It could happen any day now. After yet another brief, unsuccessful court hearing, a column of vans and police cars roars out of Belmarsh prison in London and hurries to Heathrow, where a manacled, stooped and blinking prisoner is handed over to American officials and bundled aboard a plane bound for Washington DC.
There he will face the strong possibility of decades buried alive in some federal dungeon, the sort of place intended for mass murderers or terrorists. But the man involved is neither of these things.
This will be an irrevocable and shameful event, against which all patriotic, freedom-loving people in this country should be ranged.
But by the time most of us have realised what has happened, it will be over. So now is the moment to act.
I must beg you to join me, as soon as you can, in protesting against the fast-approaching extradition of Julian Assange to the USA.
