Hi Simon & all, The arrest of Assange is of course a political manoeuvre, orchestrated for and by the corrupt American Administration. The United Kingdom once again enacts its (own corrupt procedures) of extraditing civilians for America's own Neoliberalist agendas. Assange's arrest yesterday was described by the US Defence Secretary Robert Gates as "good news", and they aim to claim poossesion of him through extradition to America for a lengthy jail sentence.
"Every one of us owes a debt to Julian Assange. Thanks to him, we now know that our governments are pursuing policies that place you and your family in considerably greater danger. Wikileaks has informed us they have secretly launched war on yet another Muslim country, sanctioned torture, kidnapped innocent people from the streets of free countries and intimidated the police into hushing it up, and covered up the killing of 15,000 civilians – five times the number killed on 9/11. Each one of these acts has increased the number of jihadis. We can only change these policies if we know about them – and Assange has given us the black-and-white proof." Johann Hari. Independent - http://tinyurl.com/238elyq I have have been discovering various insights on matter through searches relating to wikileaks on the Internet. Some of these findings are so extraordinary, it's hard to believe they are real. For instance, an even deeper complexity unfolds when one reads the progressive, political blog Firedoglake. On the blog Kirk James Murphy, M.D wrote "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." http://tinyurl.com/39qn7b4 In the same article we read an account from Barrister Caitlin "I’ve spent much of my professional life as a psychiatrist helping women (and men) who are survivors of sexual violence. Rape is a hideous crime. Yet in Assange’s case his alleged victim - the gender equity officer at Uppsala University - chose to throw a party for her alleged assailant - after they’d had the sex that even Swedish prosecutors concede was consensual." In the comments section, a blogger called TuffsNotEnuff refers to an article in the guardian published Dec 5th http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/05/julian-assange-lawyers-being-watched Lawyers representing the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, say that they have been surveilled by members of the security services and have accused the US state department of behaving “inappropriately” by failing to respect attorney-client protocol. Jennifer Robinson and Mark Stephens of the law firm Finers Stephens Innocent told the Guardian they had been watched by people parked outside their houses for the past week. “I’ve noticed people consistently sitting outside my house in the same cars with newspapers,” said Robinson. “I probably noticed certain things a week ago, but mostly it’s been the last three or four days.” Stephens said he, too, had had his home watched. Asked who he thought was monitoring him, he said: “The security services.” Robinson said the legal team was also experiencing “other forms of pressure” from Washington. She pointed to a letter from a state department legal adviser – addressed to both Assange and her – which appeared to bracket together client and lawyer as if to suggest that WikiLeaks and its lawyers were one and the same. I could go on but do not want to depress anyone even more... wishing all well. marc > Rudd thinks Assange did nothing wrong > > Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd says the United States, not WikiLeaks founder > Julian Assange, is to blame for the release of secret diplomatic cables. > > Mr Rudd says the 39-year-old Australian cannot be held personally > responsible for the release of more than 250,000 documents. > > He says the leaks raise questions about the adequacy of US security. > > "Mr Assange is not himself responsible for the unauthorised release of > 250,000 documents from the US diplomatic communications network," said Mr > Rudd, who has been criticised in one leaked cable as a "control freak". > > "The Americans are responsible for that." > > Mr Rudd appears to be in agreement with former prime minister John Howard, > who earlier today said Mr Assange had not done anything wrong by publishing > cables that contained "frank commentary". > > "Any journalist will publish confidential information if he or she gets hold > of it, subject only to compelling national security interests," Mr Howard > said. > > "The issue is whether any of this material and the publication of it will > endanger people's lives or endanger individual countries. > > "The bad people in this little exercise are the people who gave the > information to him, because they're the people who breached the trust. > > "They deserve to be chased and prosecuted." > > Some US politicians are looking for ways to indict Mr Assange over the > breach of security. > > Mr Assange is in custody in Britain facing extradition to Sweden in relation > to sexual assault allegations, but authorities in both countries insist his > detention has nothing to do with the recent release of the secret cables. > > Mr Assange, who denies the allegations, will remain behind bars until an > extradition hearing on December 14. > > The original source of the leaks is not known, though a US army private who > worked as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, Bradley Manning, has been charged > by military authorities with unauthorised downloading of more than 150,000 > State Department cables. > > US officials have declined to say whether those cables are those now being > released by WikiLeaks. > > Simon Biggs > [email protected] [email protected] > Skype: simonbiggsuk > http://www.littlepig.org.uk/ > > Research Professor edinburgh college of art > http://www.eca.ac.uk/ > Creative Interdisciplinary Research in CoLlaborative Environments > http://www.eca.ac.uk/circle/ > Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice > http://www.elmcip.net/ > Centre for Film, Performance and Media Arts > http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/film-performance-media-arts > > > > Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland, number > SC009201 > > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
