The Biden administration can now be compared with Donald Trump.
Biden’s decision to continue pursuit of Julian Assange for making public 500,000 secret files detailing aspects of military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq is disgraceful.
Biden, who has spent 50 years in Washington is affirming his reputation as just another Washington politician who cares only about keeping America’s dirty war mongering secrets out of the public arena.
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 12.10.2021
The US government has won its appeal against a court decision that halted the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
Why is the US seeking extradition?
The Australian is wanted on 18 charges in the United States and faces a maximum 175-year sentence if convicted.
The charges are related to the 2010 release by WikiLeaks of 500,000 secret files detailing aspects of military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The US government also alleges that he helped intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal the 2010 documents before exposing confidential sources around the world.
Manning was pardoned by former President Barack Obama at the end of his second four-year term. But she remained in jail from May 2019 until December 2020 for refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating WikiLeaks.
Assange and his lawyers have long argued that the protracted case against him is politically motivated.
His supporters also see him as a journalist who shone the light on possible war crimes.
The case will now go back to the Westminster Magistrates Court where the extradition request would need to be sent to the UK Minister of Interior, Priti Patel for review.
Assange can still request permission for a final ruling on Friday’s verdict from the UK’s Supreme Court. The 50-year-old has been in custody since April 2019, when he was sentenced to 50 weeks behind bars.
He was ordered to remain in custody pending the outcome of the High Court’s decision over concerns he would abscond. He has spent more than two years jailed in Belmarsh maximum security prison.
Before the 2019 sentence, he was hauled out of the Ecuadorian Embassy by British authorities after his citizenship was revoked.
Assange’s fiancee, Stella Moris, said their legal team would appeal “at the earliest possible moment,” while saying it was a “grave miscarriage of justice.”
Before proceedings Moris expressed hope that he would be home for Christmas in a post on Twitter. “I hope the High Court will bring this abusive and vindictive extradition to an end today so that that our children will be able to spend Christmas with their father.”
https://www.dw.com/en/uk-court-rules-in-favor-of-us-in-appeal-to-extradite-julian-assange/a-60077787
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