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Discuss: Julian Assange Arrested

This morning, officers of the Metropolitan police were invited into the Ecuadorian embassy by President Lenin Moreno. They proceeded to arrest WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and literally drag him out of the building.

Arrest video:

The important facts of the case are as follows:

  • Julian Assange is not wanted for ANY CRIME, except skipping his bail. This carries a maximum sentence of 6 months under UK Law.
  • The Swedish authorities have dropped all their investigations of him for sexual assault. Read more on that here.
  • Assange has said, many times, that above all else he is avoiding being extradited to the US. US officials have, in the past, referenced the idea of assassinating him, and their intelligence services are known to use “enhanced interrogation” techniques (aka torture).
  • The UN has found, multiple times, that Assange’s detention was inhumane and illegal under international law.

Take a moment to imagine Assange was Chinese, Iranian, Russian. Any “enemy” nation.

Imagine a journalist had published leaked documents proving Vladimir Putin’s complicity in war crimes, imagine he had been hiding out in an embassy in Moscow for 8 years, despite the UN finding his detention to be “arbitrary” and calling on Russia to end his “deprivation of liberty”.

And then imagine a whole bunch of FSB officers carried him out like a hunting trophy, threw him in a van and drove him off to God know’s where.

How would our media cover that? Would they make jokes like this?

No. There would be outrage. There would be scorn from the “international community”. There would be sample chapters of Luke Harding’s latest book. The attitude to whistle blowers, WikiLeaks and the persecution of Julian Assange has always been a key test for the mainstream media’s claimed “values” of free speech, liberty and honesty. It is a test they have failed a million times over.

The Tories, and others political figures, have been quick to “congratulate” Ecuador on their decision:

This has been long time coming, with months of frenzied negotiation between the US and Ecuador occasionally showing on the surface. The Guardian’s totally false story linking Assange to Paul Manafort, and all the other “Russiagate” bullshit, was designed to further demonise Assange in the eyes of “The Resistance” and others of their ilk.

These deceived liberals will probably happily applaud the arrest of a journalist for simply telling the truth. These are dark times.

So the important questions become:

  • Will the US attempt to extradite him?
  • Will the Swedish prosecutor re-open the rape case, as has been hinted?
  • Will the media do their job properly? Or will they just publish more smear pieces?
  • Will Julian Assange ever be seen alive again?

This story is developing. Any updates will be posted as they arrive.

UPDATE:

WikiLeaks have announced that Assange was seized under a US extradition warrant:


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