Asylum and Its Discontents in the United States
Ecuador has granted asylum to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said Ecuador believed Mr. Assange faced a real threat of political persecution–including the prospect of extradition to the United States, where he would not get a fair trial. “It is not impossible that he would be treated in a cruel manner, condemned … Read more
Some time ago, I wrote about Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and concluded that he does not qualify for political asylum under international law. To win asylum, Mr. Assange would need to demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution in his home country based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or particular social group. Although Mr. Assange’s political … Read more
WikiLeaks’s Founder Julian Assange has been much in the news lately, having revealed all sorts of U.S. state secrets related to war and diplomacy. The United States is exploring whether the Australian-born computer hacker can be prosecuted criminally under the espionage act, and Sweden has issued an international arrest warrant, stating that Mr. Assange is “suspected … Read more
The website Wikileaks, which exists to make public “sensitive material,” recently published the Afghan War Diary, a collection of 75,000 classified documents from the U.S. military detailing ground-level operations in Afghanistan. Among the information released are names and villages of Afghanis who assisted the United States. Now, Newsweek magazine reports that a Taliban spokesman has threatened vengeance against the exposed … Read more