Friday, July 8, 2011

Sweden vs. Assange


Timing of EAW and INTERPOL Red Notice

Timing of EAW, Cablegate, and US reactions

20 November: Sweden authorises Interpol to make a public Red Notice for Julian Assange
26 November 2010: Sweden issues an invalid EAW
28 November 2010: WikiLeaks publishes ’Cablegate’

- 29 November - Sarah Palin: WikiLeaks and Julian Assange are terrorists

"Assange is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands... Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders?"

- 29 November 2010 - War on WikiLeaks

Tony Shaffer, former Defense Intelligence Agency officer, on Fox News:

"I would look at this very much as a military issue. With potentially military action against him and his organization."

- 29 and 30 November 2010 - Execute the source

Mike Huckabee, who was planning to be a 2012 Republican presidential candidate: for anyone who provided information to WikiLeaks:

"anything less than execution is too kind a penalty"

30 November: Interpol issues Red Notice to 188 countries for Julian Assange


 


30 November 2010 - assassinate Julian Assange
Tom Flanagan, ex senior adviser to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, currently Political Science lecturer at University of Calgary, Canada:
"Well, I think Assange should be assassinated, actually. I think Obama should put out a contract and maybe use a drone or something. ... I would not feel unhappy if Assange ’disappeared’."


30 November 2010 - War on WikiLeaks
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham: referring to WikiLeaks:
"We’re at war. I hope Eric Holder, who’s a good man, will start showing some leadership here and get our laws in line with being at war."

 30 November 2010 - WikiLeaks is a terrorist organisation
Rep. Peter King requests that the State Department put WikiLeaks on the ’terror’ list.

 30 November 2010 - Julian Assange is a terrorist
Former Senator Rick Santorum, another possible presidential candidate for 2012, said at a speech in New Hampshire that Julian Assange should be
"prosecuted as a terrorist"

 1 December 2010 - Assassinate Julian Assange
Bill O’Reilly, Fox News:
"I’d like to see a little drone hit Julian Assange. I think he is a bad man. If he lived in Britain 007 would take care of him."

2 December 2010: A second EAW is issued

 5 December 2010 - Julian Assange is a terrorist
Mitch McConell, US Republican senator for Kentucky:
"I think the man is a [...] terrorist and [...] needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and if this becomes a problem you need to change the law."
- 5 December 2010: Julian Assange is a terrorist, enemy combatant
Newt Gingrich:
"Julian Assange is engaged in terrorism. He should be treated as an enemy combatant [Guantanamo Bay, extraordinary rendition, torture]. WikiLeaks should be closed down permanently and decisively."

 6 December 2010: Assassinate Julian Assange
Bob Beckel, Fox News:
"A dead man can’t leak stuff," Beckel said. "This guy’s a traitor, he’s treasonous, and he has broken every law of the United States. And I’m not for the death penalty, so...there’s only one way to do it: illegally shoot the son of a bitch."


7 December 2010: PayPal, MasterCard and Visa shut down donations to WikiLeaks.
8 December 2010: The Independent confirms there have been informal talks about Assange’s extradition between Sweden and the United States.

Does this amount to persecution?

The US administration’s attempts to stifle Assange personally and WikiLeaks as an organisation are not peripheral to his extradition. If the conduct of the United States amounts to persecution, the EU is bound by law to prevent his extradition to the United States:
- Defined as a systematic threat by one group on the life and liberty of a person or group of people on the grounds of their political beliefs - the calls for extrajudicial actions of inflicting harm, assassinating and/or kidnapping Julian Assange and WikiLeaks collaborators amounts to persecution.

 If these statements are understood to amount to persecution, the onward extradition of Assange to the United States will test the EU’s political maturity in protecting the principles of freedom, human rights, free speech, and the robustness of the ’area of freedom, security and justice’ (AFSJ).
213 days under house arrest.
Countdown to appeal: 2 days.
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At midday on Friday 5 February, 2016 Julian Assange, John Jones QC, Melinda Taylor, Jennifer Robinson and Baltasar Garzon will be speaking at a press conference at the Frontline Club on the decision made by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on the Assange case.