#Europe 🇪🇺
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Biden Administration Issues “Weasel Words” Assurances To Secure Assange’s Extradition
— Thomas Scripps | Wednesday April 17, 2024 | World Socialist Web Site | WSWS.ORG
The United States has provided “assurances” to the UK government to further its pursuit of WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange, held in London’s maximum security Belmarsh prison.
The US is seeking to prosecute Assange on charges under the Espionage Act which carry a de facto life sentence for publishing documents exposing war crimes and human rights abuses carried out by Washington and its imperialist allies.
Julian Assange. Photo by David G. Silvers, Cancillería del Ecuador/CC BY-SA 2.0
When, at the end of last month, the UK’s High Court offered the US the opportunity to provide such commitments to prevent Assange from appealing against his extradition to America, the World Socialist Web Site wrote, “The court’s proposals are a fig leaf. US prosecutors will furnish ‘assurances’ as worthless as those already provided in connection with his conditions of imprisonment.”
This has been confirmed. The commitments required by the court were that Assange would not be subject to the death penalty, and two connected points that he would not be prejudiced at trial by virtue of his Australian nationality and would be granted free speech rights under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
A facsimile of the letter sent by the US Embassy to UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron Tuesday, published by Consortium News, reads:
“Assange will not be prejudiced by reason of his nationality with respect to which defenses he may seek to raise at trial and sentencing. Specifically, if extradited, Assange will have the ability to raise and seek to rely upon at trial… the rights and protections given under the First Amendment.” It then stresses, “A decision as to the applicability of the First Amendment is exclusively within the purview of the U.S. Courts.”
It continues: “A sentence of death will neither be sought nor imposed on Assange… These assurances are binding on any and all present or subsequent individuals to whom authority has been delegated to decide these matters.”
Assange’s wife Stella was quick to point out the “blatant weasel words” of the first assurance, which only states that Assange can “seek to raise” First Amendment rights—it does not guarantee that he will receive them.
Legally, this should bar extradition outright.
Section 87 of the UK’s Extradition Act (2003) requires the courts to “decide whether the person’s extradition would be compatible with the Convention rights [European Convention on Human Rights] within the meaning of the Human Rights Act 1998… If the judge decides the question… in the negative he must order the person’s discharge.”
Article 10 of the Convention is the right to freedom of expression, or free speech. The same protection is enshrined in the US legal system in the form of the First Amendment. But the US Embassy’s letter leaves the door open to this right being denied to Assange at the say so of the US courts.
As Stella Assange noted, the letter pointedly “makes no undertaking to withdraw the prosecution’s previous assertion that Julian has no first amendment rights because he is not a US citizen.”
Both the lead prosecutor Gordon Kromberg and the former CIA Director Mike Pompeo have made this claim.
Stella Assange added that her husband’s “life is at risk” every day he is in prison: 'The diplomatic note does nothing to relieve our family's extreme distress about his future—his grim expectation of spending the rest of his life in isolation in US prison for publishing award-winning journalism.”
Her statement underscores the cynicism of the death penalty assurance offered by the US. Substantial medical evidence has been provided in Assange’s case confirming the significant likelihood of suicide in the event of extradition to and imprisonment in the US. His mental and physical health have already declined sharply in the five years he has spent in Belmarsh.
Nor is it beyond the US government—whose intelligence agencies surveilled Assange and plotted his assassination—to renege on its promise or see to it that Assange is killed “unofficially”.
Underscoring the case’s lawless character, on the same day the US sent its “assurances” to the UK, CIA Director William Burns submitted a statement to the Spanish courts. Burns asserted that “the CIA’s statutory privileges… to protect intelligence sources, methods, and activities at issue” in a case examining the Agency’s spying against Assange, refusing to either confirm or deny its involvement or to provide “factual bases for my privilege assertions”.
None of this was acknowledged by the Democratic Party-aligned New York Times, which sunk to new lows in its reporting of the case by citing some of Stella Assange’s comments while excising her reference to the Biden administration’s “weasel words”, allowing it to run a totally uncritical article headlined, “U.S. Lays Out Protections for Assange if He Is Extradited”.
The UK courts will likely take the same wilfully credulous view.
Geoffrey Robertson KC, founder and joint head of Doughty Street Chambers which is representing Assange, and who previously represented him directly, claimed, “Unless you can guarantee it [free speech rights], I think the British courts will be dubious about extraditing Mr Assange to a situation or to a trial where he doesn’t have the equal protection of the laws.”
This will doubtless be the legally impeccable argument advanced by Assange’s lawyers at the next hearing scheduled for May 20. But the High Court has already accepted equally worthless assurances at an earlier stage in the case to override warnings about Assange’s significant risk of suicide—barring extradition under Section 91 of the Extradition Act.
These “guaranteed” that Assange would not be placed in America’s supermax prison, the ADX Florence, or be subjected to Special Administrative Measures (SAMS), implicitly acknowledged to constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment prohibited under Article 3 of the Convention. But in each case, the undertaking was given “subject to the condition that the United States retains the power to impose SAMs [or an ADX designation] on Mr Assange in the event that, after entry of this assurance, he was to commit any future act that met the test for the imposition of a SAM [or ADX designation].”
The UK’s High Court responded favourably in their December 2021 judgment that it could “see no merit in the criticisms made of the individual assurances… There is no basis for assuming that the USA has not given the assurances in good faith.”
Screenshots of the US Letter of Assurances From X, Formerly Twitter. Megan Specia @meganspecia! US has filed assurances in Assange extradition case, which were requested by a British court before it makes a final decision on his ability to appeal. Next step is a hearing on May 20.
In its latest ruling, dismissing Assange’s right to appeal provided the new assurances were given, the High Court was again at pains to stress the trustworthiness of the US state, even to the point of denying that there was “anything to show” a connection between CIA plots to kidnap or poison Assange and the prosecutor’s attempt to have him extradited.
If the assurances are accepted by the High Court on May 20, Assange’s request for an appeal will be dismissed, leaving him at imminent risk of extradition. His legal team have submitted a preliminary appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, but it is unclear whether the UK would abide by orders from that court to keep Assange in its custody until it has reached a decision even if Strasbourg agrees to hear the case.
Amid the vital and ongoing legal defence being mounted, workers must understand that Assange’s fate depends on stepping up the global campaign demanding his release.
#Britain 🇬🇧#United States 🇺🇸#Australia 🇦🇺#Europe 🇪🇺#Democratic Rights#Media Issues#Julian Assange#Free Julian Assange#Hands Off Julian Assange#War Criminal | Genocidal | Joe Biden Administration#Weasel Words | Assurances#Julian Assange Extradition#World Socialist Web Site | WSWS.ORG
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my favorite thing about seeing kiryu cosplays is it really is just a grey-ish suit and a red shirt. just some guy. i love it
#yakuza#kiryu kazuma#asked a dude in artist alley past weekend if he was cosplaying kiryu and sure enough he was. no wig needed#and this isn't meant as an insult. i appreciate the effort of all cosplays and how much work it takes#just dress like some guy#absolutely slay i eat it up every time#unrelated but going home from my travels :3 no sudden winter storm can stop me!!!! EUROPE CALLS ME 🇪🇺🦅🦅🦅
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EU is a mess but NGL it's so based of us to tell USAmericans to fuck off with their disgusting growth hormone meat, chlorine chicken and spyware apps 🩵🇪🇺
#go Europe 🇪🇺🩵#let's support our local farmers instead of importing stuff from obesity kingdom#that's legit one of the things that scares me the most in visiting the USA#mass shooting and their ugly toxic food#papi watch
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Maybe it's a little bit silly but the fact that buses in my city have little french and european flags bc today is may 9th.... 😍🥰 It warms my sad heart in these awful times, especially when you remember why and after what event the union was created.. the fact that europeans today have a little party together but each in our country makes me happy 🇪🇺🇪🇺
#i love europe even if it's far from perfect#and my little germany ♥️ i hate learning your language but ily idk idc#like idk why it's making me emotional to think that we're all in this fay pracefully together#and it's not even period hormones emotion lol#idk#🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺#moi#may 9th
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drinking before work but its ok guys im just european
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Cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul de Nantes #nantes #nantescity #voyageanantes #cathedral #cathédrale #church #bretagne #cathedralnantes #france #europe #france🇫🇷 #europe🇪🇺 （在 Centre-ville de Nantes） https://www.instagram.com/p/CqRyNM8optv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
#nantes#nantescity#voyageanantes#cathedral#cathédrale#church#bretagne#cathedralnantes#france#europe#france🇫🇷#europe🇪🇺
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#Get Tour Australia 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺 Tourist Visa#👉 Visit CANADA 🇨🇦 | USA 🇺🇸| UK 🇬🇧| SCHENGEN | AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺 | NEW ZEALAND 🇳🇿 | Europe 🇪🇺#Tourist Visa of all Countries!!!#✅ 10 ਸਾਲ ਦਾ Multiple ਵੀਜਾ#✅ ਬਿਣਾ ਪੜਾਈ#✅ ਬਿਣਾ Sponsorship#✅ ਬਿਣਾ Interview#✅ ਬਿਣਾ IELTS#✅ No Age Limit#✅ ਕੋਈ ਪੁਰਾਨੇ funds ਦੀ ਜਰੂਰਤ ਨਹੀ#✅ 100% Assured Visa#🔵 Apply file with the guidance of 15 years experienced Visa filing Officer#🔵 FREE COUNSELLING#ਜਿਆਦਾ ਜਾਣਕਾਰੀ ਲਈ ਅੱਜ ਹੀ ਕਾਲ ਕਰੋ#✅ The Bright Group ਦੀ Expert team ਨੂੰ !!#☎ +91 90667-90665#🏢 Address: S.C.O 99#Sector 119#1st Floor#Balongi#Mohali#workpermit#canadaworkpermit#couplegoals#couple#liveincanada#VisaConsultant#VisaRefused#ImmigrationProcess#thebrightgroup
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υηтєяωєgѕ ιη тнüяιηgєη! 🤍 🤍 🤍 🤍 🤍 🤍 🤍 🤍 🤍 🤍 🤍 #thüringen #thüringenfetzt #thüringenfetzteisfelderstrecht #thuringia #thüringen_erleben #thüringen_entdecken #germany #germany🇩🇪 #europa🇪🇺 #europa #europe #herbst #autumn #sunday #sundaymood☀️ #weekend #weekendmood #weekendishere #heimatliebe #heimatliebethüringen #nofilter #nofilterneeded #faceoftheday #faceoftheweek (hier: Rennsteiggarten Oberhof) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cje9srAj4j4donlKlcjwOsaeX5XydLr4_-82VY0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
#thüringen#thüringenfetzt#thüringenfetzteisfelderstrecht#thuringia#thüringen_erleben#thüringen_entdecken#germany#germany🇩🇪#europa🇪🇺#europa#europe#herbst#autumn#sunday#sundaymood☀️#weekend#weekendmood#weekendishere#heimatliebe#heimatliebethüringen#nofilter#nofilterneeded#faceoftheday#faceoftheweek
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#brussels🇧🇪 #brussels #bruxelles #brussel #europeesparlement #europeanparliament #europe #europa #belgium #belgique #belgien #belgië #ilovemyjob #europeanunion🇪🇺 #europeanunion (bij European Parliament, Brussels) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cf1WwtRNMwz/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
#brussels🇧🇪#brussels#bruxelles#brussel#europeesparlement#europeanparliament#europe#europa#belgium#belgique#belgien#belgië#ilovemyjob#europeanunion🇪🇺#europeanunion
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Interest check
Hey! I am doing my best to make the playing cards and art prints as accessible as possible for everyone. Right now I am trying to figure out in which countries to offer domestic shipping.
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World: The West Isn't Buying Into China's Year of Diplomacy
Chinese President Xi Jinping at a press conference in Shaanxi, on May 19, 2023. A new poll indicates that the West does not believe that China is contributing to Global Security. Florence Lo/Pool/AFP Via Getty Images
Western nations increasingly see China as an interventionist power that is not improving global security, according to recent polling, as Beijing struggles to square its desired peacemaker image with the political realities of its expanding global influence.
The Pew Research Center conducted a 30,000-person survey across 24 nations between February and May and found that people living in European, North American and Indo-Pacific democracies are particularly wary of China's influence. The sentiment was less strong, though still present, among African and South American respondents.
A median of 71 percent of the 30,000 people polled felt that China does not contribute either much or at all to international peace and stability, versus 23 percent who felt China does. Americans (80 percent), Dutch (86 percent), British (80 percent), Germans (80 percent), and French (75 percent) were among those who felt most strongly that Beijing is a negative influence on global affairs.
Democratic Indo-Pacific nations emphatically agreed, with 87 percent of South Koreans, 85 percent of Australians, and 85 percent of Japanese feeling the same.
The list of nations—the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Argentina, Brazil, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, Poland and South Africa, and Australia—is dominated by Western liberal democracies, with inherent ideological tensions likely somewhat explaining the negative views of Chinese foreign influence.
But only in Indonesia, Kenya and Nigeria did a majority of respondents say Beijing contributes either a fair amount or a great deal to international peace and stability.
Newsweek reached out to the Chinese Foreign Ministry via email for comment.
China—already considered by many an economic and technological superpower—is still shaping its military and diplomatic clout abroad. Major decades-long investment in the former is openly intended to eventually challenge American hegemony, but on the diplomatic battlefield, Beijing is following a less publicly combative path.
Among the salient diplomatic issues that have helped shape global opinions of China this year are one striking success and one ongoing failure.
The former was the landmark Iran-Saudi Arabia normalization deal signed in April, in which China unexpectedly brokered a détente few thought likely given the deep and historic animosity between the Middle East's power players.
But China's unconvincing neutrality regarding Russia's war on Ukraine has somewhat eroded global trust in Beijing, particularly among the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific nations rallying to Kyiv's cause. China's de facto backing for Russia has undermined its continued calls for peace and the anemic peace plan it proposed in March.
North vs. South
Larger issues involving China—among them the fate of Taiwan, the situation in the South China Sea, lingering frustrations about the pandemic, the brewing showdown with the U.S., human rights, and concerns about political interference—have "completely dwarfed" Beijing's diplomatic efforts, Andrew Small, a senior transatlantic fellow at the German Marshall Fund, told Newsweek.
"Publics have evidently not seen either the Saudi-Iranian deal as particularly significant or the Chinese efforts on Ukraine as particularly credible," Small said.
Small noted Beijing will not necessarily be too concerned with continued Western skepticism.
"In one sense, the argument for what China has been trying to do on Ukraine and in some of these other efforts was positioning in the 'Global South,'" he said. "The view on their side had been that no one in Europe is going to take this seriously, but they are able to position themselves through this in the Global South as an actor that approaches these issues in a neutral way."
Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and China's President Xi Jinping deliver a joint statement in Moscow, on March 21, 2023. China's de facto support of Russia's war on Ukraine has angered Western nations. Mikhail Tereshchenko/Sputnik/AFP Via Getty Images
But the poll's findings also suggest that Beijing's self-framing might not be playing out as it hoped. A median of 57 percent of those surveyed said they felt China interferes in other countries affairs either a fair amount or a great deal.
The sentiment was most notable in Europe, where a majority of national respondents excluding Hungarians agreed, as well as in North America. A majority of all those in Indo-Pacific nations apart from Indonesia saw Beijing as interventionist.
Even in the four of the six African and South American nations surveyed a majority said China intervened at least somewhat in other countries' affairs. Fifty percent of South Africans and 46 percent of Argentinians also agreed.
"It's such a mantra in Chinese foreign policy, so foundational in the way that they frame things that this is not what they do, and it is the antithesis of the Western approach," Small said.
Against this backdrop, Small added, it is "striking" to see so many nations feeling that China is indeed intervening abroad. The data suggests, he said, that the perception of Chinese anti-interventionism is being "shredded."
Recent months have seen a renewed China-U.S. effort to thaw chilly bilateral relations. In June, Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping. And earlier this week, Blinken told CNN the U.S. wants to "put some stability into the relationship."
But the long-term disputes show no signs of easing. While visiting Tonga this week, Blinken hit out at what he called China's "increasingly problematic behavior" in the Indo-Pacific.
In Europe too, major nations are increasingly concerned about Chinese espionage and influence, even if leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz are still courting investment.
Worsening Euro-Atlantic ties with Beijing, Small said, might accelerate a brewing confrontation.
"To a certain extent, this will validate an analysis on the Chinese side that starts to write off the West," he said, and instead focus on a "winnable" public opinion battle in the developing world.
— Newsweek Magazine | By David Brennan | July 27th, 2023
#World#China 🇨🇳#Diplomacy#Western Nations#Peacemaker Image#Beijing#Global Influence#China's Influence#Americans 🇺🇸 Dutch 🇳🇱 British 🇬🇧 Germans 🇩🇪 French 🇫🇷#Iran 🇮🇷 Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦#Russia 🇷🇺 Ukraine 🇺🇦#Taiwan 🇹🇼#South China Sea#Andrew Small#German Marshall Fund#Global South#Europe 🇪🇺#North America#Indo-Pacific Nations#South Africans#China🇨🇳 | U.S. 🇺🇸#Secretary of State Antony Blinken#Tonga 🇹🇴#Chinese President Xi Jinping#French President Emmanuel Macron#German Chancellor Olaf Scholz#Euro-Atlantic#Developing World
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me when i’m an icon serving cunt boots the house green tea all while owning europe 💚🇪🇺✨
#love that peroformance#he ate#the water pour in hd RAGHHHHHHH 🦅🦅🦅#käärijä#het grote songfestivalfeest
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“The people of Lithuania are waiting for you”: President Gitanas Nauseda congratulated Ukrainians on the Day of Dignity and Freedom.
He published a video of his performance in English with Ukrainian subtitles on the social network X.
The caption states that the Revolution of Dignity on the Maidan took place 10 years ago: “United to defend their European choice, in their quest for justice, freedom and democracy, Ukrainians have proven to be an unstoppable force. Despite brutal war from Russia, Ukraine is increasingly moving closer to Europe. The future of Ukraine is in 🇪🇺!"
“The start of accession negotiations in December is another milestone that we all hope for. The people of Lithuania will be waiting for you. We will support you. And we will do everything to help you join the European Union and NATO. Glory to Ukraine!” said Nausėda.
#Revolution of Dignity#Ukraine#Lithuania#stop russian aggression#genocide of ukrainians#russia is a terrorist state#support ukraine#maidan
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Niall via Tiktok: Team Europe 🇪🇺 #RyderCup #golftiktok | September 28, 2023
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