Today, the BBC cogently summed up the Assange affair:
"Swedish prosecutors have offered to travel to London to question Wikileaks founder Julian Assange over sex assault allegations.
Prosecutors had previously insisted on questioning Mr Assange in Sweden, after seeking his arrest in 2010.
Mr Assange denies the assault claims and has been living at the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012.
He fears that if he is sent to Sweden he could then be extradited to the US to face charges over leaking material.
A lawyer for Mr Assange, Per Samuelson, welcomed the move... ´We've been waiting for this for over four years.´
The lead Swedish prosecutor explained the change of strategy by saying some potential charges against Mr Assange would expire under the statute of limitations in August."
I give up: Sweden, it was an easy call; what took you so long to make it? Our post of September 15, 2012 ("Civilized Barbarians"):
"Whatever money Sweden received from the U.S. for telling Sweden to cook up two sex cases against Julian Assange, wasn´t worth it. The loss in prestige and credibility of that Nordic nation, so advanced in so many ways, may not be recovered in our lifetime.
Did promises of megabucks/other goodies come from Hillary Clinton, U.S. State Department chief? I wonder ... The slab-dab concoction of sex scandals smacks of an unconscious projection of a life gone astray with Bill, a soiled fairy tale ...
Any day now, letter rogatory and the Hague Service Convention will enter the mass media and popular lexicon. What they boil down to: Julian Assange does not have to go to Sweden to be interrogated. If Swedish authorities really and truly want to question Assange about the sex allegations, all they have to do is get Ecuador´s permission (which has been granted) to enter its embassy and take his deposition. For that matter, they can hook up to the Internet and ask away.
O.K., Sweden, what are you waiting for?
Either continue to play Hillary´s childish unconscious games with the humiliation and money that goes with them, or retain a modicum of self-respect and dignity by serving notice. Give the puppet master one week to change her act or you will get the show on the road and question Assange. If he is of no further interest, he walks. If you formally charge him with a crime, normal legal processes begin.
Obama, for his part, can start acting like a chief executive instead of a kewpie-pie lawyer and backdoor man. If the United States has a case against Assange, present it. Lights, camera, action. If not, forget him and move on."
Lettery rogatory, Hague Service Convention: looking back, I overestimated the American mass media´s capacity for informative reporting. However, ladies and gentlemen of the press, it´s never too late to be good...
As a private consultant for all three governmental branches, an expert witness in federal court on politics, and adviser on campaigns from the U.S. House and Senate to County Commissioner and City Councillor, I worked with hundreds of politicians over the decades. In overlooking the statute of limitations as Assange´s eventual salvation, Obama and Clinton exemplify a singularly weird phenomenon I witnessed time after time:
A smart politician has assets A, B, D, E, F, G ... He or she does not have asset C.
Never had it; never will.
Coming next: Jihadi John: The Seal Is Broken.