Karin Olsson writes: Julian Assange’s circus has pulled off another breathtaking stunt: he has won political asylum in Ecuador. Assange’s flight from Sweden, a decent democracy with a largely excellent justice system, takes ever more absurd forms. After the decision of Ecuador’s foreign minister, Ricardo Patiño, the Swedish Twitterverse filled with mocking jokes.
Assange has few fans left here. On the contrary, his unholy alliance with Ecuador’s political leadership casts a shadow over what was, despite everything, his real achievement: to reveal shattering news through the revolutionary medium of WikiLeaks.
Patiño praised Assange as a fighter for free expression, and explained that they had to protect his human rights. But Ecuador is a country with a dreadful record when it comes to freedom of expression and of the press. Inconvenient journalists are put on trial. Private media companies may not operate freely.
President Rafael Correa is patently unable to tolerate any truths that he does not own. Reporters Without Borders has strongly and often criticised the way that media freedoms are limited in Ecuador. Assange is a plaything for the president’s megalomania. [Continue reading…]
“Assange has few fans left here”
Karin Olsson the cultural editor of a Swedish news paper with her own agenda about Assange in the Guarian adds:
” Sweden is a decent democracy with a largely excellent justice system.” In fact she offers a statement by the press chief of the Swedish foreign ministry to assure us- “Assange’s assertion that he would be sent on to the US by the Swedes, and even be executed, are utterly groundless”. To which Olsson adds her own bit of insightful reporting “If he could give up his futile struggle against extradition and show a little respect to the Swedish justice system..those few fans might multiply.”
Hmmm- another path that supports the idea that this is merely a way of getting him to Sweden, which apparently would be easier to extradite him from to the United States than Britain.
Another related post:
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/10959-whistleblower-daniel-ellsberg-i-congratulate-ecuador-for-standing-up-to-british-empire-to-protect-julian-assange-
The Diane Rehm show today discussed Assange. Few of the reporters showed a modicum of concern for him. Of course if they were reporters, and not stenographers, they might too worry about being arrested for doing real journalism. But, they are servile to the CIA, their blind-spots and biases identical. They do no journalism, they fail to report our cooperation with Al Qaeda, there, in Libya, much less the MEK in Iran. This is enough to lend some credence to the “Truthers” (which I don’t endorse) it certainly clouds the issue. We are so heavily propagandized now that I don’t see how we’ll get out of it. We’re now reliant on the kindness of strangers who are lying sophists, who may not understand reality anymore. From economics, to preservation of our Constitutional rights, to sensible policies.
I don’t think it’s the Swedish judicial system that Assange is afraid of—it’s falling into the hands of the Americans and disappearing into a black hole forever. Indefinite detention is now the policy of the United States, with I might add the full support of a majority of Americans. The truth will set you free, except in today’s supposed leading democracy.