Julian Assange, the alleged sex pest and confirmed poseur upon whom the most shocking relevations of government misconduct in decades were wasted, was nonetheless right about one thing above all others: the reason they prosecuted him there for other things was to get him here on that thing. Today UK Home Secretary Priti Patel gave approval to his extradition to the US, to face absurd "espionage" charges over soliciting and publishing leaked information about U.S. military war crimes. He has 14 days to appeal.
In May 2019, while serving a jail sentence in the UK for breaching bail, the US justice department filed 17 charges against Mr Assange for violating the Espionage Act – alleging that material obtained by Wikileaks endangered lives. Mr Assange's legal team claimed classified documents published by Wikileaks, which related to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, exposed US wrongdoing and were in the public interest. Those documents revealed how the US military had killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents during the war in Afghanistan, while leaked Iraq war files showed 66,000 civilians had been killed, and prisoners tortured, by Iraqi forces.
