REUTERS: Assange berates United States from Ecuador embassy balcony

[Poll_Blind]

[center]
Credit: Reuters/Olivia Harris[/center]

[div class="excerpt" style="border: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-bottom: none; border-radius: 0.3846em 0.3846em 0em 0em; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"]Assange berates United States from Ecuador embassy balcony[div class="excerpt" style="border: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top: none; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3846em 0.3846em; background-color: #f4f4f4; box-shadow: 2px 2px 6px #bfbfbf;"](Reuters) - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange berated the United States on Sunday from the balcony of the Ecuadorean embassy where he has sought refuge from arrest, challenging President Barack Obama to end what he called a witch-hunt against his whistle-blowing website.

Speaking from within the London mission to avoid being detained by British police who want to extradite him to Sweden for questioning over rape allegations, Assange said the United States was fighting a war against outlets like WikiLeaks.

"As WikiLeaks stands under threat, so does the freedom of expression and the health of all of our societies," Assange said, dressed in a maroon tie and blue shirt, flanked by the yellow, blue and red Ecuadorean flag with dozens of British policemen lined up on the pavement below.

"I ask President Obama to do the right thing: the United States much renounce its witch-hunt against WikiLeaks," Assange said in a 10-minute speech which he ended with two thumbs up to the world's media.

More at the link! With the Obama administration's war on whistleblowers, Assange and Wikileaks are the a chilling reminder of how far "the freest nation on earth" will go to control the press. This open letter to The Guardian newspaper, entitled Rescind President Obama's 'Transparency Award' now, drafted by FBI whistleblowers Sibel Edmonds, Coleen Rowley and co-signed by (among others) Daniel Ellsberg, describes in detail this administration's attacks on transparency and journalistic freedom.

Obama will not change on his own, he must be pressured by his constituents in order to counterbalance the pressure on him from the MIC. It's that simple.

PB

[OnyxCollie]

1. K&R. nt

[xchrom]

2. du rec. Nt

[hack89]

3. Obama will not respond because he wants to be reelected

and he does not want distractions from his attacks on Romney.

After the election Obama should say that the US will not seek extradition - Assange can wait a couple of months

[tama]

7. Biden

has called Assange a terrorist. Has that been retracted or challenged by other gov. sources? As for the agency task force against Wikileaks, does anyone really suppose it's been set without knowledge and will of POTUS?

Should - of course - but that would be a very big positive surprise.

[hack89]

8. Assange has not broken any US laws

no one has been able to articulate a reasonable case for prosecuting him.

[tama]

14. We don't know

about the work of the Grand Jury that is supposed to be working on a case against Wikileaks.

The general atmoshphere in US gov. can hardly be considered "reasonable" and has been very hostile to Wikileaks. Let's not forget that the cables reveled among other things that Ms. Clinton had ordered espionage of UN officials and the CIA WTF (wikileaks task force) that orchestrated the unlawful financial embargo against Wikileaks.

[Comrade_McKenzie]

16. I had no idea. All respect just lost for Biden...

What an idiot.

[MADem]

4. I predicted he'd do it from the balcony, a la Evita....

[Poll_Blind]

5. What other options were there?

PB

[MADem]

15. Max Headroom. TV in the street. Or a hologram!

[KoKo]

17. I don't know of any options..The guy's fighting for his life against INTERPOL

I would be pretty agressive if I thought "Interpol" was after ME!

[Robb]

6. Goodness. His transformation into Colin Mochrie is complete.

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. Assange's comments on whistleblowers are quite amusing...

in light of comments like this:

Declan Walsh, the Guardian's Islamabad correspondent, recalls one tense evening: "We went out to a Moorish restaurant, Moro, with the two German reporters. David Leigh broached the problem again with Julian. The response floored me. 'Well, they're informants,' he said. 'So, if they get killed, they've got it coming to them. They deserve it.' There was, for a moment, silence around the table. I think everyone was struck by what a callous thing that was to say."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/03/wikileaks-julian-assange-us-reaction

The hypocrisy, it burns.

[Poll_Blind]

11. Sounds like the NYT hit piece which accused him of abusing kittens and not flushing.

Really.

I suppose it's telling that you're having to resort to fishing through anecdotes to somehow excuse all this.

Smear campaign is smear. Can't say more plainly than that. If you swallow that bait...I dunno what to tell ya.



PB

[KoKo]

18. Really! It's amazing that so many DU'ers (who've been hear for years) buy that Assange is Terrorist

I don't understand it. I've been on DU since 2001....and am amazed at the change....

[Poll_Blind]

12. LOL! Apparently the NYT editors got so much heat for publishing Assange's alleged toilet-flushing..

...habits that they took them out after publication.

Like I said. Smear campaign is smear.

PB

[tsuki]

10. One presstitute's berating is another man's truth. nt

[KurtNYC]

13. The PTB are addicted to secrecy

They believe, perhaps rightly so, that some degree of secrecy and deniability is essential to the way they run this mess we call civilization.

Beneath every lie is a secret because every secret needs a lie to cover for it.

[KoKo]

19. What I don't understand is WHY THE HELL is ALL THIS SECRECY? (apologize for full caps)

but ...I thought we were "in the streets" and voting AGAINS..."Secrecy!"

What happened?