Given the lapdog nature of the British government, it was a foregone conclusion that British officials would ultimately, one of these days, rule in favor of the U.S. government's extradition demand for Assange to be delivered into the clutches of U.S. officials.

Upon being brought to the United States, it also is a virtual certainty that Assange would have been convicted and sentenced to serve the rest of his life in prison, given the kangaroo nature of political trials in the Washington, D.C., environs of northern Virginia, where Assange's trial would have been held.

Nonetheless, it's important that we recognize an important fact: A U.S. District Judge in the Northern Mariana Islands, which is a far-flung member of the U.S. Empire, will be accepting a plea of guilty from a man who isn't guilty at all.

Why is that important? Because judges aren't supposed to accept guilty pleas from innocent people. That's why federal judges go through extensive questioning of every person who decides to plead guilty. "Are you pleading guilty because you really are guilty or for some other reason?" is a standard question that the federal judge will ask Assange.

If Assange were to tell the truth — that he is pleading guilty not because he really is guilty but because he doesn't want to take the chance of receiving the 170-year jail sentence with which the U.S. government is threatening him — the judge would not be able to accept his guilty plea.