‘Britain needs referendum on independence from US’– UK journo on Assange extradition to US (VIDEO)

The referendum Britain should really hold is on whether to win independence from the US, because the Americans are treating Julian Assange as one of their citizens with their extradition request, journalist Neil Clark has told RT.

Clark was responding to the revelation by British Home Secretary Sajid Javid on Thursday that he has signed a request for the extradition of Assange to the US, where he faces computer hacking charges.

Clark told RT that he wasn’t particularly surprised with the latest developments concerning the Australian WikiLeaks co-founder. He claimed that the Tory Party candidates currently jostling to become the next UK prime minister were “falling over themselves to show who is the most slavishly pro-American.”

We had a referendum famously of course, three years ago, on whether to leave the European Union. I think the referendum we really need in Britain, even more important than that, is whether we have independence from the US.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today program, Javid said that he’d signed and certified the papers on Wednesday, with the order going before the UK courts on Friday.
Assange is accused by the US of violating the Espionage Act, but Clark believes such a charge is flawed, because the 47-year-old is not an American citizen.

The key point is that Julian Assange isn’t an American citizen and, yet, it seems that the US seems to believe they have universal jurisdiction.. he’s an Australian. How can he be accused of espionage when he isn’t even a citizen of that country.

The US justice department has filed 17 new charges against the Australian journalist. In May, he was additionally charged with one count of conspiring with Chelsea Manning, the former intelligence analyst and whistleblower, to gain access to the US Pentagon network.

Assange is currently serving a prison sentence in the UK for jumping bail and was too ill to appear last month, at the latest hearing at Westminster magistrates court in relation to the US request.

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