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US should leave Assange alone

An op-ed piece on FP argues that the US should stop seeking pursuing Julian Assange. As the piece points out there are more than valid reasons for the Americans to "forget" about WikiLeaks and its founder.

"It is time for the United States to drop the case against WikiLeaks. Pressing forward with efforts to prosecute an Internet publisher at home while standing up for an open Internet in Egypt and the world at large is an increasingly tenuous position. The WikiLeaks case endangers the reputation of the United States as a defender of free speech and an open Internet globally, while forcing the Obama administration to take uncomfortable constitutional positions better suited to the Nixon administration. The importance of this issue is hard to overstate: At a time when the Internet is increasingly recognized as a medium of global resistance to authoritarian rule and when protestors in Tahrir square are holding up signs that say "Thank you, Facebook!", the Obama administration and the United States must make sure that they stand on the right side.

The timing is important. Just over a year ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton paved the way with her notable speech on "Internet Freedom." More recently, she explicitly condemned Egypt's Internet shutdown. Her message -- that an open Internet is an issue of fundamental freedom in the 21st century -- has been complicated by the actions of other branches of the U.S. federal government, especially the Justice Department's plans to prosecute WikiLeaks for its role in publishing leaked U.S. State Department diplomatic cables.

While the Justice Department's original plan to rely on the Espionage Act apparently has been dropped, it is still considering the prosecution of either Julian Assange personally or media organizations that published documents obtained by Wikileaks based on a theory of conspiracy or solicitation."

Comments

Nicola Vaughen said…
Would he be guaranteed a fair trial outside the UK?

Is there not reasonable doubt that he WOULDN'T?

Of course there is.

Thus, he shouldn't be extradited.

FYI, all the Wikileaks videos are on this hub:
http://wikileaks.videohq.tv
February 08, 2011 12:40 am
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