I'm coming late to the game, but I want to comment on an article that came out on August 20, 2012 in The New York Times By Michael Moore and Oliver Stone: Wikileaks and Free Speech. The article sheds much needed light on the Julian Assange "Sex Scandal" revolving around allegations of sexual assault. Sweden has issued a warrant for his arrest, though he has not been formally charged of any crime. The article takes care to note that Dr. Assange has, on multiple occasions gone out of his way to encourage investigations in accordance with this allegation to clear his name. He has made it clear that he can cooperate from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, however the Swedish government has requested that he come to Sweden under arrest. Dr. Assange has expressed willingness to comply under the condition that Sweden pledges not to extradite him to the U.S. to be tried for criminal activity. Sweden has made no such pledge which leads Moore to argue that the entire point of the sex scandal was to get Assange to Sweden to get him to the States.
This was the impetus for this post. I would like to see where in the Constitution it says that the United States can legally try a citizen of another country for crimes that were committed outside of the United States. Moore highlights this point arguing that if the United States has the legal authority to conduct such a trial, what is to stop other world powers from legally trying whomever they feel is a criminal international. This, to me, is a perfect instance of the kind of American foreign policy reasoning that Jeremy Scahill has called, "A twisted logic - a logic without end."
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