Assange...

[woolybanana]

has finally been winkled out of the embassy where he had sought refuge. Now he has a year in a UK prison and potentially a five stretch in the good old US of A. But, is he a martyr or an attention seeking git who put lives at risk to satisfy his own ego?

Any thoughts welcome.

[idun]

I really do not know what to think of Assange. He looked as rough as Radovan Karadzic when he came out of the embassy. Daresay he will look 'normal' when they have tidied him up a bit.

Seven years in that embassy is a long time.

Cannot help but wonder now that the Donald is stopping funding to central america, as to whether he offered a sweetner to Ecuador to encourage them to evict Assange????

Unless someone can prove something different, then I think I shall consider that as a possibilty.

[idun]

Well The Donald is now saying that he knows nothing of wiki leaks, and yet, there is plenty of footage of him saying that Wiki Leaks quite something and encouraging them.

No surprise is it, mythomania rules!

I hope that Assange does not get sent to the USA. It feels like it would be wrong, that he could go to Sweden to face charges there, if they resurrect them, and only there, would be quite a different thing.

[woolybanana]

It seems that Diane Rabbit plus the rabid Left are screaming that he should not be extradited to face trial in the US or even that the rape charges were false.

Whichever, he has cost the UK taxpayer quite enough. No reason to keep him a moment longer. Stuff him on the next military flight to the US and have done with it.

Miss Rabbit could always go with him!

[YCCMB]

He's an alleged rapist. That's pretty nasty.

He went and hid in the Ecuadorian embassy (effectively jumping bail) to avoid extradition to Sweden to face charges of sexual assault, then rape was also alleged.

How, exactly, is his situation any different than that of the little toad who jumped bail and took himself off to Georgia rather than go to prison for the manslaughter of his date?

If you want to claim the moral high ground when exposing high level wrongdoing, you must be prepared to face your own accusers and prove your innocence. He's not above the law.

[idun]

 I had thought that he would have gone to Sweden to face the charges there IF they would not have sent him directly to the States, which he was convinced that they would do.

I believe that he should face his charges in Sweden, rape is very serious.

Wiki leaks, well, I have mixed views about that. All countries need secrets, always have, always will. But even then there are lines that should not be crossed, and yet the trouble is that these lines are rather fluid. So I am not exactly against wiki leaks, but also, there is a responsibility to everyone's safety when too much information comes out. 

And that sounds like I am dithering about it, but I am. I suppose it is one of those things, where you just know right from wrong and you cannot explain it.

[Loiseau]

I daresay his friends were pretty annoyed when he skipped bail and went into the Ecuadorian embassy:

From The Guardian in 2012

Julian Assange supporters ordered to forfeit £93,500 bail money

Payments must be made within a month by nine friends and backers who originally promised to pay £140,000 

Robert Booth

Mon 8 Oct 2012 13.41 BST

Julian Assange's supporters have been ordered to forfeit £93,500 in bail money after the WikiLeaks founder sought political asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

A court ruled on Monday that the payments must be made within a month by nine friends and backers who in 2010 pledged £140,000 to guarantee Assange would abide by bail conditions during a failed legal challenge to extradition proceedings brought by authorities in Sweden, where he faces allegations of rape and sexual assault.

Vaughan Smith, the former British army captain who hosted Assange at his Norfolk home while he was on bail throughout 2011, and had promised to pay £20,000 if Assange skipped bail, was ordered to pay £12,000, while Philip Knightly, a veteran Australian investigative journalist who exposed the British traitor Kim Philby as a Russian spy, was ordered to pay £15,000, £5,000 less than he originally pledged.

…….

Assange's colleagues in the WikiLeaks organisation, Joseph Farrell and Sarah Harrison, were ordered to pay £3,500 each after originally pledging a combined £10,000. Sir John Sulston, a Nobel-prize-winning biologist, was ordered to pay £15,000 of the £20,000 he pledged. Tracy Worcester, a model turned environmental campaigner, had to pay £7,500 while Prof Tricia David, an educationalist, had to pay £10,000 of the £20,000 she promised. Caroline Michel, at one time Assange's literary agent, was ordered to pay £15,000 of the £20,000 she had promised.

……….

He said he also took account of the sureties' means.

"Professor David is a pensioner and the sum of £20,000 comprises a substantial portion of her savings jointly with her husband," he ruled.

"Sarah Saunders has also provided details of her financial position and I am satisfied that she is of comparatively limited means. Mr Vaughan Smith tells me that if he forfeits the £20,000 surety it will have a significant impact on the welfare of his family and his employees."

Smith said he …. would have to borrow the money. "I rely on an income from a farm and from my journalism and I don't have £12,000 sitting in the bank," he said.

It is understood that a separate group of Assange supporters, thought to include the film-maker Ken Loach, the writer and campaigner Jemima Khan, the journalist John Pilger and the magazine publisher Felix Dennis have already forfeited bail cash worth £200,000 following a court order earlier this year.

[richard51]

If a woman or man was truly raped, would they continue to sleep with him/her and extol their virtues with parties for the next week? These particular women, who were friends, had a choice.

Any charges were dropped btw.

For goodness sake listen to your history teachers and do research for bias in your mainstream UK press.

Idun is correct in being somewhat sceptical.

Diane Abbott is right that it is all about the atrocities caused by the US and revealed by wikileaks. Rape, disgusting as it is, in this instance and scenario, is a diversion from the true issues that have wider-reaching and national consequences.

NB - WBs mate - yes unfortunately money does talk.

[woolybanana]

Dickdick, did the ever delightful Ms Rabbit write your post for you? Presumably you both have access to the statements made by the accusers as well as the American files. How lucky.

[idun]

R51, I don't believe that you have grasped how sexual abuse works.

Victims behaviour can often, if not usually seem illogical

to others. If you expect them to act otherwise, fit into some pattern that you believe should be normal, just think again.

[richard51]

https://www.vox.com/identities/2019/4/12/18306901/julian-assange-arrest-wikileaks-rape-sweden-embassy

He said / she said.

[richard51]

http://johnpilger.com/articles/getting-julian-assange-the-untold-story

[YCCMB]

Naturally, as Assange has helped elect Trump, which sort of undermines exposing other very important issues over the years he should of course be believed no matter what he says, and anyone who comes forward to accuse him of being a sexual predator should be disbelieved because, well, he's Julian Assange and he's above the law. If he wants to have unprotected sex with a woman well, that's what he should have. Because he's Julian Assange

He's a thoroughly nasty narcissist who believes he's untouchable and if he is innocent he should be able to prove it..not go into hiding for years. The charges against him were never dropped due to his innocence, or the lack of a case against him, but because of the time that had elapsed and the lack of any chance of a trial as long as he stayed in the Ecuadorian embassy.

Unfortunately for him, the world has moved on since his evasion of due process, and there is a greater tendency now to give women a fair hearing. Let's see if people like Michael Moore et al are now quite so willing to dismiss these charges as "hooey" or as a set-up. Due process has a chance to determine the outcome in a judicial climate where "he said, she said" no longer confers automatic victory to the "he".

[woolybanana]

Betty, Assange attracts the Left like dung attracts dung beetles because they want to imagine that States are all out to get them and their populations.

They want the right to stick their noses into everything and everywhere to pursue their agendas. Doubtless they would defend the Novichok incident in Salisbury as being ok because it was the Russians wat did it, but really probably the Americans, whom they hate, despite their awful moments.

Remember that the Americans have given Europe a generation and more of peace and growth but the Left wont acknowledge that.

As for citing Mr Bulger as a source, rather weak I feel. He is better heard on RT news, that fine source of democratic fairness.

[richard51]

http://johnpilger.com/biography

He does make you look pretty thick.

[woolybanana]

Same agenda as Assange.

[idun]

Give me strength.

Let him go on trial in Sweden, simple.

[mint]

I agree, id.  I am wary of saying much because I don't feel able to make up my mind about him.

Also, in the US, he might not get a fair or proper trial.......yes, that's how much faith I have in the American justice system under Trump[6]