Julian Assange

Well said Faye , nice that some people don't believe everything that the media throw up.

PS effbinder don't especially believe everything the David Allen Green writes as 'fact'. He is a solicitor, works for a media company and was formerly the Treasury Solicitor! No vested interests of course.

Nanadogsbody thank heavens for your well thought out and unbiased post. I agree with everything you say.

Also agree with Greatnan that just because someone is innocent certainly doesn't mean you have nothing to fear, especially if you have been whistle blowing again the USA.

There are so many posts on this thread which are hating and derogatory based on little more than the looks of the man or some sixth sense about his character (presumably since none of us have met him only based on media representations).

I don't hate him. I don't think he's worth that.

Perhaps no one should make any comments on here unless they agree with the original poster, and are sure they are going to be well received by the majority?

Maybe Josie or Geraldine could enlighten me on that point as I'm finding it a bit difficult to judge when I am ok in posting.

or Cari of course!

Assange and the President of Ecuador made friends when slagging off the United States while broadcasting in Russia. Ecuador and Russia are both deeply corrupt states with a powerful and corrosive control over their media. Assange made an oblique comparison of his situation with that of Pussy Riot (is that the correct name?) in his Juliet moment, suggesting that he was being persecuted in the same way as they have been. Quite what persecution he has suffered wasn't revealed. He also claimed to have been under house arrest and, while it is true that he was under curfew while on bail, his so-called house arrest didn't prevent him from travelling to the Ecuadorean Embassy in Knightsbridge.

I repeat that I have no idea whether he is guilty of sexual assault and rape. He is, however, a master of distorting the truth when it affects him – as well as revealing it when it affects others.

I still don't under stand why the American documents are called cables. Is it just tradition?

Nice one jo4

Thanks petallus. And JO4 I posted knowing my remarks would not be "well received by the majority" given the trend of the conversation so far, so that is patently not the case.

I had written a much longer post but have deleted most of it for obvious reasons?£@:*^+%!!

In the interests of balance, here's an article from the Guardian on line:
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/21/why-us-is-out-to-get-assange

Thank you Annobel. I think that article puts the other side of the argument clearly. As you say it creates balance..at last.

Well Nanadogsbody, I don't know what your "obvious reasons" for deleting your post was.

And if that was a swear word at the end, again

Just read the Guardian article.

I find myself agreeing with everything in it. It's exactly what I've been thinking for weeks but couldn't have articulated it anywhere near as well.

"But the virulence of British media hostility towards the WikiLeaks founder is now unrelenting"

I say it again. It's because he looks such a twerp.

Best you don't know JO4 ; interesting that you comment in a throw-away remark and not on the serious content of my post. And, no, it wasn't a swear word, more of an expletive.

Love the funny 'confused' faces.

Well, I don't want you deleting anything for my sake. You carry on.

(I don't read long posts )

I just feel that governments, US and ours, are probably doing the best they can under extreme circumstances. Nothing is ever going to snowy white, not where evil regimes, terrorism, and the like are concerned.

I don't think wikileaks help in any way. It must be easy for them to put stuff up on the internet. They have not got the responsibility of protecting societies, and they weren't the victims of the dreadful atrocities we and the US have had to put up with. Evil people breed evil deeds.

It's terrible when innocent people are harmed, whatever race they belong to.

Sounds quite a reasonable article. But like Pythagoras ' I abstain from beans'

And he should go to Sweden to answer the sexual offences charges there. There is no reason to believe he will be deported on to the US.

Thanks for the permission to carry on!

Feel free!

Nanadogsbody what is the difference between an expletive and a swear word ? {grin]

Nothing is as simple as it seems. The Grauniad is almost certainly going to be pro-Assange (in many ways, quite rightly) because it was the UK newspaper that published the WikiLeaks material. There is always the issue of a potential venomous and vengeful legal case in the US. However, although there is no suggestion that Assange is a serial rapist or even an unsavoury groper, unlike a well-known figure (DSK) mentioned earlier, that doesn't mean the allegations are automatically invalid or that they shouldn't be pursued. (Let me remind you of the black cab driver who spent years raping women because the police didn't believe that a man with "the knowledge" would do such a thing.) He is a slippery creature – perhaps he has to be to run WickiLeaks in the first place – and he is perfectly willing to be less than completely open with the truth about himself.

Of course, it is absurd to suggest that if you are innocent, you have nothing to fear but please remember we are talking about Sweden which I would suggest is a far more civilized and rational country than this one and certainly one that spends a lot less time than the UK hanging on to the US's coat tails.

Just for the record, I profoundly hope that Assange is innocent of the alleged assaults.

Nandogsbody was it 'shite'!?

OR.... 'eff off'!

I wouldn't blame you with either.

phew!!!!!!

Glad that's sorted...