Julian Assange could not be reached by Swedish authorities investigating sex crimes allegations against him because the WikiLeaks founder had become spooked by "death threats" issued by American politicians including Sarah Palin, Assange's Swedish lawyer told a British court today.
One of the central mysteries of Assange's extradition hearing in London this week is why the 39-year-old Australian faces extradition at all. Why did he not voluntarily return to Sweden to face questioning in the weeks following the accusations by two Swedish women?
Giving evidence in London, Assange's Swedish attorney Bjorn Hurtig said his client could not be reached by Swedish authorities because he had gone into hiding due to fears that he would be killed by forces from the United States.
"There were a lot of threatening statements made by politicians in the U.S. ... you should keep in mind that during this period I've known Julian he has actually received death threats in the media ... that he should be given the death sentence," Hurtig said, using an interpreter, in court on Tuesday. "As a consequence of this Julian was duly worried."
Hurtig's statement is part of a an effort by Assange's lawyers to fight extradition to Sweden on the grounds that doing so would violate Assange's human rights by putting him at risk of execution. They support this claim by citing British media reports that U.S. Republican politicians Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee have called for him to be executed. Palin is reported to have said that Assange "should be hunted down like Al Qaeda."
Seriously? Assange takes on the United States, thumbs his nose at Sweden's attempts to extradite him, and yet he is panic stricken because of threats made by Snowdrift Snooki?
Calm down Julian, haven't you seen this?
See? It would take her at LEAST six shots to hit you, and she absolutely cannot hit a moving target. Relax, with her on the hunt you have nothing to fear.
Sarah Palin is not dangerous she is nothing. Yes some of her supporters are crazy, and might do just about anything, But Palin herself is just a joke, and certainly nothing to fear.
This is very interesting, Gryph.
ReplyDeleteWe now have two separate, high-profile news stories directly blaming Sarah for death threats.
1. Tucson
2. Wikileaks
There are no coincidences.
Three strikes and she's out.
Yeah, nothing to fear at the hands of Sarah herself, but who wouldn't be afraid of her crazed followers?
ReplyDeleteShe is masterful at inciting violence, but not so hot at actually implementing. Therein lies the problem - how do you trace it back to her or, for that matter, another inciter, Huckabee?
Both are happy to spout off these pronouncements and judgments, knowing in their hearts that someone else will follow through on them. All they have to do is just stir up the crazies. And. They. Do.
This picture of SP holding a firearm has always bothered me. All hunters will tell you that a shooter only places their finger inside of the trigger guard when they are going to pull the trigger. This picture reflects a reckless disregard for hunter safety and reveals another component about her true image, uninformed!
ReplyDeleteIt's a miracle that European travel agents don't warn tourists of the danger in visiting our great nation.
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of early Star Treks where Kirk had lame fights with aliens.
ReplyDeleteWhy does her dad have to reload for her?
no sweat Julian, Palin has turned to an easier target, Christina Aguilera. Palin sain on the Sean Hannity show:
ReplyDeleteHere's another case of an airhead diva going on TV, running her mouth off, sounding like a fool.
Palin has NO clue.
joke aguilers?
ReplyDeleteWasn't Assange in Sweden when this first came out but they dragged their feet?
ReplyDeleteWhy you think this is funny, Gryph, is beyond me. Did Tuscon teach you nothing?
ReplyDelete@dsmyre/12:03 and @Anon/12:09. That is exactly what I came here to say! We have to look at the big picture and keep in mind the hateful rhetoric being spewed.
ReplyDeleteI agree with dsmyre...
ReplyDeleteHigh profile cases that show $carah connected to death threats.
I hope the lamestream media picks this up and runs with it.
It's about g-damn time everyone paid attention to her anti-American/violent speech.
She's been walking on the edge of being a traitor for too long.
I'm guessing that $carah could well be banned from the UK altogether, just as the Westboro homophobes have been? And wouldn't THAT be sweet.
ReplyDeleteHeadline: SP Plans Photo Op with Maggie Thatcher
Next HEadline: Uh cancel that, The UK doesn't want what she's peddlin', finds SP's pollutin' persona non grata.
I don't think for a minute that Julian Assange it afraid of $istah $arah. I wouldn't be surprised if he hasn't been mining for some Palin and GOP dirt.
ReplyDeleteThere is a petition to the Dept of Justice to indict Palin for incitement to violence at
ReplyDeletehttp://www.PetitionOnline.com/IndictSP/petition.html
anon@12:23.....hmm, lessee, "maximum penalty"? Guess that wouldn't be a 2 minute bench minor would it more like a 10 minute major AND a game misconduct ?...........fuckoff you retard troll...
ReplyDelete12:21 PM - Europeans are told it is dangerous to travel here. We know several people in Europe, and ever since those shootings in Florida a few years ago, people are increasingly wary of visiting the States and justifiably so.
ReplyDeleteHey, 12:23 PM, just what, in your estimable opinion is "the maximum penalty?" Who is qualified to apply it?
ReplyDeleteAll he is guilty of is spreading the truth that has been hidden from the people. That's something to be thankful for, not to punish. We are manipulated enough. We need to know what goes on behind the scenes so we can hold people accountable when they make decisions based upon fear or greed without regard to the common good.
Sarah is criticizing Christina Aguilera? For what? Every singer has muffed the words to a song under pressure at least once in their careers.
ReplyDeleteSarah, our Lady of the Word Salad, had best contemplate her own misadventures with language before knocking anyone else.
BTW - can you imagine how awful it would be to her Sarah's voice attempt to scream the national anthem? Shudders.
WalterNeff, you have a good point. There is nothing remotely funny about death threats or threats of violence.
ReplyDeleteI can understand why Assange would believe his life was in danger after what's happened here, and how vehemently the right-wingers have jumped upon the bandwagon against him. I suspect they and their backers have a lot to hide.
Not to say that the centrists and left don't have some things in their closets they'd like to remain hidden, but the GOP has a long history of manipulating world events - just take a look at the reigns of Nixon, Reagan, G.H. Bush, and G.W. Bush. Lots of nasty little under-the-table projects that bear investigation and prosecution.
So some think she can hit a moving target, well according to her fake show she couldn't hit the side of a barn.
ReplyDeleteI will agree though that she incites hatred and someone else might pull the trigger for her.
Rumor is that Bristol might not have a book coming out that this was just another RAM PR stunt to show how stupid Bristol really is.
ReplyDeleteShe is trying to be a media whore just like Mother Sarah, the uneducated.
Related to this discussion is the following wherein the Tea Party claims it is a victim of Tucson.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newser.com/story/109536/tucson-tea-party-were-victims-too.html
Hmm - let's see, first they tout Sarah as the Second Coming and then they claim her rhetoric has nothing to do with inciting violence - but, of course, once the violence occurred, they are the first say "oh, poor us, we are being victimized by the violence." Sheez - no shame or sense at all.
Incitement of murder is NEVER funny! People doing this should be charged as far as I am concerned.
ReplyDeleteTom Flanagan, a professor of the University of Calgary did the same thing against Assange and is being investigated. Students from the University have called for him to be fired. And I sure hope he loses his job for what he said.
Sound familiar?
ReplyDeleteNo threats reported to authorities over Palin's planned speech in Glendale
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_17323756
It isn't her personally that scares people. It s her insane followers. She riles them up, then claims innocence.
ReplyDeleteWait just one minute. I'm confused. Gryphen seems to think Assange is over-reacting.
ReplyDeleteEven though Gryphen himself claims to have been harassed.
Which is it - nothing to worry about? Or something to worry about?
I know I would be completely alarmed! Even just reading and posting on blogs like this - I wonder in small quiet moments who tracks this and whether or not they 'have ways' to know who we all are.
I'm careful what I say to whom because I know that there's a buncha Michigan Milita guys a few miles down the road and another bunch to the north, little pockets all over the place. Armed and not afraid of getting in trouble. No fear of the law. Deliberately contentious.
I might be alone with a flat tire headed up the highway someday. I would be afraid for them to know who I am and what I think.
Over-reacting or appropriately cautious? I don't know.
But what a relief for readers to know that Gryphen has nothing to fear from Sarah Palin and her supporters. We were worried for nothing.
Don't believe all you read about Assange. And I hardly think he would be scared of Palin's minions.
ReplyDelete"He selects as exclusive newspapers to decide what is to be leaked the New York Times which did such service in promoting faked propaganda against Saddam that led to the Iraqi war, the London Guardian and Der Spiegel. Assange claims he had no time to sift through so many pages so handed them to the trusted editors of the establishment media for them to decide what should be released. Very “anti-establishment” that...
"But for anyone who has studied the craft of intelligence and of disinformation, a clear pattern emerges in the Wikileaks drama. The focus is put on select US geopolitical targets, appearing as Hillary Clinton put it “to justify US sanctions against Iran.” They claim North Korea with China’s granting of free passage to Korean ships despite US State Department pleas, send dangerous missiles to Iran. Saudi Arabia’s ailing King Abdullah reportedly called Iran’s President a Hitler....
"What is emerging from all the sound and Wikileaks fury in Washington is that the entire scandal is serving to advance a long-standing Obama and Bush agenda of policing the until-now free Internet. Already the US Government has shut the Wikileaks server in the United States though no identifiable US law has been broken."
http://www.voltairenet.org/article167733.html
F. William Engdahl
SP needs medical treatment, if her medical insurance will authorize. To help us deal with her problems, let's call her reactions what they are:
ReplyDelete"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
"Kruger and Dunning proposed that, for a given skill, incompetent people will:
1.tend to overestimate their own level of skill;
2.fail to recognize genuine skill in others;
3.fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy;
4.recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill, if they can be trained to substantially improve.
I have lived in a houseful of guns since I was a wee lad, and that was a long time ago, so I know whereof I speak:
ReplyDeleteLook at the picture of Snooki with the AR-15. Notice anything? I did - immediately.
The very first thing any experienced shooter would notice is that her finger is on the trigger. Maybe to the public at large that doesn't mean much, but to someone with experience, that is the mark of a complete firearms novice (and ignoramus).
If Mercede's sorry-assed excuse for a brother is any authority, Snooki doesn't know which end of the tube the round comes out of. This picture definitely confirms it.
He is fighting extradition because Sweden has agreed to turn him over to the US to prosecute as a terrorist.
ReplyDeleteThere is not reason to assume that they would not use on him, to make him reveal his associates, the same techniques that they use on Iraqis and Afgans.
Or even on Americans.
Probably his lawyer is laying the ground work to fight to keep the Swedes from turning him over to the US, should Britain grant extradition.
There is also this rendition thing that the US does, that should worry him, although I would welcome it if we would disappear Mubarak.
Assange is very intelligent, and he has been a target of the mercenaries from many countries. The Palin-Huckabee excuse seems more like throwing crazy at crazy. Our media and politicians seem clueless about how the rest of the world sees them and their statements. Assange's statement was probably followed by a sarcastic "Lions and tigers and bears! Oh my!"
ReplyDelete"Don't believe all you read about Assange."
ReplyDeleteExactly so. Sage advice. That would true 100% of the time, about everything, from every source. Including your sources, too.
You missed some of it:
Wikileaks: a Big Dangerous US Government Con Job
by F. William Engdahl
The story on the surface makes for a script for a new Oliver Stone Hollywood thriller. However, a closer look at the details of what has so far been carefully leaked by the most ultra-establishment of international media such as the New York Times reveals a clear agenda. That agenda coincidentally serves to buttress the agenda of US geopolitics around the world from Iran to North Korea. The Wikileaks is a big and dangerous US intelligence Con Job which will likely be used to police the Internet.
F. William Engdahl is an American expatriot journalist, economist and writer who has lived in Germany for over 20 years.
He's a buddy of Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
"LaRouche has a good deal of control over the lives of the members of his organization...according to interviews with former NCLC members, others familiar with its activities, published reports and an examination of the group's internal documents, some of which were filed in a recent libel suit in Alexandria.
"It's a seven-day-a-week, 24-hour-a-day total immersion," said a recent dropout, who, like other ex-members interviewed, did not want to be identified for fear of retribution. "It's a situation where people wouldn't have any private lives anymore . . . . Everyone's got to march to the same tune."
"He demands sycophantic obedience," the former member said. "He repeatedly tells the members he is in total control of the organization."
The members are "rank-and-file automatons" devoted to LaRouche, according to one member's resignation letter several years ago.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/cult/larouche/main.htm
focusing on the law, incitement and bs is not against the US freedom of speech or any law. sadly, Radio Rwanda [look that up to refresh your memory] is still 'free speech' in the US. those acting on said 'free speech' unlawfuly, will be prosecuted [of course, if caught].
ReplyDeleteAssange is more concerned about getting extradicted to the US under an old espionage law for the Leaks.
the country where he is allegedly facing two counts of rape, has an extradition treaty with the US.
it's a real political shit storm, but two counts? that's troubling.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41473395/ns/world_news-europe/
It’s really not funny any more, if it ever was. This is just one example in a long history of trigger-happy reactions on Palin’s behalf. It’s inappropriate and unacceptable, no matter what Julian Assange has done or not done. Sarah Palin is not in any elected office, and yet she has a megaphone and a lot of followers who aren’t so emotionally stable. Sarah Palin needs to be told to walk it back or be prosecuted for inciting violence.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.politicususa.com/en/palin-death-threats-assange
It is not Palin specifically Assange is afraid of, it is those she may encourage to acts of violence. It is also the fact that our CIA can make things happen that can't be traced back to them.
ReplyDeleteTo Anonymous @6:54 p.m. Thank you for your admonition to not believe everything you read, which is true 100% of the time. However, you don't have to believe everything Mr. Engdahl has written about WikiLeaks in the link I posted, as he is expressing a point of view shared by many others, and raised valid arguments. You can find other authors questioning Mr. Assange's motives and methods, many of whom firmly believe Assange is a double agent.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, Mr. Engdahl has been writing articles from a very progressive standpoint for awhile now.
These are the most recent articles by F. William Engdahl:
Egypt’s Revolution-Creative Destruction For A ‘Greater Middle East’?
The G8 Map of Washington’s Greater Middle East extends right to the borders of China and Russia and West to Morocco
- by F. William Engdahl - 2011-02-07
Wikileaks: A Big Dangerous US Government Con Job
- by F. William Engdahl - 2010-12-10
Financial Fraud in Germany. The Wall Street Model Backfires; Deutsche Bank and the US Mortgage Scam
- by F. William Engdahl - 2010-11-05
The Yemen Hidden Agenda: Behind the Al-Qaeda Scenario
- by F. William Engdahl - 2010-11-02
Cholera Epidemic: Toxic Drinking Water Killing Haitians
Real Aid is Blocked
- by F. William Engdahl - 2010-10-27
Study Shows Monsanto Roundup Herbicide Link to Birth Defects
- by F. William Engdahl - 2010-09-30
The Bizarre Background of the ‘911’ New York Mosque
- by F. William Engdahl - 2010-09-14
La catástrofe de los organismos modificados genéticamente en Estados Unidos, una lección para el mundo Cultivos modificados genéticamente
- by F. William Engdahl - 2010-09-09
Genetically Manipulated Crops: The GMO Catastrophe in the USA. A Lesson for the World
- by F. William Engdahl - 2010-08-18
Farmers across the United States are reported to be going back to conventional non-GMO crops
Hidden Intelligence Operation Behind the Wikileaks Release of "Secret" Documents?
The real story of Wikileaks has clearly not yet been told.
- by F. William Engdahl - 2010-08-11
Pipeline Geopolitics: The Russia German Nord Stream Strategic Gas Pipeline
- by F. William Engdahl - 2010-07-09
Gulf Oil Spill "Could Go on for Years and Years" ...
- by F. William Engdahl - 2010-06-11
The Obama Administration and BP are not working not to stop the world’s worst oil disaster, but to hide the true extent of the actual ecological catastrophe.
It would seem that although he may have been associated with Lyndon LaRouche, he is now writing Progressive articles on topics of world interest, and has been writing about WikiLeaks for a while.