People armed with the truth
Julian Assange has now spent six months in one building. Not being able to go outside or walk the street, it is equivalent to being in prison. How have we come to the situation that in a country that claims to be civilised a man is living under a form of house arrest? Assange knows that if he leaves the embassy he will be arrested. He then fears extradition to Sweden and then to the USA. He quite understandably fears what the USA will do to him. In a speech lasting over 10 minutes he spoke of what Wikileaks will do in the future and how he will stand up to bullies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84qq8Q1zlSc
He spoke of jailed journalists and Bradley Manning who are in worse situations than his. His voice was strong and it was a powerful speech that scotched any idea that he is cowed. ‘You can’t build a skyscraper out of plasticine, and you can’t build a just civilisation out of ignorance and lives,’ he commented in his rhetorical style. ‘Celebrate those who reveal the truth,’ he said, noting that the Pentagon has referred to the continued existence of Wikileaks as ‘an ongoing crime’. Are the Swedish sex crime allegations made against him politically motivated? If so then he is a brave man fighting a battle for life and death. He finished with a call for everyone to ‘challenge those behind the facade of democracy and monarchy. Learn, challenge, act, now’.
Then he was gone back into the embassy, a shadow behind a white curtain – an image reminiscent of the forces he is fighting.
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