Showing posts with label extradition. Show all posts
Showing posts with label extradition. Show all posts

Friday 10 December 2021

Assange.

         Our mock democracy is always spouting about our free press, and how fortunate we are in having such freedom as to publish facts, no matter come what may. However, if you ever get round to publishing the dark deeds and violent doings of the state, then your freedom to publish rapidly evaporates.  When you make public the brutality and lying of the state, the state apparatus moves into overdrive, and ignores the information and shoots the messenger. That is the shape of our so called Western freedom. The case of Julian Assange is living proof of this methodology. The state will not tolerate anyone who dares to reveal the nasty, brutal activities it indulges in to protect and further its power and wealth. The UK judicial system, which comprises mainly of wealthy, privileged pro-establishment figures, today has by granting U$A the right to extradite Julian Assange, more or less sentenced a journalist to a life in an American prison, for telling the truth. Those who claim we live in a democracy, are either blind and naive, or one of the privileged parasites that control our lives. Where is the uproar from all those journalist that spout about our free press? If they are honest reporters, they could be next.   


 
             Julian Paul Assange (/əˈsɑːnʒ/;[3] born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Armyintelligence analystChelsea Manning. These leaks included the Baghdad airstrike Collateral Murder video (April 2010),[4][5] the Afghanistan war logs (July 2010), the Iraq war logs (October 2010), and Cablegate (November 2010). After the 2010 leaks, the United States government launched a criminal investigation into WikiLeaks.[6]
            In November 2010, Sweden issued an international arrest warrant for Assange over allegations of sexual misconduct.[7] Assange said the allegations were a pretext for his extradition from Sweden to the United States over his role in the publication of secret American documents.[8][9] After losing his battle against extradition to Sweden, he breached bail and took refuge in the Embassy of Ecuador in London in June 2012.[10] He was granted asylum by Ecuador in August 2012[11] on the grounds of political persecution, with the presumption that if he were extradited to Sweden, he would be eventually extradited to the US.[12] Swedish prosecutors dropped their investigation in 2019, saying their evidence had "weakened considerably due to the long period of time that has elapsed since the events in question."[13]
         During the 2016 U.S. election campaign, WikiLeaks published confidential Democratic Party emails, showing that the party's national committee favoured Hillary Clinton over her rival Bernie Sanders in the primaries.[14]
         On 11 April 2019, Assange's asylum was withdrawn following a series of disputes with the Ecuadorian authorities.[15] The police were invited into the embassy and he was arrested.[16] He was found guilty of breaching the Bail Act and sentenced to 50 weeks in prison.[17] The United States government unsealed an indictment against Assange, related to the leaks provided by Manning. On 23 May 2019, the United States government further charged Assange with violating the Espionage Act of 1917. Editors from newspapers, including The Washington Post and The New York Times, as well as press freedom organisations, criticised the government's decision to charge Assange under the Espionage Act, characterising it as an attack on the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees freedom of the press.[18][19] On 4 January 2021, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled against the United States' request to extradite him and stated that doing so would be "oppressive" given his mental health.[20] On 6 January 2021, Assange was denied bail, pending an appeal by the United States.[21] On 10 December 2021 Britain’s Court of Appeal ruled that Assange can be extradited to the USA to face the charges.[22][23]
         Assange has been confined in Belmarsh maximum-security prison in London since April 2019.[24]
 
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Saturday 14 April 2012

NET CAUTION.


Use a Dot Com web address? Then you're at risk

      Do you have a website or blog with a .com, .net or .org address? Do you have some responsibility in your workplace for a website that does? Is your website, whatever its address, hosted by a company based in the US?
       Then watch out. The US authorities could take your website down if they think it is breaking US laws. More importantly, they could take YOU down - extradite you, put you in the dock in a US court, and jail you.
         The US claims jurisdiction over websites, wherever they are run from, if they are hosted on servers located in the US - and many of the most popular and cheapest web hosting companies are located in the US. But if you think that by avoiding US web hosting companies you can stay safe, think again. The US also claims jurisdiction over a number of apparently "international" domains, including .com, .net .org, and .tv, because the companies that administer these domain names are located in the US.
         Babar Ahmad and Tahla Ahsan are facing extradition to the US to face terrorism charges arising from their alleged involvement with a website that was hosted, for a short period, on servers in the US. Their connection with the website has yet to be established. You might think it would fall to a British court to decide on that, and to decide whether or not the website was legal. But neither the British nor the US governments want that to happen. Ahmad and Ahsan's application to the European Court of Human Rights to have their extradition blocked was rejected on 10 April, but they still have a right to ask a larger panel of European Court judges to look at their case. Think the US will only do something like that if it thinks its security is at stake? Think again.
          Richard O'Dwyer is facing extradition to the US to answer charges of copyright infringement solely because his site TVShack.net used a US-administered domain name. His website broke no UK laws, but that may not be good enough to keep him out of jail. He has lodged an appeal against the UK Goverrnment's decision to allow his extradition. More cases like this are inevitable. New Zealand based web expert Vikram Kumar says:
"When a government finds a means that works, the range of ends to which it feels justified to apply that means can expand very quickly."

What you can do to stay safe?

        * If you live in the UK, contact your MPs (you can use www.writetothem.com) and demand that they repeal the Extradition Act 2003, which allows the US to seek your extradition without having to present any evidence in a British court. And tell your MP that the extraditions currently in the pipeline must be stopped. The people the US is trying to extradite should be tried in Britain if there is any evidence against them.
        * If you live elsewhere, make sure that your country's extradition laws are French style (French citizens are not extradited to the US), not British-style. If your country has British-style extradition laws, ask your democratic representatives to change them.
        * If your website uses a US-administered top-level domain such as .com, .org or .net, consider changing it to something else, such as .co.uk, .org.uk. With care, it need not cost you web visibility. One day you may be very glad you did it.
         * If you have influence in a business or organisation that uses a US-administered top-level domain, encourage them to consider a change.
         * If you work with such a website as part of your job, ask your trade union to look into the legal risks you may be exposed to. Perhaps your employer thinks the magic of a .com domain is worth the risk. Your union should ask them to think again.
         * If you live in the UK, contact the Director of Public Prosecutions to demand that Babar Ahmad be put on trial in the UK. It's the right thing to do (Ahmad's alleged crimes were committed in the UK, the evidence against him was gathered in the UK by British police, and he is a British citizen). It's what Babar Ahmad wants. And it will set a precedent that makes it less likely that YOU could be extradited to the US. More info about writing to the DPP





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