Assange calls for help from … Quakers?
Peers out window, appeals for freedom, lectures world
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Julian Assange has revealed himself to the world from the balcony of London's Ecuadorean embassy and made a statement that lays the blame for his predicament on the hypocrisy of the USA.
In the statement Assange calls on the USA to “... return to and reaffirm the values it was founded on” and stop pursuing him lest we find ourselves in “... a dangerous and oppressive world in which journalists fall silent under the fear of prosecution and citizens must whisper in the dark?”
Assange did not specify just which values he wants the USA to revert to, so it's not clear if he's referring to taxation without representation and a right to trial by jury mentioned in the USA's Declaration of Independence, or the desire for freedom of religious expression that was such an important reason for British Dissenters to establish colonies in North America. And let's not forget the slavery.
We suspect his appeal is for the USA to respect his right to freedom of speech and the principle of freedom of the press … which of course were only floated in 1789, more than a year after the nation's founding. Both were signed off as an American value with the advent of the First Amendment in 1791, three years after the USA summoned itself into existence.
Assange also made numerous calls for justice for whistle-blowers, calling for “absolute unity and determination in the response” to those who would oppose freedom of speech.
In a speech that only mentioned Sweden in passing and thanked Ecuador for justly throwing him a lifeline, Assange called on President Obama to stop the FBI investigation into WikiLeaks and “renounce its witch-hunt” against the organisation. ®
COMMENTS
Re: I always thought the values America was founded on
"was smacking the Brits upside the head"
...What with the help of France, Spain, and the Netherlands you mean?
Amazes me how there's this fallacy about a few American backwoodsmen with squirl rifles fighting off the British Army and Navy, Google the battle of Yorktown and then tell me who supplied the manpower and the navy that defeated the British.
Always strikes me as ungrateful the yanks forget about this when they come up with crap like "Freedom fries" or calling the French cowardly, likelihood was at that time they wouldn't have had self determination in the first place without the help of the French
Re: I always thought the values America was founded on
Their values have always been self interest.
Re: Too much willy-waving all around
Sorry to burst your bubble....
1. The Swedish legal system is different than the UK. He is expected to be interviewed and charged. He ran away when they served notice that they wished to interview him. If you ran away from a police interview you would expect that the police would come arrest you. The EAW does just that and it has been proved to be valid to the highest court in the land.
2. & 3. How can country make a binding statement that he won't be extradited until such a request comes along? Saying you will never extradite is giving him free hand to break every US law there is. If you are worried that he might face cruel or unusual punishment, or even the death penalty for crimes as yet unspecified, the ECHR gives him a cast-iron guarantee and protection. Even more so if he is in Sweden
4. It's not violating international law if the Ecuadorian Mission no longer has diplomatic status. Under English law, we can rescind diplomatic status after 7 days notice and the Vienna Convention no longer would apply.
5. The US Grand Jury is anything but secret. It's a public hearing constituting a jury of citizens that determines if there is a case to be answered. If the Grand Jury decides there is no case, the accused person does not face trail on any charges. If the Grand Jury determines there is a case to answer, the accused proceeds to be indicted and faces a full trial to determine his guilt or innocence. So the Grand Jury system is a trip wire used to prevent malicious or state sponsored accusations against individuals.
Do you not see the irony that he has chosen to seek refuge in the Ecuadorian Mission? Ecuador does not exactly encourage freedom of speech of it's citizens or people: http://www.hrw.org/americas/ecuador
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider
Data control in the cloud
Cloud based data management
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
