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A New International Scandal In The Making: The Fight For (And Against) Julian Assange's Passport
In a slightly unorthodox note to his readers, "Sovereign Man" Simon Black looks at the next potential escalation in the Julian Assange trainwreck, which may soon become a diplomatic fiasco all on its own, and without the need for leaked cables: it turns out that Australia is now seeking to strip Assange of his passport. However, there courtesy of a recent loophole, Assange has applied for UK citizenship (British mother). Will the UK - America's staunchest supporter, follow through with its laws, and grant the Australian a passport now that even his own nation seeks to betray him? As Black points out: "There are two important lessons in here for all of us: 1. Like Julian Assange, you never know when your own government will stand ready to "sell you out." Prepare accordingly. 2. Though you may have looked at all avenues for obtaining a second citizenship based on your family background and place of birth, it pays to constantly review the laws. Governments are always tinkering with them. Usually this is a bad thing... but as Tim's shining example shows, sometimes it works to your advantage." Lastly, one never knows when the proverbial TSHTF, and as such one should always be aware of all options should living in the US become, shall we say, problematic.
From Simon Black's The Sovereign Man
Date: December 7, 2010
Reporting From: Wellington, New Zealand
Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, is a marked man.
My hat is off to him. As far as I'm concerned, all he's done is publish some information that shines a light under some big rocks and down some very deep crevices, and that is now making quite a lot of politicians squirm.
However, in a perfect illustration of how fraught with danger it is to fight the government, Mr. Assange is now all but screwed. I hope he can find safe passage to a country that will welcome him and not turn him over to one of the dozens of governments around the world which are in bed with Uncle Sam and out for blood.
Unfortunately, this appears unlikely. The latest episode is that the Australian government has publicly stated they looked at REVOKING Mr. Assange's passport, and that they are pursuing all legal angles to nail him.
Furthermore, they admitted the only reason they DIDN'T revoke his passport already was that it would most likely be COUNTERPRODUCTIVE to their efforts to see him arrested and handed over to the authorities.
For one thing, having the passport and trying to cross a border with it would be an immediate red flag which would see Mr. Assange arrested. And, if Mr. Assange doesn't have a valid passport, there are apparently also legal questions surrounding the effectiveness of an international warrant for his arrest.
Whatever the arguments for and against revoking his passport, the very notion that the Australian government has been contemplating this sort of action made me physically ill, and sent alarm bells off in my head.
Australia's laws are quite clear. An Australian citizen by birth CANNOT have his or her citizenship revoked. Perhaps the government can revoke an Australian's PASSPORT. But, that person's rights as a citizen, according to the law, cannot be stripped from them.
Naturalized Australian citizens, on the other hand, can have their citizenship revoked if the government can prove that you were guilty of a serious crime prior to becoming a citizen, or that it would not be in the public interest for you to remain a citizen.
I was alerted to this information by one of my business partners and dear friend Tim. As one of the sharpest investors I know, you'll definitely be hearing from him more soon... but for now, I should tell you that Tim is a naturalized Australian citizen with a British mother.
Needless to say, when Tim came upon this information after doing a little digging into the facts surrounding the Wikileaks saga, he immediately began double-checking his own options for a second citizenship. And that's where today's story gets positive...
For many years, Tim had been of the understanding that, although his mother is British, he was ineligible for a British passport. Why? Because until 1983, the law was sexist, and if you were born outside of the British Isles before that date, the only way you could become a citizen of the United Kingdom by descent was if your FATHER was British.
Happily for Tim, as he got busy online this weekend looking for an "escape hatch" from the Australian government's control over his naturalized citizenship destiny, he discovered that the UK wisely changed the law just over one year ago, in October 2009.
After this latest change to the law, for someone like Tim born to a mother who is British by birth, and who would have obtained the "right of abode" in the UK when the law was last changed in 1983, obtaining British citizenship is a simple matter of filling out and submitting a form, passing a background check, and attending a citizenship ceremony.
As soon as he found this out, Tim printed off a copy of the form and filled it out. Tomorrow morning when the local British embassy opens, he'll be on the phone to them to initiate the next step in the process.
There are two important lessons in here for all of us:
1. Like Julian Assange, you never know when your own government will stand ready to "sell you out." Prepare accordingly.
2. Though you may have looked at all avenues for obtaining a second citizenship based on your family background and place of birth, it pays to constantly review the laws. Governments are always tinkering with them. Usually this is a bad thing... but as Tim's shining example shows, sometimes it works to your advantage.
Do yourself a favor. As soon as you finish reading this, check your own options one more time. And then, keep doing so every 6 or 12 months. You just never know when you might strike gold...
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Confidential State Department documents released by the whistleblowing web site WikiLeaks, revealed that a European Parliamentary vote earlier this year that suspended participation in a U.S. government program that secretly monitored international bank transactions, surprised and angered the Obama administration.
Quite a sad day when as an american, you seriously have to consider your escape plan?
Season's Beatings,
From Everyone at the New World Order
In Hollywood, there is a saying, "The Movie IS THE MESSAGE."
The Running Man
http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5437694/The_Running.Man.(1987).1080p.AC3(Dolby).5.1ch.Blu-ray.PS3-TEAM
...Mechanical Hound never fails...
I gotta get off this planet....there's no "new world" that we can escape to to get away from tyranny anymore. It's now planet wide....
Slowly, piece by piece, American exceptionialism is being debunked by it's own government.
You can apply for a work visa in Canada and after three years get a passport..... So I have been told.
no better here mate, harper and his cronies are in bed with bush and obama, was a sad day for me after the G20, we have become a police state too.
The best part of this all this is what a fucking joke everything is..
R.I.P internet.. I guess the good thing is that it will also kill commerce.
Hello New World.
More popcorn please.
Having UK citizenship won't help him much. The UK's tongue is wedged just as far up the US' ass.
Australia's foreign minister, Kevin Rudd, has thrown his hat into the ring and came out supporting Julian.:
"Assange 'not responsible for security breaches' says Kevin Rudd
Legal liability lies with US rather than WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange , says Australia's foreign minister Kevin Rudd"
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/08/assange-security-breaches-kevin-rudd
Thanks for the heartening news!
:).
I gather Rudd is pleased that the leaks reveal him to be somewhat more spineful (e.g., vs. the Chinese) than is current image.
UK citzenship versus a US one?? I don't see much upside.
No one does sex scandals like us Americans. Rather than stoning them, tie them up in international courts and police stations.
This story is whacked. I almost died laughing after hearing the gory detials about the he-said she-said on the wiki-leaks founder's condom issues on NPR. And here's the punchline: the reporter's name was Hosenball. You cannot make this stuff up. (except for maybe Bang Dae Ho)
http://www.npr.org/2010/12/07/131884445/The-Swedish-Case-Against-Assange
But, but, but... what about the fuckers who provide the classified material to Wikileaks? This story is more distorted more than that jet contrail off California a while back. Nothing to see here.
Julian Assange, where the rubber meets the road
You didn't think THAT was the end of JA? GO JULIAN!
The cannons of Mr. Assange,
Report with a paper barrage.
Some people said,
“Put a price on his head!”
But his freedom to print is carte blanche.
http://crockettalmanac.com/?p=98
NPR story was written by Ben Doon and Phil McCravis. LOL on Bang Dae Ho
Precisely which Australian law is Assange alleged to have violated?
Also, I'm baffled as to how he is any different from the New York times in the Pentagon Papers case or, for that matter, in this situation, or Der Spiegel, or El Pais et al.
When liberal democracies start making up laws and selectively enforcing them, you really wonder what the future of the West will be.
Or maybe we already know.
It's not about UN cables... it about whatever he has on the banks... and it must be very big.
What SRV said. The fire didn't get red hot until the bank info surfaced. I hope JA releases it soon. Otherwise he might fall down a flight of stairs and WL staff might have one of those mass casualty events.
Just to play devil's advocate (and the phrase was ne'er more apt), I believe Holder et al 's approach will be to claim that Wikileaks incited the crime of the original leaker. If Wikileaks paid the private, it'd be a slam dunk.
I suspect, by the time the US ets their hands n Assange, the social mood will have turned to so polaized that the prosecutors will ruin their own reputations, even on a win.
A tad OT, but I'm fascinated by the "disruption of service" raids launched by Assange supporters on Mastercard, Swiss banks that suspended his access, etc. The new way of war? Certainly guerilla tactics that may catch on. A power that the people can have over governments that have moved so far away from representation, a least temporarily, until governments attempt to cut off access to public internet streams.
A strange changing world we're occupying. I need to become more aware of these logistics and modalities.
"I need to become more aware of these logistics and modalities."
Me too! I feel like getting the context and studying the tactics, is all I do. Not unhappy with that, btw. "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance" someone wisely said.
Simple.
1. Buy a used computer off C.L.
2. Install, LAMP.
3. Install. mediaWiki; or Drupal;
done..
ps: brush up on DDNS if you don't have a public IP..
I'd certainly not skip using and employing anonymous networking (say, tor, for one example) and leap-frogging off of some OTHER entities' network, rather than whatever runs into and out from your abode or workplace...
Funny thing is there is this "Rule of Law" thing. But what's a thousand year old law worth, right?
Tyler, you sound like you'd consider emigrating, too. If you go to Brazil, let me know, I will be living there in less than a year ;)
This man is a terrorist sympathizer and has committed espionage against the United States. And yet you support him Tyler.... AND you allow bloggers to post filth such as 9/11 conspiracy theories. What's going on? And is OBL responsible for 9/11 or not. How about a view?
You are responsible for 9/11.
'a terrorist sympathizer' - your evidence, please.
Settle down Bubba... Brown people still being killed at a nice clip.. Nothing will change... You have the real terrorist in Washington on your side..
FBI says he's not......"no evidence". Sorry Bubba!
Mass Mirroring Information for WikiLeaks
http://213.251.145.96/mirrors.html
1241 sites and counting, the gov is gonna have a hard time hiding from this one.
The NYT published 'leaked' information about top secret CIA prisons in foreign countries, top secret methods of monitoring calls coming into the USA from Pakistan, etc., the Abu Ghraib photos for 48 consecutive days on the front page (which were arguably the greatest jihad recruiting tool ever) and many more. All of these put US personnel in jeopardy and embarrassed our Allies. Assange gets prison and the NYT get Pulitzers? WTF?
He fucked with the banks... r.i.p.
Thus stark proof is laid bare showing where the power lay in this world.
Tyler: A ZH poll on multiple passports might be interesting.
When did the AU government announce they were going to revoke his passport? I haven't seen anything to that affect...
Last I saw the official statement was that he was free to return to the country whenever he pleased.
This story is bullshit. The Aussies aren't revoking anything from him. In todays paper in Australia:
I think the operative word here is 'former'. What are ministers in the present Australian government saying? The above comments are correct. It behoves all governments to support the travails experienced by their citizens at the hands of foreign governments. If the Australian government has really 'washed their hands of Julian Assange' they have no right to govern.
BTW - isn't Julia Gillard Welsh? Then she is an hypocrite and a half.
The passport doesn't matter. The plan is to get Assange safely to Sweden. Once he is there, the 'Ladies' will recant, the charges will be dropped and he will be given asylum. You have to give them credit, it's pretty clever.
It would have been more clever still if he had never left Sweden in the first place. Not much of a conspiracy theory in that, though.
Have to agree with M. Crockett – if it's such a clever pan, how did they get the Swedish prosecutor to Not meet with him before he left? Couldn't he have just have never left, and made a big fuss over "gotta stay, pending investigation"?
It's the time line. He left Sweden before the rape charges and before the calls to extradite him to the US (and/or for his assassination). The proof will be if he gets to Sweden and suddenly the charges are dropped. We shall see, it could take years.
It beats me how there are 'sources' saying that the US and Sweden are discussing a plan to extradite this poor prick and that this seemingly 'illegal' sourcing of these 'secret' diplomatic discussions are being reported by the press. Well how the fuck did they find this out? - it sounds like to me that the press is 100% guilty of sourcing 'secret' discussions between diplomats and reporting it to the public (just like Assange) and yet the US doesn't seem to be interested in hunting down and killing the people involved at the press companies that are reporting these 'secret' discussions.
How does that work? WTF?
Here is a comment from local ABC (Australian Government Media organisation) press about this case - not my words - they are from the ABC - the government owned news organisation in Australia!;
No, Australians differ from Americans in many, many ways. We do not carry handguns. We do not leave half-witted young men on Death Row for 20 years. We do not have a Death Row. We do not have the word ‘God’ on our coins. We do not send in pilotless aircraft to blow up families whose religion we do not like. We are better than that. The most famous Australians – Greer, Hughes, James, Humphries, White, Murray, Pilger, Carey, Robertson, Blanchett, Crowe – are all truth-revealers, and this I think is no accident. They are Australians all. And we Australians like to tell it how it is. Rupert’s father Keith revealed Gallipoli. Hawke, Keating, Beazley and Evans told all in Labor In Power. Sir Ron Wilson, Spitfire pilot, unveiled the Stolen Children. And so on.
But has he endangered lives? Well, maybe. Let’s wait a bit and see. If 10,000 killings in the next year can be plausibly blamed on him, he may well have behaved irresponsibly. But a million wartime deaths can with equal force be blamed on Tony Blair, and three million ruptured Iraqi lives, and he has not yet been hanged or even waterboarded for it.
Woodward pretty much hobbled the US presidency by showing its burglaries, bad language, and hate campaigns.
And Assange has done similar things, albeit a thousandfold, and prominent Americans including presidential candidates and vice-presidential candidates think he should be killed for it. In this they go against the First Amendment - Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances - thoughan opposite mode of thought has been Fox Newspeak lately: no-one but Hannity, Beck and O’Reilly, it yells, can say anything at all. They should be waterboarded if they do.
Bloody well said! These magnificence words appear to be anonymous. Can you tell us who uttered them?
And another thing: Aussies are inveterate callers of spades as spades and they don't mince their words. So why aren't they as a nation proud of their son, Mr. Assange…
… or maybe, as a nation, they are. Has anyone asked ordinary Australian what they think?
Many Australians I have spoken to recently, as well as the Aussie blogs I have read recently, support Assange.
The governments of the West have become such shit-filled toilets that they need to be flushed. Hopefully, the expose of not only their utter incompetence but their will to protect "power", not "people", at any cost will see them come apart.
+1
If you mean Crowe, as in Russell, the aspirations of the typical Aussie are pretty low. The guy is a piece of shit, period.
+1. Well said. As an American, that is a pretty precise listing of our flaws.
As for the difference between Assange and other journalists, the 'difference' cited will be incitement. Though I much doubt Sweden would extradite to a death penalty country – that would lead to a lot of unemployed politicians!
Double standards, hypocrisy, what's new? People in favor with the current czars are always given a pass until they piss off the powers that be.
Please turn over more rocks and shine that light brighter!!!
Julian, you are a hero to some and a traitor to others. To some you are both.
I am sorry to say, but I do not believe this man will ever free again.
In a sense he is more free than most men can ever hope to be.
Let us face the reality and truth: Democracy and the rule of law are on their death bed. The world is rapidly falling into Dark Ages.
When leaders of supposedly free and democratic countries openly call for murder and assassination of inconvenient to them people, the Rubicon has been crossed. Stalin and Hitler widely used assassination of their domestic and foreign opponents BUT they NEVER advertised in public.
To speak about democracy and freedom of expressions in the USA, EU, China, Russia, etc., is just laughable. Governments in this countries do not care about and/or have a very little respect for their own "common" people. Yes, these countries have Laws and many lawyers but these laws are enforced very selectively and totally ignored to benefit the ruling elite and oligarchy.
Who could, even few years ago, imagine that leaders of such "civilized" countries like Canada and Sweden would become international outlaws without any respect for international treaties and agreements.
Just a few years back, the West condemned Russia for assassination of inconvenient for their mafia-like government people. But, just recently, the West was absolutely quiet when Russians liquidated the entire Polish leadership(similar to the Stalin's slaughter of polish elite in Katun in 1939). As our President Obama said, we are friends with Russia now and have almost the same international objectives. WOW!
2.7 Are your details recorded by the police in respect of certain sexual offences (i.e. on the “sex offenders register”), or are you
subject to a notification order, a sexual offences prevention order, a foreign travel order, or a risk of sexual harm order (or
equivalent order made in a British overseas territory or any other country)?
Yes No
2.8 Have you ever been charged or indicted inside or outside the United Kingdom with a criminal offence for which you have
not yet been tried in court?
Yes No
2.12 Have you engaged in any other activities which might be relevant to the question of whether you are a person of good character (see also page 9 of the guide)?
Yes No
...and fuck the scandal.
Time to start monitoring the intertoobs for rendition flights of white painted Boeing 737's from airports near London.
There are some things that need to be considered about Australian politics and where Assagne sits at the moment, and it is getting interesting.
The negative Cables about Kevin Rudd from the US Embassy here were sourced from local anti-govt media and a guy call Senator Arbib, a junior Minister in the Australian Govt under Rudd but also a behind the scenes power broker.
It has been revealed in another Wikileak today that he was/is basically a spy for the US on the Australian govt and the Labor Party inside workings.
This Arbib guy told the Americans that there would be a change in Prime Minister about 8 months before it happened. So this person reveals that was a long time plot to change the PM with Gillard, with himself as the prime mover of a late night attack and challenge on PM Rudd. This makes a lie of the stories about the change at the time.
Rudd has in all his press conferences on the Wikileaks issues has avoided mentioning them in a negative way or suggesting anything illegal has happened. This is in contrast to PM gillard who immediately went on the attack so much so she almost left herself open to charges of corrupting the office of the Federal Police and perverting the course of justice...by indicating this person was guilty of a crime even though there was no known crime under Australian law....and then having the Police search through and try and find a crime. Gillard in her statements since has avoided making such comments.
In the Australian media the on line polls heavily favour Assagne, often to the tune of 90%.
So the govt treating Assagne in an improper way will causes them to lose a great many votes. It may be political suicide to do so.
Rudd is a curious guy. When a young Aussie got caught in signapore with drugs and sentenced to death Rudd sent him his personal bible given to him by his father. So there is a bit of compansion with him, he also used to visit and help out at homeless shelters at night before becoming PM.
The Australian government has to rely on independents to remain in power and one of them Andrew Wilkie was a whistle blower from within Intelligence against the previous government, and was himself harassed by authorities. So he will have some sympathies here and make the govt careful how it treats this issue. They only need one member to abandon them to make govt impossible.
So at this stage I would imagine Assagne's passport is safe, if not only for the voter backlash against the govt.
But we will see what pressure the US brings to bear on Aust. This thing is a moving feast.
A former CIA analyst interviewed on radio yesterday said the charges against Assagne were a set up with CIA and Swedish authorities and is an effort to get him to Sweden. A leaked cable shows that the Swedes and US agencies have close ties, and the cable notes that it should not be mentioned as many Swedish politicians are unaware of the relationship.
This is the interview with CIA analyst McGovern
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/newsradio/audio/20101208-mcgover...
Basically he says that the charges were a set up, that this was a honey pot trap and that Assagne had been warned by Aussie officers that he could be subjected to a honey pot set up.
Here is the cable showing the relationship between Swedish and US authorities
(s) Swedish military and civilian intelligence
organizations are strong and reliable partners on a range of
key issues, particularly making a significant contribution to
our understanding of events inside the Russian military and
STOCKHOLM 00000506 002 OF 003
in Iran's nuclear ambitions. The good cooperation on
counterterrorism, both domestically and internationally, has
helped Swedish authorities carry out their mandate to protect
Swedish citizens and national interests. Due to domestic
political considerations, the extent of this cooperation in
not widely known within the Swedish government and it would
be useful to acknowledge this cooperation privately, as
public mention of the cooperation would open up the
government to domestic criticism.
http://wikileaks.ch/cable/2007/05/07STOCKHOLM506.html
The issue is being discussed on an Aussie political blog
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/pollbludger/2010/12/06/newspoll-50-50-5/comme...