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Death Threats From Sarah Palin Send Julian Assange into Hiding

By: Sarah JonesFeb. 8th, 2011more from Sarah Jones

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Assange hunter Sarah Palin

Assange hunter Sarah Palin

You have to give it to foreigners, they aren’t buying this proudly Poujadist hang with the Paliban and golly gee don’t hurt Palin’s feelings over her death threats business. First the Russians call her out as a traitor to her own country and now Julian Assange says he is afraid to be extradited to Sweden because he’s afraid the Swedes might give him over to the US where Sarah Palin’s suggestion that he be hunted down like al-Qaeda could endanger his life.

Yeah, it’s really not that funny.

See, in other democratic countries, they don’t let politicians run around threatening other citizens let alone people in other countries. They have this thing called standards of behavior that we’ve abandoned after being shamed for having expectations like knowing what books one reads. Afraid of being called elitist sexists, American media was quick to defend Palin post Arizona massacre. And yet, prior to that, even Elizabeth Hasslebeck had said that if anything happened to the folks on Palin’s target list, it would be on Palin’s hands. But then when it did, everyone clammed up after the Right took to the airwaves with their baloney about “both sides do it, lone gunman, etc.”

At any rate, Julian Assange doesn’t think Sarah Palin is a joke. He is literally afraid to come to this country because of her death threats.

Time reports:

“Julian Assange could not be reached by the Swedish authorities who are investigating sex-crimes allegations against him because the WikiLeaks founder had become spooked by “death threats” issued by American politicians, including Sarah Palin, Assange’s Swedish lawyer told a British court on Tuesday….

Giving evidence in London, Assange’s Swedish attorney Bjorn Hurtig said his client could not be reached by the authorities because he had gone into hiding due to fears that he would be killed by forces from the U.S.

“There were a lot of threatening statements made by politicians in the U.S. … you should keep in mind that during this period I’ve known Julian, he has actually received death threats in the media … that he should be given the death sentence,” Hurtig said, using an interpreter, in court on Tuesday. “As a consequence of this, Julian was duly worried.”

Hurtig’s statement is part of an effort by Assange’s lawyers to fight extradition to Sweden on the grounds that doing so would violate Assange’s human rights by putting him at risk of execution. They support this claim by citing British media reports that U.S. Republican politicians Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee have called for him to be executed. Palin is reported to have said that Assange “should be hunted down like al-Qaeda.”"

Someone needs to tell Julian that he is supposed to ignore Sarah Palin calling for his head on a platter, lest she get her feelings hurt and accuse him of a blood libel. In America, we allow the feelings of one thin-skinned narcissist to dictate acceptable behavior and we’ve decided that it’s OK for Sarah Palin to put gun sites over people’s names while she clarifies that she wants people to reload and take aim. It’s also OK for her to suggest that a man whom she has never met be hunted down like al-Qaeda.

It should be noted that Palin is also not privy to the details of the police documents or the investigation into his company WikiLeaks, and made the decision to call for Assange’s head based on nothing more than the same information (or less, knowing her) that the average American knows. This kind of supremely poor judgment is fine in your average American, but it is not acceptable for a political leader.

For all of Palin’s western cowboy tough talk, she recently used death threats as an excuse to cancel a speaking engagement slated for May 2 coincidentally the same day as a Republican debate among primary contenders. Palin was scheduled to speak for a fundraising event for military families, the ticket prices of which had just been slashed in half. The Facebook entry regarding the ticket prices being slashed in half has now been removed.

The largest irony of all is that when questioned about the alleged death threats, spokespersons for the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, Denver Police Department and Colorado Bureau of Investigation said they had not received reports of threats related to Palin’s planned speech and the fundraising organization would not return any phone calls and subsequently shut down its website. So it seems that while Palin wants Julian Assange executed for being a traitor (he is not a US citizen), she is also not averse to using the excuse of death threats against herself to get out of an event she no longer wants to participate in.

It’s really not funny any more, if it ever was. This is just one example in a long history of trigger-happy reactions on Palin’s behalf. It’s inappropriate and unacceptable, no matter what Julian Assange has done or not done. Sarah Palin is not in any elected office, and yet she has a megaphone and a lot of followers who aren’t so emotionally stable. Sarah Palin needs to be told to walk it back or be prosecuted for inciting violence.


Death Threats From Sarah Palin Send Julian Assange into Hiding was written by Sarah Jones for PoliticusUSA.
© PoliticusUSA, Feb. 8th, 2011. All Rights Reserved

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