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Justice Department Presses UK to Extradite WikiLeaks Founder to US

Masood Farivar

   The Justice Department has formally asked Britain to extradite
   WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to face a raft of
   charges related to his release of a massive trove of secret diplomatic
   cables and war logs, a U.S. official said on Tuesday.
   A formal request for Assange's extradition was delivered to British
   authorities last Thursday, just days before a June 11 deadline.
   Under an extradition treaty with the United Kingdom, the U.S. had 60
   days from the date of Assange's April 11 arrest in London to file a
   formal request for his handover.The treaty bars U.S. prosecutors from
   charging Assange with crimes not outlined in the request, making the
   filing of additional counts against Assange highly unlikely.
   The Australian-born computer programmer and activist is being sought to
   face charges in federal court in Northern Virginia that he worked with
   former Army specialist Chelsea Manning to unlawfully obtain and publish
   hundreds of thousands of reports about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
   as well as conditions within the military prison at Guantanamo Bay,
   Cuba.

   Assange had eluded arrest for seven years by holing up in Ecuador's
   embassy in London until Ecuadorian officials turned against him in
   April.

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