Atypical Allies, Greenwald, Assange and Me.
or how I found myself applauding Glenn Greenwald regarding Assange and wish I could drown it afterwords with whiskey. (BTW I don't think that some anonymous guy-me- on an internet site has the same stature of Greenwald or Assange, just that on this one very carefully drawn point we are in agreement.)
( I don't expect that anyone keeps track of these things so for general background I have been very very critical of both in the past.)
If all you do at DU is to check LBN for really big news and GD to see if there has been an earthquake in your area then you will have sufficient exposure to notice that there is a lot of general support for Assange and an incredible number of OPs trying to tear him down.
I think that a much larger issue has been ignored.
It is not about liking what Wikileaks or Assange do (and if you like everything that they do then I think your ability to make a reasonable objective critique has been seriously damaged) or not liking what they do (and if you aren't glad that somethings in Iraq that would have remained secret were exposed then you can't put yourself on the side of being a strong 1st Ammendment advocate, kind of a bottom line requirement to be a progressive person).
We are watching a fascinating escapade with Assange. His, rather foolish, nose thumbing of all governments, all the time couldn't end well so it was like watching a car with frozen breaks cascade down a steep frozen street wondering exactly how this crash was going to end.
But now a hero has stepped in to cause the longest time out of an impending crash in diplomatic history.
Ecuador.
Ecuador? Yes Ecuador. One of the few countries I know absolutely nothing (except their map location) about.
Wikipedia to the rescue;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecuador#The_Transparency_and_Social_Control_Branch
The Transparency and Social Control Branch
The Transparency and Social Control consists of: Council of Citizen Participation and Social Control, Ombudsman, [[General Comptroller of the State]], and the Superintendents. Its authorities shall exercise their posts for five years. This power is responsible for promoting transparency and control plans publicly, as well as plans to design mechanisms to combat corruption, as also designate certain authorities, and be the regulatory mechanism of accountability in the country.
Well how can any progressive person not like that? An institutional attempt to make government more transparent, a third world country trying to fight corruption. I wondered why this small country would risk so much in a fight between giants.
In any case Assange is refusing to go to Sweden because he is alleging that other powers have trumped up the charges to prosecute him on that because they can't prosecute him on other charges.
Well it appears that Assange is right.
If Sweden wants to make this about rape charges in Sweden then all they have to do is make this about rape charges in Sweden, and they refuse to do so. All they would have to do is state that extradition to Sweden would be for the sole purpose of the rape trial and that they would not extradite him anywhere else.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/24/new-statesman-error-assange-swedish-extradition
Assange's lawyers, along with Ecuadorean officials, have repeatedly told Sweden and Britain that Assange would immediately travel to Stockholm to face these allegations if some type of satisfactory assurance against extradition to the US could be given. This is the paramount issue because it shows that it is not Assange and Ecuadorean officials – but rather the Swedish and British governments – who are preventing the sex assault allegations from being fairly and legally resolved as they should.
This isn't about Assange, Greenwald or any particular faction at DU.
This is about supporting the First Ammendment.
Assange wasn't the guy who stole the secrets, he was the publisher. He wasn't playing the role of Ellsberg, Manning was (and I hope he is prosecuted successfully). Assange is playing the role of the NYT (in the inevitable comparison to the Pentagon Papers). While it is a crime to take secrets it hasn't been a crime, in general, to publish them. That is because of the First Ammendment. Now if Assange has in fact broken some US law, then convene a grand jury and prosecute him. I suspect that the smug little shit is too clever for that.
So I find myself in the surprising company of Ecuador, the frustrating company of Glenn Greenwald and the unwelcomed company of Assange.
This whole thing could be over in a NY minute.
Sweden could make legal assurances that the only purpose to extradite Assange is to prosecute on rape charges. Then the burden would be on Assange.
Right now it appears that this is nothing more than an attempt to make government less transparent and to weaken the First Ammendment, it is not unusual for First Ammendment fights to cause atypical allies to join together.
(For those that may have misunderstood the point that I like Assange, here I lay out in more detail my deep dislike of Assange http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021201836#post22. I don't feel that I have to actually document my previous battles with Greenwald because here he is simply relating facts that are not in dispute).
