Julian Assange. That’s a name you’ve probably heard and read of over the last two weeks on the TV, Radio and on the net. You’ve maybe heard of it more if you’re a keen media watcher or techie. Maybe this name’s been over shadowed by bigger news recently like the tuition fees protests. So let me enlighten you…
Julian Assange is currently locked up in a cell in Wandsworth Prison awaiting extradition to Sweden where he’s wanted in connection with two alleged rapes. These rape allegations are completely fabricated against Assange. Read the link I posted as it’s important to this blog. Read that account and tell me Julian Assange is guilty of rape. The only thing he’s guilty of is being a typical male and getting his end away – something the feminist he slept with didn’t like. If Assange slept with those two women in the UK then he wouldn’t be in trouble right now, it’s the complexity of the Swedish sex crime system that allows for these two women to take advantage of and to make Assange’s life difficult.
Whether these Women were doing this for revenge, to get famous, milk money out it or are actively working for some U.S. or Swedish security service, I don’t know. But what I do know is the U.S. will take full advantage of Assange being in Sweden where they will try to extradite him, if the rape case fails, for espionage, which is just pure and utter rubbish as Assange didn’t spy in the U.S. nor did he ask for any of the documents he posted on his Website. They were given to Him.
The Website I’m talking about is Wikileaks, a site that was created by a collection of many different types of Activists, of which Mr. Assange is one. The idea behind Wikileaks is to provide a secure way to submit documents anonymously that need to be in the public domain for the health of our democracy, freedoms and for political transparency. You can visit the main Wikileaks site here. From there you can navigate to everything they’ve ever posted.
Since its inception Wikileaks has released many Documents that Western Government’s, especially the U.S., has found embarrassing and damaging. The U.S. has since tried to paint the website and Assange as reckless for the release of the documents, and also called it dangerous and life threatening to Coalition troops and operatives on the ground in Afghanistan and elsewhere. However, Assange asked the Pentagon to help Him filter the info, an offer they declined. So Assange and the few large media Organisations he works with omitted certain pieces of information to stop people being harmed. (A move I’m not too happy about, especially as the media orgs he chose were questionable) To this date the U.S. can not name or has found one person that has been harmed from the release of any of the documents. Furthermore the Pentagon then said in October 2010 the leaks: “did not disclose any sensitive intelligence sources or methods“, and that “there has not been a single case of Afghans needing protection or to be moved because of the leak.”
However, just because no one so far has not been killed or harmed because of the Leaks doesn’t mean someone wont in the future. I read a few of these files and I think Wikileaks and Assange need to edit these names and locations a little better to protect any operatives or soldiers who could be identified/found. But still, it’s possible people will be harmed at some point because of future leaks, and I personally think it’s worth it, if that’s the price of a free media, a healthy democracy and transparent political system that holds Politicians to account.
The United States is currently trying to build a case against Assange and his website Wikileaks, wanting to prosecute him under The 1917 U.S. Espionage Act, an act which supposedly doesn’t cover non-American citizens. However, back in 1983 an East German scientists ‘Alfred Zehe’ was arrested for receiving classified U.S. documents and was charged under the act. His defence tried say his indictment under the act was invalid as he’s not an American citizen – he didn’t succeed. He pleaded guilty and received eight years for spying, he was later let free in a spy swap.
I’m not sure if Zehe would’ve beat the charge with the espionage act if he’d fought longer. The thing here is, could it happen to Assange if he wins his rape trial in Sweden? I’m sure the U.S. is applying the pressure on Sweden to take advantage of the sex laws there and try and get Assange locked up for a few years. If they fail then the U.S. can use the espionage act, if they prosecuted one foreigner under the act then they would likely use it on Assange.
Which brings me to why it matters to you if Julian Assange goes to Prison and they try or mange to close Wikileaks down.
In the world of today how many media sources are unbiased? How many TV News channels would run a story if the Government said not to? How many News Papers would do the same? The answer is none! A recent example of this is the Gag order placed on The Gurdian News Paper by the Oil/Energy Company Trafigura in 2009 when the Gurdian exposed the Company was Dumping Toxic Waste In West Africa. That’s just one example, and Common Sense prevailed that time because the super gag order was brought up in Parliament. What happens when it’s the Government trying to keep things secret? Who do we turn to publish sensitive documents that we have the right to know about and expose Politicians and their dealings? We know the media wont if they’re told not to, especially if they place a Super Gag Order on the media. Makes you wonder how many other things have been suppressed in the interest of “National Security”?
Wikileaks and Assange are currently the only group and organisation who will actively stand up and do something for freedom of the press, freedom of information and freedom of speech, all which result in a more informed electorate and a Government that’s more accountable and transparent. That is the biggest problem these days in UK and Western politics, there’s no accountability for the politicians. Not only them but there’s also Business leaders, Financial leaders, Religious leaders, people in local Government and more. You can think of Wikileaks as a anonymous omplaints or protest box, whenever anyone comes across corruption that wont be taken on by the main stream media because it’s too sensitive to touch, then this complaints Box will put it out there in it’s entirety so it’s available not just to everyone with a net connection but for the media too, who no longer has a Gag order on it or threats from Government if they publish it, because it’s already been published.
No other organisation in the world today is doing what Wikileaks is doing, there’s no one out there who is a direct threat to the Political and Financial establishments. No one dares to, and you know why? Because they fear for their lives, family, business, reputation and freedom! Ask yourself, is that something what a person in a supposedly free country should fear? This is the West, the side that fought Fascism, Nazism and Communism, we were supposed to be the free world! Why are we living in fear of our own Governments and the law? Why is the U.S. threatening to lock Assange up and closing Wikileaks for practicing their inalienable rights? Why lock him up for what the U.S. and the West fought for in World War Two and fought against during the Cold War? Aren’t our freedoms what we define ourselves with and pride ourselves on? Are we not urged to practice them? If this is the case then why has the U.S. and the West come out denouncing Wikileaks and Assange with rubbish and accusations?
The answer is the West has been faltering since before the Cold War ended. During the Cold War the West had to be seen to be the opposite of the Soviet Union and other far left Nations, to keep its reputation as the ‘Free World’. So the West was kept on Its toes. However, the reality below that facade was double dealings, scandals and propping up of dictators who murdered their own people. In short, the West has lost Its way – if it truly had one in the first place and really did and does embody what it stands for – and Wikileaks is the antidote to that! With Wikileaks out there we have the opportunity to make the West truly stand for what it says it does and to truly make our Politicians work for us, the people, instead of business, private, foreign and their own interests.
The countries with Democratic systems, the one’s who claim to be ‘enlightened’ and free, are slipping more and more in to totalitarianist mindsets and actively cracking down or freedoms, the ones they profess to love and support. They do this because they know they’re not being held to account and that any other party or group working its way up offering change to that system they’ll stop in its tracks, infiltrate it or buy it off. You can see this across the Westernised world with falling voter numbers and increased apathy and utter disillusionment with the Political system. The UK had over a decade of Labour and they’re back at the point they were post 1988! The U.S. is the same and we’ve just picked up the tab for the bad financial and business practices of some multi-millionaires. They don’t really have the right to call their countries free, they should be ‘Semi-Free’ countries, shadows of the true Democracies they’re supposed to be.
Beware of fakes! Even now one of the people that used to work on Wikileaks has set up his own site called OpenLeaks. This site is a compromise to Governments demands, instead of posting everything they’ve been given, bar a few names and locations, they will let anyone post documents to them in a secure way and leave a message of which Media Org they want to use break the story. Assange already did that but also let the people see the unedited files. OpenLeaks will let other media organisations carry the burden of responsibility when they post it. In this way the media will be subject to gagging orders and Government pressure. Which to me is a cop-out, and puts us back at square one again. Read here for a low-down on what OpenLeaks plan to do: Link
If Wikileaks is closed down and Assange is locked up, the last chance in maybe the next twenty to thirty years to make our Governments accountable and allow freedom of information and of the Media will be gone! The Government and the Internet firms are already cracking down on Net freedom and Net Neutrality, they want to squeeze as much money out of it as possible as well as much freedom as possible. Basically they want to make it like radio and TV, subject to their whims and laws. Anything they don’t like, they can make it disappear. Getting rid of Child Pornography would be a good thing for them to work on, but don’t ever believe that blanket block listing of the net and no neutrality is the best way to get rid of Child Porn, as it is not. If anything it just lets them know they’ve been found out and they easily move on and create a new site. As this Article on Access Blocking shows. In situations like that you can easily delete the site straight away or get to the server and the people running it to solve the problem.
Other than being a typical bloke who wants to get his end away, something Assange went down in my estimation for, as I thought with a man in his position would’ve been more carefull and beyond that. Assange is guilty of nothing but trying to expose our Political leaders and systems for what they are and trying to bring clarity to it as well championing freedom of information, the media and freedom of speech. To let him go to prison and Wikileaks to be closed will be the beginning of the end for freedom of speech, the media and information, for at least the next two to three decades. Because, if they can do it to Assange, then they can do it to anyone. And our transition from a partial democratic free state will come to an end and we’ll enter a full shadow of a democracy where we only have the illusion of freedom, control and choice.
To help this cause sign the petition that Avaaz has started here. I don’t support every cause Avaaz does, but I support this. Once you’ve signed it send it to your friends and family explaining why it’s important. If you’ve read this post, and if you agree with me then you should enlighten as many people as possible about Wikileaks and Julian Assange. Don’t let the U.S., Government and media paint him as a Villian and terrorist, as many others have done, and even gone as far as to call for him to be executed. Wikileaks and Assange are being attacked from all sides, including having their site taken off servers and their bank accounts frozen. We have to stand up and support Wikileaks and Julian Aassange, they’re our last hope in an ever shrinking world of freedoms and corrupt politics!
