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Julian Assange Press Conference After Extradition Ruling
John Pilger Interviews Julian Assange
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v2LGy6c6e8
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ParpwhD-7kM
Son of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg: Why We Must Fight to Protect WikiLeaks and Julian Assange.
Glen Greenwald defends Wikileaks’ Julian Assange on CNN
Naomi Wolf vs. Jaclyn Friedman: Feminists Debate on the Sexual Allegations Against Julian Assange
Julian Assange has walked out of the High Court in London after being freed on bail
Protest against Assange’s arrest in Australia
Thousands protest against Assange’s arrest in Spain
Countdown Keith Olbermann Indicting Julian Assange
Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg: Julian Assange is Not a Terrorist
Chris Floyd – Truth in Chains: Assange Arrest a Chilling Sign of Power’s “New Realities”
From Chris Floyd:
Truth in Chains: Assange Arrest a Chilling Sign of Power’s “New Realities”
Posted: 08 Dec 2010 08:41 AM PST
(A version of this article originally appeared at CounterPunch.)
Well, they got him at last. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, the target of several of the world’s most powerful governments, turned himself into British authorities today and is now at the mercy of state authorities who have already shown their wolfish – and lawless – desire to destroy him and his organization.
It has been, by any standard, an extraordinary campaign of vilification and persecution, wholly comparable to the kind of treatment doled out to dissidents in China or Burma. Lest we forget, WikiLeaks is a journalistic outlet – just like The New York Times, the Guardian and Der Spiegel, all of whom are even now publishing the very same material – leaked classified documents — available on WikiLeaks. The website is also a journalistic outlet just like CNN, ABC, CBS, Fox and other mainstream media venues, where we have seen an endless parade of officials – and journalists! – calling for Assange to be prosecuted or killed outright. Every argument being made for shutting down WikiLeaks can – and doubtless will – be used against any journalistic enterprise that publishes material that powerful people do not like.
And the leading role in this persecution of truth-telling is being played by the administration of the great progressive agent of hope and change, the self-proclaimed heir of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, Barack Obama. His attorney general, Eric Holder, is now making fierce noises about the “steps” he has already taken to bring down WikiLeaks and criminalize the leaking of embarrassing information. And listen to the ferocious reaction of that liberal lioness, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who took to the pages of Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal to call for Assange to be put in prison – for 2,500,000 years:
James D. Catlin – When it comes to Assange rape case, the Swedes are making it up as they go along
From crikey:
When it comes to Assange rape case, the Swedes are making it up as they go along
by Melbourne barrister James D. Catlin, who acted for Julian Assange in London in October.
Apparently having consensual sex in Sweden without a condom is punishable by a term of imprisonment of a minimum of two years for rape. That is the basis for a reinstitution of rape charges against WikiLeaks figurehead Julian Assange that is destined to make Sweden and its justice system the laughing stock of the world and dramatically damage its reputation as a model of modernity.
Sweden’s Public Prosecutor’s Office was embarrassed in August this year when it leaked to the media that it was seeking to arrest Assange for rape, then on the same day withdrew the arrest warrant because in its own words there was “no evidence”. The damage to Assange’s reputation is incalculable. More than three quarters of internet references to his name refer to rape. Now, three months on and three prosecutors later, the Swedes seem to be clear on their basis to proceed. Consensual sex that started out with a condom ended up without one, ergo, the sex was not consensual.
For three months Assange had been waiting in vain to hear whether media statements by and for the two female “victims” that there was no fear or violence were going to be embellished so the charges might be carried forward due to greater seriousness. Such statements would stop a rape charge in any Western country dead in its tracks. Rape is a crime of violence, duress or deception. You can rape someone by deluding them into thinking you are someone else or by drugging them or by reason of their young age but essentially it’s a crime of violence.
The women here are near to and over 30 and have international experience, some of it working in Swedish government embassies. There is no suggestion of drugs nor identity concealment. Far from it. Both women boasted of their celebrity connection to Assange after the events that they would now see him destroyed for.
Glenn Beck and his loony-board on Julian Assange’s case
Attorney: Julian Assange Endangered by Bail Denial in London & Illegal Threats of Violence 1 of 2
Julian Assange – Don’t Shoot Messenger for Revealing Uncomfortable Truths
From Information Clearing House:
Don’t Shoot Messenger for Revealing Uncomfortable Truths
By Julian Assange
Every time WikiLeaks publishes the truth about abuses committed by US agencies, Australian politicians chant a provably false chorus with the State Department:
Smearing the Wiki Messenger
Boing Boing – Julian Assange demonstration today in London 1330h Westminster Magistrate’s Court
From Boing Boing:
Julian Assange demonstration today in London 1330h Westminster Magistrate’s Court
Posted: 07 Dec 2010 04:05 AM PST
A group calling itself “Justice for Assange” has called for a public protest at the Westminster Magistrate’s Court in London at 1330h, in time for Julian Assange’s hearing on the Swedish arrest warrant that may see him extradited.
PROTEST Today Westminster Magistrate’s Court meet 13:30
- Swedish prosecutors issue, then cancel, arrest warrant for …
- Rape case re-opened in Sweden against Wikileaks founder Assange …
- Wikirapes: Assange cleared in Sweden; Pentagon/CIA “sex trap …
- Sweden seeks international arrest warrant for Wikileaks founder …
- Interpol issues “Red Notice” for arrest of WikiLeaks’ Julian …
- Swiss bank freezes Assange defense fund account as UK arrest …
Firedoglake – Assange Accuser Worked with US-Funded, CIA-Tied Anti-Castro Group
From Firedoglake:
Assange Accuser Worked with US-Funded, CIA-Tied Anti-Castro Group
By: Kirk James Murphy, M.D. Saturday December 4, 2010 9:20 pm
Yesterday Alexander Cockburn reminded us of the news Israel Shamir and Paul Bennett broke at Counterpunch in September. Julian Assange’s chief accuser in Sweden has a significant history of work with anti-Castro groups, at least one of which is US funded and openly supported by a former CIA agent convicted in the mass murder of seventy three Cubans on an airliner he was involved in blowing up.
Is WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange A Hero? Glenn Greenwald vs Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News
Paul Craig Roberts – A Government Caught Up in Mendacity and Lies
From Information Clearing House:
A Government Caught Up in Mendacity and Lies
By Paul Craig Roberts
The reaction to WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange tells us all we need to know about the total corruption of our “modern” world, which in fact is a throwback to the Dark Ages.
Some member of the United States government released to WikiLeaks the documents that are now controversial. The documents are controversial, because they are official US documents and show all too clearly that the US government is a duplicitous entity whose raison d’etre is to control every other government.
The media, not merely in the US but also throughout the English speaking world and Europe, has shown its hostility to WikiLeaks. The reason is obvious. WikiLeaks reveals truth, while the media covers up for the US government and its puppet states.
Why would anyone with a lick of sense read the media when they can read original material from WikiLeaks? The average American reporter and editor must be very angry that his/her own cowardice is so clearly exposed by Julian Assange. The American media is a whore, whereas the courageous blood of warriors runs through WikiLeaks’ veins.
Just as American politicians want Bradley Manning executed because he revealed crimes of the US government, they want Julian Assange executed. In the past few days the more notorious of the dumbshits that sit in the US Congress have denounced Assange as a “traitor to America.” What total ignorance. Assange is an Australian, not an American citizen. To be a traitor to America, one has to be of the nationality. An Australian cannot be a traitor to America any more than an American can be a traitor to Australia. But don’t expect the morons who represent the lobbyists to know this much.
Mike Huckabee, the redneck baptist preacher who was governor of Arkansas and, to America’s already overwhelming shame, was third runner up to the Republican presidential nomination, has called for Assange’s execution. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/01/us-embassy-cables-executed-mike-huckabee So here we have a “man of God” calling for the US government to murder an Australian citizen. And Americans wonder why the rest of the world hates their guts.
The material leaked from the US government to WikiLeaks shows that the US government is an extremely disreputable gang of gangsters. The US government was able to get British prime minister Brown to “fix” the official Chilcot Investigation into how former prime minister Tony Blair manipulated and lied the British government into being mercenaries for the US invasion of Iraq. One of the “diplomatic” cables released has UK Defense Ministry official Jon Day promising the United States government that prime minister Brown’s government has “put measures in place to protect your interests.”
Other cables show the US government threatening Spanish prime minister Zapatero, ordering him to stop his criticisms of the Iraq war or else. I mean, really, how dare these foreign governments to think that they are sovereign.
Not only foreign governments are under the US thumb. So is Amazon.com. Joe Lieberman from Connecticut, who is Israel’s most influential senator in the US Senate, delivered sufficiently credible threats to Amazon to cause the company to oust WikiLeaks content from their hosting service. http://news.antiwar.com/2010/12/01/facing-lieberman-boycott-amazon-ousts-wikileaks/
So there you have it. On the one hand the US government and the prostitute American media declare that there is nothing new in the hundreds of thousands of documents, yet on the other hand both pull out all stops to shut down WikiLeaks and its founder. Obviously, despite the US government’s denials, the documents are extremely damaging. The documents show that the US government is not what it pretends to be.
Assange is in hiding. He fears CIA and Mossad assassination, and to add to his troubles the government of Sweden has changed its mind, perhaps as a result of American persuasion and money, about sex charges that the Swedish government had previously dismissed for lack of credibility. If reports are correct, two women, who possibly could be CIA or Mossad assets, have brought sex charges against Assange. One claims that she was having consensual sexual intercourse with him, but that he didn’t stop when she asked him to when the condom broke.
Think about this for a minute. Other than male porn stars who are bored with it all, how many men can stop at the point of orgasm or when approaching orgasm? How does anyone know where Assange was in the process of the sex act?
Would a real government that had any integrity and commitment to truth try to blacken the name of the prime truth teller of our time on the basis of such flimsy charges?
Obviously, Sweden has become another two-bit punk puppet government of the US.
The US government has got away with telling lies for so long that it no longer hesitates to lie in the most blatant way. WikiLeaks released a US classified document signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that explicitly orders US diplomats to spy on UN Security council officials and on the Secretary General of the United Nations. The cable is now in the public record. No one challenges its authenticity. Yet, today the Obama regime, precisely White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, declared that Hillary had never ordered or even asked US officials to spy on UN officials.
As Antiwar.com asked: Who do you believe, the printed word with Hillary’s signature or the White House?
Anyone who believes the US government about anything is the epitome of gullibility.
Attorney Confirms WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange in Britain, Responds to U.S. Attacks
Justin Elliott – Julian Assange and the sex crime Trojan horse
From the War Room:
Julian Assange and the sex crime Trojan horse
AP/Martial Trezzini
Julian AssangeSwedish prosecutors today ramped up their pursuit of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange by authorizing Interpol to issue a so-called Red Notice, which asks foreign governments to arrest and extradite Assange to Sweden.
The prosecutors say he is wanted for questioning about accusations of sex crimes made against him by two women; he has not been charged with a crime. But the real peril here for Assange — whose whereabouts are unknown — is that if he ends up in the hands of Swedish authorities, the chances that he will be extradited to the United States rise significantly.
(Journalist Mark Leon Goldberg has a good explanation of what a Red Notice actually is. Assange is not on a “most wanted” list, as some headlines have put it.)
Related…
WikiLeaks reveals more than just government secrets
Wikipedia/AP/Salon
Clockwise from lower left: Jonah Goldberg, Wolf Blitzer, Julian Assange, Bill Keller and Sarah Palin(updated below – Update II)
The WikiLeaks disclosure has revealed not only numerous government secrets, but also the driving mentality of major factions in our political and media class. Simply put, there are few countries in the world with citizenries and especially media outlets more devoted to serving, protecting and venerating government authorities than the U.S. Indeed, I don’t quite recall any entity producing as much bipartisan contempt across the American political spectrum as WikiLeaks has: as usual, for authoritarian minds, those who expose secrets are far more hated than those in power who commit heinous acts using secrecy as their principal weapon.
Democracy Now! – WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange on Iraq War Logs, “Tabloid Journalism” and Why WikiLeaks Is “Under Siege”
From Democracy Now!:
In an extended interview, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange discusses the release of nearly 400,000 classified US military records on the war in Iraq, the biggest intelligence leak in US history. The disclosure provides a trove of new evidence on the number of civilian casualties, violence, torture and suffering that has befallen Iraq since the 2003 US-led invasion. While the Obama administration is defending the US military’s record in Iraq, the allegations in the documents have sparked worldwide condemnation. Assange also confirmed that threats by the Pentagon would not stop WikiLeaks from releasing additional military documents related to the war in Afghanistan. [includes rush transcript]
From ThisBoyTV | October 26, 2010
Related…
From The Progress Report:
WikiLeaks’ Releases Iraq War Logs
On Friday, the international organization WikiLeaks released The Iraq War Logs, a “huge trove of secret field reports” — 391,832 documents in all — from the U.S. military in Iraq. The archive is the second such cache obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to news organizations. The first, released in July, was a trove of 77,000 reports covering six years of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. National Security Network’s Heather Hurlburt described the reports as “add[ing] a numbing amount of new, awful detail to what we already knew about the Iraq war.” The documents suggest that violence was reduced from 2007 “not only because the American military committed to more troops and a new strategy, but because Iraqis themselves, exhausted by years of bloody war, were ready for it.” According to the New York Times, the deaths of Iraqi civilians also “appear to be greater than the numbers made public by the United States during the Bush administration.”
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