Britain’s High Court on the morning of Dec. 10 overturned the previous denial of the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States. The two-judge appellate panel accepted the proffered guarantees from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that Assange: would not be put in the “supermax” prison in Florence, Colorado; would not be put under SAMs (Special Administrative Measures, including solitary confinement) “unless subsequent behavior by Assange justified it"; and, if convicted, would be allowed to serve his time in Australia.
Assange’s fiancée, Stella Moris, asked: “How can it be fair, how can it be right, how can it be possible, to extradite Julian to the very country which plotted to kill him?” Glenn Greenwald found “the High Court’s faith in these guarantees ... particularly striking"—given the revelation that Pompeo’s CIA had “plotted to kidnap or even assassinate” Assange. Yet Lord Justice Timothy Holroyde proclaimed that “the court is satisfied that these assurances” will protect Assange’s physical and mental health. The British High Court found that the assurances were “sufficient” and also “solemn undertakings” promised from one government to another.
Assange, detained now nine years and four months, the last 32 months “in the high-security Belmarsh prison, described in the BBC in 2004 as ‘Britain’s Guantanamo Bay.’” One of the first acts of the Biden DOJ was to appeal the January ruling of Judge Baraitsa, that Assange’s treatment by the U.S. prison system would likely overwhelm his fragile mental health. The DOJ demand that Assange remain in Belmarsh while they appeal was granted. Greenwald points out that from 2010 to 2016, liberal advocacy groups were vocal in defense of Assange’s journalistic exposure of torture and war crimes. “One thing and only one thing has changed since then,” which was Assange’s exposure of the Hillary Clinton/DNC corruption in sabotaging Bernie Sanders’ campaign, and that vengeance now drives the Biden DOJ. True enough, but the intelligence community, while both Obama and Trump were Presidents, had Assange in their crosshairs.
