[governance] Tangential (On Exceptionalism Wikileaks) America's vassal acts decisively and illegally

[Carlos A. Afonso]

Leaving aside Adam's worry about which issues should be discussed here
(and I think this is theme is directly related to Internet governance,
as the network made viable the massive spread of info of which Wikileaks
was the prime messenger, and this is part of freedom of expression and
access to information over the net which is central to our rights-based
debate), and as an asylum seeker in 1973 in Chile when I had, with my
family, to seek refuge in the Panamanian embassy to escape Pinochet's US
driven coup: I have to say that the blood-thirsty general adhered to the
UN principles and let us out of Chile with full protection of its
military from the Panamanian embassy to the airport.

The Uk nowadays is not even capable of doing this in the Assange case,
who has not been charged, whose supposed "sex violations" in Sweden
include a girl who provided services for the CIA (strange coincidence,
right?), and whose real "guilt" is in being a messenger -- as I said
somewhere these days, Daniel Ellsberg during the Nixon era with Tony
Russo were high-level employees of Rand and NASA, not simple privates
like Manning, and were responsible for gathering and distributing the
Pentagon papers to the NYT. Far "worse", if you wear the US
establishment glasses, than Assange.

I am really amazed at how low the UK has gone in this, not to speak of
Australia, which in this situation unconditionally bows to the USA
forgetting that Assange is a citizen of Australia.

Whatever his personal style and private doings, Assange cannot be
condemned for being a messenger, and ought to be granted the obvious
international right to asylum. Or the UK would become like one more of
those little governments which are even worse than the Pinochet regime.
Well, the Cameron regime (can I say this?) had already proposed full
censorship of networks during recent popular mobilizations in the
country, what else to expect?

frt rgds

--c.a.

On 08/19/2012 07:43 AM, Adam Peake wrote:
> <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17905985> "Who, What, Why: Is it
> legal to hide in an embassy?"  From May, so not influenced by the most
> recent Assange events. Looks to me like the UK's screwed up.
> 
> About his alleged crimes
> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/17/julian-assange-sweden>
> Seems "no means no" hasn't quite got through. Assange's lawyer's
> attempts to brand the two women as CIA plants, etc., pretty
> disgusting.
> 
> And I am not sure what this has to do with Internet governance.
> 
> Adam
> 
> 
> 
> On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 7:28 PM, Fahd A. Batayneh
> <fahd.batayneh at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Sun, Aug 19, 2012 at 1:24 AM, Ginger Paque <ginger at paque.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> I admire Assange. I am glad he has the courage to carry out his WikiLeaks
>>> work. I don't think he should be persecuted, or face politically motivated
>>> harassment or charge.
>>> I don't think being a legitimate social hero allows him to avoid facing
>>> charges of rape if the are legitimate.
>>>
>>> Ginger
>>
>>
>> That makes us 2 Ginger. ROCK ON!
>>
>> Fahd
>>
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