FIRST READ:
JULIAN ASSANGE: HUNTED BY THE U.S.
GOVERNMENT
[A secularist whose courage to speak out against the
wickedness of the American Empire puts Christians to shame]
http://www.antipasministries.com/html/file0000347.htm
http://watchmanafrica.blogspot.com/2010/12/children-of-this-world-are-in-their.html
Julian Assange demands U.S. end WikiLeaks 'witch hunt'
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/19/world/europe/uk-assange/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
From Atika Shubert and Alex Felton,
CNN
August 19, 2012 -- Updated 2141 GMT (0541 HKT)
"As WikiLeaks stands under
threat, so does the freedom of expression and the health of all our
societies," the founder of website said to cheers from his supporters
outside the embassy.
"The U.S.
war on whistle-blowers must end," Assange said, calling for the freedom of
Bradley Manning, the U.S.
soldier suspected of giving hundreds of thousands of pages of secret American
government documents to Assange for publication on WikiLeaks.
Assange also referred to The New York
Times, the Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab and the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot in his 10-minute appearance.
The founder of WikiLeaks spoke from a
balcony at the Embassy of Ecuador in London,
where he has been holed up since June.
His lawyer, Baltasar Garzon, called
earlier for him to be given safe passage to Ecuador
from Britain.
"Mr. Assange is going to
continue fighting for his rights," Garzon declared, saying that Assange
had instructed his legal team to take action.
Garzon, an attorney from Spain
who is best known from his years as a crusading judge, did not say what that
legal action would be. Garzon was barred from the Spanish bench earlier this
year for authorizing the wire-tapping of corruption suspects speaking to their
lawyers.
Assange fled to the embassy avoid
extradition to Sweden
to face questioning about alleged sex crimes.
Sunday marks two months since
Assange fled to the embassy. Monday marks two years since Swedish prosecutors
first issued a warrant for his arrest, alleging that he raped one woman and
sexually molested another.
Assange has been effectively
confined for the past two months to the diplomatic mission -- a suite of rooms
covering half of one floor of a townhouse in a posh London
neighborhood south of Hyde Park.
Ecuador
raised the stakes in its diplomatic row with the United Kingdom on Thursday,
officially offering Assange asylum in the South American country. The British
say they will not give him safe passage out of the embassy.
The Foreign Office says Britain has a legal obligation to hand him over
to Sweden,
after Assange's legal efforts to avoid extradition were rejected by British
courts up to the Supreme Court.
Garzon said that Assange was willing
to answer Swedish prosecutors' questions, but only if he is given certain
guarantees.
Assange, an Australian, and his
supporters claim a U.S.
grand jury has been empaneled to consider charges against him.
Assange claims to fear Sweden will transfer him in turn to the United States,
where he could face the death penalty for the work of WikiLeaks.
Sweden angrily rejected the
allegation on Thursday.
"Sweden
does not extradite individuals who risk facing the death penalty," the
Foreign Ministry said after Ecuador
granted Assange asylum.
Assange says the allegations in Sweden
are politically motivated and tied to the work of his website, which
facilitates the publication of secret documents. He has published hundreds of
thousands of pages of American government diplomatic cables and assessments of
the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
His expected appearance came as
foreign ministers from various South American countries gathered in Ecuador to
discuss his fate.
The dispute between Britain and Ecuador exploded when the British
Foreign Office, in a letter to Ecuadorian officials, cited a little known law
that could temporarily suspend the embassy's diplomatic protection and allow
authorities to enter and arrest Assange.
President Rafael Correa on Saturday
slammed Britain's behavior
toward Ecuador,
describing it as "intolerable" and "unacceptable."
"Who do they think they're
dealing with?" Correa asked rhetorically during his weekly address.
"They don't realize Latin America is free
and sovereign. We won't tolerate interference, colonialism of any kind."
The president said Ecuador had
asked for, but did not receive, guarantees that Assange would not be extradited
to a third country.
Correa has sought support on the
issue from foreign ministers of the the Union of South American Nations
(UNASUR) and the leftist Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), who
gathered in Guayaquil, Ecuador, this weekend.
UNASUR backed Ecuador's decision to grant Assange asylum and
called for more dialogue between Britain
and Ecuador
on the issue. It condemned the "threat of the use of force" and
expressed its hope that the countries could arrive at a "mutually
acceptable solution."
ALBA, whose membership includes
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, warned Britain on Saturday against raiding
the embassy.
"We warn the government of the
United Kingdom that it will face grave consequences around the world if it
directly breaches the territorial integrity of the Embassy of the Republic of
Ecuador in London," according to a statement read by Foreign Minister
Nicolas Maduro on behalf of ALBA nations.
