the travesty
known as the American judicial
system.</P></DIV></DIV></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>