[junto]

Polanski is also a different kettle of fish compared to Assange. Polanski has various friends in high places. Assange has few.

Also, Assange managed to piss off almost every single branch of the US government. Rather than merely shooting himself in the foot, he blew his entire leg off with a shotgun.

Not to say what he was trying to achieve wasn't noble. In my personal opinion state corruption still needs to be exposed, even if that state is the United States. However, the line he walks is a very very fine one. The US was quite happy with him exposing corruption in other nations, regardless of the human cost, but not their own it appears.

At the end of the day, although the backyard he shat in wasn't his own, it just happened to belong to a damn big nasty rottweiler.

[zbuc]

I am, however, confused at how the US can charge him for espionage, given that he's not a US citizen.

It makes sense that he would be extradited to Sweden -- he's accused of committing a crime(well, 2) while he was present in the country. I don't see the same applying to what he's accused of in the US.

[junto]

Lots of non-US citizens have been charged and found guilty of espionage by the US. The cold war is full of examples: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Soviet_and_Russian_e...

I'm not sure whether you have to be physically present in the US to be guilty of espionage. The game has changed somewhat. It used to be that you had send someone to sneak inside buildings in the middle of the night, taking photos of secret documents on James bond mini-cameras hidden in fake fountain pens.

These days, you just hack the computer network remotely, or write a computer worm that monitors the 'good stuff' and sends it home to 'mama' in Fort Meade.

[marekmroz]

I am not sure you have to be found guilty of anything by anyone. The game has changed somewhat. All it takes is for someone to decide that you deserve a spot on president's kill list [1] and one predator strike later you are no more.

[1] http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/30/glenn_greenwald_obamas...

[junto]

Luckily for Assange it wouldn't go down so well for UK-US relations if the president ordered a predator strike on Ellingham Hall: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellingham_Hall,_Norfolk#Refuge