Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is expected to appear in a UK court tomorrow!

[Magda Hassan]

Don't the credentials of the embassy staff have to be accepted by the host nation? I need to check that. But even when things fall foul they just name them 'persona non grata' and allow them to leave the country under diplomatic protection. That seems to be the case with all the spies.

When a person supposedly shot and murdered a UK policewoman from the Libyan embassy they were all allowed to leave the country all under diplomatic protection. And Assange has committed no crimes at all in the UK. Extradition law is of lower precedence than international law in the matter of asylum.

[Magda Hassan]

Yesterday I would have been very proud to be an Equadorian.

Me too Carsten! I was certainly not proud to be an Australian knowing the government has acted so badly towards him and is a craven lapdog to the US and UK.

But all the time and especially after reading about the Equadorian efforts to establish guarantees for Assange I would be very worried to be Swedish. There must be hundreds of cases in Sweden, in which someone is wanted for questioning, in which no European Arrest Warrant has ever been written. There also must be hundreds or thousands of cases in which someone CONVICTED for rape has been sentenced to less than one and a half year of house arrest. There must also be cases in which someone was questioned outside Sweden.

Yes indeed. It is my understanding that even if guilty of the said behaviour he would like not do jail and just be fined about $500. If jail, no more than 3 months.

How can any Swede live in this country and not be worried to death about the deep corruption in the judicial system that becomes obvious to anyone with eyes to see?

Sweden isn't what it used to be but no one has told the Swedes yet. The media there is very anti Assange and anti Wikileaks. And very supportive of the women. I have been having a long drawn out discussion tonight with a Swede and he just refuses to accept Assange is any thing other than a rapist and cannot understand why we allow these women to be abused. Assange has his supporters there even amongst the feminists but it is a minority and for some reason it is mostly non native born Swedes which are able to see the other side to this story that is not being talked about in the Swedish media.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Wait until Putin's secret police enter the British Embassy in Moscow to arrest a UK diplomat wanted for questioning and then see how MSM cries "Foul Calumny!" and "The End of Civilized Diplomacy".

[Peter Lemkin]

Sweden isn't what it used to be but no one has told the Swedes yet. The media there is very anti Assange and anti Wikileaks. And very supportive of the women. I have been having a long drawn out discussion tonight with a Swede and he just refuses to accept Assange is any thing other than a rapist and cannot understand why we allow these women to be abused. Assange has his supporters there even amongst the feminists but it is a minority and for some reason it is mostly non native born Swedes which are able to see the other side to this story that is not being talked about in the Swedish media.

I am NOT Swedish, but I DID live in Stockholm, and was very involved with the political and social milleau in Sweden for many years...so I think I can speak with some authority [with deference, naturally, to the Swedes, themselves]. Sverige [Sweden] I once knew has changed - for the worse, and toward the Far Reich kind of thinking in many ways - [not all], IMHO. The extremely high standard of living for most native Swedes [though not all, by all means] is a part of this, as is the MSM, there, as well as the military/police which once under the umbrella/comraderee of the Reich [during WW2] are 'enchanted' with NATO now [nice to be cozy with who the Oligarchy among the Swedes think will be the 'winners', isnt' it?].

Yes, only the MOST progressive Swedes are aware of the issues afoot here, let alone the political import and machinations. Most Swedes have yet to ask who killed three of their political leaders [after the war, and one =Wallenburg= at the end of WW2], let alone be concerned with the real politike of the Assange affaire. Affluence and other factors have IMO caused them to look away....lest they see bad tnings in the 'mirror' and have to deal with reality...although they are NOT alone in this idle.

[Magda Hassan]

Wait until Putin's secret police enter the British Embassy in Moscow to arrest a UK diplomat wanted for questioning and then see how MSM cries "Foul Calumny!" and "The End of Civilized Diplomacy".

Oh, you bet! That's exactly right. What the UK is doing is throwing away centuries of diplomatic convention which has worked well for everyone until now. Now I can't wait to see if they like it when it is used against them like in your above scenario.

[Adele Edisen]

By Paul Craig Roberts

A coward dies many deaths; a brave man dies but once.

The once proud British government, now reduced to Washington's servile whore, put on its Gestapo Jackboots and declared that if the Ecuadorean Embassy in London did not hand over WikiLeaks' Julian Assange, British storm troopers would invade the embassy with military force and drag Assange out. Ecuador stood its ground. "We want to be very clear, we are not a British colony," declared Ecuador's Foreign Minister. Far from being intimidated the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, replied to the threat by granting Assange political asylum. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/17/world/...r=1&emc=na

The once law-abiding British government had no shame in announcing that it would violate the Vienna Convention and assault the Ecuadorean Embassy, just as the Islamic students in the 1979 Khomeini Revolution in Iran took over the US Embassy and held the diplomatic staff captive. Pushed by their Washington overlords, the Brits have resorted to the tactics of a pariah state. Maybe we should be worried about British nuclear weapons.

Let's be clear, Assange is not a fugitive from justice. He has not been charged with any crime in any country. He has not raped any women. There are no indictments pending in any court, and as no charges have been brought against him, there is no validity to the Swedish extradition request. It is not normal for people to be extradited for questioning, especially when, as in Assange's case, he expressed his complete cooperation with being questioned a second time by Swedish officials in London.

What is this all about? First, according to news reports, Assange was picked up by two celebrity-hunting Swedish women who took him home to their beds. Later for reasons unknown, one complained that he had not used a condom, and the other complained that she had offered one helping, but he had taken two. A Swedish prosecutor looked into the case, found that there was nothing to it, and dismissed the case.

Assange left for England. Then another Swedish prosecutor, a woman, claiming what authority I do not know, reopened the case and issued an extradition order for Assange. This is such an unusual procedure that it worked its way through the entire British court system to the Supreme Court and then back to the Supreme Court on appeal. In the end British "justice" did what the Washington overlord ordered and came down on the side of the strange extradition request.

Assange, realizing that the Swedish government was going to turn him over to Washington to be held in indefinite detention, tortured, and framed as a spy, sought protection from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. As corrupt as the British are, the UK government was unwilling to release Assange directly to Washington. By turning him over to Sweden, the British could feel that their hands were clean.

Sweden, formerly an honorable country like Canada once was where American war resisters could seek asylum, has been suborned and brought under Washington's thumb. Recently, Swedish diplomats were expelled from Belarus where they seem to have been involved in helping Washington orchestrate a "color revolution" as Washington keeps attempting to extend its bases and puppet states deeper into traditional Russia.

The entire world, including Washington's servile puppet states, understands that once Assange is in Swedish hands, Washington will deliver an extradition order, with which Sweden, unlike the British, would comply. Regardless, Ecuador understands this. The Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino announced that Ecuador granted Assange asylum because "there are indications to presume that there could be political persecution." In the US, Patino acknowledged, Assange would not get a fair trial and could face the death penalty in a trumped up case.

The US Puppet State of Great (sic) Britain announced that Assange would not be permitted to leave Britain. So much for the British government's defense of law and human rights. If the British do not invade the Ecuadorean Embassy and drag Assange out dead or in chains, the British position is that Assange will live out his life inside the London Embassy of Ecuador. According to the New York Times, Assange's asylum leaves him "with protection from arrest only on Ecuadorean territory (which includes the embassy). To leave the embassy for Ecuador, he would need cooperation that Britain has said it will not offer." When it comes to Washington's money or behaving honorably in accordance with international law, the British government comes down on the side of money.

The Anglo-American world, which pretends to be the moral face of humanity has now revealed for all to see that under the mask is the face of the Gestapo.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. paulcraigroberts.org/


Adele

[Peter Lemkin]

Madga, you're probably correct that they can't appoint Assange as a diplomat there, as he has to be approved by the British, but there is nothing to stop them from appointing him [if only temporarily] the Ecuadorian ambassador or other diplomat to someplace else and sending him there, even in Quito etc. There should be work-arounds - IF the UK will play by the rules. Big IF! I'm a bit surprised there is not a greater 'shouting' of the UKs threat to invade the Embassy - as it would affect ALL nations negatively. Sweden could end this whole thing...simply send people to interview Assange in the Embassy, then withdraw the transfer request. Shame on Sweden for playing this game for the US. Same for the UK, but that was totally expected.

[Carsten Wiethoff]

And so much for the Australians:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/us-intend...24e1l.html

AUSTRALIAN diplomats have no doubt the United States is intent on pursuing Julian Assange, Foreign Affairs and Trade Department documents obtained by the Herald show.
This is at odds with comments by the Foreign Affairs Minister, Bob Carr, who has dismissed suggestions the US plans to eventually extradite Assange on charges arising from WikiLeaks obtaining leaked US military and diplomatic documents.
The Australian embassy in Washington has been tracking a US espionage investigation targeting the WikiLeaks publisher for more than 18 months.


The declassified diplomatic cables, released under freedom of information legislation, show Australia's ambassador, the former Labor leader Kim Beazley, has made high level representations to the US government asking for advance warning of any moves to prosecute Assange.


Briefings for the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and Senator Carr also suggest the Australian government has no in-principle objection to extradition.

[Peter Lemkin]

And so much for the Australians:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/us-intend...24e1l.html

AUSTRALIAN diplomats have no doubt the United States is intent on pursuing Julian Assange, Foreign Affairs and Trade Department documents obtained by the Herald show.
Briefings for the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and Senator Carr also suggest the Australian government has no in-principle objection to extradition.

Lovely.....and I thought Australia was a democracy that believed in freedom of speech and innocent until proven guilty - not to mention protecting its own citizens from harm or illegal actions - internally and externally. Guess I wrong on all points.

[Magda Hassan]

And so much for the Australians:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/us-intend...24e1l.html

AUSTRALIAN diplomats have no doubt the United States is intent on pursuing Julian Assange, Foreign Affairs and Trade Department documents obtained by the Herald show.
This is at odds with comments by the Foreign Affairs Minister, Bob Carr, who has dismissed suggestions the US plans to eventually extradite Assange on charges arising from WikiLeaks obtaining leaked US military and diplomatic documents.
The Australian embassy in Washington has been tracking a US espionage investigation targeting the WikiLeaks publisher for more than 18 months.


The declassified diplomatic cables, released under freedom of information legislation, show Australia's ambassador, the former Labor leader Kim Beazley, has made high level representations to the US government asking for advance warning of any moves to prosecute Assange.


Briefings for the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and Senator Carr also suggest the Australian government has no in-principle objection to extradition.

The Australian government is playing a totally duplicious game. Assange is right not to trust them. They are spineless and will wilt at the first sign of displeasure from the US. I'm pleased Ecuador called them for what they are. Bob Carr is a useless FM. He has a well known love of thing US. When he was out of politics he was against foreign intervention in Libya. Now he is back in politics he has been given his new script and he follows that to the letter. When ever way the wind blows.