It is; the reason the original decision was overturned is that specific formal 'assurances' have been received from the US government which mitigate the suicide risk which was the only reason the first instance judge refused admission.
The reason the assurances are trusted is that the US has never been found to break the letter of these assurances in the past. (The appeal judgement does note that where the assurances are loosely worded, the assumed spirit of them have not always been followed).
Bizarrely, these kind of inter-state promises of special treatment are a common part of global extradition practice.
I think Democracy has always been a rather thin shell sitting in a very ugly world.
I'm not saying any of this is right (nor even taking sides on Assange and WikiLeaks), rather that expecting democracry, peace and due process to be pervasive in the world today is sadly unrealistic.
It's always been the case. Cf. France, the very birthplace of citizen republic, founded on ideals of equality, fraternity and liberty... then what they did in Algeria. Post-WWII and Holocaust too, so no excuses. I'm not picking on France btw. most countries have chapters like this, I just mean, somehow, this kind of activity always goes on in the background, for any democracy I can think of.
I recently came across a recording [0] of Prof. Dr. Jordan Peterson telling his students about Hitler's goals towards the end of the war. His point was that, while Nazi Germany was losing WW2, why would you spend so many resources to find, group up and then systematically kill millions of people? Not just that but those killed could've been used (speaking from Nazi Germany perspective, obviously not my own!) for slave labor instead. Why waste those resources? Thst professor speculated that instead of winning the war or losing and coming to a peaceful end, Hitler's goal was to seed mass mayhem and as much destruction, pain and violence as (in-)humanly possible.
Shortly after I read this article [1] about an American journalist that found out about him being on Obama's Kill List, officially called Disposition Matrix, from one of his sources. His own government was trying to kill him with drones at least five times in a short period of time. No due process. No explanation. Nothing. They just wanted to take him off the board. He went on to sue Obama et al and the judge basically told him "hey, this Kill List is out of judicial control, they can literally kill anyone they want. Oh and if you think those targets on the Kill List are handpicked by senior officials based on clear and rigorous evidence? Nah, it's based on metadata algorithms. This made me think, if the US Government is trying to kill journalists of their own country, are they really trying to "win" the war? To disperse democracy? To improve Middle Eastern people's lives? No, they are trying to create mayhem.
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 50.5 ms ] threadHe's probably insane by now and will meet a shitty end in the US, but it's people and sacrifices like these who can change things.
Betting on him being paraded in the news as opposed to the literal child rapists who have come to light recently.
Scum (1979) riot scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR8xPrxAY_8
The us still has Guantanamo and black sites around the world.
The reason the assurances are trusted is that the US has never been found to break the letter of these assurances in the past. (The appeal judgement does note that where the assurances are loosely worded, the assumed spirit of them have not always been followed).
Bizarrely, these kind of inter-state promises of special treatment are a common part of global extradition practice.
Assange in 2010 revealed and gave clear proof of American war crimes in Iraq https://wikileaks.org/wiki/Collateral_Murder,_5_Apr_2010 - now the US wants him dead.
That's how imperialism works. Today is a sad day for all freedom and peace lovers.
I'm not saying any of this is right (nor even taking sides on Assange and WikiLeaks), rather that expecting democracry, peace and due process to be pervasive in the world today is sadly unrealistic.
It's always been the case. Cf. France, the very birthplace of citizen republic, founded on ideals of equality, fraternity and liberty... then what they did in Algeria. Post-WWII and Holocaust too, so no excuses. I'm not picking on France btw. most countries have chapters like this, I just mean, somehow, this kind of activity always goes on in the background, for any democracy I can think of.
[0] https://youtube.com/watch?v=jMqQBLZwRIE
[1] https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/how-...