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0 pointsLazare10y ago0 comments

So your logic is that this was all contrived in an effort to get Assange to a country with an extradition treaty in the US, when he was already in Britain? Because Britain is well known for its cold relationship with the US and repeated refusal to extradite people to the US, right?

Not buying it. (Also EU law would prevent Sweden from extraditing him to the US without British consent anyhow. So either Britain is okay with his extradition and there's no need to get him to Sweden, or they're not and there's no point. And that's not even touching on the fact that Sweden couldn't extradite him to the US without an assurance that he could not face execution, which is politically very unlikely to happen. I don't doubt the US would love to grab Assange, but the legal extradition question is a complete red herring.)

Edit: Fix dumb typos, too tired.

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spiralpolitik10y ago

In the UK extraditions to the US are generally won or lost in the court of public opinion. It is unlikely that the US would attempt to do this with Assange in the UK as it would immediately turn into a three ring media circus with Assange as ringmaster and would become a very political hot potato.

Much better to do it in a country with a Byzantine legal system, a foreign language and less developed media. Especially one that has been tame in past.

See Gary McKinnon as an example of a high profile extradition attempt from the UK.

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