Wednesday, June 20, 2012

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
en

13 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 21, 2012 at 1:20 AM

    I can smell the US patriotism all over your post. First of all, I'm not surprised that a majority of Wikileaks information was about US since they are the worst in the world of abusing countries and people. Not he people in the US but the army and the organisations working in the world. The women in Sweden have connections to the CIA and the Swedish government is a fu**ing bitch to the US, so he can forget a fair trial and look forward to a quick departure to US were official politicians like Sarah Palin yells for his execution. I have no idea why he want to go to Ecuador but my guess is that he is trying to avoid the death squads from US that operates without scruples all over the world.

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  2. ColombialivJune 21, 2012 at 7:12 AM

    Antioquia.... "The women in Sweden have connections to the CIA" WHAT?!?! Don't talk about stuff you know nothing about.

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  3. Elyssa PachicoJune 21, 2012 at 8:11 AM

    Very well said Mike. - EP

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  4. MiguelJune 21, 2012 at 11:57 AM

    Hi Antioquia,

    I think that you're correct in the sense that the U.S. is the world's most active country, with its fingers and soldiers all over the world, so it is understandable that a lot of leaks would be about the U.S. Even so, I thot that Wikileaks' focus on U.S. offensive was way too overwhelming.

    Mike

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  5. MiguelJune 21, 2012 at 12:03 PM

    But on the other hand, Antioquia, if there are nations whose courts are generally independent and not corrupt and civil rights are respected, England and Sweden are two of those.

    On the other hand, Ecuador is among the countries with huge problems in corruption and court manipulation - which makes Assange's choice all the more telling.

    Mike

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  6. AnonymousJune 21, 2012 at 1:27 PM

    Well Colombialiv, if you have knowledge about what I know, you might also tell me next Saturdays Baloto numbers.

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  7. ColombialivJune 22, 2012 at 7:26 AM

    Antioquia - since one of the women is actually a friend of mine I can be pretty sure that you have no idea what you're talking about. She has no connections to CIA whatsoever, and is pretty fed up with random people spreading absurd rumors about her on the internet.

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  8. mauricio forero lJune 22, 2012 at 8:55 AM

    Hey Mike, just do your best not to be so openly American in your opinions, I know you are american and, that is ok, but the truth is that you have the tendency of going more to the right than to the left of the spectrum. For example you talk far more about the FARCS than the Paras and, I do not think that I'm the only one that notice this.

    To Colombialiv:

    What a "coincidence" that you end up been a friend of one of these women.

    Mauricio Forero.

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  9. MiguelJune 22, 2012 at 9:01 PM

    Hi Mauricio,

    I hope it's not a matter of being from the US. Both the leftist guerrillas and the right-wing paramilitaries have committed terrible crimes, and I think I've written about both. But the paramiliaries are mostly gone, while the guerrillas are still active.

    I agree with Colombialiv: Antioquia's statements about Sweden are ridiculous.

    Mike

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  10. MiguelJune 22, 2012 at 10:42 PM

    And, Antioquia, you are the one making outlandish statements accusing victims of alleged rapes being CIA plants, etc. If you have any evidence of this, why don't you point us to it?

    Mike

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  11. BradJune 23, 2012 at 10:10 AM

    Good post MIke. Funny that some commenters accuse you of pro-American bias when your views are routinely at odds with the US gov't (esp drug policy) and would be considered well left on the political spectrum in the US.

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  12. ColombialivJune 23, 2012 at 5:19 PM

    Mauricio Forero: Well, Sweden is not that big and we are both the same age and interested in the same political issues and happened to study at the university in the same city. Not so much a coincidence.

    Mike: Thanks.

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  13. mauricio forero lJune 24, 2012 at 12:16 PM

    Colombialiv, I'm sorry, but still, it kind of sounds fishy, even if Sweden was the size of Monaco. How come you did not mention that she is your friend from the beginning. That's what I would do.
    The Americans are going to get this guy's ass one way or the other and you know it.

    Any way enjoy Colombia as i always do.

    M. Forero.

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