It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Friday, October 29, 2021
U.S. recorded more than 20K road fatalities in first six months of 2021 The United States reported an estimated 20,160 motor vehicle traffic fatalities in the first six months of 2006, the most in that time period since 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo
Oct. 28 (UPI) -- The U.S. Department of Transportation on Thursday reported the largest number of motor vehicle traffic fatalities in a six-month span since 2006. An estimated 20,160 people died in motor vehicle crashes in the first half of 2021, a 15-year high, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's estimates for January-June 2021.
The total also represented an increase of 18.4% from the same period in 2020. "This is a crisis. More than 20,000 people died on U.S. roads in the first six months of 2021, leaving countless loved ones behind," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. "We cannot and should not accept these fatalities as simply part of everyday life in America." The NHTSA also released behavioral research findings from March 2020-June 2021 finding that incidents of speeding and traveling without a seatbelt remained at levels higher than before the pandemic.
Preliminary data from the Federal Highway Administration found that vehicle miles traveled in the first half of 2021 increased by about 173.1 billion miles, or about 13%, while the fatality rate increased to 1.34 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, up from 1.28 fatalities per 100 million in 2020 In June, the agency reported that motor vehicle traffic fatalities in the United States rose to a 13-year high for the entirety of 2020 despite VMT decreasing by 13.2%. The NHTSA said the first quarter of 2021 proved that the trend shown in the 2020 data that "drivers who remained on the road engaged in more risky behavior, including speeding, failing to wear seat belts and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol" continued to prevail.
"The report is sobering," said NHTSA Deputy Administrator Dr. Steven Cliff. "It's also a reminder of what hundreds of millions of people can do every day, right now, to combat this: Slow down, wear seat belts, drive sober and avoid distractions behind the wheel."
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety on Thursday called on the Department of Transportation to issue new safety requirements to "protect all road users," while stating every new vehicle should be equipped with crash avoidance technology, driving prevention technology and other upgrades.
The Department of Transportation said it will release a strategy in January to "significantly reduce serious injuries and deaths on our nation's roadways" in response to the report.
"No one will accomplish this alone," said Buttigieg. "It will take all levels of government, industries advocates, engineers and communities across the country working together toward the day when family members no longer have to say goodbye to loved ones because of a traffic crash."
Many firms failed to reopen after being forced to shut
Forecasts of a rise in company failures as government support measures came to an end are borne out by a 40% rise in corporate insolvencies across Scotland in the third quarter.
Insolvency practitioners have been hiring extra staff in anticipation of a surge in company failures.
As well as the withdrawal of Covid-related subsidies from the Treasury, inflation and supply chain pressures also began to bite.
Analysis of notices in The Gazette by Interpath Advisory reveals that 14 companies fell into administration or receivership from July to September 2021 – from 10 in Q2, and also up on the 10 appointments seen during the same period last year.
This upward trend mirrors the national picture, which saw UK administrations and receiverships increase by 26% in the third quarter of 2021 – from 123 in Q2 2021 to 155 in Q3.
However, this was significantly down from the 243 appointments during the comparative period in 2020, and is still at only 39% of pre-Covid levels when compared to the 401 appointments in Q3 2019.
Blair Nimmo, chief executive of Interpath Advisory, commented: “With inflation on the rise, COVID-19 support measures, including the Job Retention Scheme, now tailing off, and well-publicised issues affecting global supply chains and availability of labour, it’s perhaps unsurprising that we are starting to see a modest rise in insolvency levels as we enter the final quarter of the year.”
Blair Nimmo: a challenging quarter Across the UK, the construction and energy sectors saw the largest rise in levels of administrations and receiverships in Q3 2021, with three times as many filings for insolvency in the energy sector (nine appointments) and twice as many filings in the construction sector (34 appointments) compared to the previous quarter.
Mr Nimmo said: “It’s been a particularly challenging quarter for the UK’s energy sector, which is reeling from the recent spikes in wholesale gas, coal and electricity prices to unprecedented highs.
“Not only has this had an impact on energy-intensive industries such as manufacturing, but it’s also left the domestic energy supply market in disarray with 13 retail suppliers entering into a SOLR (supplier of last resort) process in the last eight weeks alone, impacting over 2 million customers who have been switched to new providers.
“The reality is that with the price cap restricting the ability of companies to pass increasing input costs onto consumers, there is little room for manoeuvre for those smaller suppliers which don’t have the financial bandwidth to absorb the higher price, leaving many with little option but to enter an insolvency process.
“Meanwhile, the larger players, who are being asked to take on new customers as a result of SOLR processes, are also having to absorb the cost of doing so. It’s an incredibly difficult situation, and we certainly expect further casualties over the weeks and months ahead.
“Against a backdrop of rising inflation costs and lessening government support, there are signs that the level of insolvencies in Scotland is beginning to rise.
“We are yet to see the deluge of corporate failures that many anticipated but, whilst the outlook remains uncertain, I would expect to see filings continue to escalate, with more momentum gathering into the New Year.”
Reflecting on the rising insolvencies in the building and construction sector, Alistair McAlinden, managing director and head of the Scotland team at Interpath Advisory, said: “This is another sector that feels on the brink of a perfect storm. Raw material costs remain at high levels, with steel, timber and plastic products nearly 50% higher than they were pre-April 2020.
“To further compound the problem, the UK’s timber supply is impacted by both transport and Brexit-related constraints, and the construction industry is navigating a range of other issues including wage inflation, haulage labour shortages, reverse charge VAT implications, and wider instability in the global shipping industry.
“The knock-on effect is a stop-start situation for many construction projects, which in turn is resulting in inefficient resource allocation and downtime, creating further pressure.”
He added: “The good news is that, despite these challenges, the UK and devolved Governments remain supportive, with increased infrastructure spending and commitments to new projects.
“Suppliers of debt capital are also continuing to provide support to Scottish businesses to help them trade through the impacts of COVID-19 and Brexit.
“Ultimately, these challenges are making businesses across the sector consider what work they want to undertake; how they manage current demand; how they quote for new work; and how they contract to try and mitigate these risks.
“We are also seeing continued challenges across a range of other sectors and have already seen an uptick in activity across general manufacturing, automotive and aerospace supply chains, and wholesale.”
UK
Banks hike mortgage costs as interest rate rise looms
The cost of buying a home is rising (pic: Terry Murden)
Mortgage lenders have anticipated a likely rise in the cost of borrowing next week by hiking their rates to home buyers.
The Bank of England is expected to become the world’s first major central bank to increase rates in order to keep a lid on inflation.
Banks have responded by putting up the cost of loans. Barclays is lifting rates by up to 0.35 percentage points on a range of fixed-rate mortgages, while Halifax has announced rises of up to 0.20 percentage points on some products from next Monday.
NatWest (RBS) has increased rates on a range of its fixed deals while HSBC and TSB are expected to make similar moves.
Markets now seem convinced that the base rate will rise to 0.25% next Thursday when the Bank’s monetary policy committee concludes its latest two-day meeting.
They believe it could rise to 1% by next May, still extremely low against periods of double-digit rates, but it could hit 3.5% by 2023 according to a forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility, which would make a material difference to monthly payments and demand for homes.
How karate is helping Nigerian women protect themselves
Zainab Saleh found karate as a young girl. Now she uses her annual women-only championship to advocate for the sport, in a country where domestic violence and mass kidnapping is endangering the lives of women and girls.
Hajiya Zainab Saleh: Karate teaches respect and self-confidence
Every October for the last eight years, young women have gathered in Lagos for the Zainab Saleh International Female Open Karate Championship. It's the only time that karatekas, practitioners of the sport, get to compete at a women-only tournament.
They are mostly drawn from teams across Nigeria's 36 states, while neighboring Benin also sent a big delegation. There were 207 athletes who registered to participate this year, eager to show their progress after the COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of the tournament in 2020.
"I noticed that there was always a lot of interest in the male category at tournaments because the technical ability of the men was much better," said Saleh. "I felt that it was important to build the technical abilities of the women. A man may be stronger but a woman can be more technically sound."
And she is happy that the level of competition is rising every year, with categories ranging from under-12s to seniors.
Godfirst Sampson (red belt) sparred against Fridole Tobossou during the championship Martial arts amid social upheaval
Saleh hails from the town of Monguno, in northeast Borno State, which has seen a lot of fighting between Nigerian troops and the jihadi Boko Haram group. Eighteen soldiers and many other civilians were killed in September, after an attack on the town that hosts a United Nations base. The ongoing insurgency has left families displaced.
Bandits operate in the country's northwest where mass kidnapping and ransom payments are now quite common, since the 2014 kidnapping of girls at a school in Chibok. According to Lagos-based SBM Intelligence, 2,371 people were kidnapped in the first half of 2021 across Nigeria.
"I worry for our girls, I worry for our women, I worry for everybody because it is just so sad what the country has become today," said Saleh, who supports back-to-school programs for displaced children in the region through her foundation.
Portraits of some of the school girls kidnapped in Chibok
"I believe that the development of grassroots sports is one way to keep children engaged. And karate can help children learn important values early in life." Inspired by Bruce Lee
Hajiya, as everyone calls her, holds a fourth-degree Dan black belt. She started practicing karate after watching Bruce Lee films when her father was a diplomat in Mexico in the 1970s.
"I told my father, I want to practice karate like Bruce Lee. So, he enrolled my brother and I in a school. He would always take us to our training. When he couldn't, my mom would take us," Saleh told DW.
She learned the core karate values of respect, focus and non-violence. Through her foundation and the support of family and friends, she runs the championship that has become a major highlight of the karate calendar in Nigeria.
Saleh: Women can be technically as good as men
The athletes participate in kata (a choreography of technical form) and kumite (sparring to score points against opponents). During the tournament, which took place from October 21 to 24, the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos came alive with the traditional Osu greeting, a word used as a sign of respect between competitors as women clad in their white karate gi uniforms begin to practice the ancient Japanese martial arts.
Godfirst Sampson, a 19-year-old 1st Dan black belt, took part in her fourth championship this year but lost in the 55-kilogram weight class final to her opponent from Benin, Fridole Tobossou.
"Every single year Hajiya makes it happen and she doesn't disappoint us. I am grateful that she is a tough woman and has not allowed anything to stop her vision for women's karate," said Sampson.
Giving girls an opportunity to compete
The championship offers women an opportunity to be competitive in a country where conservative values mean girls who play sport are often frowned upon. But Saleh has seen many change their minds after attending her tournaments.
"When people come and see what women are capable of doing, they say I want to learn that sport," she said.
Her work in women's sport is commendable, said Tega Onojaife, founder of the Lagos-based advocacy group Ladies In Sport International.
"When we ask for gender equality in sports, we are asking for deliberate and intentional action to be taken to ensure women and girls get equal opportunity to participate in sports. Hajiya Zainab has consistently put in the investment, year after year to make this happen. It is rare and it is intentionally giving girls the opportunity to participate in sports," she told DW.
Bigger picture
Karate was a sport at the Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020, but it will not return at the next Summer Games in Paris in 2024. Saleh, who is a member of many organizations including the Union of African Karate Federations, hopes the sport will be back on the Olympic roster by 2028.
Her aim is that Nigerian karatekas will get better in order to participate on the international stage despite the financial challenges they face.
"How do you get better if you cannot get your athletes to international competitions? We can't rate our progress against other countries if we cannot get funding to attend those championships. We need sponsors to take an interest in karate," said Saleh.
But she remains encouraged by the passion of the young women who come to her championship, and she hopes to start another championship in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, for both men and women. "The fact that the technical standard of our female athletes is getting better encourages me," she said. "I caught some moments when some little girls were jumping for joy after winning gold medals. It makes me want to continue. And I wish I can do more for them."
Veteran leaders who cater to a greying population, archaic campaign tactics and a lack of political education have led to chronically low turnout rates among young people, voters and campaigners say (AFP/Behrouz MEHRI)More Kyoko Hasegawa and Katie Forster Thu, October 28, 2021
Shoma Motegi will vote for the first time in Japan's general election on Sunday, but the 19-year-old is a minority in his age group -- something he wants to change.
Veteran leaders who cater to a greying population, archaic campaign tactics and a lack of political education have led to chronically low turnout rates among young people, voters and campaigners say.
Voter turnout in Japan, where the ruling party has held power almost continuously for decades, is the fifth lowest among 41 developed economies surveyed by the OECD.
The age gap in voting patterns was stark in the country's last general election, with just a third of people in their twenties casting their ballot compared to 72 percent among people aged 60-69.
"It's a waste of the right to vote in elections that determine our future," Motegi told AFP.
If younger people don't turn up, "policies will favour the current working generation, or the elderly," added the economics student from Yokohama.
Analysts say the election's outcome is largely predictable, with the new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, 64, widely expected to win.
After becoming leader of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, he unveiled his cabinet this month: its average age is 62, with just three women.
To Misha Cade, a 24-year-old student who also plans to vote on Sunday, "it doesn't look very inspiring".
Cade regularly posts about feminism and other social issues in English and Japanese to her 46,000 followers on TikTok, and says young women in Japan often don't feel represented in mainstream politics.
"They think it's a man's world -- like it's not really something they can step into," said Cade, who is of dual heritage and grew up in the US before moving to Japan as a teenager.
Would she ever go into politics herself?
"I could never do it... There's a lot of sexual harassment and just blatant sexism, and I don't think that's something I could really tolerate on a daily basis."
- 'Awkward atmosphere' -
To try and engage the next generation, the government lowered the voting age to 18 from 20 five years ago.
But Motegi says some of his friends still shy away from political debate -- especially on divisive topics like nuclear power or national security.
"I think they don't feel ready to discuss the issues, as they don't know much about current policy," he said.
They may also "fear that disagreement could lead to an awkward atmosphere".
He is a member of Japan Youth Conference, an NGO that recently held two debates at which younger voters asked lawmakers about issues important to them, from working conditions to education costs and gender policies.
"Japanese young people have a high interest in social issues, including gender equality, the income gap and climate change," said Yuki Murohashi, one of the group's organisers.
But "often students don't even know the difference between political parties," the 32-year-old said.
This is partly due to a lack of voter education at school, or because "parties don't make enough effort to reach out to young people".
- Threat to democracy? -
Digital petitions and social media have helped drive change in Japan in recent years, but old-school campaign tactics like speeches at train stations are still widespread.
To persuade more people to exercise their rights, a group of film industry workers launched the Voice Project, which rallied actors and singers to make a video urging members of the public to vote.
The three-and-a-half minute clip, viewed on YouTube more than 600,000 times, does not take a political stance and is centered around the slogan #I'mVotingToo.
Kosai Sekine, 45, an award-winning film director who is one of the project's leaders, said some viewers had told them it had helped them decide to vote.
If the non-voting trend continues, it could even threaten the functioning of Japan's democracy, Sekine warned.
"Young people not going to ballot stations means decision-making will be done by elderly people, leading to a society with little consideration towards youth -- which is scary."
kh-kaf/oho
Colombia: Coca farmers release 180 soldiers from hostage
Some 600 coca growers with sticks and machetes took a group of soldiers hostage earlier this week. The government has increased its efforts to eradicate coca plantations.
Colombia is the world's biggest exporter of cocaine, with the US as its biggest customer
Almost 200 Colombian soldiers were released on Thursday after being held hostage by coca farmers with sticks and machetes, a government official said.
The soldiers had been part of an operation to destroy coca plants — the source of cocaine — on the border with Venezuela on Tuesday when they were taken. General Omar Sepulveda said six platoons had been "kidnapped" by around 600 farmers.
The coca growers subsequently decided to "unilaterally" withdraw and "not to impede the work of government forces," the office of the ombudsman said.
"The situation ends here with a voluntary agreement from the growers," Jhon Ascanio, who participated in the mediation, told AFP
Coca growers claim protest action
President Ivan Duque said that the soldiers had "wanted to avoid confrontation and I value their professionalism."
But he went on to condemn the farmers' actions, saying that they "cannot continue in this country... It is a kidnapping, and if there is no quick release, it will be treated as a kidnapping by all the authorities."
One of the coca growers told a local radio station that the soldiers had been taken as a protest against the government that had failed to help them substitute their coca crops with legal ones.
Colombian lawmaker John Bermudez tweeted after the kidnapping of the soldiers that: "We cannot allow these types of acts as a means of protesting the eradication of illegal crops.
Colombia's worsening economic woes
The incident took place in the Catatumbo region, home to over 40,000 hectares (99,000 acres) of coca plantations, according to UN data.
Colombia remains the world's biggest exporter of cocaine with an estimated 1,010 tons leaving the country in 2020. Colombia's economy was hit hard by the pandemic with over 40% of the population living in poverty.
Soldiers have been redoubling efforts to destroy coca plantations, under the orders of President Duque.
Duque came to power in 2018, two years after a landmark agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) which led to the militant groups disbandment.
However, the country is now experiencing a surge in violence, partly related to armed groups fighting over control of drug trafficking routes.
British court postpones ruling on US govt's appeal to extradite Assange
Lawyers for Julian Assange on Thursday dismissed US assurances about the treatment awaiting the WikiLeaks founder if he is extradited from Britain, as two days of hearings wrapped up in London.
Britain’s High Court said it would issue a ruling at a later date, after Washington appealed against a lower court’s decision to block Assange’s extradition to face a series of US charges related to the mass leak of classified documents.
“You’ve given us much to think about and we will take our time to make our decision,” said Ian Burnett, one of the two judges hearing the US appeal in the central London court.
Assange’s lawyers argued that he remains a suicide risk if extradited to the US, despite new assurances that he would not be held in punishing isolation at a “supermax” federal prison.
Mark Summers, representing Assange, argued there were “genuine questions” over the “trustworthiness” of the US pledges.
He said US intelligence agencies had an “obsession” with Assange.
Recent reports that the CIA had hatched a prior plot to kidnap Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy in London and poison him were “potentially the tip of the iceberg”, Summers said.
Long process
The US government wants Assange to face espionage charges that could put him in jail for up to 175 years, although its legal team claims his possible sentence is difficult to estimate and could be far shorter.
It is appealing against UK district court judge Vanessa Baraitser’s decision in January that it would be “oppressive” to extradite Assange because of his serious risk of suicide and mental health deterioration.
She rejected US experts’ testimony that Assange would be protected from self-harm, noting that others such as disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein had killed themselves in custody. 04:33
Whatever the High Court decides, the legal fight is likely to drag on for months if not years.
If the US appeal is successful, the case will be sent back to the lower court for a new decision, while whoever loses can also ask for permission for a further, final appeal to the UK’s Supreme Court.
Assange chose not to appear Thursday after following some of Wednesday’s proceedings via video-link from the high-security Belmarsh jail in southeast London where he is being held.
His partner Stella Moris, with whom he has two children, was present inside the courtroom as dozens of supporters rallied outside.
Australian national Assange, 50, was arrested in Britain in 2019 for jumping bail, after spending seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden where he faced allegations of sexual assault. These were later dropped.
The US government has indicted him on 18 charges relating to WikiLeaks’ 2010 release of 500,000 secret files detailing aspects of military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.
He is accused of violating the US espionage act and hacking, based on the alleged aid he gave former military intelligence officer Chelsea Manning in obtaining the documents from secure computer systems.
Jeremy Corbyn, the left-wing former leader of Britain’s Labour party, said outside the court that Assange had “told us the truth, the truth about Afghanistan, the truth about Iraq, the truth about surveillance”.
‘Solemn matter’
James Lewis, lawyer for the US government, said in its appeal that Washington had now provided written pledges Assange would not be detained at the ADX Florence jail in Colorado, which houses criminals including Al-Qaeda extremists in near-total isolation.
He would also receive any psychological treatment recommended, and eventually be eligible to apply for a prisoner transfer to his native Australia.
“Diplomatic assurances are a solemn matter,” Lewis said. “These are not dished out like smarties.”
He also sought to undermine Baraitser’s ruling, arguing Assange “had every reason to exaggerate” his mental health issues and that its own experts had found he was only “moderately depressed”.
The lawyer also insisted Michael Kopelman, a key psychiatric expert provided by Assange’s team, had offered a “misleading” initial report which deliberately omitted that Assange had secretly fathered two children with Moris in recent years.
(AFP)
Assange lawyer urges British court to review Yahoo News story on CIA plans targeting WikiLeaks founder
Accusing the CIA of having an “obsession for vengeance” against Julian Assange, a lawyer for the WikiLeaks founder urged a British court on Thursday to conduct an independent investigation into the agency’s aggressive measures targeting his client, including an aborted 2017 plot to abduct him from the Ecuadorean Embassy in London that was detailed in a recent report by Yahoo News.
“This is a case of credible evidence of U.S. government plans developed at some length to do serious harm to Mr. Assange,” said Mark Summers, a lawyer for Assange. He spoke on the second day of a two-day hearing before a British appeals court on whether the WikiLeaks founder should be extradited to the United States to face trial for publishing classified documents in violation of the World War I-era Espionage Act.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrives at court in London on May 1, 2019, to be sentenced for bail violation. (Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. government officials have consistently declined to comment on the recent Yahoo News story detailing a CIA plan to abduct Assange — as well as internal discussions within the Trump administration and the agency about the feasibility of assassinating him — after WikiLeaks published documents describing the spy agency’s highly sensitive “Vault 7” documents on how it conducts offensive cyber operations against U.S. adversaries.
But Summers, after reading at length from the Yahoo News story, noted that then-CIA Director and future Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — who pushed the agency to develop the plans targeting Assange — has publicly said that “pieces of it are true.” (Pompeo, in a recent podcast interview, also said that more than 30 former U.S. officials who spoke to Yahoo News should be criminally prosecuted for disclosing classified information.)
Summers added that “there is going to have to be some assessment” of the reports about the CIA’s conduct as well as apparently related evidence developed by a Spanish judicial investigation into a security company that allegedly helped the CIA spy on Assange. He argued that the Yahoo News story and the Spanish probe buttress allegations that the CIA “plotted assassination, kidnapping and poisoning” of Assange.
It remains unclear whether the British court will ask Biden administration officials to address the reports of the CIA’s conduct, almost all of which took place during the early years of Donald Trump’s presidency, when Pompeo served as the agency’s director. And James Lewis, the British barrister representing the U.S. government in the case, did not address any of the assertions about the CIA made by Summers.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. (Amir Levy/Getty Images)
One of the three British judges said it would not be surprising if, given Assange’s history, the CIA was “intensely interested” in him. But that prompted Summers to respond that the CIA’s conduct went well beyond maintaining an interest in the WikiLeaks founder. Pointing to the Yahoo News account, Summers said:“I invite my lords to read it in due course to get a proper understanding of what lengths the CIA has been prepared to go to in relation to Mr. Assange.”
Technically, the issue before the court is a ruling earlier this year by a lower-court judge, Vanessa Baraitser, denying the U.S. request to extradite Assange on the grounds that sending him to the United States to face trial would put him at serious risk of suicide. Although Assange was indicted by the Justice Department under Trump, the Biden administration — despite criticism from some civil liberties and press freedom groups — has continued the case and appealed Baraitser’s denial to the British High Court.
On Wednesday, during the first day of the High Court hearing, another of Assange’s lawyers argued that the risk of suicide is real given that Assange suffers from an Asperger's-like mental disorder and would likely be held under harsh prison conditions in the United States that would include solitary confinement.
But Lewis, the lawyer for the U.S. government, argued that that risk has been seriously reduced in light of recent assurances provided by U.S. officials, including an affidavit by the chief U.S. prosecutor in the case, Gordon Kromberg, that Assange will not be subjected to some of those harsh conditions, known as “special administrative measures” (or SAMs), nor will he be sentenced, if convicted, to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons maximum security facility in Florence, Colo. Instead, Kromberg wrote, Assange will be permitted to request a transfer that would allow him to serve out his sentence in a prison in his native Australia.
Assange supporters outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London on Thursday. (Henry Nicholls/Reuters)
Lewis contended that these assurances undercut the basis for Baraitser’s denial of the U.S. extradition request, stressing that the U.S. assurances can be relied on by the court. “The United States has never broken a diplomatic assurance — ever,” he said.
But Summers argued that there were plenty of holes in Kromberg’s affidavits to the British court detailing those assurances. For openers, he contended that once Assange is sent to the U.S., he will be held under restrictive conditions in an Alexandria, Va., jail while awaiting trial — a period that Summers contended could drag on for years, given the extensive pretrial motions and discovery that are likely to take place in the case. He also noted that even Kromberg acknowledged that Assange could still be subjected to special administrative measures upon the recommendation of the attorney general if the FBI or members of the U.S. intelligence community determine he is engaging in conduct that endangers national security, such as continuing to disclose classified documents still in possession of WikiLeaks. That makes the disclosures about the CIA’s conduct relevant and deserving of investigation, Summers argued.
