1 00:00:00,441 --> 00:00:06,197 And for more on Assanges roller coster year I'm joined by Paul Craig Roberts, former Reagan administration official. 2 00:00:06,197 --> 00:00:12,725 Hey there Paul, you know we're looking back at the past year. As Julian Assange has really gone from 3 00:00:12,725 --> 00:00:18,088 celebrity and now to alleged criminal, what have been your observations about this man, 4 00:00:18,088 --> 00:00:20,898 who's really become quite a character on the American landscape? 5 00:00:20,898 --> 00:00:30,348 Well, he's a great threat, because he does publish documents from the government which reveals 6 00:00:30,348 --> 00:00:37,570 how sordid the government is. It's not like a pundit or commentator speaking about the government, 7 00:00:37,570 --> 00:00:45,674 it's the governments own documents revealing its sordid behavior. So he is very much a threat, and not 8 00:00:45,674 --> 00:00:50,132 just to the American government, but to the British government, to any number of governments. 9 00:00:50,132 --> 00:00:59,072 And so there is a consorted effort to nail him, to shut him up. In my opinion, if legal attempt, 10 00:00:59,072 --> 00:01:06,432 which I'm certain the United States government is behind, if this fails he'll simply be assassinated 11 00:01:06,432 --> 00:01:09,010 by a CIA assassination team. 12 00:01:09,010 --> 00:01:16,324 It's common practice for the CIA to do that, it's nothing unusual about it. 13 00:01:16,324 --> 00:01:23,569 The Congress had many hearings in the mid 70s, and it's in the public record that they're always 14 00:01:23,569 --> 00:01:25,403 assassinating people. 15 00:01:25,403 --> 00:01:28,236 I guess you like to think, as an American, that you don't live in a country where 16 00:01:28,236 --> 00:01:31,463 that goes on, but perhaps that's a little ignorant, but.. 17 00:01:31,463 --> 00:01:34,227 I try to be realistic and aware. 18 00:01:34,227 --> 00:01:38,801 I wanna move on now, this ruling today that came down in the British court, not a surprise really to 19 00:01:38,801 --> 00:01:45,349 most people. He plans to appeal according to his lawyers, but a lot of people say that the US might try 20 00:01:45,349 --> 00:01:49,668 to get in there now, that they might try to request his extradition to the United States. 21 00:01:49,668 --> 00:01:55,357 How can this happen? There's not even been any charges filed against him. These charges in Sweden are 22 00:01:55,357 --> 00:02:01,394 sort of, you know. Sexual assault, yes, but they're with consenting partners who sort of have changed 23 00:02:01,394 --> 00:02:07,361 their stories a little. I wonder what you think about the attempt that could happen to get him to the 24 00:02:07,361 --> 00:02:10,891 United States where there's not even charges against him yet? 25 00:02:10,891 --> 00:02:18,670 Well, I think that's the purpose of all this. You see, the fact of the matter is that the Swedish prosecutors 26 00:02:18,670 --> 00:02:24,776 did look in to the charges, and they dismissed them as not credible. And of course one reason it's not 27 00:02:24,776 --> 00:02:30,999 credible is that both of the women who seduced him are all lying, bragging about their conquests. 28 00:02:30,999 --> 00:02:37,083 They had e-mails, there's some Twitter and Facebook, I believe, and many of their friends reported 29 00:02:37,083 --> 00:02:46,162 that the two women where bragging that they had seduced Julian Assange. So what his real mistake was 30 00:02:46,162 --> 00:02:56,356 was getting in bed with two women he didn't know. [chuckle] Somebody who is a boat rocker like him can't 31 00:02:56,356 --> 00:03:06,642 possibly let that happen, because it's now cooked him, you see. And the prosecutor which reopened the case, 32 00:03:06,642 --> 00:03:14,560 no one knows really why, because the charges are merely misdemeanors. He's not accused of rape, despite 33 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:22,687 all the headlines. He's accused, after the event, by the two women of having sex with them in ways that 34 00:03:22,687 --> 00:03:25,589 they didn't want, or something to that effect. 35 00:03:25,589 --> 00:03:29,908 Yeah. One of them said she was asleep, and an other says she was hoping he would be wearing a condom 36 00:03:29,908 --> 00:03:34,994 and he wasn't. But let's move away from the case itself and talk about this attempt to paint him as a rapist. 37 00:03:34,994 --> 00:03:42,099 This is really taking a lot of focus off of WikiLeaks itself, in this attempt by various people, 38 00:03:42,099 --> 00:03:46,000 various governments to paint him as sort of a villain. Talk about that. 39 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:54,800 Well this is common practice. When you have someone you regard as dangerous to you, and you 40 00:03:54,800 --> 00:04:00,953 don't really have a case against them, you slander them. And this is the way the United States Department 41 00:04:00,953 --> 00:04:12,192 of Justice generally works. It produces, it uses the media to slander the victim so that the victim is 42 00:04:12,192 --> 00:04:20,412 guilty before he ever gets into a court. So in some sense they would achieve their purpose, even if he 43 00:04:20,412 --> 00:04:29,166 wins the appeal, because he is now slandered. And the real questions will not get investigated. You see, 44 00:04:29,166 --> 00:04:36,526 what really needs to be investigated is why did this prosecutor reopen the case the Swedish prosecutors 45 00:04:36,526 --> 00:04:42,958 had already closed? Because there was no new evidence. [chuckles] In fact, the evidence that came out 46 00:04:42,958 --> 00:04:50,714 really didn't support the claims of the two women. And the other question is how do you extradite somebody 47 00:04:50,714 --> 00:04:59,212 when there's no crime? What the Swedish prosecutor is demanding is extradition so that she can interview him. 48 00:04:59,212 --> 00:05:01,256 She could do that here 49 00:05:01,256 --> 00:05:04,669 The bottom line here seems to be, you know, where there's a will, there's a way. 50 00:05:04,669 --> 99:59:59,999 Sorry, we are out of time. Paul Craig Roberts, former Reagan administration official.