Julian Assange considers next step after losing appeal against extradition

Here's a page about an petition of getting the Australian Parliment to protect Assange from extradition.

http://current.com/community/93530799_an-petition-for-australian-parliament-to-p...

The Economist reports (in a story called "Out of Time Out of Money") that
Wikileaks "has suspended most of its operations as it grapples with banks and payment-card companies that block its transactions."

This is core of that article:

"Mr Assange’s lawyers had challenged a European Arrest Warrant (EAW), normally enforced automatically, on four main grounds. Two High Court judges firmly rejected them all in terms that leave little room for a further appeal. They did not accept that the Swedish prosecutor was the wrong judicial authority to order an extradition; their judgment also said it did not matter that Mr Assange has not yet been accused of an offence in Sweden. Nor did it accept that the events being investigated were too minor, or too poorly described, to be an offence in England too (this “dual criminality” test is a central feature of the EAW). It also rejected the argument that extradition was disproportionate to the potential crime involved.

Unless he gains leave to appeal, Mr Assange will leave for Sweden within 10 days. There he will have a chance to explain his condom-less encounters, in quick succession, with two sleepy Swedish female fans in August last year. These have dented his reputation and sparked the allegations: one of rape, two of sexual assault, and one of coercion. Mr Assange’s fans believe that the allegations are a smokescreen and that Sweden is acting as a tool of American influence; some even say he may end being extradited there.

Mr Assange has been living under strict bail conditions with a wealthy supporter since his arrest in December. He appeared at the tent-dwellers’ protest outside St Paul’s Cathedral last month, but has had diminishing success in drumming up wider support for his cause. A blunder in September, when the unedited versions of purloined American diplomatic cables were released thanks to a stray password, brought another flurry of publicity.

But WikiLeaks as a publishing venture is dormant: in a statement on October 24th it said it would concentrate its efforts on fighting a “financial blockade” which has hampered its fund-raising which has all but dried up thanks to a boycott by banks and other financial institutions. An Icelandic company, Datacell, which tried to handle credit card payments for WikiLeaks complains of sweeping sanctions against it, which prevent it dealing with its regular customers. WikiLeaks has also made an antitrust complaint at the European Commission, saying that Visa and MasterCard are unlawfully colluding against it (Visa said it suspends payments “if appropriate” if a merchant breaks “applicable laws”).
Life may not be much fun for Mr Assange. But being a lawyer for WikiLeaks is a most interesting job."

SO.
He has been hobbled by this continued assault, and he has been hurt by the unprecedented series of "out there" rulings by the judges in this case.
That's disgusting, but not surprising, given the playing field he's on.
Julian Assange needs help, and any of us that are capable of doing so, should do so.
His battle is our battle.

...as V stated, something stinks here...

They were looking for anyway they could to stifle Assange and they succeeded. I'm with alexandrek--he should get as much info out there as he can until he can't anymore. No matter how anyone feels about Assange personally, I'm grateful for all the work he did in getting the truth out. That can never be taken away from him.

When someone is wanted for questioning by the justice department of another country, extradition requests are not issued. If the issue is really important, a prosecutor from that country will be sent to the country where the person they want to question happens to be so as to question that person.

Julian Assange has not been indicted with any crime in Sweden, he is simply wanted "for questioning". I have never heard of an extradition being either granted or requested simply for questioning, which does make this whole thing very suspicious indeed.