Expansion of Indefinite Detention in NDAA Compounds Extradition Fears of WikiLeaks' Assange
www.democracynow.org - Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings was with WikiLeaks founder and Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange when the pre-trial military hearing for accused Army whistleblower Private Bradley Manning was taking place in Fort Meade, Maryland, last month. Hastings says the military's case against Manning, coupled with President Obama's recent authorization of a measure expanding indefinite detention anywhere in the world in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), has added further urgency to Assange's effort to avoid extradition from Britain. "Julian Assange's fear is that he will be extradited to Sweden ... then there will be some kind of media campaign where the U.S. government or the Swedish government starts leaking things about, 'Assange helped the Iranians,' or 'Assange helped the Taliban with this information,'" Hastings notes. "Then they will say, 'We need to try him as a spy.' And though that case might be very, very difficult to prove, it's the threat of it that, in my mind, is so damning."