Mr. Freedom of Information is Going WHERE???

Assange: Persecuted or persecutor?

The news that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is seeking political refuge in Ecuador is the last piece of evidence of Assange's moral emptiness.

Assange may have done the world a real service with Wikileaks by revealing wartime abuses and financial amorality. But it always seemed evident to me that the man who wanted all 'information to be free' was happy to free information only as long as it satisfied his worldview and didn't inconvenience him. Remember, after all, how heatedly Assange complained when embarrassing facts about the Swedish charges of sexual abuse against him were leaked.

And the government data he posted online seemed to be overwhelmingly about the U.S. government and corporations. But what about embarrassing data about authoritarian governments in Asia and the Middle East?

Odd couple: Assange and Ecuadorean
President and media repressor Rafael Correa.

Assange's claims that the court case against him was persecution also rang hollow. Assange was accused of rape and other sexual crimes by two Swedish women who had been his supporters and intimate friends. That doesn't sound like a Washington-backed conspiracy. And Sweden isn't known particularly as  a corrupt nation or a United States puppet. Why doesn't Assange go to Sweden and face the sort of open, public trial which he would certainly demand for people whose crimes Wikileaks revealed.

But Assange's decision to seek refuge in Ecuador is more telling. Ecuador's president Rafael Correa has been widely criticized by media and human rights organizations for using legal mechansims to repress criticism of his government.

When a free speech defender seeks protection from a free speech repressor, what does that tell us about him?

Once Assange gets comfortable in Ecuador, expect Wikileaks to get active again, now backed by Correa's oil money and filled with anti-U.S. revelations.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Aid Flows in for Flood Victims

About two million Colombians have been driven from their homes by tremendous floods, primarily along the Caribbean coast. Among those who've brought help are Spain, the United States, Israel, the Red Cross, the United Nations, the sometimes-hostile Ecuadorean Pres. Rafael Correa and private charities including Shelter Box, which has been distributing tents, stoves, cooking equipment, tools, blanket, water filtration kits and other supplies.

Shelter Box and the Red Cross accept donations through their websites.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours