RANT OR RAVE? Julian Assange Granted Asylum

I should have been happy, overjoyed in fact (!!!), about the news yesterday that Julian Assange had been granted political asylum by Ecuador. So this should be a rave. Yet even with that news I am niggled by fear and apprehension - apprehension borne of how ugly this entire affair got this week and how it could yet get a lot uglier. Hence my need to also rant about this.



So, let me deconstruct the affair as I see it as succinctly as possible:

The Victim: Julian Assange. There are two camps in the world today - those who believe Julian Assange is being persecuted on the one side, and those who believe he is a 'terrorist' and a 'threat' to American hegemony (read: imperialism) on the other side. There is no room for grey - it's that black and white.

The Heroes: Ecuador. I admittedly had my doubts that the Ecuadorian government would capitulate to Western (read: American) pressure. Many had those doubts and fears. Even his mother must have had her fears an doubts. But they came through for Julian, in unapologetic, crystal clear and frankly stunning terms. This small South American country did what very few countries would dare to do. All power to Ecuador for what they have done this week. Simon Bolivar would be proud.

The Enemy/ Bitch Whore of the Arch Enemy: The United Kingdom. When it's foreign affairs crowd even dares to suggest that the UK would see fit to rip right through centuries of diplomacy and international customary law and storm the Ecuadorian embassy to seize Assange, then it is a country that has lost all sense of the rule of law and its own sense of self. It's democracy and legal system is a sham. All so it can do the bidding of its Imperial Master. The UK should be ashamed of itself.

The Passive-Aggressive Bitch Whore: Sweden. This Scandinavian country, always so smug in its own sense of level-minded, content democracy, is at the very epicentre of this entire crisis. All it had to do was reassure Ecuador that Assange would not be extradited to the United States once handed over to Sweden by the UK. This Sweden refused to do, which spoke volumes - and the Ecuadoreans rightly saw this as overwhelming evidence of the political persecution of Assange. Game over. Sweden is a sham democracy doing the shabby bidding of the biggest bully of them all. It too should be thoroughly ashamed of itself.

The Arch Enemy: The United States. Need one say more?

And that's what this entire debacle boils down to: a man who did nothing more than publish the truth about the shocking shenanigans of world powers is being persecuted by three of what were once the most respected democracies on Earth.

And that is why, whilst I can rave about Julian Assange being granted his asylum, I can only rant at all the other malevolent ingredients in this putrid mix.

And I am sincerely, genuinely, horribly worried at how the entire Julian Assange affair may yet unravel. And expose the true, sickening nature of the world in which we live.

Do you get my point?

AN APPEAL: President Correa, Please Do The Right Thing

As my previous post attests, I am getting seriously worried about all the time that is lapsing as Julian Assange sits in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, waiting to be granted asylum by Quito.

It just all seems to be taking too long. And now signs are that Ecuador is somehow trying to negotiate with the UK, Sweden and, astoundingly, the United States. That just doesn't bode well.

Ultimately, whether or not Ecuador grants Assange asylum and thereby prevents him from being eventually tried and possibly even murdered in the United States all rests on the shoulders of one man:



President Rafael Correa of Ecuador: the choice is his.

Now is his chance to provide his small country with a moral stature and impetus that very few countries could ever aspire to have. Now is his chance to make or break the legacy he has tried to build as a populist leader in a region sick to death of the meddling, often deadly machinations by the Yanks up north.

Will Correa be up to it? The coming days and weeks will tell.

President Rafael Correa of Ecuador: he simply must do the right thing.

After all, how many people actually realize that Correa is currently one of the most powerful people in the world?

His destiny and the destiny of his country is also our collective destiny.

Do you get my point?

RANT: Ecuador, What's Up With You People?!

Julian Assange continues to wallow inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London, and, according to his mother, Christine, his health is deteriorating. She claims that the strain of the relentless persecution against her son over the past two years are taking a toll on her son.



Christine Assange met with the Ecuadorean authorities in Quito on Monday, basically pleading for them to grant him the asylum that he is seeking from the South American nation. Asylum that many of us thought would surely be quite forthcoming, considering that Julian had had a very candid interview on Russia Today with Ecuador's charismatic president, Rafael Correa, just a few short months ago.

In fact, President Correa appeared downright smitten with Assange's whistleblowing achievements, and the mood between the two men was decidedly warm and mutually admiring.

In fact, I distinctly remember Correa at one point during the interview inviting Assange to go to Ecuador where he would be "well received and always welcome." Is it any wonder then that Julian Assange chose to seek refuge in that very country's embassy just weeks after that interview...? 

So, what am I and others following this saga supposed to make of these words from Ricardo Patino, the Foreign Minister of Ecuador, as reported by CBS news?:

"Ecuador is doing "everything possible to protect the life of Mr. Assange."

Okay, that sounds good, but then its stated by CBS that, "Ecuadorean officials have said they will not announce a decision on the asylum request until after the London Olympic Games end in mid-August."

Why?! What is so damn special about the fact that the bloody Olympic Games are being held in London? Is Julian Assange SUCH A HUGE THREAT to the very security of the Olympic Games itself, never mind the whole of the UK?!

Patino continues by saying: "For that reason we are engaged in conversation with the Swedish and government and also with Great Britain before speaking to the United States."

What?! Since when is it necessary for a sovereign nation to be liaising with the United States of all countries in a matter taking place in the UK and with implications too with Sweden, when we all know that the Yanks are the very reason why Assange is so fearful for his life and took refuge in the Ecuador embassy in the first place...!
What the hell is going on with Ecuador? The CBS article does continue by stating that, "Ecuadorean officials are seeking assurances that Sweden and Britain would not allow Julian Assange to be extradited to the United States, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported last week, citing unnamed officials at the country's London embassy."

Right...uh huh...as if the United States of all countries would ever give those types of assurances, never mind if they even stoop to do so...yeah, right!
I'll say it again: what the hell is going on with Ecuador? Why all this time? Why all these delays? Why all this kowtowing to the likes of the United States, to which Ecuador has supposedly thumbed its nose at so many times a la Hugo Chavez's Venezuela?

Was seeking asylum with Ecuador a bad idea for Julian Assange after all?

Does Ecuador in reality not measure up to its international bravado? What is Ecuador so scared of? Does Ecuador have another agenda? Is Julian now their pawn? One can only shudder at that thought.

I can only hope for the best, and indeed hope that Ecuador is just playing for time and playing all the right cards in diplomatic gamesmanship. I do hope that.

But I can't help believing that Assange would have possibly done better in rather seeking asylum with Venezuela. My mom certainly seems to believe that. She may have a point.

I somehow don't see Hugo Chavez having flip-flopped quite like this. Not with a golden opportunity like this to yet again flip the Imperialist States of America a big, fat middle finger.

I do hope Quito doesn't quit on Assange.

Where is Cuba at the height of Fidel Castro when you need it? Where indeed...

Do you get my point?

INSIGHT: Mrs Assange Pleads, Por Favor

In the ongoing saga that is Julian Assange holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, now it is the turn of his mother to be pleading his case to the Ecaudorian authorities...and in Quito itself. Christine Assange arrived in the Ecuadorian capital yesterday, knowing only too well that the very life of her beleagured son lies in the balance.



As quoted by CNN (itself one of the biggest instigators in the bought-out establishment media's character assassination of Assange, by the way):

"The mother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will meet with Ecuadorian authorities [on] Monday to urge them to grant her son asylum. Christine Assange, who arrived in the capital city Quito on Saturday, told reporters she will appeal to Ecuador's stance on human rights during her meeting. Her son has been holed up inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since applying for political asylum on June 19. He is seeking to avoid being sent to Sweden over claims of rape and sexual molestation and said he fears if he is extradited there, Swedish authorities could hand him over to the United States."

She knows only too well what the rest of us also know only too well - Julian Assange simply CANNOT be extradited to Sweden.

According to the state-run El Ciudadano website, and as quoted by CNN, Christine Assange stated how, "Surely, the president and his staff will make the best decision."

One would think that, Ms. Assange, but as this saga enters its sixth week, I'm really not sure about that. It's simply taking too much time...

One can only hope that the pleas of a desperate mother will not fall on deaf ears in Quito.

It's what I am hoping for as this gut-wrenching, slow-churning saga enters its sixth week...

Do you get my point?

WHAT NEXT? Julian's Refuge - Ten Days and Counting

Julian Assange did the absolutely right thing on June 19th.

He entered the Embassy of the Republic of Ecuador in London and claimed asylum, on the grounds that he was being persecuted by the UK, Swedish and (potentially especially) United States governments. He requested political asylum as per under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Ecuador granted temporary protection during and told the world that they are considering the request.



He had no other choice. And it was something that I had been hoping he would have the courage (and good advice by others) to do. Because if there is one man in the public spotlight who is being hounded and having his rights raped and usurped like no other on this planet, it is Julian Assange.

And we all know that the Americans are just itching to get their grubby, fat hands on him so that they can charge him with spurious charges of 'high treason,' or some other legal claptrap that only a militarized state could conjure up, potentially consigning him to life imprisonment, or, worse, the death penalty.

His very life depended on him walking into that Embassy, and never being extradicted to Sweden (known lapdogs to the Yanks) if he can help it. You can count on that. 

Ten days have passed. It seems an awful long time for the Ecuadorian government to be considering his application. We all know that Ecuador, and especially their incredibly smart and charismatic president, Rafael Correa, would love to grant asylum to this most whistleblower of note.



But the political and economic ramifications for a still-developing and small South American country like Ecuador must be crushing. Much as they may hate the strong-arm tactics and imperialist protestations of the United States, Ecuador must remain ever mindful of the sheer power of the world's biggest bully, never mind its biggest hypocrite.

Why not Venezuela? Surely a man like Hugo Chavez would do his nut to further grind American faces into his socialist groin by welcoming a man like Assange to Caracas with open arms? What a glorious middle finger that would be to los gringos up north. One would think so. Perhaps that is exactly what Correa is trying to achieve in these days that seem to drag on and on - a handover somehow to Venezuela, which doesn't even have an extradiction treaty with the US. One can continue to hope so, certainly.

Where is a healthy, cigar-smoking Fidel Castro when you need him?

And so Day Ten of his asylum in that London embassy almost comes to a close. And those os us who respect and honour and need this man wait with baited breath.

We wait for the very best outcome for him...and for us.

QUESTION: Where Is Julian?

It has gone eerily silent regarding Julian Assange. Or at least that is what I am sensing on television networks (and that includes the best of them all, Russia Today, not the rubbish likes of CNN or the BBC) and even online.
After all the sensational reporting about Julian in 2010 and 2011, it all seems to have gone very, very quiet.

It's well known that Julian lost his High Court appeal against extradition to Sweden in February of this year. But what now? Is this the proverbial calm before the storm for him?

I am worried - very worried.

I did some online searches and came across a website, www.justice4assange.com - what I read there did little to comfort me. Consider:

•  What of the alleged "sealed indictment" against Assange as issued by a Grand Jury in Alexandria, Virginia, as according to justice4assange.com?
• What of the strong evidence that this sealed indictment has already been issued to the UK and Sweden, both known lapdogs of the United States?
• What of the statement made by the Australian Embassy (and Australia should be ashamed of itself for not standing by one of its own citizens, by the way) that, "The US investigation against WikiLeaks is unprecedented both in its scale and nature."...?
• What of the following from the said website, "Most of the attention regarding Julian Assange’s possible extradition to the US has focused on the EU agreements that are meant to prevent onward extradition - namely that the UK Home Office would have to consent to his onward extradition...[but there are other, very important potential legal lacunas and abuses to consider too]..."...?
• What of this too: "Sweden has in the recent past violated international treaties in relation to surrendering foreign nationals into US custody to be interrogated and tortured (case of extraordinary rendition, Agiza v. Sweden at the European Court of Human Rights). Furthermore, Amnesty International and the UN Committee against Torture criticised Sweden because it rendered two refugees to the CIA who were then tortured under the Egyptian regime of Hosni Mubarak." [italics for emphasis]

What chance does this man have? Which only makes this relative silence/ 'calm' all the more unsettling.

The (abusive, corrupt) powers-that-be are a-plotting. That much must be assumed.
I care about a man who is one of the last outspoken and visible bulwarks against encroaching fascist censorship in the West. He is guilty of nothing more than exposing and embarrassing corrupt powers, who now gun for him on the masquerade of the 'War on Terror' and 'state secrets.'

And they will use 'the law' to get at him.

The (relative) silence is deafening.

Do you get my point?

RANT: Julian On The Precipice

This telling Time magazine cover from December 2010 has never been more apropos.

Julian Assange is fighting his extradition to Sweden in the Supreme Court in London as I write this - being already at the appeal phase, we all know that his chances of winning on appeal are about as good as George W. Bush suddenly becoming a pacifist and intelligent.

It just isn't going to happen. That is, Assange winning his appeal. He will be extradited to Sweden, where the Swedish authorities have already stated that they will immediately send him off to the United States to stand trial for treason.

And if he loses his treason trial in the United (Corporo-Fascist) States of America then he will be sentenced to death.

That is what fighting for the truth and seeking to unravel corruption and deception in the highest places will get a man like Assange.

That is what you get for trying to reveal the dark secrets of the super-elite and the rancid corruption of our so-called leaders.

That is what you get for living in a world run by Visa and MasterCard and Facebook and Shell and BP and the Pentagon.

My heart is very heavy at the moment. I cannot believe that I am living in a world where a man this brave and this committed to the truth is being frogmarched towards his (possible...probable?) obscene death.

I can only hope, hope, hope that Julian Assange will win his appeal and be able to fight the true fight another day.

Hope can be a very cruel jester.

Do you get my point?

RAVE: Hating Facebook Is So Easy 1

I've just posted on the brilliant Julian Assange and his damning assessment of just how nefarious Facebook really is. Like Sarah Palin, this is one blog that finds hating Facebook so very easy to do.

It's now well over a year since I was a member of that most hideous social networking site, yet my rancour towards it continues afresh, now spurred by Assange calling it the "most appalling spy ever".

I literally ran for my life from Facebook. And, boy, was it difficult to get all my data erased and not be able to freely 'access' my profile even after I had supposedly deleted it. That in itself was a creepy, creepy exercise in how and why to hate Facebook.

Hence, I simply had to post this picture below that I came across, courtesy of sounds-like-me.com. It really says it all.

RAVE: Assange & The Most Appalling Spy

I always grab any opportunity to sit down and listen to Julian Assange. He is always erudite, exacting and entirely on point. For all his many detractors, he continues to be the voice of reason and truth in the midst of all the hogwash and corporatist propaganda masquerading as 'media' and 'news' these days. It wasn't by chance that he (just) beat out the brilliant Max Keiser to be my Man of the Year last year.



In an interview yesterday with Russia Today (RT) regarding his pending (and outrageous) extradition to Sweden and the ever-threatening presence of the United States in his life, he spoke of the media and how the powers that be continue to usurp our truth.

What really caught my attention, however, was how critical Assange was of the Internet and culture phenom that is Facebook. He analysed how much personal information, not to mention other habits, that Facebook had on its files with regard to its hundreds of millions of users. He is convinced that so much information being in the hands of a corporation like Facebook can only be bad, especially given their poor track record to date regarding data disclosure. Very bad.



In fact, he went to so far as to suggest that Facebook could most certainly be a front today for the United States government, possibly even the CIA, and their many, many nefarious and privacy-invading schemes and neuroses. He called Facebook the "most appalling spy ever."

That's correct - there it was writ large on an RT banner at the bottom of the screen: "Assange: Facebook Most Appalling Spy Ever".

I didn't just relish that statement - I positively whooped in glee! All my worst fears as to just just how creepy Facebook had made me feel came rushing to the fore. To have Julian Assange put that putrid organisation into such stark, lucid context was music to my ears. Yes, it's exactly what I wanted to hear, unexpected as it was.

Facebook is everything I loathe about this Internet era - the scummiest downside, its very nadir. It's the pervasive, relentless cheering of the mundane and the petty and the banal, not to mention the very dumbing down of society. It is mental voyeurism that cheapens us all.

And, yes, I do believe it could be a front for much larger, much more sinister machinations by the paranoid powers that be.

Trust Julian Assange to put it out there, and in no uncertain terms. Thank goodness for his voice.

Do you get my point?

2011: Looking Forward

Here is a mix of things that I look forward to in 2011 (in no particular order):

* More of Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert weaving their magic against the financial terrorists on the Keiser Report and all over the alternative media

* Wikileaks going from strength to strength

* Julian Assange left in peace to do what we all need him to do

* The alternative media going from strength to strength

* A 'two-tier', more corporatist Internet being stopped in its tracks

* The Euro possibly collapsing - or at least countries like Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Belgium going back to their former currencies - hurrah to the drachma, escudo, punt and Belgian franc!

* The slowdown or even demise of the too-powerful and destructive Germany-France axis in the EU (Merkel and Sarkozy should get a room and leave Europe in peace)

* The cringe-worthy 'Tea Party' crowd in Washington D. C. being shown up for the showboating, embarrassing rightwing nut jobs that we all know they are

* Sarah Palin having less power and shutting that big, worthless poodle mouth of hers

* Michael Schumacher winning races again in Formula 1 and proving why he's the best ever - go Michael!

* Less environmental disasters, wherever and however possible

* More medical breakthroughs, especially in stem cell research

* Less conspicuous consumption, less greed - the planet can't take it (I can't take it)

* More sanity in business, finance and the global financial markets

* Less religious fanaticism of all stripes - religious lunacy remains one of the biggest cancers in the world

* More social and political unrest and upheaval in China - it needs it, we need it

* Less stupidity, bad grammar and bad manners, thank you very much!

Top 10 Events of 2010

 There can never be a definitive list of the ten biggest events of a year, especially one as mad(dening) and as filled with newsmaking events as this year. Nor is this list meant to in any way diminish any of the other big events of the year that are not mentioned. Below are ten of those events that I believed shaped 2010, some of which will resonate for years to come:

1.  Wikileaks cables: Because they scared the hell out of those that have too much sinister power behind the scenes and too much leverage over our lives. Because we all have a right to know what is going on. Because state secrecy is not absolute, nor should it ever be. Because the too-powerful Establishment needs to be jolted sometimes
2. Global warming/ climate change/ deforestation/ biodiversity loss, etc: Because these issues will not go away, nor should they as long as the eco-carnage continues. Because many love to speak 'sustainability' in breathless tones, but don't have a blinking clue of what it actually means. Because we're humans and remain lousy stewards of this planet 
3. Chilean miners: Because all 33 Chilean miners stuck underground made it up alive after more than 60 days. Because this event made me wish with all my heart that total strangers would be alive and well. Because amongst all the doom and gloom in these scary and sinister times, wonderful miracles still do happen.
4. International financial terrorism: Because it showed, time and time again, what blood-sucking scheisters international finance and banking can be. Because it proved just how speculative the world capital economy has become, and how speculators are at war against savers and governments. Because it showed that most top bankers and banks are not geniuses but a bunch of lying, conniving vampires who are sucking nations (and us) dry  
5. Eurozone crisis, Greece & Ireland: Because it showed us just how dangerous this little thing called 'soverign debt' can actually be when hijacked by international banking terrorism. Because it shows what big bullies the likes of Germany, France and the IMF actually are. Because it shows how uncompromising, unfair (to poorer EU countries) and doomed the Euro project actually is. Because the citizens of Greece and Ireland deserved better 
6. Iceland - the financial meltdown and volcano: Because Iceland and its citizens had the bravery to be bankrupt rather than be indentured slaves to international financial terrorists. Because Icelandic citizens voted against being hostage to the monstrous risk-taking of a few bankers. Because the Icelandic volcanic ash was the sweetest and most ironic gift that Iceland could send to disrupt one of its chief hostage-takers, the UK   
7. Ascendancy of China: Because the decline of the American Empire is happening faster than we thought. Because China is definitely on the ascendancy on the world stage, and that's not a good thing either. Because the West has only itself to blame for destroying its own industries and selling itself out like a whore to the cheap labour, cheap (and badly made) products and human rights abuses of China
8. Haiti earthquake: Because this was the one nation on Earth that did not deserve, nor cope with, such a devastating natural disaster. Because it showed (along with many other events this year) that Mother Nature can be one blindly vindictive, nasty lady. Because subsequent events proved that Haiti really needs to get its act together, once and for all. 
9. Gulf of Mexico oil spill: Because this proved, yet again and for the umpteenth time, that our addiction to oil is not sustainable. Because this proved, yet again and for the umpteenth time, that offshore oil drilling is ludicrous in its environmental and social risks. Because this proved, yet again and for the umpteenth time, that multinational oil companies are amongst the biggest lying, greenwashing environmental pillagers on the planet. 
10. Ascendancy of alternative media: Because most traditional media has been asleep at the wheel (or worse) for far too long. Because the 'news' is more subjective than ever (wasn't it always?), and the alternative media is doing it so much better. Because the Internet, for all its pitfalls and inherent dangers, remains a powerful tool for necessary change

2010 Man of the Year: JULIAN ASSANGE

It was such an easy choice, it didn't even bear thinking: Julian Assange was without a doubt one of the most influential and one of the most important people on the international scene in 2010. He was also the one that I, like millions of others worldwide, most identified with.

For what he is all about, as detailed below, he is unreservedly my Man of the Year for 2010:

• Because the man is brave, whatever anyone might say about him
• Because he heads up an organization that is about truth and exposing corruption
• Because his organization has exposed the excesses of power worldwide
• Because he believes in the truth as a means to guarding democracy
• Because he does not believe that governments have the right to so much secrecy
• Because he is the epitome of what journalism should and could be in this Internet era
• Because he has the powers that be in the West, and especially the United States, running scared - very scared
• Because he has helped expose governments, corporations and, those chief bastards of 2010, banks
• Because he has helped show up, yet again, why the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are a disgusting sham
• Because he has inadvertently showed up the likes of PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, Amazon, a Swiss bank, a Dutch Internet service provider and a host of others for being the hypocritical corporate swine that they are
• Because his jailing and the farce surrounding his bail in the UK has shown up just how desperate - and very dangerous - those in power and under threat can be 
• Because he showed up Sweden for being decidedly undemocratic and a lackey of international interests 
• Because he has proven just how tenuous democracy actually is
• Because he has proven that having a voice that threatens the establishment can be very, very dangerous
• Because he has proven why the establishment must be rigorously monitored at all times
• Because he runs the threat of being extradited to the United States under trumped up treason charges that expose even more how perverse American/ governmental power can be
• Because humanists of impeccable integrity like John Pilger and Ken Loach didn't hesitate to support him without reservation
• Because he has shown tremendous grace under pressure - at all times
• Because he is always eloquent, well-spoken and soft-spoken, always to his credit
• Because Steve Zuckerberg may be Time's Man of the Year, but Facebook beating out Wikileaks says it all
• Because he is a(n) (anti-)hero for our times 
• Because he is a man of real conviction and he commands my utmost respect

Julian Assange is the embodiment of what our times came to signify during 2010 - the growing struggle between those that have excess wealth and power and all the rest of us.

He is whistleblower for all of us, nothing less than an important light in a time that seems to be getting darker and darker, not to mention increasingly sinister.