[Peace-discuss] Swedish PM errand-boy for Obama

[David Johnson]

What the hell ever became of the Sweden of Olaf Palme ?

David J.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu>
To: "Peace-discuss" <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
Sent: Monday, February 14, 2011 2:45 AM
Subject: [Peace-discuss] Swedish PM errand-boy for Obama


Swedish PM Taps Assange as ‘Public Enemy Number One’
Comments Add to Argument Assange Cannot Get a Fair Trial in Sweden
by Jason Ditz, February 13, 2011

Can Julian Assange count on a fair trial in Sweden? Not if you believe the
nation’s Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, who insisted over the weekend 
that
Assange is “public enemy number one” for the nation.

This is an incredible claim for the prime minister to make, particularly 
when
Swedish officials haven’t even formally charged the WikiLeaks founder with a
single offence yet. Indeed, the official reason for seeking his extradition 
is
still “questioning,” though puzzlingly Swedish officials have declined 
offers to
question him in London, where he presently resides.

Assange’s alleged crime in the Swedish case, which isn’t even a formal
accusation yet so much as a vague suspicion, is an exceedingly minor offence
related to consensual sex with a pair of different women. But Assange’s
objection to the extradition has never so much been his belief that he 
cannot
get a fair trial in Sweden, though clearly his lawyer’s arguments to that 
effect
have been greatly strengthened by the prime minister’s comments.

Rather the concern is that the Swedish government, keen to build up their
relationship with the US, will never even try to charge Assange with a crime
themselves, but will simply trade him off to the Obama Administration, whose
officials have called him a terrorist for his publication of embarrassing
information about them, and that he will simply disappear into a legal black
hole as so many other administration foes in the US have. Though the Swedish
government’s bias will no doubt be an issue in the case, the prospect of 
sending
Assange, who is an Australian citizen and subsequently part of the 
Commonwealth
of Nations, from Britain to a possible summary execution somewhere, will no
doubt be the bigger concern for British officials, and not the prospect that 
he
will serve a few years in Swedish prison.
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