Will WikiLeaks unravel the American 'secret government'?

[Peter Lemkin]

Julian Assange's Lawyers Warn of Imminent US Charges
Legal team for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says Washington plans to invoke Espionage Act to indict their client

by Steven Morris

The US may be about to press charges against Julian Assange, the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, one of his lawyers said today.

Jennifer Robinson said an indictment of her client under the US's Espionage Act was imminent. She said her team had heard from "several different US lawyers rumours that an indictment was on its way or had happened already, but we don't know".

According to some reports, Washington is seeking to prosecute Assange under the 1917 act, which was used unsuccessfully to try to gag the New York Times when it published the Pentagon Papers in the 1970s.

The only clause I could see in the Act when I checked it a couple of days ago, was the Sedition Act of 1917 (absorbed into the Espionage Act) which, was originally an Act of King George used against Americans in the War of independence.

How noble and telling it would be of the Obama Administration to bring it back to prominence now.

Do I trust the British 'Bullingdon 'pro-American'" government to fight the ball-less extradition agreement that allows the US to demand extradition without providing evidence of the claimed offense?

No.

Do I think the trumped up Swedish "wape" charges may have been used to get Assange into custody so that a "greater" charge of "espionage" takes precedence over the fallacious "wape" accusations?

The possibility has entered my mind.

Do I think a deal might have been hammered out between the Bullingdon grovelment and the Obama mirage-ment... possibly weeks ago?

Well, yes...

Signed,

Worried

After 9-11 and after COG there are SECRET new laws [plus the draconian ones for all to see in the unPatriot Act]. If the President already has the power to order the murder, without trial or accusation of crimes to anyone anywhere, [I'm sure it applies to an Australian anywhere, even in or not in US custody]. What they will 'do' will be windowdressing. No doubt, if they can't convict him and execute him by court trial - if they even bother, they will just suicide him in prison or do a wet job elsewhere. I'm very worried. Whatever anyone thinks of Assange and Wikileaks - they now are emblematic for internet freedom and free speech. This is warning to anyone who would dare follow his/their example, and it will be met with the attempt to shut down any such websites world-wide.

Ironically, we are becoming like the political model of the Chinese, which we claim to mock and criticize.

David, I'm sure the US has covered all its bases and has now secret deals with the UK and Sweden and Assange is as good as in US hands now. Only the details to be worked out for the benefit of a figleaf of due process and 'democracy /rule of law'. I trust Sweden over the UK to do the right thing - but trust neither of them much. The US can be trusted now to do the wrong thing. If nothing else we are as consistent as we are evil.