Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is expected to appear in a UK court tomorrow!

[Magda Hassan]

The Assange Witch Hunt

Posted on August 16, 2012

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A storm of dip*lo*matic sound and fury has broken over Ecuador's decision to grant polit*ical asylum to Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange. The UK gov*ern*ment has threatened to breach all dip*lo*matic pro*tocol and inter*na*tional law and go into the embassy to arrest Assange.
The UK jus*ti*fies this by cit*ing the 1987 Dip*lo*matic and Con*su*lar Premises Act, a lawappar*ently put in place fol*low*ing the 1984 shoot*ing of WPC Yvonne Fletcher from the Libyan Embassy in Lon*don. The murder res*ul*ted in an 11-day siege, and the embassy staff even*tu*ally being expelled from the coun*try. Nobody has yet been brought to justice for this murder.
It is hard to equate the grav*ity of the crime that brought about the 1987 legis*la*tion the murder of a police*wo*man with Assange's situ*ation. Des*pite the scream*ing head*lines, let us not for*get that he is merely wanted for ques*tion*ing in Sweden. Nev*er*the*less, the UKis pre*pared to over*turn all dip*lo*matic pro*tocol and cre*ate a dan*ger*ous inter*na*tional pre*ced*ent to "get their man", des*pite there being a clear lack of jus*ti*fic*a*tion under the terms of the '87 Act.
Many people in the west*ern media remain puzzled about Assange's fear of being held cap*tive in the Swedish legal sys*tem. But can we really trust Swedish justice when it has been flag*rantly politi*cised and manip*u*lated in the Assange case, as has been repeatedly well doc*u*mented. Indeed, the Swedish justice sys*tem has the highest rate per cap*ita of casestaken to the ECtHR for flout*ing Art*icle 6 the right to a fair trial.
If Assange were extra*dited merely for ques*tion*ing by police he has yet to be even charged with any crime in Sweden there is a strong risk that the Swedes will just shove him straight on the next plane to the US under the legal terms of a "tem*por*ary sur*render". And in the US, a secret Grand Jury has been con*vened in Vir*ginia to find a law any law with which to pro*sec*ute Assange. Hell, if the Yanks can't find an exist*ing law, they will prob*ably write a new one just for him.
So why all the sound and fury? What is this really all about?
Wikileaks is a ground-breaking new form of high-tech, award-winning journ*al*ism that has exposed cor*rupt prac*tices across the world over the years. And cru*cially, in this war-torn, weary and fin*an*cially broken world, it offers a secure con*duit to whis*tleblowers who want to expose insti*tu*tional crime and cor*rup*tion for the pub*lic good.
Whis*tleblowers want to get their inform*a*tion out there, they want to make a dif*fer*ence, they want a fair hear*ing, and they don't want to pay too high a per*sonal price for doing so. Is that too much to ask?
By going pub*lic about ser*i*ous con*cerns they have about their work*place, they are jeop*ard*ising their whole way of life: not just their pro*fes*sional repu*ta*tion and career, but all that goes with it, such as the abil*ity to pay the mort*gage, their social circle, their fam*ily life, their rela*tion*ship… Plus, the whis*tleblower can poten*tially risk prison or worse.
So, with these risks in mind, they are cer*tainly look*ing for an avenue to blow the whistle that will offer a degree of pro*tec*tion and allow them to retain a degree of con*trol over their own lives. In the old days, this meant try*ing to identify an hon*our*able, cam*paign*ing journ*al*ist and a media organ*isa*tion that had the clout to pro*tect its source. While not impossible, that could cer*tainly be dif*fi*cult, and becomes increas*ingly so in this era of endemic elec*tronic sur*veil*lance.
Today the other option is a secure, high-tech pub*lish*ing con*duit such as Wikileaks. This provides anonym*ity and a cer*tain degree of con*trol to the mod*ern whis*tleblower, plus it allows their inform*a*tion to reach a wide audi*ence without either being filtered by the media or blocked by gov*ern*ment or cor*por*ate injunctions.
As someone who has a nod*ding acquaint*ance with the reper*cus*sions of blow*ing the whistle on a secret gov*ern*ment agency, I have long seen the value of the Wikileaks model and I also under*stand quite why gov*ern*ments feel so threatened by it. After all, no gov*ern*ment or mega-corporation wants free*dom of inform*a*tion and trans*par*ency forced upon it, nor an informed cit*izenry ques*tion*ing its actions.
Our gov*ern*ments like to spout the phrase "if you have done noth*ing wrong, you have noth*ing to hide" as they roll out yet another intrus*ive sur*veil*lance measure.
Wikileaks has turned that right back at them hence this modern-day witch-hunt.

http://anniemachon.ch/annie_machon/2012/...-hunt.html