The past ten years or so have shown Sweden to be politically much easier to bully into doing what the US wants. The UK court ruling to extradite Assange to Sweden was already a divided 5-2 split. And that was when he was wanted for questioning in a small country with relatively light sentencing guidelines. Imagine the ruling if a country that railroads its "terrorism"-related prisoners to execution through secretive kangaroo courts requested his extradition. Too much of a gamble. If they lose, it makes Assange a hero and virtually untouchable through quasi legal means.

The UK press is rabid with hatred for Assange, but the public seems not to be, and he has a degree of political support there. If he goes to Sweden, they will do everything they possibly can to secure a conviction, even if it's on drastically reduced charges. Convict him of anything related to sex crimes and he becomes political anathema. Nobody will defend him, and he'll be in a country that already does what the US wants.

The whole thing is win-win for the empire. Even if they never get their hands on him, they've destroyed his life. The chilling effect on journalism is already in effect. "Do I really want to publish this story if my best case result is living in a room in an Embassy for the rest of my life?"

Yeah, we're pretty accustomed to public opinion being ignored by our press and politicians. It's like they live in a parallel reality or something.



I did think this. Say he goes to trial and is found Not Guilty. Is that going to help? Everyone knows rape cases are very hard to try, and the flipside of that is that no one ever has to believe you were innocent just because you weren't found guilty. It's a great way to divide his core support, and it's interesting to see people who would almost certainly defend one of Their Guys to the hilt for doing much worse things remaining smugly silent.

All the comment I read now are pretty much 50/50, some people think he has been charged with rape, others complaining about the rights of the women he is alleged to have raped. But he has already answered questions on this, told he didn't have a case to answer to, and was OK'd to leave the country.

This man is a hero in my eyes. What is happening to him is a terrible thing.