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I'm Joe Loria, the editor-in-chief of Consortium News.

And I'm Elizabeth Boss.

Inprisoned, WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange's fight continues to stop his extradition to the United States.

He's been charged with espionage and computer intrusion for the routine practice of journalism. However, what Assange

revealed is anything but routine. As Mark Summers, one of his barristers who argued in his

defense at this week's two-day hearing told the High Court, there's a nexus between Assange's

publications and his pursuit by the United States, making that government no better than any

authoritarian regime that hunts down a journalist for revealing their secret crimes.

Justice's Jeremy Johnson and Dame Victoria Sharp informed the court after 10 hours of hearings

over two days that they are reserving their judgment of Assange's fate for an

unspecified future date. A deadline of March 4 was given for final submission of papers.

A decision can come any time after that. Johnson and Sharp are considering whether to allow

Assange to appeal the Home Secretary's extradition order and various points of law in the magistrate's

court decision three years ago.

She had ordered Assange released on health grounds, but on the basis of assurances that it would not

mistreat Assange in the United States, the U.S. won an appeal at the High Court and reversed her decision.

The UK Supreme Court then refused to take Assange's challenge of the legality of these assurances,

and last June,

a single High Court judge also refuses Sanger's leave to appeal. This week's two-day hearing was an

...