Masters of hate locked and loaded by Pepe Escobar

[Jefferson23]

Jan 13, 2011

NEW YORK - There is an eerie, direct connection between hate rhetoric reaching a fever pitch in the United States, the shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, calls to take out WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and the ninth anniversary of the infamous US detention facility at Guantanamo in Cuba. This disturbing connection should send shivers down the spine of anyone even remotely concerned with human rights. Yet it doesn't. At least not in the US.

Assange will be back in court in London on February 7 for a full two-day hearing on his possible extradition to Sweden, connected to the ultra-murky case of alleged broken condoms and "sex by surprise", co-starred in by two Assange groupies in sultry Stockholm last August.

Yet Assange's lawyers wasted no time in getting to the heart of the matter: if he is extradited to Sweden, the US government will pull out all the stops to extradite him to the US. Assange could then face the death penalty, or its "war on terror” twin - forever languishing in legal limbo in Guantanamo. For the US, the fact that human-rights treaties prohibit extradition under these conditions is a minor detail.

Gullible, well-intentioned souls may remember that US President Barack Obama promised to close Guantanamo. That won't happen. The US Congress will destroy any possibility of transferring "enemy combatants" to the US mainland so they can have a proper trial. The White House is about to condemn at least 40 of these prisoners to Guantanamo forever - no formal charge, no trial, just a black void. And Bagram, in Afghanistan, will follow the same path. Forget about the US constitution and international law.

in full: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MA13Ak03.html