Julian Assange’s Asylum and Statement
Watched Julian Assange’s statement from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy and, while it was still an important moment after two months spent practically in hiding, I have to say that I was hoping for something more. I wasn’t exactly expecting more, so I can’t say that I’m disappointed, but I was hoping for some new information, a more determined speech in defense of others who are being persecuted and against oppressive governments everywhere, or at least some reason other than listing the countries supporting Ecuador’s decision to have the whole thing prepared and written as he did.
Still, I did notice that he mentioned the Pussy Riot issue, which is admittedly only an issue because the Russian government chose to make one out of a little stunt which would have probably gone largely unnoticed otherwise. This is rather important, because it’s a step away from his and WikiLeaks‘ general stance of opposing anything the United States supports and supporting anyone who opposes the United States, which has led them to have a pretty warm relationship with Russia. Now we’ll have to wait and see whether this small gesture will be followed by others along the same vein or it was simply a little ploy meant to reduce suspicions that he is in fact working for Moscow.
About the issue of the asylum itself, it’s certainly a good thing because he’s still the public image of whistleblowers and of those who fight to make governments more transparent and accountable for their actions, so whatever increases his odds of staying safe helps the cause, even if Ecuador, or in fact that entire region in general, is hardly a bastion of freedom and democracy, so this is quite clearly largely motivated by the personal interests of those who are in power in that part of the world. I do still wonder how will it be enforced, however, seeing as they currently don’t even seem to have any way of getting him out of the embassy without him being arrested and extradited to Sweden, much less out of the country, so this may well get more interesting over the coming days.
No, I didn’t miss the fact that he never mentioned anything about what he’s supposedly being accused of in Sweden, but I don’t see why he’d have bothered and have already expressed my views regarding that matter several times before. Even if the reported events are real, turning the matter into a criminal investigation is clearly a setup and shouldn’t be given much attention, seeing as he could at most be accused of being an asshole about the whole thing… And the fact that he is sort of an asshole about many things and has a personality and certain behavior patterns that are a liability for such an organization, not to mention for the cause as a whole, is no news. However, as I said above, he is still the public image and him being taken down would be a blow which we shouldn’t allow past our guard, at least not as long as he’s not clearly proven guilty of a real crime, which would imply causing real and unjustified harm to another, either willingly or by choosing to remain ignorant about the consequences of his actions despite opportunities to become aware of them.
