SUBHEAD: Julian Assange sees legal protection in politics as he attempts to run for Australia Senate.
By Rod McGuirk on 17 February 2013 for Huffington Post -
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/17/julian-assange-australia-senate_n_2708161.html)
Image above: Defiance from Julian Assange and Equador in London. From (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/feb/19/hugh-muir-diary-julian-assange).
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange regards his bid to become an Australian senator as a defense against potential criminal prosecution in the United States and Britain, a news website reported on Monday.
Assange spoke to The Conversation website at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he was granted asylum in June to avoid extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations.
If he wins a Senate seat at elections on Sept. 24, Assange told the website that the U.S. Department of Justice would drop its espionage investigation rather than risk a diplomatic row.
The British government would follow suit, otherwise "the political costs of the current standoff will be higher still,"Assange told the website.
Assange supporters last week enrolled him to vote in Victoria state, a necessary step toward being nominated as a candidate.
Nominations for the Senate are likely to close on Aug. 22, and the six-year term of office would begin on July 1, 2014.
Australians living overseas can enroll to vote and consequently run as a Senate candidate if they left Australia within the past three years and intend to return within six years of their date of departure.
Assange said he was last in Australia in June 2010.
Assange plans to register a new political party, the WikiLeaks Party, to run Senate candidates in several Australian states. He told the website he was sure the party would attract the minimum 500 fee-paying members required to be registered.
WikiLeaks Australian Citizens Alliance spokeswoman Sam Castro said last week that if Assange was elected and was unable to take his Senate seat, another nominated WikiLeaks Party member would be chosen to fill the vacancy.
The party would run on a platform of transparency in government, she said.
Assange's election campaign already has the endorsement of his parents.
His father, Sydney architect John Shipton, said he will be the chief executive of the newly-formed party.
"The party stands for what Julian espouses – transparency and accountability in government and, of course, human rights," he added.
Assange's mother Christine Assange said public support indicated he would be elected.
"There is a lot of enthusiasm in people for a change," she said.
Assange told the website the Swedish allegations against him were "falling apart" and police should drop the case.
The U.S. Department of Justice has been investigating WikiLeaks since the secret-busting website began distributing hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents. But few details of that investigation have been made public.
Assange's supporters suggest the Swedish case is being pursued as an avenue to extradite him to the U.S., though the Swedish government denies it.
Video above: Julian Assange speaks to Bill Maher about Obama "Kill List" From original article.
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By Rod McGuirk on 17 February 2013 for Huffington Post -
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/17/julian-assange-australia-senate_n_2708161.html)
Image above: Defiance from Julian Assange and Equador in London. From (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/feb/19/hugh-muir-diary-julian-assange).
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange regards his bid to become an Australian senator as a defense against potential criminal prosecution in the United States and Britain, a news website reported on Monday.
Assange spoke to The Conversation website at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he was granted asylum in June to avoid extradition to Sweden on sex crime allegations.
If he wins a Senate seat at elections on Sept. 24, Assange told the website that the U.S. Department of Justice would drop its espionage investigation rather than risk a diplomatic row.
The British government would follow suit, otherwise "the political costs of the current standoff will be higher still,"Assange told the website.
Assange supporters last week enrolled him to vote in Victoria state, a necessary step toward being nominated as a candidate.
Nominations for the Senate are likely to close on Aug. 22, and the six-year term of office would begin on July 1, 2014.
Australians living overseas can enroll to vote and consequently run as a Senate candidate if they left Australia within the past three years and intend to return within six years of their date of departure.
Assange said he was last in Australia in June 2010.
Assange plans to register a new political party, the WikiLeaks Party, to run Senate candidates in several Australian states. He told the website he was sure the party would attract the minimum 500 fee-paying members required to be registered.
WikiLeaks Australian Citizens Alliance spokeswoman Sam Castro said last week that if Assange was elected and was unable to take his Senate seat, another nominated WikiLeaks Party member would be chosen to fill the vacancy.
The party would run on a platform of transparency in government, she said.
Assange's election campaign already has the endorsement of his parents.
His father, Sydney architect John Shipton, said he will be the chief executive of the newly-formed party.
"The party stands for what Julian espouses – transparency and accountability in government and, of course, human rights," he added.
Assange's mother Christine Assange said public support indicated he would be elected.
"There is a lot of enthusiasm in people for a change," she said.
Assange told the website the Swedish allegations against him were "falling apart" and police should drop the case.
The U.S. Department of Justice has been investigating WikiLeaks since the secret-busting website began distributing hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents. But few details of that investigation have been made public.
Assange's supporters suggest the Swedish case is being pursued as an avenue to extradite him to the U.S., though the Swedish government denies it.
Video above: Julian Assange speaks to Bill Maher about Obama "Kill List" From original article.
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1 comment :
Many Julian Assange sympathizers don't know that Assange works for Israel's Mossad, who conduct terror and crime worldwide. If I may quote Gordon Duff of the Veteran's Today website, from 10/10/2011:
"A little over a year ago, articles began to come out exposing Wikileaks as an intelligence operation. What was seen was simple. No matter what was leaked, in the end, Wikileaks parroted Israeli policy and advocated a war on Pakistan and Iran.
They sounded just like Senator John McCain, “Bomb, bomb, bomb….bomb, bomb Iran…” (sung to the tune of the Beach Boys “Barbara Ann”)
First it was found Julian Assange was “sensitive” to the needs of Israel. Then he announced that investigations of 9/11 were a “distraction.” Then his “love affair” with Israeli Likudist Rupert Murdoch of Fox News/Newscorp spying fame came to light.
Then it was found he allowed the mainstream papers to censor leaks, aided by Israeli intelligence. Then a money trail came to light, book deals, payoffs, rich friends, all pointing at Tel Aviv. Then it was learned that many of his leaks were no leaks at all but material invented to be leaked, written by the Mossad, a fact exposed by Zbigniew Brzezinski, of the Council on Foreign Relations."
Just a heads up.
Jenny
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