Crossroads News : Changes In The World Around Us And Our Place In It
Whistle Blowers
Democracy Now
In his first public appearance since he took refuge two months ago inside Ecuador’s embassy in London, Julian Assange calls for President Obama to end his war on whistleblowers. “The United States must renounce its witch hunt against WikiLeaks. The United States must dissolve its FBI investigation. The United States must vow that it will not seek to prosecute our staff or our supporters,” Assange says. “The United States must pledge before the world that it will not pursue journalists for shining a light on the secret crimes of the powerful.” Assange spoke from a windowsill near a small balcony on the second floor of the Ecuadorean embassy as dozens of police officers looked on. He carefully did not step onto the balcony, which is considered outside the legal boundary of the embassy. The diplomatic standoff between Ecuador and Britain continues this week after Assange was granted political asylum by Ecuador, but U.K. authorities say they will arrest Assange and extradite him to Sweden. [includes rush transcript]
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder and editor-in-chief.
Tariq Ali, Ex-U.K. Ambassador Craig Murray Praise Ecuador for Granting Asylum to Julian Assange
Shortly before Julian Assange spoke on Sunday, a number of his supporters spoke outside the Ecuadorean embassy. Speakers included writer and activist Tariq Ali, as well as Craig Murray, the former British ambassador to Uzbekistan. Murray, a whistleblower himself, was removed from office in 2004 after he exposed how the United States and Britain supported torture by the Uzbek regime. “The fact that [British Foreign Secretary] William Hague now openly threatens the Ecuadoreans with the invasion of their sovereign premises is one further example of a total abandonment of the very concept of international law by the neoconservative juntas that are currently ruling the former Western democracies,” Murray says. [includes rush transcript]
Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan. He was removed from office in 2004 after he exposed how the United States and Britain supported torture by the Uzbek regime.
Tariq Ali, British-Pakistani author and activist. He is editor of New Left Review and author of many books, including Pirates of the Caribbean: Axis of Hope.
Related articles
- ‘War on whistleblowers must end!’ – Assange Speech at Ecuador Embassy (libertycrier.com)
- Wikileaks’ Julian Assange exposes truth about evil empires and their war on journalists, whistleblowers (talesfromthelou.wordpress.com)
- Julian Assange Demands That The U.S. Stop Persecuting Wikileaks (webpronews.com)
- Ecuador Assange’s tower in London (euronews.com)
- Oh what a circus…Julian Assange taunts UK and demands end to America’s ‘war on whistleblowers’ in tirade on embassy balcony (dailymail.co.uk)
- Julian Assange takes aim at US as diplomatic row deepens (oddonion.com)
- Assange speaks from Ecuador embassy balcony, slams U.S. ‘witch hunt’ | The Lookout – Yahoo! News (nadernazemi.com)
- Assange Urges US to End ‘War on Whistleblowers’ (news.antiwar.com)
- Assange tells Obama to stop ‘witchhunt’ against WikiLeaks (english.ruvr.ru)
- Brits Say They Will Not Let Julian Assange Leave The Country (outsidethebeltway.com)
