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Comment by greendestiny | Hacker News Reader

I agree that its not a great rebuttal, especially because there are much better rebuttal's available for this particular instance. Cancelling worn passports and questioning people over their criminal conviction is absolutely standard operating procedure for customs, and I can't see why it shouldn't be? I'm not even sure how Assange thinks he was inconvenienced by it, let alone oppressed.

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My immediate thought when I read the original report of this was exactly this. I am Australian and I travel frequently - I have a 64-page passport which is mostly full with 100s of stamp, and is so worn the laminate is peeling off the ID page.

When I enter Australia in particular they often take it away to study and check, and advise me that I need to get it replaced or it will become a problem. I just had a customs official at Heathrow in the UK tell me the same just last month.

What's more realistic? They want him to replace his tattered passport, or everyone is out to get him?

Its not that I doubt that governments want to screw with him, its just that this doesn't seem to be an example. This article makes it sound like they took his passport away - in his comments at the time he said they took the passport for 15 minutes then returned it and told him it would be or was cancelled because its worn.

Powers choose who to apply legislation to.

Until there is any suggestion that Assange hasn't or won't be issued a new passport all the "Powers" have chosen to do is replace a worn passport and question someone at customs.

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