[caf]

The entire idea of charging Assange with espionage against the United States is ridiculous - he owes no duty to that nation. What's next, Russia demanding the extradition of CIA analysts so that they can be charged with revealing Russia's state secrets while working at a desk in Virginia?

[rdtsc]

That is if the world treated US as a reasonable actor bound by laws and respecting human rights etc. (all the propaganda that it like to spew about itself).

Its actions have shown in the last 10+ years that is not the case. It has detained, tortured and killed people extra-judicially. Even its own citizens. Making any appeals to the the quality of it judicial process is a bit silly at the moment.

So in other words it might not make sense to be afraid of that particular threat "charge of espionage" but it is not unreasonable for him to fear in general.

Remember the case how that Russian ex-KGB agent was poisoned with Polonium? There is little doubt it was the Russians doing it and they also wanted to make sure there would be little doubt (except hard evidence) that they did, so that everyone learns to fear opposing or criticizing them in the future.

It seems to me Assange and Manning are prime candidates for being turned into example for all to see.

[1gor]

   There is little doubt it was the Russians

There is a lot of doubt.

The most obvious suspect is oligarch Boris Berezovsky, a London refugee from Russia, accused of embezzlement at home, who is waging a fierce propaganda war with the current Russian government.

http://www.rt.com/news/berezovsky-litvinenko-murder-allegati...

[kika]

a link to an official Russian propaganda TV channel is kinda silly.

[1gor]

Hmmm, would a link to BBC, a UK propaganda TV channel, be less silly?

[philwelch]

Let's not jump to conclusions here. The US hasn't done anything to Assange.

[rdtsc]

That's not what I was implying. The argument is that he fears they will do something to him. And whether that fear is based in reality.

The response of the grandparent was 'no' because US legal system can't technically touch him. My response to that was that I am not exactly sure if the world should trust US in light of its actions in the last 10 years.

[philwelch]

We're still hip deep in hypotheticals.

[corin_]

When the hypothetical is "will I be killed" then it makes sense to try and work it out in hypothetical rather than ignore it until it becomes, one way or the other, reality.

[rdtsc]

As someone else already replied to this. When it comes to strategic decision (I call them decision that you can't reverse, say being killed, or imprisoned for life) hypotheticals and gut instincts are pretty good.

You can't conduct an experiment to figure things out, if you can't then come back and conduct more experiment because the first one killed you.

[caf]

I think you've misread me. I'm not saying that it's ridiculous, so there's no reason to fear it happening; I'm saying it's ridiculous, and I would be entirely unsurprised if it happened anyway.