Assange 'guarantees' spark Amnesty spat

Shame on Amnesty Sweden. For those who believe that the Swedish government is only interested in questioning Julian Assange on the sexual misdemeanor charge, now you have your eye-opener clarification. It's such a shame that Sweden would always lend itself to do the dirty work of the powerful nations, while pretending it cares about human rights or any right for that matter.

Note the inconsistency in Swedish Amnesty's position. They agree that an extradition to the US would put Assange at risk of "serious human rights violations". If this is true, it would in itself be legal grounds for the Swedish government to oppose a hypothetical extradition request.

Yet apparently they consider it "inappropriate" for the Swedish government to make a public statement to that effect.

Why does swedish amnesty want to send Assange to american prison?

Everyone is missing the big point here..IF the USA wanted Assange, they would have an easier time getting him from the UK! The ties are much closer between London and Washdc than Stockholm and washdc. The CIA would just disapear him from anywhere, and most people wouldn't even notice... The truth is they DO NOT want him or they would have had him by now!!!!!!!..this is all obsfucation by Assange to try and stay away from him being naughty and getting caught by the swedish authorities. Shame of Assange, shame on everyone who has bought the obsfucation, including amnesty..he needs to step up and face swedish law!

As an American who is subject to persecution for being intellectual and disabled (actually, I'm just different, that's all it takes in America anymore) I can very much appreciate Assange's concerns.

I nearly died this past April at the hands of the American "justice" system. My crime? I had my gun in my car because marijuana growers threatened to kill me for turning them in. How did they make such a threat? Corrupt police busted their trimmers, but not the growers, for whom they were offering protection. So I call the police when the growers threaten me, they do nothing, say the will do nothing to protect me. So when I act to protect myself, they lie in wait and pull me over in an unmarked vehicle with fully automatic weapons and arrest me for having my gun with me. I almost died after 5 days in jail when they couldn't accommodate my food allergies and gave me food without telling me all of the ingredients which exacerbates my condition. Despite drinking over a gallon of water a day, I nearly died from severe dehydration - my urine was dark brown at the Emergency Room after I was released without being charged.

So yes, I do understand Julian Assange's fears. They are fully justified. The fact of the matter is, America is dangerous. This is an evil empire. America is destroying the world's climate, playing games with the lives of small nations, and playing bully like no other empire has before - or has Sweden forgotten about its time under the rule of the Ceasers of Rome?

What bothers me most about this case is why Sweden can't send prosecutors to England to question Assange. Is the ferry ride that rough? Do they get seasick? Do they not wish to fly? Can the Swedish government not afford to pay their way?

And, why can't Sweden guarantee they will hold Assange for questioning then return him to England or wherever? Why can't Sweden guarantee a man who pissed off the United States won't be sent there to face the anger of this idiotic nation and its immature political "leaders" (leaders I might add who are strictly illegitimate, as evidenced by the approval of Section 1713 of HR1473 last year, the Tester-Simpson Rider which twice, in one sentence, violates the US Constitution in taking away citizen rights to challenge acts of congress for legality.)

Just because you see America the way America wants you to see her, or even how your government and media want you to see her, does not mean that is what America is. You are blind to the reality of what America is unless you come here and experience it yourself. Please do not trust your media or government. Doing so is why this country's people are slaves to corporations. I don't think Swedes want to be slaves.

Please!

No one is above the law.

This isn't about extradition, this is about self promotion.

About the Conditional Release Clause in US/Swedish Treaty of 1984

Most of the attention regarding Julian Assange's possible extradition to the US has focused on the EU agreements that are meant to prevent onward extradition - namely that the UK Home Office would have to consent to his onward extradition. Little or no attention has been given in Europe to the temporary surrender (sometimes called 'conditional release', see the Panama example below) mechanism that Sweden established bilaterally with the United States in their 1984 treaty.

VI. If the extradition request is granted in the case of a person who is being prosecuted or is serving a sentence in the territory of the requested State for a different offense, the requested State may:

b) temporarily surrender the person sought to the requesting State for the purpose of prosecution. The person so surrendered shall be kept in custody while in the requesting State and shall be returned to the requested State after the conclusion of the proceedings against that person in accordance with conditions to be determined by mutual agreement of the Contracting States.

Temporary surrender has been incorporated into the EU-US Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance agreements entered into in February 2010. The Council of the EU's handbook explains temporary surrender in the following manner:

[Temporary surrender] facilitates the orderly and efficient prosecution of a person sought in two jurisdictions by allowing the temporary transfer of the person to the Requesting State for prosecution, when that person is subject to proceedings (either prosecution or service of a sentence) in the Requested State. The transfer is subject to conditions agreed to in advance of the transfer. - Council of the European Union - Handbook on the practical application of the EU-U.S. Mutual Legal Assistance and Extradition Agreements (p. 15)

The US has put what appears to be an expedient de facto extradition in place that effectively sidesteps traditional extradition safeguards. The background for this mechanism is to combat serious crimes - typically drug trafficking, terrorism, and so on - and it has implemented such innovative mechanisms with several strong allies.

So if it works for drug dealers/traffickers, why shouldn't it work for Assange?

http://justice4assange.com/US-Extradition.html#TR

ABED..are you listening?? stepping up means meeting with and answering questions of Swedish law enforcement.So how will this happen? know anything about the law Abed? all sexual crimes are handled by a special court in Sweden. So go elsehwere. I don't think so..NO silence here..secondly have you ever heard of the special prisons the USA has in Bulgaria? or Khazakstan? or the Phillipines and of course there is still Guantanamo in Cuba. IF the US wanted him they would had him. PERIOD. Too many have angered US interests and disapeared into the before mentioned prisons...I think Assange got caught with his pants down and now does not want to play any more...He has to keep his relavence up by showing up and throwing some kind of fit..so he will stay a media darling. If he continues to get away with this...then he can start up a termination program, andyone killed..I get away free because I am a media darling...getting this ABED????

I neglected to mention something:

If the United States were to take Assange without going through the extradition process, what do you think the world's reaction would be?

No, the United States has to take Assange from Sweden, where he faces a crime, and where they can manipulate the case to make it seem as though Assange is a sexual predator. This is what America does to all those it wishes to silence. It just tells the world "he's a sex offender" and you'll never pay any further attention. But they can't just point the finger, they need Sweden to point it, so that the world can't accuse America of making it up.

Sweden is a pawn, played with like a tool by the United States. And you Swedes are letting yourself be suckered, and by your own at that.

Please, do NOT trust the United States. This nation is beyond hope, and wants nothing more than to enslave the entire world, to bring the rest of the world into its economy so it can continue to exploit resources, both natural and human, to its own gain.

Dear Julian, please come to Stockholm and face your charges ....... according to Swedens law you can apparently get a mate to do your time (if you pay above the award wage) and head back to good old Brisbane, No Wuckin Furries Mate :-D

Actually Assange doesn't have to worry about going to a US prison, he has to worry about being turned over to the Afghan government and and being put on trial for the deaths of 36 Afghans killed by the taliban thanks to wikileaks exposing their names. The penalty for this is that Assange's head wood be removed from his body.

"The Taliban, a radical Islamic militia in Afghanistan, announced its gratitude to Wikileaks for the release and vowed to hunt down those revealed in the documents to be collaborating with the U.S.  It appears that they have now made good on that threat.

the first one Khalifa Abdullah, a tribal elder, was removed from his home in Monar village, in Kandahar province's embattled Arghandab district, by gunmen.  He was then executed. NewsWeek first reported on the murder.  They report that the Taliban believes the documents showed it U.S. sources, including the murder victim, Abdullah

At the same time, 70 other tribal elders received death threats warning them that the Taliban had obtained reason to believe they were collaborating with the U.S.  One such threat is signed by Abdul Rauf Khadim, a senior Taliban official who was imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.  When the Cuban prison was partially shut down by President Obama Khadim was transferred to Afghan custody in Kabul, where he subsequently escaped."

http://www.dailytech.com/Taliban+Murders+Afghan+Elder+Thanks+Wikileaks+for+Revealing+Spies/article19250.htm

I salute the corage of sweden's amnesty group. US has not made any request and there no prove to that effect. I dont know wen our laws stated workin on assumptions. We wait for US to show sign oof seekin extradition. Even if they do, tUS have rights umder the law to do so and assange will have fight them in d court of law.

all of THIS for a guy who has not even been formally charged yet.

what a farce.

Comment: MWolf you are one sick puppy indeed."enslave the world"how stupid can you get? You and the other useful idiot supporters of Assange really need to move in to the real world.

The notion that Assange is some kind of Messianic embodiment of truth was taken to its logical conclusion by one conspiracy-theory website, which said: "Just like Jesus of Nazareth, Julian Assange had a mission to reveal the truth. Now, just like Jesus, he faces persecution and/or death on false and trumped-up charges."Oh please give me a break! ..."Puke"

The absurdity of this particular statement is right there with the "US Government brought down the Twin Towers." Assange's supporters say that they oppose his extradition to Sweden because apparently he will then be extradited to the US to face the death penalty. This is a fallacious argument, as in European law, and in particular Swedish law, it is illegal for a Court to agree an extradition to a country where the accused may face the death penalty. Additionally the U.S. has no executed any spies for 50 years. In fact if the US wanted Assange,why not extradite him directly from Britain which has a very close relationship and extremely cooperative extradition agreement with the US.

Wise up -you Assange lovers,you are all being played for suckers by a masterful manipulator because he just doesn't want to face the music.

Assange is a parasite living off the money donated by suckers worldwide. He is an anarchist, not a hero who behaves like a CULT LEADER sucking in the weak minded and gullible. Does any one person commetning here even know what information Wikileaks leaked that was good for any part of society? I doubt it...Let the Swedes do what theyw ant with Assange because he is simply scared to face up to question in Sweden and the USA scaremonger is just his cover story. So the real question to think about should be what it is that Assange is scared of? Could he be a criminal? I think he is.

The position by Amnesty UK/Britain is not surprising. Well meaning organizations have been duped in the pass because they took a one sided approach to an issue. However, it is easy for them to distance them from the issue when they find their error.

Anyone wishing to understand the big picture, try reading the book,

"This Machine Kills Secrets" by Andy Greenberg.

Truly an outstanding and exhaustively researched book about corporate and governmental battles against privacy on the Internet, WikiLeaks, and the background behind it.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0525953205

First of all, I will not directly address or converse with anyone who thinks that resorting to name calling is an effective tool for communication. Such an act merely proves my point - that what is wrong with society, especially American society, is a lack of moral development brought on by "education" provided by capitalism.

Second, I make it a point not to write anything down and claim it to be fact or truth unless I have carefully researched and determined the vailidity of said facts or truths. And when I post an opinion, I make damn sure it's a well-researched opinion, not just respouting the nonsense of some pundit, as Americans do by habit and because they simply can't think for themselves anymore.

That you don't agree with me does not make me wrong. Period. No one on this planet that I have found in my research, has discovered what I have, has spent their entire lives both socially isolated, yet keenly observant of society. And no one has both the broad knowledge and experience I have as well as the exposure to all that is wrong.

If you are going to try to tell me I'm wrong, you are telling me that I have not been discriminated against, not treated like sh** by everyday Americans who are taught to see the disabled as a burden to society, and that I didn't almost die in jail, and am not in fact dying from exposure to toxins which my body cannot clear out (I've reasoned that it is the viking genes in me by the way, as a sauna would do the flushing as a means of supplementing my weak immune system; but I still have to get away from the toxins.)

I personally don't care what anyone thinks about what I have to say. I have researched, I have tested, and I know for a fact what is wrong. That you don't believe me simply means you lack the ability to research and verify the facts for yourself.

the United States were to take Assange without going through the extradition process, what do you think the world's reaction would be?

You say7 you research and deal with facts,blah,blah,blah.

OK so why doesn't' the US extradite him from Britain which as i posted has an ironclad extradition agreement with Britain unlike Sweden.

"This is what America does to all those it wishes to silence. It just tells the world "he's a sex offender" So show me where the US has said the Assange is a "sex offender" ?And this gem.."not treated like sh** by everyday Americans who are taught to see the disabled as a burden to society, "

As for your absurd claims about

And as for blaming "America" for what happened to you in one prison is totally off the wall Maybe that's the intellectually disabled bit coming to the fore,especially the bit re.., America wants nothing more than to enslave the entire world.Just too absurd for words.

And so much for "I make it a point not to write anything down and claim it to be fact or truth" ..Yeah sure you do.I think those "toxins" have moved to your brain.

Sweden can never be trusted. It's a global human rights violator just like its US/NATO slavemasters and anyone who works in Sweden's giant joke of a "justice system" is at a minimum a corrupt political pawn or criminals themselves or they wouldn't be offered employment in their dirty work.

The basic issue is there was no "rape" period..that's just complete garbage, which is as obvious as the sun rising. It's all a political setup directed by Swedish government to their prostitutes, one of them a CIA employed Swedish prostitute, organized by the worst Swedish government criminals. Just because Sweden screams the word "rape" doesn't make it believable..especially considering your history of human rights violations and working with the CIA in illegal renditions. Sweden thinks it's clever to use words like "rape" and broadcast that word on government propaganda networks, and that will get anybody they want to victimize extradited to Sweden. In this case it's a typical CIA "honey trap" to take down the free speech banner which Wikileaks represents, agreed on by the corrupt UK and Swedish governments and their secret service departments which of course in this case fell flat on their face. Sweden failed in this illegal charade, those screaming for the destruction of free speech there must own up to it.

Where was Amnesty's concern when the extradition hearing started?

The concerns expressed are the same as Assange's legal team have had from the start. It seems that Assange's legal team's new strategy is at work since they can't make convincing arguments in courts.

Assange must go to Sweden to defend himself against his accusers. With the worlds eyes on Sweden Assange is not going anywhere.

Washington will ensure that any accusations relating to an illegal obtaining of cables will pass any human right organizations concerns. However, no such accusation exists.

Assange has put himself in a box with the only way out is to surrender to Britain. Alternatively he can spend time in the embassy until he is asked to leave.

He sleeps with two women (who have a history of prostituting themselves for such things and one of whom has worked for the CIA), who do everything short of and including rape to jump into bed with him then brag about the conquest on parties afterward, and social networking sites.

Sometime later they both accuse him of Rape.

The initial public prosecutor questions assange and decides the charges are garbage, they have no case and does not pursue it.

When the initial prosecutor leaves, the partner of a lawyer involved with illegal extraditions to the states takes up the job, and suddenly decides there is a case to answer. So they pursue Assange with greater gusto than they do murderers in Europe (who they have in the past questioned on foreign soil) claiming it would be "illegal" to question assange on foreign soil.

And most people here would (if in Assanges shoes) hand themselves in, fully expecting a fair and decent trial in Sweden?

FOIA requests in America have recently revealed that Assange is considered an "Enemy of the State" by the US military, which could get any of their members the death penalty were they ever convicted of any association with him or WikiLeaks.

Again, the Nordic News Network's excellent report:

http://www.nnnn.se/nordic/assange/suspicious.pdf

The Obama administration has waged a War on Whistleblowers, the likes of which have never been seen even in America, going after more American citizens, and invoking the Espionage Act against more American citizens, then all previous US presidents combined.

Some serious stuff going on here....

Most rational people would have been in Sweden a long time ago. Those who wanted to be hero's would have been in Sweden a long time ago. With the amount of support that Assange has in America, it is perplexing why he doesn't go to Sweden to answer the allegations against him.

CIA? Which one? Certified Internal Auditor; Conseillers en informatique d'affaires; C.I.A. (Cru' in Action!); California Institute for the Arts; Cleveland Institute of Art; Courtauld Institute of Art; Cumbria Institute of the Arts; Chartered Institute of Arbitrators; Chemical Industries Association; Confédération Internationale des Accordéonistes; ... ?

With the accusations against Assange there where 3 prosecutors. The initial prosecutor. A prosecutor who decided to close the case. A third prosecutor who after convincing decided to re-open the case. Anyways, it is the prosecutor who decides on how to conduct an investigation not the accused. If the accused has any concerns about his treatment them the correct venue for that is in court through his lawyers.

THERE ARE GOOD REASONS why being extradited to Sweden (and thus why this is 100% about Wikileaks not ludicrious fake charges about a"broken condom") is condemning the person being extradited to that renegade country to torture and human rights violations:

1. You get imprisoned in Sweden even before being charged, so if the US brought charges at that time he has no recourse to diplomatic protection;

2. Sweden has a history of agreeing to all extradition requests to the US, including extraordinary rendition in 2001, in 2006 it was reported by Swedish

Military Intelligence that subsequent restrictions were being ignored;

3. Sweden has a clause in their extradition treaty for "Conditional Release" which the UK does not, which would not be subject to the same restrictions as extradition and the UK would not need to approve the onward extradition;

4. If, as Australia believes, the US would bring charges carefully worded to avoid conflict with the First Amendment, the UK and Sweden could declare that the charges are not political offenses and therefore not prevent him from being extradited.

5. If Sweden wanted to question Assange, they could have done so in the UK. Issuing an EAW was disproportionate, especially when no charges have been brought. Expert legal opinion supports this: http://www.scribd.com/doc/4839...

6. 3. The International Prison Chaplains Association says that Swedish prisons are the worst prisons in Europe. In 47 percent of cases, prisoners in Sweden are held incommunicado.

7. To repeat the point about Sweden's nature as a human rights violator:

There is always that Swedish legal device known as a Temporary Surrender or Conditional Release, under which Assange can be sent on from Sweden to the United States secretly and quickly.

Sweden has in the recent past allowed rendition (torture) on its soil at the request of the US. In fact, in the last 10 years Sweden has done whatever the US wants so that it can share security information. Much like Britain. The Swedish foreign minister responsible for extradition, Carl Bildt, became a U.S. Embassy informant in 1973 when he was 24 years old. He shipped his personal effects to Washington, to lead a conservative leadership program, where he met Karl Rove. They became old friends and would go to conferences together and so on.

No offense, but you're all missing the point. The idea here is to discredit Assange, to use the oldest American trick in the book - make him out to be a sexual deviant. They did it with Clinton and countless others since.

Assange is doing precisely the right thing. He's a step ahead of the US on this. He knows that if they are able to pin a sex crime on him, he will be forgotten at worst, taken with global consent at best (from the US perspective). By avoiding answering the charges, and using such strong tactics, he inflates the notion in people's mind that the US is after him. It's sleight of hand - he's not being sought to be persecuted, rather to be roasted in public opinion - but the fact is the uS is after him. It's so obvious that any fool should know this is a fact. You mess with the US, you will be taken down, period. Ask Bin Laden. Oh wait, he was murdered.

Assange is quite smart. And I have a feeling that Sweden will be getting an opportunity to play things to their advantage soon, a chance to distance themselves from the United States and show that it only seeks justice and isn't a player - even though we all know they are. Perhaps the best thing is that Sweden will get a chance to see the error of siding with America on anything anymore. People change, and when the citizenry of a democracy cease to participate, and are conditioned not to complain under penalty of harassment by law enforcement or peers at best; the nation becomes whatever those who excercise power see fit to make it. And corporate America sees America as a platform for intense concentration of wealth. Is this a Swedish value?

Alert @ # 21 and 29:

Black helicopters incoming

That is confirmation bias. Americans actually defend themselves against false allegations. Actually, that is want rational people do. They don't pretend that it is a larger conspiracy against them. Assange is an embarrassment to himself.

"Americans actually defend themselves against false allegations"

Really?

That is the biggest falsehood I have ever heard.

I was stupid enough to think the same thing, until I was persecuted by law enforcement who had it in for me because of their perception of my lifestyle (they answered a domestic disturbance call with my male live-in aid; who was a dangerous psychopath who physically abused me and stole $17,000US from me). They charged me with assault after a guy twice my size assaulted me. Anyone could see it was a false arrest by the statement the arresting officer made to my then live-in aid: "you can't let him keep calling us, he has called us a million times."

Why did I call? I called to report crimes as I witnessed them. Is it my fault that every time I went to town there was a crime?

My "Public defender," the lawyer assigned by the judge, but who is paid by the prosecutor, and who reports to the prosecutor, and who has to kiss the ass of the prosecutor if he wants a career as a lawyer; told me that if I went to trial on something I didn't do, I would go to jail.

And the second time I was arrested, it was worse - I called the FBI and Drug Enforcement Task Force when growers they busted (well, the busted the trimmers, not the growers; meaning the cops were running protection for the growers - or are you naive enough to believe law enforcement in America isn't corrupt) to let them know the growers they did't bust properly threatened to kill me. What was their response? To set me up and lie in wait for me to drive by knowing I had my gun in my car (I was illegally surveilled, entrapped, you name it). I nearly died after being incarcerated for trying to protect myself from drug growers they didn't properly bust. My lawyer advised me not to defend myself because it would have meant jail for sure.

The worst of it is, jurisdictions get money for incarcerating people. That's how this system works here. A prosecutor gets money for the county by charging people and throwing them in jail (or fining them of course.) And money is all that matters in America. So if you have money, you can have justice. Just ask OJ Simpson. If you don't, you won't. Just ask about half of the people in jail - or do you also ignore the stories of people exhonerated by DNA evidence?

Julian Assange above all people knows how America works. Why do you think he created Wikileaks - to show the very techniques that are being used against him. Did you people not pay any attention to the content of the diplomantic cables? Did you not see the methods this country uses against its perceived enemies?

Sweden is fast becoming a pawn for America. We flash our greenbacks at you and you start drooling, happily ready to persecute a man whose only goal is government transparency.

The cables? Those documents that Manning copied and gave to Wikileaks without even reading most of them? The world have moved on to other issues.

Assange doesn't have the faintest of clue about America. It is always between a cringe and disbelieve on how it demonstrates this lack of understand.

The best that Assange can accomplish is "radical transparency," which is the leaking of documents to make government and businesses nonfunctional. He does not seem to understand how organizations can and have countered that.

Wikileaks has never been about transparency, it has been about obtaining leaked documents. Whether it is from a disgruntle employee or an genuine whistle-blower does not matter. However, it seems to facilitate the former.

To compare miscarriages of justice of people who "were not there," to a man who openly admitted he "was there," is perplexing.

Yeah, cause, you know, the UK always sends a thousand cops and threatens to overrun a foreign embassy so they can extradite a man over spurious charges. Usually, you are lucky if they spend a dime even to try and find them, and even then the charges have to be very serious.

Isn't he really accused of 'not wearing a condom' or some such b.s.? I have noted in recent history 3 men, completely different, all hated by government or necessary to be smashed SUDDENLY all are accused of sexual harassment, sexual abuse of a teenager, or other sexually based crimes that virtually have no evidence other than a statement given, sometimes allegating crimes from years prior.

Does anybody ever wonder about that? Herman Cain - a black man who might have beaten Obama, George Zimmerman - half mexican called white scapegoat used to heighten hostility towards whites during an election year - and Julian Assange.

OH yeah, and they are all pawns of the U.S. GOVERNMENT.

It is nothing but misinformation to suggest that the accusations are about a condom.

The police will put in enough effort to arrest those who fails to surrender to police. This will include enough to prevent any who intends to interfere with the lawful apprehension of the fugitives.