WikiLeaks- Is It A Witch-hunt?

WikiLeaks- Is It A Witch-hunt?

Is the persecution of Julian Assange just to take the spotlight off of Obama, the biggest leak[er] of them all?  What is good for the goose my friend, should be just as good for the gander.

By de Andréa

August 19, 2012

Julian Assange, founder of the Wikileaks on line blog, has no place to hang his leaky computer these days.  A man, now seemingly without a country, has at least temporarily been granted asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.  He says that he is not so concerned what Great Britain will do to him or even Sweden for that matter but his greatest fear is that they will give him up to the United States - and Obama…  

Assange speaks from the Ecuador embassy balcony, and slams Obama’s ‘witch hunt’. 

Julian Assange emerged from a window onto a small balcony of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London last Sunday, where he made his first public remarks since being granted asylum.

"I ask President Obama to do the right thing," said Assange, who's been holed up in the embassy since June.  "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."

A crowd of 200 gathered near the embassy to hear Assange speak as dozens of London police officers--who had created a wide barrier in front of the embassy--stood watch.

Watch a Slideshow: The scene outside the embassy.

On Thursday, Ecuador's foreign minister announced that the country would grant asylum to Assange, defying threats by the British government to storm the Ecuadorian embassy and extradite Assange to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning in cases of alleged rape and sexual molestation.

"We have decided to grant political asylum to him," Ricardo Patino said at the end of a long televised statement from the Ecuadorian capital of Quito, where he criticized the U.S. and U.K. governments for failing to protect Assange from political persecution.

"The sun came up on a different world," Assange said, "and a courageous Latin American nation took a stand for justice."

Assange also called for the release of Bradley Manning, the former U.S. army intelligence analyst accused of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks.  "If Bradley Manning did as he is accused, he is a hero and an example to all of us and one of the world's foremost political prisoners," Assange said.

Assange fears that if he were extradited to Sweden, he would immediately be extradited to the United States, which has condemned WikiLeaks' publication of classified documents, he is afraid that he will encounter the same fate as Bradley Manning.  Assange and his supporters say the U.S. would charge him with espionage; the U.S. has not said whether or not it would pursue charges against him.

The foreign minister said that Ecuador asked Sweden to promise it would not extradite Assange to the United States, but Sweden refused.

Related article: Ecuador grants Assange asylum; UK vows to 'carry out' extradition anyway.

It's unclear what will happen to Assange now.  U.K. authorities say his asylum is a violation of his probation, and he'll be arrested if he tried to leave the embassy.  "We will not allow Mr. Assange safe passage out of the United Kingdom," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said at a press conference last week.  "Nor is there any legal basis for us to do so.  The United Kingdom does not recognize the principle of diplomatic asylum."

In 2010, Swedish prosecutors in Stockholm issued warrants to question Assange about alleged sex crimes involving a pair of former WikiLeaks volunteers.  Assange claims the charges are part of an international smear campaign stemming from WikiLeaks' publication of diplomatic cables.

After a brief international manhunt, Assange turned himself in to London police in December 2010.  He was granted bail and placed under house arrest.  After Assange's appeals to fight his extradition to Sweden were denied, he fled to the Ecuadorean Embassy.

THE BOTTOM LINE:  Don’t misunderstand my intent, or purpose for writing this article.  I do not condone the leaking of classified information of any kind no matter what it is or who it is, especially when you are part of any kind of Government operation such as Bradley Manning a U.S. Army specialist in intelligence in Iraq.  But while Assange and Manning may be facing life in prison or even the death penalty for treason and/or espionage, president Obama leaks military intelligence live on NBC and is called a hero!

There is something about this that somehow seems out of balance to me.  My opinion… and I can give my opinion because this is my blog, my opinion is that this prosecution no matter how warranted it is, is an attempted smokescreen to pass the attention away from Obama’s own treasonous behavior and on to WikiLeaks and Manning.  I would go so far as to say, I suspect a fabricated smear of Julian Assange in the Sweden sex charges,   if only because this is not beyond the perimeter of what Obama is capable of.

So I guess what I am trying to say is…  If we are going to persecute and/or prosecute Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as well as Bradley Manning for treasonous attacks on America and condemn them to death for their’ actions, then we should also charge Obama with high-treason and if he is found guilty of aiding and abetting the enemy in time of war he should also be condemned to death.  Watch a video titled Dishonorable Disclosures and you will see what I mean.

What is good for the goose is good for the gander my friend.

Remember this, come November…

de Andréa