BREAKING: Swedish software developer who is allegedly close to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is arrested at Quito airport, Ecuadorian official says. https://t.co/XZcIBfAbHN
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 12, 2019
If you click on the linked story, it’s being updated regularly…
If nothing else, the arrest of Julian Assange in a US extradition warrant is yet another example of the towering ingratitude of this administration*.
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) April 11, 2019
There's an element of the regime tying up loose ends after Barr's clampdown that stinks in the Assange arrest. He's a penny fascist who is also a time bomb for Trump. Not hard to imagine Putin smiling, either. Julian's usefulness to global white nationalist power grab was over.
— Tom Watson (@tomwatson) April 11, 2019
One thought re: the rather small, single charge in the Assange indictment:
The severity of the charges and potential punishment has a potential impact on other countries’ extradition decisions.
The greater the appearance of prosecutorial harshness, the harder the sell.
1/2
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) April 11, 2019
Reserving more substantial potential charges until Assange was arrested and extradited would be a reasonably logical approach since a giant stack of charges calling for a lengthy incarceration might chill the odds of extradition.
2/
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) April 11, 2019
We’ll have to wait to see what happens next but with Barr throwing himself behind full obstruction of justice, don’t be shocked if we see no prosecutorial zeal out of the DOJ until leaks reveal the chargeable offenses being held back by Barr’s DOJ.
We shall see.
7/7
— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) April 11, 2019
The unsealing of an indictment against Assange was always intended to be ‘twinned’ w/ the indictments of Stone, Corsi and perhaps others. That was dictated by the sequential ‘storyline’ of SCO indictments. +
— Rick Petree (@RickPetree) April 11, 2019
Chapter 3 shd have been the receipt, and weaponization for campaign purposes, of that data by campaign-connected persons. It’s that piece of the story that we have yet to see. What has happened to any planned indictments for that ‘chapter’ remains to be seen.
— Rick Petree (@RickPetree) April 11, 2019
So when Wikileaks pretends he was exonerated, he wasn’t. When they pretend he’s a persecuted journalist, he isn’t.
He was wanted for sex crimes.
His hiding in the Ecuadorian embassy merely outlasted the statute of limitations.
He was exonerated about as much as trump was.
2/2
— Philippe Reines (@PhilippeReines) April 11, 2019
prob50
Good Morning, Everyone.
prob50
Isn’t it amazing how a nasty little scumbag like Assange has managed to garner so much attention and so much commentary and speculation. Sign of the times, I guess.
He acts like he’s hot sh*t on a log, but he’s really only cold piss on a tooth[pick.
Plato
Heh Assange fanbois. This is for you and your misplaced poutrage.
Fuck him and his ilk.
NotMax
Any such further charges for any offense committed prior to extradition are specifically prohibited by the U.S.-U.K. treaty of extraditon’s Article 18 unless completely agreed to by the U.K. pdf file
OzarkHillbilly
Blech.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Once they have their hands on him, do you think little things like laws or treaties are going to stop them from doing whatever they want?
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Mentioning it to point out the The Hoarse Whisperer (whoever that may be) is blowing smoke about this.
Nelle
He fled investigation for rape. That focuses my attention. Slime pretending to be the great hero.
OzarkHillbilly
@NotMax: Pompeo flounders on why annexation is good for the Golan but not for Crimea
They don’t believe laws apply to them. They don’t believe they are bound by treaties.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Indeed the Dolt 45 badministration’s track record builds a case for the U.K. to deny extradition, which it has done before involving requests by the U.S.
Joe Falco
@OzarkHillbilly:
If it was a country other than the US, it would be called a “rogue state” and their leaders shunned from having anything to do with the rest of the world. F the Republicans and all the people who put them in power, foreign or domestic.
moonbat
There’s a statue of limitations on RAPE in Sweden???
StringOnAStick
@moonbat: I’m not sure about that, but there are big differences between the Swedish law system and our own so this case keeps getting muddled reporting. What he fled from was the questioning that precedes laying of charges, meaning they wanted to talk to him (after having talked to his 2 accusers) to see if a case needed to be pursued. Once he fled to the embassy in London, this step couldn’t be pursued so the case went on hold/dropped. My understanding is that at least one of the victims wants to open the case again. Maybe we should let Julian head to Sweden first to answer those charges.