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Did Sweden Pay Cambodia For the Pirate Bay Co-founder?
An anonymous reader writes "At the start of this month, news broke that The Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm had been arrested in Cambodia. A bunch of updates followed, including that Svartholm would be deported to Sweden, and that the two countries of course collaborated on his capture. The latest tidbit, as of today, is the craziest one yet: Sweden essentially paid Cambodia tens of millions of dollars. The Government of Sweden has agreed to give 400 million Swedish Kronor ($59.4 million) to Cambodia for various reasons, including democratic development, human rights, education, environment protection, climate change, sustainable development, and poverty reduction. You name it (just don't say international arrests)."
Well, that kind of money should reduce the poverty of one or two government officials...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
I highly doubt that the Swedish government would have such a great interest in Svartholm that they would pay to get him extradited. Also how much aid was given to Cambodia before Svartholm was arrested? Unless that figure was close to zero I fail to see how Sweden payed for his extradition.
I fought the corporate America, and the corporate America bought the law.
Did Sweden Pay Cambodia For the Pirate Bay Co-founder?
Why are you asking me? You're the one writing the article, so how about answering some questions and providing factual information instead of weaseling around with headline questions?
goes to Cambodia for asylum? Seriously.
If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
Governments do this all the time. Jimmy Carter's famous Camp David Accords peace treaty between Sadat and Begin wouldn't have happened unless Carter bribed Egypt with $1.3 billion dollars per year in "aid". Not to be left out, Israel received a $3 billion bribe, I mean, foreign aid, for their part in the peace treaty. For accepting these bribes, Begin and Sadat shared a Nobel Peace Prize. Suddenly, everyone is shocked, shocked to find that aid is going on here?
Try this from now on: any time you hear the word "foreign aid", mentally substitute the word "bribe". You'll see it's a quite normal state of affairs among nations.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Wikileaks released cables that showed the US had threatened to put Sweden on the WTO’s black list if they refused to deal with the Pirate Bay 'problem'.
So either Sweden actually stood to lose more than the 59.4m by doing nothing or the money came directly from the US.
Either way, the US is being a bully once again.
This is why everyone should vote Romney. While he is just as much of an asshole as Obama and many others before him, at least he'll burn the country to the ground for good.
you do realize what "per capita" means, right?
If the allegation of Sweden paying Cambodia, for them to body snatch a single person, - Gottfrid Svartholm, - so that they can then "deported" the guy back to Sweden - We would know what will happen to Mr. Julian Assange when he step on Sweden's soil --->
Mr. Assange will end up be "sold" to USA, just like Mr. Svartholm was sold to Sweden
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
You're probably thinking about Switzerland (a republic situated in the Alps in Central Europe, known for its chocolate, watches and banking system).
Sweden (a constitutional monarchy in Northern Europe) is not known for its banking system. We do have Volvo, Ericsson and The Pirate Bay, though.
No comment.
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
Sweden is not neutral. Sweden has had a policy of being non-aligned in order to keep the ability of being neutral in the case of war. Sweden was never de-jure recognised as neutral. Although to some, Sweden, may be seen as de-facto neutral, the actual fact is that Sweden has been involved in numerous armed conflicts during the last century. In WWII Sweden who stayed outside of the main conflict, sided with Finland and even sent troops, both air force and army (including officers) that took part in combat operations, all-though technically they where sorted under Finnish flag, the fact is that they where endorsed by Sweden, how also sent over lots of arms.
In addition to this, Sweden has been a member of the EU since the 1990s, and even though the EU did not have mutual defence guarantees until the Lisbon treaty, the fact is that no EU state would remain neutral in the case of another one being attacked.
Sweden has also removed "neutrality" from their foreign policy documents. So, it has not been neutral nether de-facto or de-jure since before WWII. And especially, given the membership of the Union, the old motto of "non alignment in order to be able to be neutral in the case of war" has not been true for 20 years.
"Civis Europaeus sum!"
Because it's just unthinkable that someone sentenced for a crime could be extradited for it? And Assange's case is even more ridiculous. So was it political pressure that made the district attorney _drop_ the case, only for that decision to be successfully appealed by the women's representative? And given that the women and their legal representative are members of the opposition, are they working across the isle on this, too? You're living in a crazy fantasy.
But only if they're doing what you want, right? Because Assange doesn't think so. He thinks the Swedish government should provide guarantees he won't be extradited to the USA, despite the fact that this is a decision the courts would make. He's asking for the Swedish executive to tell the judicial what to do.