Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

struggle4progress

(118,043 posts)
Tue Dec 4, 2012, 03:47 PM Dec 2012

Julian Assange in his labyrinth

Posted By José R. Cárdenas
Tuesday, December 4, 2012 - 10:32 AM

... Holed up now for some five months in the Ecuadorean embassy in London to evade police questioning on sexual assault charges, the self-styled paladin of transparency and free expression appeared on CNN for an interview with host Erin Burnett and wound up insulting his Ecuadorean hosts.

Fumbling about to answer an obvious question on how he reconciled his seeking the political protection of a country whose president, Rafael Correa, has one of the worst track records against a free press in the hemisphere, Assange asserted he did not want to talk about "little things in small countries," and, when Burnett persisted, dismissed the situation of press freedom in Ecuador, because it is "not a significant world player" ...

Last month, Ecuadorean ambassador to the United States Nathalie Cely and another close Correa crony traveled to Miami to pressure a local Spanish language station not to air a documentary critical of Correa's presidency ...

As far as Julian Assange is concerned, as much as he desperately tries to convince anyone who will listen that his cause is openness and transparency and, now apparently, speaking out against purveyors of strategic surveillance technologies, his alignment with someone like Rafael Correa, who as recently as last month said that control of information should be "a function of the state, like the judiciary," leaves his credibility in shambles ...

http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/12/04/julian_assange_in_his_labyrinth

4 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Julian Assange in his labyrinth (Original Post) struggle4progress Dec 2012 OP
It feels like there never was a George Bush. All of this talk about Assange. Gregorian Dec 2012 #1
Nice link from a collection of right wing bloggers... Luminous Animal Dec 2012 #2
The Assange quotes from the CNN interview were really informative and clearly struggle4progress Dec 2012 #3
People can watch the video here... Luminous Animal Dec 2012 #4

Gregorian

(23,867 posts)
1. It feels like there never was a George Bush. All of this talk about Assange.
Tue Dec 4, 2012, 03:55 PM
Dec 2012

My point being, it seems awfully ignorant to be focusing on the messengers. 1 million dead Iraqis. Something tells me we're spending far too little energy focusing on the real problems. Like Cheney. Rice. Rumsfeld. After all, that's what Assange was trying to reveal in the first plac.e

Luminous Animal

(27,310 posts)
2. Nice link from a collection of right wing bloggers...
Tue Dec 4, 2012, 08:28 PM
Dec 2012

"Shadow Government"
Notes from the loyal opposition

About:

Many of us served at one point or another in George W. Bush's administration. Some here advised Republican John McCain's presidential campaign in 2008, and some will likely advise another Republican campaign in 2012. Still, this blog has no party line. Its focus is policy, not politics. And it's not in the business of criticizing merely for criticism's sake. Indeed, we expect to disagree with each other as freely as we disagree with the current administration. What unites the individual authors of this blog are ideas and principles about America's role in the world, which we will spell out in the time to come, and which guides our thinking about the many complex and different facets of U.S. foreign policy in the 21st century.


About the author:
José R. Cárdenas is an associate with the consulting firm VisionAmericas, based in Washington, D.C. From 2004-2009, he served in various senior positions in the Bush administration working on inter-American relations, including in the U.S. Department of State, the National Security Council, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, where he served as Acting Assistant Administrator for Latin America and the Caribbean and oversaw nearly $1 billion in U.S. development assistance to the region. He also served as a Senior Advisor at the Organization of American States and as a senior professional staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He earned his M.A. from Georgetown University in 1985.

struggle4progress

(118,043 posts)
3. The Assange quotes from the CNN interview were really informative and clearly
Tue Dec 4, 2012, 08:52 PM
Dec 2012

reveal Assange's personality

... When pushed about Ecuador's press freedom record, described by the Committee to Protect Journalists as one of the worst in Latin America, Assange said: "Its people have been generous to me, but it's not a significant world player."

"Whatever little things occurring in small countries are not of concern," he said. "We must concentrate on what is happening in the entire civilization of the world" ...


Assange disregards questions on free press, his reported ill health
By Chelsea J. Carter, CNN
updated 9:55 AM EST, Thu November 29, 2012
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/29/world/europe/uk-assange-interview/index.html

Luminous Animal

(27,310 posts)
4. People can watch the video here...
Tue Dec 4, 2012, 09:45 PM
Dec 2012
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/11/28/julian-assange-refuses-to-cooperate-with-erin-burnetts-planned-hit-job/

And they can see for themselves the very important points that Assange was making and that his supposed horrible quote was but a few seconds of an 11 minute interview.
Latest Discussions»Issue Forums»Editorials & Other Articles»Julian Assange in his lab...