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US Prosecutors Have a Sealed Indictment On Assange, Say Leaked Files
beaverdownunder writes with news from The Age that "Leaked e-mails from private U.S. intelligence agency Stratfor indicate that American prosecutors have had a sealed, secret indictment drawn up against Julian Assange as early as January, 2011." From the article: "The news that U.S. prosecutors drew up a secret indictment against Mr. Assange more than 12 months ago comes as the WikiLeaks founder awaits a British Supreme Court decision on his appeal against extradition to Sweden to be questioned in relation to sexual assault allegations.
Mr. Assange, who has not been charged with any offence in Sweden, fears extradition to Stockholm will open the way for his extradition to the U.S. on possible espionage or conspiracy charges over WikiLeaks' publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked classified U.S. reports."
I think the only reason he hasn't been Awlaki'd is that he's staying in built-up first-world areas.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
He did not steal the files! He is not an american citizen! And when he did obtain the files, he was not on American soil! And he is not bound by any law prohibiting the distribution of these files, and certainly not under any NDA. So the question is what kind of justice mokery they came up with ?
He's also on Double Secret Probation.
And in other news that everyone already figured out... OJ Simpson *did* actually kill his ex wife. President Bush lied about WMD in Iraq to make his case for his invasion. Republicans are trying to sabotage the economy to make sure Obama doesn't get re-elected. And Waldo wasn't in the picture at all.
Based on the rest of the Strafor emails, there's quite a high possibility that this is just made up.
Has done the world quite a service by exposing these secrets of what is misbehavior by governments. He hasn't really done anything that could put the lives of anyone in jeopardy. On the other hand, he has put some career politicians and bureaucrats in jeopardy of losing their freedom and they deserve it too. This man should be given a pulitzer or nobel prize for his work. He and his team's work have exposed the lies told by governments and it is high time the public really knows what misdeed their officials are up to. If Obama really didn't want to deliver transparency to the government, Assange will hold him to that campaign promise.
Wikileaks. Having that email is interesting, but it is entirely devoid of any context or what the actual document is. Stratfor's an intelligence company. It could be misdirection for all we know.
Conspiracy minded thinking just doesn't jive me. It's pretty obvious the US Government isn't happy with Julian Assange, but, at what point does the conspiracy end? Show me the damn document.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Admit nothing, deny everything and make up counter accusations.
Now we know where the US Government gets its ideas to make crap up.
How about the tax payers telling government where it is going to spend tax payers taxes? The system is already there for tax collectors and processors to direct each tax payers tax revenue to where each tax payers instructs. This will solve a great deal of problems with an out of control rouge government.
As a tax payer I do not approve of my taxes being spent by the government funding lies and deceptions that hurt innocent people.
Who are the tax payers who do? Can I get a list?
According to the Declaration of Independence it is the tax payers right and DUTY to put of government not serving the interest of the people and to form a new governance that will. And that is in the works - i.e. http://www.nycga.net/resources/declaration/
For those who do not know, you can support Wikileaks, using your credit card or paypal by simply buying sponsor items (see wikileaks site for donations) such as a T-Shirt for $100 where the profits go to funding Wikileaks. And this is called Free Enterprise.....
So the question is what kind of justice mokery they came up with ?
I suppose that the Wikileaks cable leaks were so pervasive that some of the files contained classified information -- maybe even information not only classified by the United States government but also many other governments of the world.
Has it occurred to you that perhaps the US prosecutors have researched the laws that he was supposed to be abiding by when he obtained the files? They're probably not as serious as the US laws but nowhere does it say whether these are charges under US law, Australian laws, US-Ally law or some other foreign law. Here's some reading on said laws from the nation of his citizenship. Perhaps the purpose of this indictment is to try to get him tried under those laws in an Australian court with information provided by US prosecutors?
My work here is dung.
When the American government pulls moves like this, it proves it is the greatest threat to liberty in the world. The bland malevolence of the sociopathic gangsters running the United States right now puts the acute and minor threat of 3rd world terrorists shooting guns to shame. The latter kills scores, the former kills millions. And the former's threat is all the more intractable because of all the sheeple who shut up and do as they're told in the commission of the crimes.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Duh, as if that was a surprise.
Now what do they really think will happen if they would sentence Manning and Assange?
Would their (USA) secrets be more safe due to this?
Nope. Plenty of people that can and will leak.
So it all depends on their (USA) security policy.
Not the theatre stuff we see from DHS, TSA in all types of places but the security policy in IT and on diplomatic levels.
So the USA lost to wikileaks and is pursueing something that will gain them nothing. Not even their honour.
I would be more worried about being extradited by the British. Gary McKinnon & Richard O'Dwyer face possible jail time in US prisons and they are British subjects.
No, the insurance key was not leaked by the guardian, it was a different key.
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/09/unredacted_us_d.html
blog.sam.liddicott.com
I don't think of Watergate when I think of these leaks; instead, this is what comes to mind:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_papers
We have been in this situation before, only we were less fascist back then.
Palm trees and 8
While I believe that Manning should be tried and executed, Assange is a different matter all together. He is not American and can not be tried for this. Fencing in stolen goods perhaps, but not for other matters.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
"Stratfor intelligence analysts on January 26 last year, the company's vice-president for intelligence, Fred Burton, responded to a media report concerning US investigations targeting WikiLeaks. He wrote: "We have a sealed indictment on Assange."
So Burton, a Stratfor VP, as "a sealed indictment"? Money & influence aside, on one at Stratfor has the power to directly indict anyone. If Burton is telling the truth, it means that someone committed a crime... by leaking a sealed indictment.
So here we have a prosecution team going after Assange for leaking classified information. In the course of doing so, someone on their team has leaked sealed information. Was it some ideological troublemaker, hell-bent on making secret government information public? Sounds like Assange!
Whoever it was, should really go after that person was. You know, for leaking sealed information. Which they seem to believe is a crime.
You don't get to get out of the law just because you are somewhere else. For example suppose I get your bank account password and steal all your money, but I do it from a different country. Not a crime where I am, even though the act probably is it wasn't done in their jurisdiction so not a crime there. Doesn't matter, your country can still extradite me to face justice (provided our nations have extradition treaties, which most do). I can't hide behind a border. Same deal if I ordered someone in your country to kill your wife. I didn't actually do the killing and I wasn't there. Doesn't matter, the blood is still on my hands and I can still be extradited and charged.
Doesn't matter if you don't think this is how things should be, it is how they are. This is well established in national and international law. Also in terms of practical things, look to Europe with many small countries near each other. You can see why it might be important to not have a national border be an impenetrable line.
The only people who think the Sweden extradition is some sort of grand conspiracy for the US to get its hands on Assange are... well, Assange, and a like-minded bunch of credulous simpletons
Nice ad homenim against anyone who disagrees with your view. Extra points for arrogance.
Apparently your list of "simpletons" includes your buddies at Stratfor, who claim to have specific intelligence indicating that the charges in Sweden are trumped up:
Ref: http://www.webpronews.com/stratfor-email-leaks-reveal-u-s-plans-to-indict-wikileaks-founder-2012-02
This may be less about extraditing Assange to the US, and more about jailing him for any offense, real or imagined, and assinating his character. Which would still be a "grand conspiracy" of sorts, just not one focused on extradition: label him a rapist and jail him for trumped up charges without us breaking any of our laws. Makes a nice example (in the Mafiosa Dom sense of the word), particularly once you throw Manning's inevitable sentence into the mix.
The sealed indictment (if real) adds another sinister bent to the whole thing. Regardless, that a very nasty game is afoot here is not in doubt, what is, is exactly what the nature of the game is.
What role a secret indictment would play is interesting to speculate about (and that's all anyone can really do). Can Assange be rendered more easily from Sweden (or points en route), or is he more vulnerable to extradition as a convicted felon and ex-con after he's served jailtime on trumped up charges and his reputation is in tatters? Or is it just an Ace the government keeps up its sleave, on the off chance Assange someday has a layover on US soil, say, on his way to a speaking engagement in Rio?
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
if the US executes it's own citizens, it's a moral conundrum that challenges the primacy of our constitutional system.
if the US executes an Australian citizen, it's an international incident that may cause war-crimes charges to be brought against President Obama.