Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to run for the Senate

[Magda Hassan]

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has launched a blistering attack on the Gillard government saying it 'bent over more than any other country in the world' to appease the United States.
In an interview to mark the first anniversary of his decision to seek political asylum in Ecuador, an angry and bitter Assange said Labor had abandoned him.
The Australian said it was likely the coalition would win the upcoming election and he hoped that would lead to a clean-out of the ALP starting with Julia Gillard and her 'cronies'.
They, including Foreign Minister Bob Carr, had relied on connections with the US for advancement, Assange said.
'This is as perverted a government as you can possibly imagine,' he told reporters, including AAP, inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London.
'The duty of that government was to protect an Australian organisation and citizen and it did just the opposite.
'It bent over more than any country in the world to publicly satisfy the United States.'
Assange, 41, is particularly critical of Ms Gillard because she initially labelled him a criminal and pushed for a government inquiry into WikiLeaks.
He also hasn't forgotten that her former attorney-general, Robert McClelland, considered cancelling his passport and charging him with treason.
The former computer hacker said the fact the Gillard government had abandoned him made it even 'worse' than the US.
That's saying a lot because Assange remains cooped up in Ecuador's diplomatic mission because he fears being extradited to the US over WikiLeaks' release of classified documents.
Although Assange railed against the government he insists the Australian people and media are mostly supportive.
He is buoyed by recent opinion polls suggesting around 20 per cent of Australians would consider voting for his new WikiLeaks party.
It aims to run Senate candidates in Victoria, where he'll lead the ticket, NSW and Western Australia in the 2013 election.
Assange says the party 'probably' won't target any lower house seats 'but it depends on party resources'.
WikiLeaks' other Senate candidates are 'just about to be announced', he said, adding that they included some well-known names.
Queensland-born Assange is upset the banking blockade against donations to the WikiLeaks website has now been extended to the political party.
He recently asked for the $25,000 prize he received for winning the 2013 Yoko Ono courage award be directed to the party 'but the Bank of America blocked the transfer'.
Some legal experts have suggested even if Assange is elected to the upper house he could face a constitutional challenge over whether he should have been allowed on the electoral role after living overseas for so many years.
But Assange isn't concerned.
'We've looked closely at the law,' he said.
'Various claims have been made over the past year by so-called election experts and they've all fallen one by one.
'I've personally researched the detail of the constitution and its interpretation.'
His current predicament aside, whether it will be be 'safe' for Assange to return to Australia eventually depends, he says, on the outcome of the election.
'If there is enough expressed political will by the people then that will act as a restraining force on the behaviour of government.'
Assange walked into the Ecuadorean embassy on June 19, 2012, and was granted political asylum two months later on August 16.
http://www.skynews.com.au/national/artic...?id=881120