London’s High Court has ruled Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder and editor-in-chief, should be extradited from the United Kingdom to Sweden to face questioning over alleged sex crimes from 2010. In the video above, Amy Goodman speaks to Helena Kennedy, an attorney on Assange’s legal team. The clip also includes a statement made by Assange earlier today in London. Assange and his lawyers are now considering an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and the European Court of Human Rights. The concern is that once Sweden has Assange in custody, they will extradite him to the U.S. for questioning about the source(s) who leaked classified U.S. diplomatic cables and Department of Defense files to WikiLeaks.
And in #Occupy news, courtesy of Democracy Now!:
Protesters in Oakland, California, are launching a citywide general strike today that will include an attempt to shut down the nation’s fifth-busiest shipping port. The strike is expected to draw thousands of people to downtown Oakland, many responding to police attacks last week on nonviolent protesters with Occupy Oakland, including two-time Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen. During the strike, protesters intend to picket banks, businesses, schools, libraries, and any employers who try to reprimand striking workers. “What this general strike is all about is this: this is a call to working people, not only throughout the United States, but throughout the world, to retract their labor.” says Clarence Thomas of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10.
Police in Richmond, Virginia, and Palm Desert, California, have raided encampments of Occupy Wall Street protesters. In Richmond, police arrested nine demonstrators and demolished their camp with bulldozers, scooping tents and other items into dump trucks. In Palm Desert, at least seven Occupy protesters were arrested in an early morning crackdown.
In Tennessee, a federal judge has ordered the state to stop enforcing new rules that restrict demonstrators’ ability to protest. Demonstrators began occupying Legislative Plaza in Nashville on October 9. Just three weeks later, the state enacted new rules, without any public review, eliminating their right to gather after 4:00 p.m. and implementing a 10:00 p.m. curfew.
Meanwhile, in New York City, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War are planning to march in their military fatigues from Vietnam Veterans Plaza to Zuccotti Park, the heart of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
And Olsen reportedly gave a “thumbs-up” to his roommate after being told of the support he has received from Occupy demonstrators around the world. The 24-year-old suffered a cracked skull and brain swelling after Oakland police fired tear gas into a crowd of protesters last Tuesday. He is still unable to speak and has been communicating to family and friends with a notepad he keeps next to his hospital bed.
TYVM for the consolidated update/s, PW.