British Government Continues to Threaten Ecuador over offering Sanctuary to Julian Assange

by Solidarity Mon Oct 01, 2012 12:35

'It's like living in a space station': Julian Assange speaks out about living in a one-room embassy refuge with a mattress on the floor and a blue lamp to mimic daylight
By Sarah Oliver

PUBLISHED: 22:03, 29 September 2012, Daily Mail

The court in exile of Julian Assange – cyber terrorist, or the world’s greatest freedom fighter, depending on your world view – is a curiously muted place. The acolytes who pledged to maintain a protective vigil outside the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he has been encamped since June, are long gone. So, too, is the 50-strong squad of officers who policed his first few hours within the red-brick mansion block where the embassy is housed.

There’s now a policeman on the steps outside, and one by the lift in the communal foyer in case he makes a run for a rooftop helicopter. Another stands on an exterior stairwell with an unrestricted view of the clumsily made single bed on which Assange snatches sleep.

But 100 days after he sought political asylum here, the thrilling siege-cum-circus surrounding the WikiLeaks editor-in-chief’s bid to avoid extradition from the UK to Sweden has gone very quiet indeed.

Article continued......
http://tinyurl.com/9knaaef

SOLIDARITY
“You really need to be here” – solidarity with Julian Assange and Bradley Manning

l
Ciaron O’Reilly speaks about Bradley Manning, Julian Assange, detention, torture, over 20 years of war on Iraq and the need for those who marched in 2003 to show their solidarity.
VID (1 min 30 secs) http://wp.me/p1rtyw-Wq

*** The vigil outside the Ecuadorian Embassy/ London continues daily, currently running from 3pm-6pm, or whenever you can get there.
Take the Harrods exit from the Knightsbridge tube

by U.N. Speech (15 mins) Fri Sep 28, 2012 12:04

VID (15 mins) Julian Assange speaks truth to power at the U.N.
Sept. 26th. 2012

http://wp.me/p1rtyw-VD

by Contrarian Fri Sep 14, 2012 14:15

Hello Dick!

Quite sure of yourself aren't you? Do you even know what corporatism means? Cos I've certainly never advocated it, defended it or excused it here or elsewhere.

Zionist? Yes, and proudly so. Modern Zionism, simply meaning I believe Israel has a right to exist in peace and security, as a Jewish state, within its own (yet to be agreed with its Arab neighbours) borders. As per international law, League of Nations mandate, UN mandate, UNSCOP plan and UN Resolution 181. Anything objectionable there? In fact that's pretty much the definition of the outcome of the "two-state model" something that seems acceptable to the PA, the Arab League, (Are they all Zionists too in your book?) and pretty much the rest of the world. Except Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and, it would appear, most Indymedians.

Imperialism. No. Don't support that. Zionism as defined above is not an expansionist or imperialist policy. Nor is the US the great imperialist Satan it is often so simplistically portrayed as here. Not perfect either admittedly though, as I have pointed out more than once. But imperialism as practised in the last century by the Nazi and Soviet empires, no way, I don't support that. Nor do I support the Arab imperialism that wants every square inch of the middle east for itself and would deny Israel the fraction of 1% of the ME on which it exists.

Globalism, then? It's definitional. I regard it as more a de facto description of a process that's underway (in one form or another for several centuries now) of increased international links and co-operation through trade, communications, internet, cultural exchange etc., than a world view. It exists as an organic force and will do so whether we're in favour of it or not. Excusing it (which you accuse me of doing) is about as logical as excusing the alignment of the planets. Globalism just is. Unless you want every state to withdraw into complete isolationism of course? I thought not.

As for "...fucking over poor brown people for the benefit of rich white people" W(here)TF do I even start? I suppose I could point out that Israelis are about as "brown" on average as their Arab neighbours. Some (Jewish) Israelis are "black"; some are "yellow"; some are "white"; some are "brown" - whetever relevance those designation signify, if anything at all. Personally I am colour blind when it comes to people - I make my judgements and take sides according to behaviour rather than "colour." Not sure where you stand, though, Dick? How do you slot President Obama into your "poor brown" / "rich white" dichotomy? As somebody who goes pink in winter and brown in summer, I'm not even sure where I fit on your colour spectrum. Anyways, apart from albino folks are there any white people at all? Or do you simply use "white" as a lazy shorthand code for western democratic values such as free and open elections, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion, separation of powers, rule of law, independent judiciary. You know, the sort of stuff you get in countries like Israel.

And how quick you are to dismiss me as a ".... troll, whose apparent worldview on this site is not real." Is my worldview not "real" cos YOU do not agree with it? Can you not contemplate that other human beings sincerely hold views different to your own? Or do you doubt the sincerity of my beliefs? And if so, why? On what basis apart from your own seeming inability to accept different views to your own. Do enlighten us, Dick. And if you disagree with me, by all means post a reasoned critique of what I write and I will attempt to debate with you. But lazy and inaccurate name-calling doesn't really impress.

by dickwatch Thu Sep 13, 2012 22:10

"I thought it would go some way towards de-puzzling Contrarian . "

good luck with that Joe! Contarian is a well known zionist troll, whose apparent worldview on this site is not real. It's just a persona which serves the purpose on this site of excusing zionism, corporatism, imperialism, globalism, and any other isms that involve fucking over poor brown people for the benefit of rich white people .

by from Michael Ratner Thu Sep 13, 2012 21:13

Pressure Put on Manning to Implicate Assange

VID (8 mins) Michael Ratner: As Wikileaks Founder Nears 100 Days in Ecuadorian Embassy Sweden's refusal to interview Assange in London suggests they are working with US towards extradition

http://tinyurl.com/97gs6vo

by Worth watching Sun Sep 09, 2012 17:26

AUSTRALIA (APPROX 50 mins)- ABC TV "4 CORNERS" - Sex, Lies and Julian Assange"
Broadcast nationally July 23rd. 2012

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2012/07/19/35492...0.htm

by JoeMc Sun Sep 09, 2012 12:01

"Puzzled?
by Contrarian Sat Aug 18, 2012 12:32
"One thing I don't get about the whole Assange business. Assange says he doesn't want to be extradited from the UK to Sweden because he's afraid that Sweden will subsequently extradite him to the US. Fair enough, I can understand why he mightn't like that. And he says (with at least some basis for the belief) the rape allegations are part of that process. Ok, that much I get and the rape thing does indeed look a bit iffy. BUT, the UK is surely a far closer ally of the US than Sweden is. (I think both those who support and those who are agianst the alliance would agree on that!)

So, if Assange was in Sweden and was resisting extradition to the UK because he subsequently feared they might extradite him to the US, yes, I could understand that. But the other way round? Doesn't make sense to me. ......"

.........................................
I thought that it was a good point at the time , so when I saw what Ciaron O'Reilly had written , I thought it would go some way towards de-puzzling Contrarian .

by Sweden rendition Sun Sep 09, 2012 09:04

Swedes rendered persons to Egypt for torture in the last 10 years.
http://www.hrw.org/news/2006/11/09/sweden-violated-tort...ition

by Contrarian Sat Sep 08, 2012 23:03

Or maybe the Examiner didn't include that bit because it is complete nonsense. Sweden, like just about all EU nations, will not extradite a suspect who is facing a potential death penalty. According to RT (which apparently is rated very highly by Indymedians for its accuracy and independence) a Swedish Justice Department spokesperson stated: “We will never surrender a person to the death penalty,” Source: http://rt.com/news/sweden-us-assange-extradition-209/

If this is wrong, no doubt someone will supply an example of a case where Sweden did extradite a suspect to face a death penalty.

by JoeMcIvor Sat Sep 08, 2012 18:12

The Examiner didn't , for some reason , plagiarize the following quote from the ABC link.

"Mr O'Reilly said Mr Assange had not been extradited to the US from England because the penalties were not harsh enough.
"The English won't extradite for death penalty offences and the Swedes will," he said.
"So if he went from England they couldn't execute him."'

by Examiner palgerism Sat Sep 08, 2012 11:02

Quote from examiner:
"Chequered past of Assange’s Irish bodyguard
By Noel Baker, irish Examiner, Thursday, September 06, 2012
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s unofficial bodyguard previously worked in Dublin wet hostels and was cleared in the Four Courts for damaging a US warplane at Shannon in Feb 2003.
Ciaron O’Reilly, an Irish Australian born in Brisbane but now living in London, spent some of the past decade in Dublin but now works with Assange as the latter fights extradition.
Assange is wanted in Sweden to face rape charges. He took refuge at the Ecuadorian embassy in London and says if he were extradited to Sweden he would then be extradited to the US over the disclosure of US cables.
Mr O’Reilly said he had become one of two bodyguards for Assange because "he didn’t have too many people to choose from".
"He obviously trusts me... and I’m pretty big," said Mr O’Reilly. He was jailed in the US during the first Gulf War after a protest involving a B-52 plane."

Some Analysis:
The word "bodyguard" is not used in the ABC audio interview, it is employed in the text to hype the article that introduces the interview.

If you listen to the interview, the security role has been played in the past by O'Reilly along with a British Iraq war veteran. It is no longer an ongoing role as the Examiner implies.

"Assange is wanted in Sweden to face rape charges"

Assange is not charged with any offence in any country. The Swedes continue to refuse to interview Julian Assange in Britain. the Ecuadoran government have recently invited the Swedish prosecutors to interview Assange in theie London embassy where he now resides.

What is "chequered" about O'Reilly's past?

He worked with homeless people in Dublin and disabled U.S war planes that were intending to make a lot more people homeless in Iraq.

All but the mainstream media can see Assange is being persecuted for exposing the nature of the U.S. war on Iraq and Afghanistan.

by ABC Wed Sep 05, 2012 11:27

AUDIO (7 mins) ABC interview with anti-war activist Ciaron O'Reilly
regarding solidarity with Julian Assange
http://tinyurl.com/bwos7mt

Ciaron O'Reilly looks more like a middle-aged rockstar than a burly bodyguard under watch by international authorities.

Behind the grey dreadlocks, however, is a man fiercely passionate about pacifism and devoted to the protection of one of the world's most famous activists - Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Mr O'Reilly, originally from Brisbane, is now a Londoner and appointed by Mr Assange as one of two volunteer bodyguards who escort him through hoards of hungry journalists and photographers between court appearances.

"It's a pretty wild press pack and a lot of the photographers want him scared or looking freaked out, so we form a buffer around him to get him to court," said Mr O'Reilly.

"He obviously trusts me... and I'm pretty big.

"We got the gig... I guess he didn't have too many people to choose from."

Mr O'Reilly first met Mr Assange in England and identified with his plight after being jailed himself for anti-war activities.

He was imprisoned for 13 months during the first Gulf War for disarming a B-52 bomber in New York State and upon his return to Australia he disabled uranium mining machinery in the Northern Territory.

ARTICLE CONTINUED & AUDIO INTERVIEW........

http://tinyurl.com/bwos7mt

by from The Nation Tue Sep 04, 2012 09:50

For Julian Assange, Justice Foreclosed
JoAnn Wypijewski August 29, 2012

Every once in a while, a situation arises that so completely captures the spirit of the time—in this case, the horror moving like an amoeba under the surface of our pleasant days, our absurd distractions, our seemingly serious politics—that ordinary assumptions, ordinary arguments and their limited conclusions serve only to obliterate honesty, and so any hope of grappling with the real. Such is the case of Julian Assange now.
ARTICLE CONTINUED.....
http://www.thenation.com/article/169632/julian-assange-...losed

by pat c Sun Sep 02, 2012 13:08

An interesting article. Heres an excerpt:

Since L'Affaire Assange captured world headlines the United States, as well as the United Kingdom, have on several occasions made statements about the deep-seated international obligation of nations to honor extradition requests from other nations. The United States, however, has a history of ignoring such requests, whether made formally or informally, for persons living in the US who are ideological allies. Here's a partial sample from recent years:

>> Former Venezuelan president Carlos Andres Perez, whom the Venezuelan government demanded be turned over to stand trial for his role in suppressing riots in 1989. He died in 2010 in Miami. (Associated Press, December 27, 2010)

>> Former Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada fled to the United States in 2003 to avoid a trial for the death of about 60 people in La Paz during a military crackdown on demonstrators. In 2008, Bolivia formally served the US government with a request to extradite him back to Bolivia, which was not acceded to. (Associated Press, February 13, 2006; also see his Wikipedia entry)

>> In 2010, a US federal judge denied Argentina's extradition request for former military officer Roberto Bravo, who was facing 16 murder charges stemming from a 1972 massacre of leftist guerrillas in his homeland. (Associated Press, November 2, 2010)

>> Luis Posada, a Cuban-born citizen of Venezuela, masterminded the bombing of a Cuban airline in 1976, killing 73 civilians. Inasmuch as part of the plotting took place in Venezuela, that government formally asked the United States for his extradition in 2005. But instead of extraditing him, the United States prosecuted him for minor immigration infractions that came to naught. Posada continues to live as a free man in the United States.

>> In 2007 German prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 13 suspected CIA operatives who had abducted German citizen Khaled el-Masri in 2003 and flown him to Afghanistan for interrogation (read torture). The CIA then realized they had kidnapped the wrong man and dumped el-Masri on the side of an Albanian road. Subsequently, the German Justice Minster announced that she would no longer request extradition, citing US refusal to arrest or hand over the agents. (The Guardian (London), January 7, 2011)

>> In November 2009 an Italian judge convicted a CIA Station Chief and 22 other Americans, all but one being CIA operatives, for kidnapping a Muslim cleric, Abu Omar, from the streets of Milan in 2003 and flying him to Egypt for the usual interrogation. All those convicted had left Italy by the time of the judge's ruling and were thus tried in absentia. In Italy they are considered fugitives. Although there were verdicts, arrest warrants and extradition requests in the case, the Italian government refused to formally forward the requests to their close allies, the Americans; which, in any event, would of course have been futile. (Der Spiegel [Germany] online, December 17, 2010, based on a Wikileaks US cable)
http://www.countercurrents.org/blum010912.htm

by from Fats Parameter Sun Sep 02, 2012 08:11

ASSANGE/ MANNING SOLIDARITY UPDATE - a song for Julian, Julian could be in embassy for a year,
Feb 4th. court martial date for Bradley Manning

Brisbane's "Pig City" Fats Parameter with a shout out solidarity song for Julian Assange
"Curiousity Killed the Cat!"
http://youtu.be/LEL_EEiu8K0

Fats earlier work back in the 1980's Joh Bjelke Petersen Queensland punk rock hay day.
the iconic
"Pig City"
http://tinyurl.com/9pse8kh

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could remain holed up insideEcuador's embassy in London for a year, he has predicted.
http://tinyurl.com/8urg55u

Bradley Manning court martial trial date set for Feb. 4th. 2012
http://tinyurl.com/9qz85k3