"If law fails, CIA will assassinate Assange"

Judge Howard Riddle, the bane of Julian Assange's existence for the past three months, has granted Sweden's extradition request. The WikiLeaks founder has already repealed the ruling, but his worst fears have been cemented: the rape charges are going to follow him for the rest of his life, perhaps even after years of repeals. Former Reagan Administration Paul Craig Roberts says there is a concerted effort to shut Assange up. If the legal attempt fails, he'll be assassinated by a CIA assassination team.

And for more on Assanges roller coster year I'm joined by Paul Craig Roberts, former Reagan administration official.

Hey there Paul, you know we're looking back at the past year. As Julian Assange has really gone from

celebrity and now to alleged criminal, what have been your observations about this man,

who's really become quite a character on the American landscape?

Well, he's a great threat, because he does publish documents from the government which reveals

how sordid the government is. It's not like a pundit or commentator speaking about the government,

it's the governments own documents revealing its sordid behavior. So he is very much a threat, and not

just to the American government, but to the British government, to any number of governments.

And so there is a consorted effort to nail him, to shut him up. In my opinion, if legal attempt,

which I'm certain the United States government is behind, if this fails he'll simply be assassinated

by a CIA assassination team.

It's common practice for the CIA to do that, it's nothing unusual about it.

The Congress had many hearings in the mid 70s, and it's in the public record that they're always

assassinating people.

I guess you like to think, as an American, that you don't live in a country where

that goes on, but perhaps that's a little ignorant, but..

I try to be realistic and aware.

I wanna move on now, this ruling today that came down in the British court, not a surprise really to

most people. He plans to appeal according to his lawyers, but a lot of people say that the US might try

to get in there now, that they might try to request his extradition to the United States.

How can this happen? There's not even been any charges filed against him. These charges in Sweden are

sort of, you know. Sexual assault, yes, but they're with consenting partners who sort of have changed

their stories a little. I wonder what you think about the attempt that could happen to get him to the

United States where there's not even charges against him yet?

Well, I think that's the purpose of all this. You see, the fact of the matter is that the Swedish prosecutors

did look in to the charges, and they dismissed them as not credible. And of course one reason it's not

credible is that both of the women who seduced him are all lying, bragging about their conquests.

They had e-mails, there's some Twitter and Facebook, I believe, and many of their friends reported

that the two women where bragging that they had seduced Julian Assange. So what his real mistake was

was getting in bed with two women he didn't know. [chuckle] Somebody who is a boat rocker like him can't

possibly let that happen, because it's now cooked him, you see. And the prosecutor which reopened the case,

no one knows really why, because the charges are merely misdemeanors. He's not accused of rape, despite

all the headlines. He's accused, after the event, by the two women of having sex with them in ways that

they didn't want, or something to that effect.

Yeah. One of them said she was asleep, and an other says she was hoping he would be wearing a condom

and he wasn't. But let's move away from the case itself and talk about this attempt to paint him as a rapist.

This is really taking a lot of focus off of WikiLeaks itself, in this attempt by various people,

various governments to paint him as sort of a villain. Talk about that.

Well this is common practice. When you have someone you regard as dangerous to you, and you

don't really have a case against them, you slander them. And this is the way the United States Department

of Justice generally works. It produces, it uses the media to slander the victim so that the victim is

guilty before he ever gets into a court. So in some sense they would achieve their purpose, even if he

wins the appeal, because he is now slandered. And the real questions will not get investigated. You see,

what really needs to be investigated is why did this prosecutor reopen the case the Swedish prosecutors

had already closed? Because there was no new evidence. [chuckles] In fact, the evidence that came out

really didn't support the claims of the two women. And the other question is how do you extradite somebody

when there's no crime? What the Swedish prosecutor is demanding is extradition so that she can interview him.

She could do that here

The bottom line here seems to be, you know, where there's a will, there's a way.

Sorry, we are out of time. Paul Craig Roberts, former Reagan administration official.