U.S. Investigators Fail To Make Case Against Julian Assange

Bradley Manning (abbey-roads.blogspot.com)

As WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange is struggling to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is expected to face charges of sexual assault, the American investigators into the case of classified documents of the U.S. Army leaked to WikiLeaks received a blow as their efforts to find evidence of Assange forcing private Manning to steal classified documents and then hand them over to WikiLeaks failed.

Brandon Manning, the 22-year U.S. Army private, is currently being held in a military installation in Virginia as the main suspect in the case of leaking many documents of the army to the WikiLeaks.

So far, evidence suggests that Manning stole documents on his own, without being coerced in any way by Julian Assange, which leaves prosecution empty handed, and the case of espionage that is being cooked for Assange completely immaterial, since it is almost impossible to find any connection whatsoever between him and the American private.

Julian Assange (antifascistencyclopedia.com)

Assange had argued on many occasions that his actions were protected under the First Amendment, and for a case to be built against him, he would have to be proven guilty of forcing Manning somehow to feed him military information, which could eventually be construed as espionage.

The case was hard to make from the beginning, investigators said, given that Manning is thought to have provided the information stolen from the military “out of his malice toward the military and the U.S. government.”

Under the circumstances, the case of extradition to Sweden seems of little relevance, since he cannot be charged of anything in the United States, not even if one takes into account the advice of an American lawmaker who said that keeping Assange in prison is more appealing than knowing him behind his keyboard, since the leaks have continued to be published even when he was in prison.

However, Assange is still fighting his way out of Swedish prosecution, for a second day in court in London, where his lawyers argue in favor of refusal of his extradition on the base of evidence that he is wanted dead in the United States.

Sarah Palin (punditleague.us)

Sarah Palin’s vituperation against Assange became his golden asset in the struggle to avoid being deported to the United States.

The former governor of Alaska and hopeful for the next presidential elections had said that in Assange’s case assassination was morally sanctionable, and that he should be hunted down.

Palin’s big mouth is being used as a leverage by Assange’s lawyers to prove that if extradited he could end up in Guantanamo or even on the electric chair.

Yesterday, a former Swedish judge, Brita Sundberg-Weitman, appeared before court to testify against Swedish prosecutor Ny’s “biased view” on the case, contending that the prosecutor is radical defender of battered women, and takes for granted the fact that a man who is under investigation is already guilty.

Assange made it clear that whatever happened to him, a set of very important documents would be released on WikiLeaks by his colleagues.

The most important releases last year were about the war in Afghanistan, the one in Iraq, and the famous U.S. diplomatic cables.

The military documents show abuses against civilians and many operations in the field, and they came under hard criticism, especially those on Afghanistan, since it is said that their careless publication without previously redaction had given away American military tactics and names of collaborators in Afghanistan, which placed in grave danger the lives of the U.S. soldiers in the field and of the Afghan people who cooperated in every way with the Americans.

The website agreed to the fact that they were not carefully and did not repeat the mistake when it came to the releases about Iraq.

The diplomatic cables released a whole world of secrets from most of the countries in the world, showing what American officials think about the people in the countries where the U.S. has embassies.

U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton had to apologize for this unbelievable situation, and make sure it would never happen again, which is not an easy thing to do, especially in a democratic society.