Matt Bors for August 20, 2012

Cool colors.

Well put.

Disenfranchising millions of US voters may be more important?

God bless Amer Ecuador, defender of justice and free speech (who woulda thunk it?)

Assange and Bradley Manning both deserve medals for exposing the corruption in our government and military.

Assange claims it’s all a matter of free speech. Didn’t know rape fell under the 1st amendment or that the first amandement applied to Brits in their home country.Can you say, “cloud the issue”?

Ima? Assange had nothing to do with Climate-gate, and Climate-gate had nothing to do with falsifying data — it had to do with conservative Breitbarting of innocent emails, as shown in three different independent investigations. Where are you getting your information? It’s faulty.

I think there’s some merit in what wikileaks has done, but Assange is a real douchebag. A real revolutionary would look his accusers in the eye and fight. He’s just looking for a place to run.

Assange is not accused of rape in Sweden. Check this documentary out for a truthful account:http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2012/08/assange-sex-charges-detail/ Very disappointed in Matt Bors on this one. You really should have checked your facts first. As someone else wrote on another blog entry at the link above: “Assange has not been charged with any offense in any jurisdiction. He has consistently offered to submit himself to questioning by the Swedish police and that offer remains open. He even remained in Sweden for two weeks following the original complaints against him for that purpose. But the original Swedish prosecutor considered the complaints too trivial to warrant further action and he left.”

We need more people like Assange (not the egotist part, but the work he does).If govt and corporations can keep lots of info on me, then I have every right to see their information.

What the woprld needs now is for some enterprising IRS clerk to pass Mitten’s tax returns to Wikileaks.

Let’s see, when did a nation invade another’s embassy in violation of the Vienna treaty? Oh yes, it was Khomeni’s mob in the US embassy in Tehran, to help elect Reagan. Great foreign policy there Washington!

Assange is an arrogant creep, but that alone isn’t illegal. Sweden’s laws are different from ours, and THAT is what matters, not what “our” laws might do. Now, as regards revealing “classified” material, our laws do cover that. As to the “sensitivity” of the material? What was a PFC doing with access? What went into HIS security clearance? What WAS actually revealed? The “facts” seem to indicate Assange didn’t reveal information that caused a threat to our troops, however, as under Bush and “conservatives” the brand of toilet paper used in the White House might end up “top secret”, there IS a question of “threat and intent”.

“Giving aid and comfort to the enemies of the United States” DID happen during Iran/Contra, and North “skated”, so things should be kept in “context”. (Yes, Manning does seem a creepy little dude, and the UCMJ does NOT DEPEND upon “civilian” law, even in many cases that “Constitutional rights” thing, but his treatment may seem “excessive” given the risk.)

Correction to my previous posts as regards Ecuador:I said “Ecuador in a fit of pique”. I should rather say, “Rafael Correa in a fit of pique”. I’m just puzzled at what his game is. A Chavez wannabe? Meh.One other thing I keep reading is that Assange fears he would face the death penalty in the USA if they request extradition from Sweden. That’s nonsense, of course, all extradition treaties between European countries and the USA stipulate that whomever is extradited cannot face a death penalty, which I’m pretty sure Assange is well aware of.(Also, In my previous post I kept using the Portuguese spelling of Ecuador. Oops)

said “Assange claims it’s all a matter of free speech. Didn’t know rape fell under the 1st amendment or that the first amendment applied to Brits in their home country.Can you say, “cloud the issue”?”Eh? First amendment? Why on earth would Assange mention the American Constitution’s 1st amendment in the UK or Sweden ? That makes no sense whatsoever. The USA is not the only country that has “freedom of speech”; it doesn’t hold a monopoly on that score. :-|His objection to being extradited to Sweden in order that he face questioning in relation to a sexual assault investigation does not bring into the account freedom of speech; it’s his fear that the USA want to seek extradition so that he can face charges in the US for Wikileaks distributing secret documents obtained by an American national. If the USA decided it wanted to apply its Espionage Act on Assange, a foreign national, and incidentally, an Australian, not British, then the American 1st amendment might come into play as a likely defence, if Assange were in the USA.

Oi! Educate yourself, and don’t be so rude. :)Assange’s fear is not that he will get convicted of rape (because he won’t, although he might be tried for for misconduct if they ever get around to charging him) — his concern is that the UK or Sweden will send him to the US where he will be charged with something like espionage.See: Reuters – Assange’s speech yesterday … Patino said Ecuador had a duty to protect Assange, but he indicated that there was still room for discussion.“If talks with Britain, Sweden, or the United States could lead to a clear written statement guaranteeing Mr Assange’s life and safety, it would be possible for him to go to Sweden to face trial,” Patino told reporters after the UNASUR meeting.‘FIGHTING SPIRIT’Speaking in London, Assange praised a dozen Latin American nations which he said had rallied against Britain, and he said the United States was at a turning point that could drag the rest of the world into an oppressive new era.&justice4assange.com 29 February 2012: Stratfor e-mails have revealed that a sealed indictment has been issued by a secret grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, for Julian Assange. The email is dated 26 January 2011. This means that there has likely been a sealed extradition order for over a year, which will be activated (unsealed) against Assange in Sweden, Australia and the UK when the US Government gives the order.The US Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR) has issued a statement about the reported indictment. January 2012: In a the Houston Law and Media Seminar on WikiLeaks (January 2012) discussing WikiLeaks, former CIA officer and federal criminal defence attorney David Adler stated: One of the major issues surrounding the Assange case is whether “we [the United States] can drag his ass over here.” – David Adler, federal criminal defense attorney and former CIA officer

I was highlighting the irony of the situation.cf censorship of Ecuador’s free press[President] Correa’s detractors claim these have created a climate of fear and self-censorship — and even put lives in danger.“The government is clearly inciting violence against journalists,” Juan Carlos Calderon, editor of investigative news magazine Vanguardia, told GlobalPost. “And there is a fear of being sued by the government. Bear in mind that the government totally controls the judiciary. Correa uses the courts like a whip. Many media have decided to just survive, and are not doing investigative journalism.”Edited to add:Sorry, omQ R, we posted at the same time, so apologies if I have repeated any point you were making (checked and I don’t think I have though).& omQ R, I agree with you about the UK’s silly mistake and about Ecuador having its own agenda & playing games. It’s all one huge playground up there in the seats of power. : /

lol! I was about to say something like that, but not as succintly.Instead I’ll just add into the mix that we shouldn’t ignore the fact that the great Gareth Pierce is his solicitor. She can smell a stitch up or gross abuse of the principles of justice from half a world away. She doesn’t say that he’ll get the death penalty by the way. (& of course he won’t – but she believes its likely that the US will be over zealous in its punishment of him, and I think she should be listened to). As for Correa..who knows!? Petty point scoring? Little man revenge? Dictator style control? Take your pick from any number of certifiable syndromes, I reckon. ;)

^So sings “Little Annie Ima” to the tune of “Memory”, off key.

Jase99: The arms deal to give them weapons to finance the reestablishment of the junta in El Salvadore was the US part of the deal. The refusal to release the embassy staff until Carter was out of there was Iran’s part of the deal. I guess I am getting old because that which I well remember has obviously happened before too many readers were born. The shorthand technique of mentioning the beginning and end is no longer sufficient. One must mention an undeterminable amount of the middle as well.