The US is hounding Julian Assange around the world, using diplomatic efforts, the investigative power of the FBI, and covert actions of the CIA by applying pressure to governments and civilians as far away as Australia, South America, Northern Europe and the UK. Uncle Sam staying behind the scenes, but pulling the strings has precipitated a row between some of its closest allies, and other not so friendly nations. Its machinations have caused disturbing and destabilizing diplomatic ripples to surge around the world. All because they want to get their hands on one man---Julian Assange. Why?
The case against this man is of course is all related to the release two years ago (2010) of a treasure trove of revealing and embarrassing (250,000 of them) top-secret US military and diplomatic cables by Assange's Wikileaks internet site. According to Seumas Milne (the Guardian, 8-21-2012) the secret cables "disgorged devastating evidence of US war crimes and collusion with death squads in Iraq on an industrial scale, machinations and lies of America's wars and allies, it's illegal US spying on UN officials--as well as a compendium of official corruption and deceit across the world."
Milne's piece in the Guardian theorizes that the leaks may have provided the fuel for the "Arab Spring" uprisings, and opened to world scrutiny the depth, reach and mis-use of the exercise of US global power. In Washington, it made the establishment tremble in fear at being exposed, and of course opens up a possible source of litigation against individuals for war crimes, and for other legal actions against agencies of the US government.
In Washington, they called Assange's huge, quarter million page document-dump a ”criminal" act. VP Joe Biden called Assage a ”high tech terrorist". Hillary Clinton shrilly and predictably referred to the expose' as an "attack on the whole international community". Some Republican neocons have called for Assange to be hunted down and killed.
The US government likes to project the image of an exemplary, "exceptional", and transparent democracy, but in the wake of recent revelations its image as exemplary has been tarnished and its attack on Assange (to silence him) makes questionable how transparent our government actually is. The Administration seems determined to protect its secret misdeeds and errant behavior by first getting the messenger and silencing him. The second objective is to make an example of this whistleblower so that others and their supporters will be dissuaded by fear and intimidation from emulating his behavior. But as citizens we have other goals. Our right to know is paramount. Did not Thomas Jefferson state that our survival as a "free people" is based on an informed and "educated citizenry". We are bound by those reasons to oppose the objectives of this government in its attempts to silence the messenger. We must face the uncomfortable facts and make restitution where appropriate and change our ways where necessary.
To follow President Jefferson's dictate, here below is what we should know.
Julian Assange (age 41) is an Australian journalist, editor, and publisher and the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Wikileaks the now infamous internet site for whistleblowers and advocate of transparency in government. In 2006 when Assange and several others founded Wikileaks he wrote of his purpose: "To shift behavior (of secretive government regimes) ...."we must discover technological (means) to oppose them. ..."the more secretive or unjust an organization is the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership ....Since unjust (government) systems ...in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of government." (From "Julian Assange", Wikipedia.) Assange's Wikileaks has released to the world more more suppressed information ..than the rest of the entire world press combined. Assange stated that "world journalism is in a disgraceful state" when it publishes stories with little or no "supporting data". Assange advocates "new standards in journalism which would bring it more in line with scientific journals which rely on full and transparent data”.
Since 2006, Wikileaks has released such diverse materials as: evidence of extrajudicial killings in Kenya, toxic waste dumping in the Ivory Coast, the secret procedure-manuals of the Church of Scientology, inhumane treatment of US prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, internal documents on procedures and irregularities in the global banking world, and a now infamous 39 minute video of the July 12, 2007 attack by US Apache helicopters in Baghdad on two Iraqi Reuters journalists, and the civilians (including two children) who attempted to help them. The video has been circulated around the world on the internet entitled "Collateral Murder" by the USA, and ranks right down there in gut-churning disgust and disbelief with the torture pictures of Iraqi detainees in American custody.
According to Australia's ABC "Four Corners" aired on Monday, July 23, 2010, Assange arrived in Sweden in August 2010 as the famous former Australian ex-hacker, editor, journalist and speaker who advocated press freedom and government transparency. According to this investigative report, Assange, "was treated as a conquering hero," in Sweden, but within a very short time, "he was being investigated for rape and sexual molestation." In short order, Assange fled Sweden, and sought refuge in London. Today (August 26, 2012) Assange is holed up in a small office in the London Embassy of Ecuador where the Ecuadorian government has given him asylum, refuge from arrest and protection from deportation to Sweden by Mr. Cameron's Tory government.
Suffice it to say here, that Mr. Assange has not been indicted or charged in Sweden and is wanted only for "questioning" related to allegations by two adult women. The Swedish government has issued a warrant for his arrest on the basis of a "molestation" claim made by one woman who then retracted her charge. The muddled events appear to boil down to this: Upon arrival in Sweden, Assange, at that point an international celebrity, was invited to the home of a female supporter and admirer with whom he briefly cohabited. While a guest (and bed partner) at the first woman's home he met and apparently had consensual sexual relations with a second woman. Recalling the old English proverb, ”Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned.” a dispassionate observer would see the potential pitfalls of such personal actions immediately--but Assange did not. Whether his behavior rises to the level of "criminal” remains to be seen. But charges of "molestation", which appear questionable at best, given the circumstances, were brought by the first woman. She later recanted and attempted to withdraw her statement but by that time the press had run with a very exciting story and her efforts were to no avail.
Assange, an expert in information gathering must have been well aware of the anger of the US related to his release of US diplomatic cables in 2010. Rightly fearing the the hand of the US CIA on the behavior of the compliant Swedish government (which has a fast-track "temporary surrender" extradition agreement with the US) fled that nation for the UK. In London, Assange pursued his case for asylum for several months. But in the end the UK Supreme Court rejected his claims. Realizing that once he was returned to Sweden he would be quickly extradited to US where he could face serious charges such as "global terrorism", ”conspiracy to commit espionage”, ”aiding and abetting the enemy", etc. , etc. he sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy. The Australian ABC Four Corners program also unearthed evidence that the US was working hard to compile personal data which would support their charges, and would be ready to be used to extradite him from Sweden, were he to land there. The ABC Four Corners program also documented the harassment of Assange's family and supporters, and his attorney in Australia, and others across the globe by the FBI and CIA. They document blatant attempts by US agents to get others to give evidence against him.
The fervor and zeal with which both Sweden and the UK have been pursuing Assange is a troubling example of the misuse of US power. It appears that the US machinations were the cause of the diplomatic brouhaha in world centers. When Assange's legal options ran out in London, he sought asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy. He was granted asylum by the Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa. Mr. Cameron's Tory government, over reacted at this juncture, underscoring the evidences of US use of power in the released diplomatic cables by the fervor (embarrassing for its proud citizenry) of that government's obeisance and response to US directives. Though having no dog in this hunt the UK blundered by threatening Ecuador with an official letter stating that the Cameron government could use an obscure 1987 Parliamentary law to lift its diplomatic status, and enter the embassy building to arrest Assange. They also made an undiplomatic show of force by ringing the building with a cordon of police.
Mr.Correa held fast, and publicly destroyed the threatening letter, calling it ”intolerable” and an ”explicit threat”. At a meeting of the Union of South American Nations, which coincided with these events, Ecuador's actions were universally supported by all member nations and the UK behavior termed ”colonialist" and "threatening". The UK it's hair trimmed by the events, backed down and has now made renewed attempts to seek a "diplomatic solution”.
The solutions proposed earlier by Ecuador and rejected by both Sweden and the UK were sensible and appropriate. Swedish authorities were offered by Ecuador the option of receiving Mr.Assange for questioning with the proviso that he would not be extradited to a third country (the US), but they refused. They were also offered to question Mr Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy, they refused that too. It is obvious that the hand of Uncle Sam is behind much of this. No doubt the US has put pressure on Sweden, a regular patsy for the US, while the British are known to be the wagging tail of the US government and do what they are told to do.
For the rest of the world, and for free citizens everywhere we should be grateful to Assange and others like him who I hope will continue to keep the feet of those in power everywhere to the hot coals, to expose their lies, and misdeeds. It is only through transparency in government and the truth that we can fully achieve those high ideals we incorporate in our Constitution and in the dreams of our founders.
Get the picture?
rjk
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