Assange arrested under European Arrest Warrant on trumped up charges

[-:Undertaker:-]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11937110

Wikileaks founder refused bail after being arrested under the notorious European Arrest Warant

Assange has been arrested in the UK under the European Arrest Warrant

Mr Assange denies sexually assaulting two women in Sweden. He was remanded in custody pending a hearing next week. A judge at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court refused bail because of the risk of the 39-year-old fleeing. A Wikileaks spokesman said the arrest was an attack on media freedom and pledged to continue publishing. Mr Assange's lawyer Mark Stephens said after the court appearance he would be applying again for bail. He also claimed the charges were "politically motivated" and he said the judge was keen to see the evidence against Mr Assange, an Australian citizen. Mr Stephens also said Wikileaks would continue to publish material and added: "We are on cable 301 and there are 250,000 secret cables."

A Downing Street spokesman said Mr Assange's arrest was "a matter for the police" and there had been no ministerial involvement. Wikileaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said it would not stop the release of more secret files and told Reuters on Tuesday: "Wikileaks is operational. We are continuing on the same track as laid out before. "Any development with regards to Julian Assange will not change the plans we have with regards to the releases today and in the coming days."

Mr Assange has come in for criticism in the past week for the revelations made on Wikileaks. Foreign Secretary William Hague has criticised the website for publishing details of sensitive sites, including some in the UK, saying they could be targeted by terrorists. Mr Crowley said: "The (US) constitution enshrines the freedom of the press and we respect that, even if we have concerns about how that is exercised".

Gerard Batten, a UKIP MEP, said the Assange case highlighted the dangers of the European arrest warrant.
He said: "I don't know of the quality of the evidence in Mr Assange's case but it does seem that he is involved in political turmoil and intrigue and there are a lot of people keen to shut him up and there is nothing a court in the UK can do to look at the evidence before they extradite him."

Mr Assange is an Australian citizen and his supporters have written an open letter to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, asking her to protect him. Mr Pilger, who appeared in court to support Mr Assange, said Ms Gillard's threat to remove his passport smacked of "totalitarianism".

The UK is now all but powerless and is forced to arrest Mr Assange on these seemingly trumped up-political charges under the European Arrest Warrant which means you can be extradited without the will/evidence of the British courts - in other words, the US has obviously put pressue on Sweden and Interpol and with the handy invention of the EU's (EAW) we cannot do a single thing to stop this even though we can clearly see what he is doing is right.

Now i'm sorry for more comparisons to former regimes, but this is exactly the kind of kangeroo courtship the Soviet courts used back in the Soviet Union - to keep 'enemies of the states' quiet. The western world laughabley thinks its free - you can now be arrested for staging a protest outside the cenotaph; you can now be carted off to a foreign country without British courts looking at the evidence; Britain has more CCTV than China.. the list goes on and on.

Thoughts?

[Fez]

I feel like the 21st century will either be remembered for the heroes who saved free information or the heroes who fell apart trying to protect is. We're either headed for Orwellian society or free information, and I'm not sure the current government or state of affairs can facilitate either without anarchy reigning.

The next ten or so years will be crucially important.

[Conservative,]

He's been arrested for rape...I personally am glad to see him behind bars. I hope he stays there. I think that certain things he has released should be released...but others not so. Some of it could cause huge uproar and diminish good relationships with other countries...

what he did was wrong. If he truly believed in the free information he would have published what was in the public interest...the stuff that we want to know about, not they stuff which will put us in danger.

[-:Undertaker:-]

He's been arrested for rape...I personally am glad to see him behind bars. I hope he stays there. I think that certain things he has released should be released...but others not so. Some of it could cause huge uproar and diminish good relationships with other countries...

what he did was wrong. If he truly believed in the free information he would have published what was in the public interest...the stuff that we want to know about, not they stuff which will put us in danger.

Who said they'll put us all in danger? oh that's right, the U.S. government - a government which supplied weapons to the Ba'ath regime in Iraq.. then invaded Iraq and now has insurgents using them same weapons to attack U.S. soliders in Iraq along with destroying an entire country which posed no threat to the United States or even its own neighbours for that matter. Then we have Afghanistan, a war that nobody can explain why and what we are doing there and why so many soliders are dying there - for a 'cause' that does not exist.

Ontop of that, my own government and the European Union (unelected) are busy pushing for more CCTV, ID cards, biometric passports, creating terrorist laws which restrict and destroy old English law under the pretext of 'freedom'..and you are trying to tell me that Assange and his website Wikileaks pose a threat to me? the only thing that poses a threat to me and my country is the political class, not a bearded man in a cave or a website exposing the truth.

[Niall!]

For once I'm with Undertake here.

This is obviously a fake charge to stop the cables being released. This means the US or the EU know he has something that's going to ruin them.

And I think he's right to do it. I hate this whole secrets in the shadows the politicians do. They are elected by us; if they feel they need to keep things from us they should step down from their posts. Of course, I'm speaking for the British government not the unelected EU officials.

Oh well. Assange did warn them about his insurance file. If he gets sent down, expect even bigger hell to break lose. He has been keeping back things that might ruin the world completely he has said, and they are in his insurance file. Once that's released we'll see who's right.

[Jamesy]

what he did was wrong. If he truly believed in the free information he would have published what was in the public interest...the stuff that we want to know about, not they stuff which will put us in danger.

How can the information be free if he selectively releases the good parts? I personally think that no matter what the ability to see what the people who go around the world in the name of the country we are in, or those we associate ourselves with are up to is good. You cannot take the good and only show that, you must show it all for the audience to draw a fair conclusion.

Ultimately the US are making this more than it needs to be. Is Wikileaks any worse than a news organisation? They release leaked documents all the time for their stories but no one kicks up a fuss. The US should either be honest, or deal with the source of the leak their end.

I am hoping he will be able to clear his name. The timing of this warrant and the witch hunt by governments around the world make me suspect he wont.

[Conservative,]

If he releases something that makes the world political system crumble you know everyone will just hunt him down right? As much as the Western (and Eastern for that matter) politicians are liars...I'd rather have a civilized state which tried to keep me safe than complete anarchy.

[Jamesy]

If he releases something that makes the world political system crumble you know everyone will just hunt him down right? As much as the Western (and Eastern for that matter) politicians are liars...I'd rather have a civilized state which tried to keep me safe than complete anarchy.

I highly doubt the world's political system is so unstable a leaked cable would cause it to collapse, not with the trade networks or the numerous other connections we have in today's society. Anarchy will not ensue from this, a few red faces around the world stage but I highly doubt these people would be diplomats, politicians or anything in that field if they couldn't easily squirm out of a situation like this.

[Jordy]

How can the information be free if he selectively releases the good parts? I personally think that no matter what the ability to see what the people who go around the world in the name of the country we are in, or those we associate ourselves with are up to is good. You cannot take the good and only show that, you must show it all for the audience to draw a fair conclusion.

Ultimately the US are making this more than it needs to be. Is Wikileaks any worse than a news organisation? They release leaked documents all the time for their stories but no one kicks up a fuss. The US should either be honest, or deal with the source of the leak their end.

I am hoping he will be able to clear his name. The timing of this warrant and the witch hunt by governments around the world make me suspect he wont.

News organisations have never leaked anything on this scale. We get the odd break in the UK such as "expenses" but Wikileaks is responsible for more leaks than the entire media combined, something which it prides it's self on.

The timing is certainly coincidental but if there's evidence (which hasn't yet come to light) that he has raped these women then he should most certainly be extradited and sit a fair trial. Just because the timing is very coincidental does not mean he isn't a rapist, he should be treated like anyone else would be.

[Dean]

I believe that the Swede's where like "oh crap" so made up some rubbish about him sexually assaulting two girls.