If the US wants Julian Assange, why not extradite him directly from the UK?

[struggle4progress]

43. Report on CIA rendition reveals massive scale of European assistance

Open Society research assembles long roster of nations willing to help the Bush administration with extra-legal program
Tom McCarthy
Tuesday 5 February 2013 14.24 EST

... Of pre-2004 European Union states, only three – France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands – apparently sat out the CIA's global kidnap-and-torture program ... A new report by the Open Society Justice Initiative names 54 foreign governments that participated in the CIA program ... The report also assembles the most comprehensive list to date of terror suspects caught up in the CIA program and tracks the fate of each suspect ... The report lists 136 suspects in all ... Italy has convicted officials on criminal charges for their involvement. Canada apologized to Canadian citizen Maher Arar, who was picked up at JFK airport in New York City and flown to Syria, where he was "imprisoned for more than ten months in a tiny grave-like cell, beaten with cables, and threatened with electric shocks" ... Canada, Sweden, Australia and the United Kingdom have issued compensation to extraordinary rendition victims ... The Danish government has reported "more than 100 flights credibly alleged to be involved in extraordinary renditions had passed through Danish airspace ... A 2007 European Parliament report "express<ed> serious concern about the 147 stopovers made by CIA-operated aircraft at Irish airports ... Finnish records show 150 landings in Finland by aircraft associated with the CIA program ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/05/cia-rendition-help-european-leaders

The Open Society Initiatives report lists the two known cases (Ahmed Agiza and Muhammed al-Zery ) in Sweden, rendered in December 2001. These cases provoked public outcry in Sweden. According to the report

... in 2008, the Swedish chancellor of justice awarded Agiza and al-Zery approximately three million Swedish kronor (approximately $500,000) each as compensation for Sweden’s involvement in their rendition and torture. In July 2012, Ahmed Agiza was granted permanent residence in Sweden ...

The UK has been less forthcoming regarding its apparently longer term and more substantial involvement. The report indicates there is evidence implicating the UK in the renditions of a number of people, including Bisher al-Rawi and Jamil el-Banna (2002), Binyam Mohamed (2002), Omar Deghayes (2002), Sami al-Saadi (2004), Abu Abdullah al-Sadiq and his wife Fatima Bouchar (2004), and in several of these cases the UK also seems to have been involved in the torture. According to the report:

In November 2010, the U.K. government entered into a confidential settlement with Bisher al-Rawi, Jamil el-Banna, Richard Belmar, Omar Deghayes, Binyam Mohamed, and Martin Mubanga ... In June 2009, after MI6 itself referred one of its officers to the attorney general, the police commenced Operation Iden, an investigation into the actions of MI6 officers who interrogated suspects at the U.S.-run prison at Bagram, Afghanistan, in January 2002 ... In December 2012, the British government paid al-Saadi £2.23m to settle his lawsuit without admitting liability