WikiLeaks about to hit the fan

The Vatican City State, officially the Holy See, a sovereign country since 1924, is not a full U.N. member state but a non-member state observer.

Exactly, which is why it’s not accepted as an answer on Pointless.

Does Wikileaks even exist anymore? I suppose since it is such a clandestine organization and it operates without borders, it may be said to have no "end". It has a new Democratic government in the US to us as an enemy - anyways, who knows?

The years-long tug-of-war over the extradition of Julian Assange is probably over: The WikiLeaks founder can be extradited to the United States.
Home secretary Priti Patel signed an extradition order to this effect, her ministry announced today.

Even though Assange still has the possibility to appeal the decision, it is now almost certain that he will be extradited to the USA and tried there. WikiLeaks had already announced immediately after Patel's decision that it would appeal the ruling.

Julian Assange’s extradition from UK to US approved by home secretary

Maybe he could petition to be sent to Rwanda instead.

The mistreatment of this man is a clear signal to journalists that truth telling will not be tolerated.

He's America's Alexei Navalny.

The man is not an American citizen, he is not subject to Ametican laws.

He should be returned to Oz.

His only "crime" is exposing American war crimes.

Kinda surprised at y'all's naivete.

Wikileaks is 100% a foreign intelligence operation, designed to bring about political change in the United States.

Assange worked with hostile foreign governments to release information damaging to the US.

Same with everyone's darling child Snowden.


Uh... He can't be "America's Alexei Navalny" without being American. Make up your mind.

One can - rightly or wrongly - have the most diverse views about Assange.
But to dismiss the publication of documents by whistleblowers as a "foreign intelligence operation" seems very brazen to me.

And "information damaging to the US" - what about the other tens of thousands of pages that do not relate to the US?

Which "hostile foreign governments" has Assange worked with? The servers were in Sweden, France, mirror servers then also in Germany and other countries.

Assange is a reporter who exposed war crimes. If any of his reporting had been false they might have a legitimate cause to go after him. But they skirted the law and even plotted to assassinate him instead of doing anything about those exposed.

Grasping at semantic straws.

Assange is how America treats its problems and Navalny is how Russia treats its ones.

Wikileaks is a journalistic operation.

It wouldn't matter if even 100% of its releases came from hostile foreign intelligence.

It exposed war crimes.

And Assange is not American, he has no loyalty to the American government.

He should not be subject to its laws, let him go back to Australia, and if he's broken any laws there he can be tried there.

Murderers, torturers and war criminals will be toasting the British home secretary, Priti Patel, tonight. Her decision to approve the extradition of Julian Assange turns investigative journalism into a criminal act, and licenses the United States to mercilessly hunt down offenders wherever they can be found, bring them to justice and punish them with maximum severity.

Julian Assange’s supposed crime was to expose atrocities committed by the US and its allies, primarily in Afghanistan and Iraq, during the war on terror. He shone a light on the systematic abuse dealt out to prisoners in Guantánamo Bay. He revealed the fact that more than 150 entirely innocent inmates were held for years without even being charged.

He published a video of helicopter gunmen laughing as they casually massacred unarmed Iraqi civilians in an attack that killed around 15 people, including a Reuters photographer and his assistant.

The US declined to discipline the perpetrators of that atrocity. But they are pursuing Assange to the ends of the earth for revealing it took place.

Once safely in US hands, it’s all but certain that Assange will spend the remainder of his life in jail. That’s because the US is determined to show that terrible reprisals lie in store for any reporter who runs a story based on US government documents.

That’s why Daniel Ellsberg, the former US Marine Corps officer behind the Pentagon Papers revelations that exposed the secret US bombing of Cambodia and Laos, has said that he feels a “great identification” with Assange’s work.

Edward Fitzgerald, Assange’s lawyer, argued convincingly in court that Assange’s only crime is investigative journalism. For example, the US charge states that he tried to conceal “the source of the disclosure of classified records”. Every journalist worth her or his salt would do the same, but the US insists that Assange is guilty of espionage – and the British home secretary shamefully agrees.

While it is true that Patel is an unusually authoritarian home secretary, I suspect that every recent holder of the office, Labour or Conservative, would have made an identical decision. Britain values beyond measure its security relationship with the US.

That helps explain Patel’s judgment but doesn’t make it any more forgivable. Boris Johnson and his ministers love to claim that they support press freedom. When it mattered most they dealt it a catastrophic blow.

A blow carried out – it should be noted – with the silent assent of much of the mainstream press. Too many British newspapers and broadcasters have treated the Assange case as a dirty family secret. They have failed to grasp that the Assange hearing leading up to the Patel decision is the most important case involving free speech this century.

Assange’s legal team are to appeal, and let’s pray that they succeed. If they do not, newsgathering in Britain – and everywhere else where the American government has influence – will become a criminal activity ultimately punishable by incarceration for life in a US jail.

Peter Oborne is a journalist and the author of Fate of Abraham: Why the West is Wrong about Islam

He’d definitely have a better chance for a fair trial in Rwanda.

Just another reminder that Westminster "law" was designed to benefit the ruling class.

No surprises here.

I did the full day tour of Tasmania's historical political prison at Port Arthur.

Most of the prisoners were Irish and Scottish political dissidents.

They'd committed no actual crime, but were nonetheless banished to the nether regions of the planet, to silence their opinion.

I have no idea what you call Westminster "law", but that a court has formally approves an extradition should happen in any legal system.
Why do you oppose judicial review?

Just as a reminder:

The extradition fight has dragged on since Assange was jailed in the U.K. in 2019.
A magistrate ruled in Assange's favour in early 2021, saying he faced a high risk of suicide if he were sent into the U.S. justice system.
But the U.S. appealed that decision — and won.

In March, the U.K. Supreme Court ruled Assange couldn't appeal the lower court's ruling against him, saying his case "didn't raise an arguable point of law."
One month later, another judge formally approved the U.S. extradition request, putting the next move in the hands of Home Secretary Priti Patel — who then signed the extradition order.

Assange now has 14 days to appeal the Home Office's decision.
If this fails, he can try to get an order from the European Court of Human Rights.

So, you have access to the internet, but still not quite sure how to use it, Walter?

I'd be thrilled never to hear anything about Assange ever again, just send him back to Australia. I hope Edward Snowdon stays in Russia, have no interest in hearing anything about him either.

Just incarcerate, shoot, and chop up all journalists who report facts about your disgusting sacred cows and corrupt institutions.

That’ll teach em.

Being a "fan" of actual history, it's obvious to me that when you can control the narrative effectively, history can be anything you want it to be. I think that's what former pen pusher above is saying.

A statement by Christine Assange, mother of Julian Assange
“FIFTY years ago in giving birth for the first time as a young mother, I thought there could be no greater pain. But it was soon forgotten when I held my beautiful baby boy in my arms. I named him Julian.
I realise now that I was wrong. There is a greater pain.
The unending gut-wrenching pain of being the mother of a multi-award winning journalist who had the courage to publish the truth about high level government crimes and corruption.
The pain of watching my son who sought to publish important truths, being endlessly globally smeared.
The pain of watching my son who risked his life to expose injustice, being fitted up and denied a fair legal process, over and over again.
The pain of seeing my healthy child slowly wasting away from being denied proper health and medical care for years in detention.
The anguish of seeing my boy cruelly psychologically tortured to try and break his huge spirit.
The constant nightmare of him being extradited to the US and being buried alive in extreme solitary confinement for the rest of his life.
The constant fear the CIA will carry out its plans to assassinate him.
The rush of sadness as I saw his frail exhausted body slumping from a mini-stroke in the last hearing due to chronic stress.
Many people are also traumatised by seeing a vengeful superpower using its unlimited resources to bully and destroy a single defenceless individual.
I wish to thank all the caring decent citizens globally protesting Julian’s brutal political persecution .
Please keep raising your voices to your politicians till it’s all they can hear.
His life is in your hands.
Christine Assange
#FreeJulianAssange