And I guess Ecuador has just the right amount of sunshine he needs
Wonder if this excuse works the workplace too...
Julian Assange™ is sick. That's the medical verdict according to the Ecuadorean embassy in London where the WikiLeaks founder is currently holed up. He is seeking a safe passage to the South American country and the latest tactic appears to be to complain about his health. A lack of sunshine and living "in a confined space" …
"Wonder if this excuse works the workplace too..." Well, if the building doesn't have adequate ventilation and levels of lighting then it can't be fit for purpose. Send in the health inspectors, if it doesn't pass muster then condemn it and close it, and then arrest St Jules seeing as the building no longer has any diplomatic protection. If it passes, than as you were.
"A lack of sunshine and living "in a confined space" has given Assange a chronic lung infection, apparently."
They got Lead/Arsenic in their paint over at 3 Hans Crescent London as Her Majesty seem to have plenty of people in confined spaces receiving limited sunlight who do not get Lung Infections.
The only resident I heard who suffered from these symptoms in a confined place was Napoleon & he had access to plenty of Sunlight etc on Saint Helena.
Send in the crack Painting & Decorating "Assangination" Squad
Does he really want to swap a pleasant enough life sipping tea with the likes of Lady Gaga and MIA in his nice flat in Knightsbridge, even with bronchitis and perhaps a touch of rickets, for a rather hectic last few days darting around Ecuador dodging unseen Yank's bandito's pot-shots?
I know the London winter can be trying but suicide? Someone get the chap a SAD lamp!
"Maybe they could appoint him as the cultural attache...." Ledswinger, do you have the attention span of a goldfish or just run a year behind everyone else? As has been pointed out on these forums numerous times, HMG would have to accept his appointment as a member of diplomatic staff, he can't just be imposed. They also can't just make him a member of a diplomatic mission to another country, e.g., make him Cultural Attache to Venzuela, as that does not give him any protection in England which he wuld need to travel out of the country.
Well, evidently I haven't been paying the close attention that you have. That suggests that you either have plenty of time on your hands, or you attach great importance to trivia such as this.
But it's a free world. Except for Assange - maybe he should go on hunger strike in protest at his self imposed confinement, and take himself to the ECHR.
Don't know about the UK, but in the US Vitamin D is added to almost all milk sold in the various retail outlets...
Are they charging him for the food and beverages he consumes? If not they should be, and if he can't pay for it, then show him the door to the sidewalk. If he can afford to have Lady Gaga and other stars in to visit, he should be paying for their victuals as well...
After all, he is a failure... at life.
Government has agreed to let him get medical treatment, but they should say "tough".
You broke our law by hiding in an embassy.
You hid in a building which perhaps doesn't have all the mod-cons like fresh air (but yeah, it's got bloody windows though), and even the ability to leave your domicile.
Who knows whether he's guilty or not, but so far, Sweden has never been fingered as a malicious or unfair country. And if anything, I would expect them to protect him more than the UK.
Jeez - just leave the embassy, get on the plane, and sort this out.
" perhaps a Caribbean island resort."
I'm sure that Jamaica would be perfectly happy to park him in Horizon Adult Remand Centre, Kingston, Jamaica. For a small fee. He'll get lots of fresh air, and none of that health-sapping air conditioning, and, given the way that it has about 50% more inmates than it was designed for, he'll meet all kinds of new friends. And if he gets a cell on the top floor he'll even have a nice view of Kingston harbour. <http://wikimapia.org/#lat=17.9827334&lon=-76.8092823&z=18&l=0&m=b&v=8>
And the oil refinery. And the city sewerage works. That should clear up that nasty cough.
"Government has agreed to let him get medical treatment, but they should say "tough"."
No: We can't stop a doctor visiting an embassy of another country.
That said: He can cry me a fscking river, for all I care. I just hope the little twerp doesn't actually die and give the conspiracy loons more to bray about.
... but doesn't it have a roof, most buildings with four walls that are being used tend to have a roof, I would assume it probably has a flat roof as well being in a very built up area.
Or is he that paranoid that a sniper might take him out or snatched by a helicopter.
Everything aside, guilty or not, this boils down to the guy just being a plain twat.
Well it was his choice to live in that confined space and he has every right to choose to leave it if he wants fresh air and/or medical treatment.
If you choose to hide out in bad conditions and then your health suffers because of those conditions then you cannot blame anybody else for it.
With all the money know doubt being thrown at him by his rich friends and celebutards, why doesn't he bank roll some renovations of the embassy? Like.. you know.. aircon? Sky lights? A rooftop terrace? That'd make for an interesting episode of Grand Designs.
Just so long as they don't get Assangination Painting & Decorating Ltd. in to do the work.
In all seriousness though, he's made himself look a real twat with this.. even more so. Now if he's just got an infection, fine, that happens, but blaming his terrible living conditions is not doing him any favours.
But surely there's nothing stopping him having medical treatment?
Anyone with the ambassador's permission could come in and treat his (self-inflicted) condition, no problem at all. And the government are unlikely to play dirty tricks there. All he has to do is phone for a doctor.
If it's a serious medical condition, though, then after suitable examination, if it were necessary, any doctor in the world would say that he required hospital treatment. And *that's* the part that gets really interesting. A criminal (skipping bail makes him one, whether you believe anything else or not) on the run, saying he needs medical assistance and asking for, what? Some sort of amnesty of his crime while he gets treated and then taken back to the embassy? Unlikely.
If Ecuador still haven't extradited him it's because we're not going to let them to do so (which we're actually perfectly entitled to do, just because of his skipping bail, before you even get into any other alleged crimes - the only *alleged* crimes, the skipping bail is now permanently-recorded fact). If he is making himself ill, there's probably even more of a case for the Ecaudorian ambassador to give him up, or for him to give himself up. Hell, if he's deliberately choosing to make himself seriously ill, there's probably a good case for medical intervention anyway, for his own health (which would make an interesting law case in the case of a holed-up criminal in an embassy, but sadly less interesting headlines). If you tried, you might even be able to get him sectioned for refusing urgent such medical treament.
Or he could, you know, open a window, take some medication, call a doctor.
Or he could, you know, give himself up. He's been unlikely to "go missing" since long before the embassy thing started.
Personally, I think it'll be good practice for when the Ecuadorian embassy gets sick of him and the associated diplomatic deadlock, and hands him in, and he spends time in jail (for skipping bail if nothing else).
(This is really boring, apologies in advance.)
The embassy can't just call a doctor. Any doc from outside (ie from the UK) is only registered/licensed to practice in the UK and not Ecuador, which technically is what the inside of the embassy is. If I (a UK GP) went in and gave him a (private) prescription, I would almost certainly be breaking Ecuadorian law as I'm not registered to practice there. My own licensing body here in the UK, the GMC, would almost certainly take a dim view of that should someone complain. Which inevitably someone would, given the high profile nature of this.
I suppose there may be the odd doctor here and there who for some reason has registration/license to practice in both countries. Or is on holiday from Ecuador.
Whatever.
The point is I couldn't just go in and treat him.
But he could just come out. Of course he'd get (re)arrested.
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...We know this for a fact, because he has offered to hand himself over to them many many times, provided they provide written signed guarantees that he wont be handed straight over the the Americans.... and they refused. '
He's asked for a guarantee that no government on earth can legally give. If he was going to be kidnapped by the US they can't guarantee it because rendition is big grey area in international law, and there's no way that a Law&Order minister is ever going to pre-empt the result of any possible fully legal extradition hearing. He knew he was asking for an impossible guarantee, it's all part of the St Assange the Martyr image.
By seeking asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy he has actually broken UK law now - he's jumped bail - so irrespective of anything he does now, he's got an actual charge which is pretty irrefutable to deal with in a UK court.
Oh, another one who cannot read; "...We know this for a fact, because he has offered to hand himself over to them many many times, provided they provide written signed guarantees that he wont be handed straight over the the Americans.... and they refused. '"
You know for a fact, or should know for a fact if you are well read, that the Swedes cannot extradite him to the US without our approval; it would be easier for the US to 'render' him (the correct term is extradite BTW) to the US under our oh so easy extradition agreement, which seems to work in their direction more than it does in ours, thanks to Mr. T Bliar et al..
Secondly, no legal system can give such an unconditional agreement, if only because other offences (think of something shocking, such as murder, or slavery) might have been committed and later detected. It is simply not possible.
IIRC he was asked to use a condom claimed he was using it but wasn't
Ask your wife / gf / sister close female friends how they would react to that
Also there is nothing wrong with sleeping heavily. She may have woke up just as he entered. No matter the details she was not willing as she was not awake. therefore its rape. Again as wife / gf / sister etc how they would feel if they woke up to find someone having sex with them.
If the law forbids that action in Sweden, then the law in Sweden forbids it. It's as simple as that. They didn't go making up new laws that day just to get him and, as you point out, haven't actually CHARGED him with that (and could quite happily do so in his absence). He's wanted for questioning. That doesn't mean he can't be extradited for that questioning.
The teacher who run off with the kid to France? Depending on the circumstances, not technically illegal, if she's over-age. But they still put out a Europe-wide APB on him, got him, brought him back to the UK for questioning and that's where formal charges were filed. This "you must be able to prove your charge immediately before arrest" pseudo-culture among people on the Internet that's popped up lately is new and has no correspondence to the laws of arrest. Just how often do you see "X is wanted for questioning by the police" or "X was made to appear at a police station to answer questions" (e.g. recent Saville enquiries, etc.). You can be extradited AND arrested AND put in a police cell for a couple of days AND questioned just on a hunch. Always have been able to, always WILL be able to, because otherwise law enforcement is useless. What you *can't* be is sentenced and put into a prison without a trial (*cough* other countries please take note *cough*). And you can be "dearrested" at any point without charge. Charges and arrests are two ENTIRELY different things. It's a European ARREST warrant for questioning on suspected CHARGES.
The US thing? That's stepping on an awful lot of international laws (not all of which the US are signed up to which makes a lot of their requests and promises meaningless anyway), of which many will trump a one-time say-so on an international arrest warrant. It's like saying "I'll let you arrest me, so long as I'm allowed to go free if a goose lands in my prison cell". You will never, ever, ever get a judge to agree to that in a million years, even if it'll never happen, because there's a chance that you could be let off if someone promises you something that stupid and is then required to keep to their word.
And that's *all* besides the point because after going through the law system in this country, and several layers of appeals, and everything else, and the UK police SENDING BACK his arrest warrants several times to make sure they were actually above board, he STILL had no legal basis that he could find to refuse to go to Sweden or to skip bail. That's game over. And the bail things makes him a direct, provable criminal, in the UK for no other reason than breaching a court order requiring bail. You can *disagree* with the court, but you cannot avoid the law because of that. That's why the bail should have been spent on smarter lawyers (who probably would have said "shut up and hand yourself in, you idiot") rather than him not doing a runner.
It is not an extradition warrant for questioning; the Swedish procedure is to pull the suspect in, interview them and give them a chance to say their part, then charge them. The Swedish police wanted to charge him, they told his Swedish lawyer who denied in court that they'd been in touch, and then withdrew the denial (again, in court) agreeing they'd been in touch. Even if I were a charitable man I'd have to say the lawyer alerted Assange to the proximity of arrest and that Assange flew the country, that there was no coincidence, and the Swedish bar appears to have held the same view, as indicated by their desire to speak to said lawyer.
If a lawyer alerts their client to a possible arrest pending, and they then flee on the basis of that information, I instantly lose all sympathy for both the lawyer and the client.
The whole conspiracy theory rests on the idea that Assange is SO vital to the Americans that they would encourage and gain the support of multiple, independent nation states just to get hold of him, even risking illegal arrest in those countries by the countries own police forces (overseen by the EU).
Or they could have just extradited him direct from the UK.
If anything, it makes the US look even more powerless than necessary, because they haven't managed to do ANYTHING yet and the "link" between the US and Sweden has been broadcast all over the news.
Seriously, if they *really* wanted him, we'd have handed him over long ago. The still haven't managed to try Manning properly yet, the person who thought Assange was his "friend" (with friends like that, who need enemies like the US?), because of their own internal legal wranglings and he DEFINITELY did something wrong and in military service which is a whole different ball game under the law. Given that the US are still detaining people without trial in a foreign country over 10 years after their alleged crimes, that the US are trying to impose their laws on foreign countries to the points of dawn raids with property seizure with zero legal basis (MegaUpload, etc.), Assange has got off extremely, extremely, extremely lightly if they really wanted him.
Or, he's just a narcissistic moron.
"....they haven't managed to do ANYTHING yet...." Well, they haven't NEEDED to do anything yet. Apart from laugh. A$$nut has been happily destroying his own rep and credibility. As I've posted before, we need to see what information regrading the pre-leak communications between Manning and A$$nut comes out of Manning's trial, and then what type of deal he cuts with the US authorities to help them gut A$$nut. Manning is the stepping stone to A$$nut, and whilst he's locked himself away in the Ecuadorean "hellhole with no light or fresh air (whimper)" they don't exactly have to run very far to find him.
Pretty much everybody had forgotten about him.
No tabloid inches. Not even tabloid milimetres.
Hey! I know! Let's do a press release to let everyone know I'm still here.
What's the angle?
Oh, I don't know... Tell 'em I've got a cold. No, wait... call it a chest infection. Sounds more dramatic.
Later: Daily feature in the Mirror: Julian's stools. Thursday 6th Dec: Soft, umber, hint of corn-chips.
They'll print any old shit.
".....I can diagnose anybody by watching a BBC video of them....." Local Dupe, it's very obvious he neither looks at all ill or suffering, and has none of the symptoms associated with a "chronic lung infection". Oh, sorry, couldn't you see that from you position with your head up his ar$e? Please do keep on posting prime examples of the blind and unquestioning support of The Faithful.
OK, do you see any indications of a chronic lung infection during St Jules's rant? There is no coughing, no obvious shortness of breath, no pale and pasty complexion, no problem in shouting down the interviewer. In short, he looks the picture of untroubled health. A$$nut caught out in another lie by his overwhelming ego.
When I was in medical school, Matt, I was taught that in order to get a complete diagnosis, the patient had to turn his head to the wall and cough whilst the physician gently squeezed his scrotum. And all the time the doctor repeated "Nosferatu" to himself to avoid getting a boner.
I will be very glad to accompany you to the Ecuadorian Embassy any time , and say "Nosferatu" over and over while making vampire-like gestures around the room while you give Assange's balls a once over. This should keep your blood out of that naughty place as you check his nuts for any signs of malingering :o)
Dude, this is the thread on Assange's claims of ill-health due to his self-imposed incarceration in the Ecuadorean embassy, not "share your homoerotic celebrity fantasies". I didn't attend medical school but I'm pretty sure I wouldn't check for a lung infection by examining someone's crotch. I suspect your addiction to mind-altering "medicine" may have stopped you graduating med school!
Oh, and - SCHWING! Don't try avoiding the fact that A$$nut is very obviously faking his "illness" for the Faithful. Do you claim he looks ill in the BBC vid? When he ends up in a Swedish court a proveable history of lying will not help his defence.
"A person with a god complex may refuse to admit the possibility of error or failure, even in the face of complex or intractable problems or difficult or impossible tasks, or may regard personal opinions as unquestionably correct."
"may regard personal opinions as unquestionably correct."
Sound like anybody you know Matt? Or anybody whose teeth you brush?
"A lack of sunshine and living "in a confined space" has given Assange a chronic lung infection, apparently." (elReg)
Is Assange's lung infection chronic or acute? Is it a long developing syndrome or was it sudden in onset?
" this is the thread on Assange's claims of ill-health due to his self-imposed incarceration in the Ecuadorean embassy," (Matt Bryant)
Did Assange actually claim ill-health or was that claim made by others?
"Ecuador backtracks on Assange's health"
From: AFP THE AUSTRALIAN November 30, 2012 8:10AM
"Britain's Foreign Office confirmed the Ecuadorian government had not told them that Mr Assange was ill."
"ECUADOR'S embassy in London has published a clarification about the health of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living there for five months, saying there is no urgent problem
"They have raised concerns about what might happen should Mr Assange require medical care, including when their Foreign Minister saw the Foreign Secretary on 27 September," said the ministry statement."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/wikileaks/ecuador-backtracks-on-assanges-health/story-fn775xjq-1226527201761
Is this better? Or still too much regurgitation? Shouldn't somebody print a retraction?
"....Shouldn't somebody print a retraction?" You should stop posting such easily debunkable tosh. It was the Ecuadoreans themselves that claimed A$$nut had a "chronic lung infection" in the first place:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20539519
"My point was that Assange never made the claims you accused him of. :-(". Yes, I too desperately want to pretend the Twitto from Quito, Ana Albán Mora, came up with this one herself, and that in no way was the Holy St Jules involved in another piece of dishonesty. Oh, hold on a sec - no I don't because A$$ nut has lied so often and this is very obviously another one of his attention-seeking, lying stunts.
"....you're saying that you believe people you like, and you don't believe people you don't like?...." Nope, I am simply saying A$$nut's previous history of lying, plus his obvious lack of any symptoms of the claimed illness, makes him much less likely to be believable now. And you are my definition of a simpleton for your blinkered acceptance of any utterance that comes out of the rectum of your Holy St Jules, hence my reference to you as Local Dupe.
"....Gee, I wonder what killer comeback Dude Face will respond with?" SCHWING! And because you are losing again. Says it all, really.
Meanwhile, reports are coming in that the "sickly" rectum of St Jules has announced his buttcheekiness will be standing for Australian Senate in 2013 (http://www.newkerala.com/news/newsplus/worldnews-116359.html#.UMjS_qzj7rQ). Unfortunately, no-one remembered to tell A$$nut that being an Oz senator does not give automatic immunity from UK prosecution nor protection from extradition to Sweden. Good luck running that campaign from the Ecuadorean Embassy! That's if his "chronic lung infection" hasn't finished him off by then (we can only hope!).
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I never mind losing the little ones, DF, as long as I slam dunk the big ones.
(LG carves another notch into the buttstock of his Kalashnikov. He finds a pulse in DF's neck, so he calls the medics and climbs into a taxi to hunt for another denigrator of American war heroes.) :o)