Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has failed in his appeal against extradition from the UK to Sweden over allegations of rape and sexual assault.

Two judges at the High Court in London said that a ruling in favor of extradition must be upheld.

Swedish authorities want him to answer accusations of raping one woman and sexually molesting another in Stockholm last year.

Mr. Assange has staunchly denied the allegations and says they are politically motivated.

Once in Sweden, Assange could be extradited to the United States where he would likely face charges that he published classified documents. If convicted, he would likely face the death penalty.

The Guardian reports:

"The decision means Assange could be removed to Sweden within 10 days, though it is more likely that the earliest time he would find himself on Swedish soil would be around 26 November."

"Assange has 14 days to seek leave to appeal to the supreme court if he believes there is a wider issue of "public importance" at stake in the decision. If he is successful in persuading the high court of that, he is likely to remain on conditional bail until a hearing, which is unlikely to take place until next year."

"If he is denied the right to appeal then British law enforcement officers will be responsible for arranging his removal to Sweden within 10 days."

Last month, Assange, an Australian citizen, said WikiLeaks would stop publishing secret cables and devote itself instead to fund-raising because of a financial blockade on payments to the site by U.S. firms Bank of America. Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union.

The blockade began within ten days of the launch of publication of classified diplomatic cables that has been blamed on a "concerted US-based, political attack that included vitriol by senior right wing politicians, including assassination calls against WikiLeaks staff."

In a public statement, Wikileaks said that “The blockade is outside of any accountable, public process. It is without democratic oversight or transparency.”

Assange was nominated this year for the Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian parliamentarian who entered the nomination said that "His publication of thousands of secret government documents has helped to promote human rights, democracy and freedom of speech."

"Wikileaks have contributed to the struggle for those very values globally, by exposing (among many other things) corruption, war crimes and torture -- sometimes even conducted by allies of Norway," he said.

Read the court's full judgement here.

Breaking news: Britain releases Julian Assange on bail:

Britain's high court today granted bail to Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who is wanted in Sweden for questioning over allegations of rape.

Mr Justice Duncan Ouseley agreed with a decision by City of Westminister magistrates court earlier in the week to release Assange on strict conditions: £200,000 cash deposit, with a further £40,000 guaranteed in two sureties of £20,000, and strict conditions on his movement.

Assange stood in a dark grey suit in the dock as Ouseley began hearing an appeal by British prosecutors acting on behalf of Sweden.

There was an early sign that the day would go in Assange's favour when Ouseley said: "The history of the way it [the case] has been dealt with by the Swedish prosecutors would give Mr Assange some basis that he might be acquitted following a trial."

Mark Stephens, one of Assange's lawyers, said he expected Assange to be released later today, or tomorrow in a worst case scenario.

It will be more like in-home custody:

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will move from a prison cell in Wandsworth to a country retreat in Norfolk when he is released from custody.

Ellingham Hall is a 10-bedroomed property set on 600 acres of land near Bungay on the Norfolk-Suffolk border.

The estate is owned by Vaughan Smith, a Wikileaks supporter who served in the British Army before founding London's Frontline journalists' club.

Mr Assange must stay there as part of his bail conditions, granted on Thursday by Mr Justice Ouseley at the Royal Courts of Justice.

He must also wear an electronic tag, report to police every day and observe a curfew.

Meanwhile, journalists are finally beginning to speak out:

One of the most prominent journalism schools in the United States is asking President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder not to prosecute WikiLeaks because it would set a "bad precedent for reporters."

"We all believe that in publishing diplomatic cables WikiLeaks is engaging in journalistic activity protected by the First Amendment," according to a letter signed by 19 Columbia Journalism School professors.

Holder is an alum of both the undergrad program and Columbia Law School.

"As a historical matter, government overreaction to publication of leaked material in the press has always been more damaging to American democracy than the leaks themselves," the letter says. READ THE LETTER

The letter argues that prosecuting WikiLeaks would result in "chilling" investigative journalism everywhere, and that legal action against the organization would "greatly damage American standing in free-press debates worldwide and would dishearten those journalists looking to this nation for inspiration."

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You know that Republican obsession with "American exceptionalism"? It's becoming pretty obvious, in all the right-wing wailing and teeth-gnashing over the WikiLeaks releases, that for most of these dangerous fools, this translates into a belief that the USA runs the world, and therefore can willy-nilly shove ourselves by force -- militarily or otherwise -- onto other countries without their permission or cooperation.

After all, the leading prospect for the Republican presidential nomination just announced that she thinks we should just go hunt down (and presumably kill) WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Glenn Beck thought we should try him for treason -- which is kind of hard to do with a non-citizen. Then there was WaPo columnist Marc Thiessen last night on Sean Hannity's Fox News show:

THIESSEN: There are plenty of tools at our disposal. … But failing that, we can act unilaterally. We can go and get him without another country’s permission. We did it with General Noriega — there’s authority within the Office of Legal Counsel and that we can go and take anybody anywhere in the world.

As

Alec Seitz-Wald at ThinkProgress observes, this would pretty much mean invading one of the countries where Asange lives part-time, most likely Sweden or Iceland or Australia.

It’s worth noting that going and getting Gen. Manuel Noriega, the former narco-dictator of Panama, as Thiessen suggested, involved a full-scale invasion of the country with 25,000 American troops. Former President George H.W. Bush “broke both international law and [U.S.] government policies” in ordering the invasion in 1989, which resulted in the loss of 23 American servicemembers and the wounding of another 325, the death of hundreds of Panamanians, and major lasting damage to Panama’s economy and capital city.

Yeah, that's American exceptionalism at work.

God Hates Sweden

Calling Hugh Hewitt.

hat tip Greatscat

Krauthammer was on "Special Report" on Faux News Tuesday night (no link, LexisNexis). He's responding to U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland's assertion that the US is "stingy" with its foreign aid:

KRAUTHAMMER: But that is a complete distortion of the truth of how America helps the world, because we give in other ways that are not measured. First of all, we have the largest private giving in the world. Bill Gates alone is doing more to help Africans than Mr. Egeland and all of Norway and Sweden put together.

Hacktackular. Look how generous we as a country are. The richest person in the world gives money, so we're awesome... Now enjoy how Krauthammer distorts the situation to make it sound like we're sacrificing ourselves nobly for the people of Asia:

... by opening our trade up as we have and destroying a lot of domestic industries, like textiles and others, we have raised the level of income of poor countries, particularly in Asia. The largest lifting of people out of hunger and poverty in history.