Assange's bizarre interview with Agencia Pública de Noticias del Ecuador y Suramérica (ANDES)
is predictably filled with the Assange's fantasies and double-talk
He speaks of "persecution by the U.S. against me and other WikiLeaks people" and further says "We are extremely grateful to Ecuador" that "prosecution by U.S. or extradition proceedings against me or other people connected to Wikileaks, will take place following the granting of asylum in Ecuador"
Of course, there is no actual evidence of US persecution of Assange or other Wikileaks personnel. And the only known prosecution of any Wikileaks staff is the pending Swedish prosecution of Assange for sexual assault. Moreover, Ecuador has not offered any general asylum to Wikileaks staff. In fact, Ecuador's August announcement regarding Assange mentions Wikileaks only once: "Ecuador wrote, asking the US government ... whether there is an ongoing legal process ... against Julian Assange and/or founders of the organization Wikileaks ... The U.S. response has been that ... the Assange case ... is a bilateral issue between Ecuador and the United Kingdom." So in reality, Ecuador is protecting only Assange -- and not Wikileaks in general
Assange further says: "... my primary task is to continue to keep our people safe from any U.S. attack against WikiLeaks. That is, demand the U.S. do the right thing and abandon its campaign against us. Once they do this, their military allies of the United Kingdom and Sweden will too ..." It is not entirely clear here who "our people" might be. Available financial information for Wikileaks suggests that Assange is the only staff member paid any substantial salary. It seems very unlikely that "our people" refers to the people who took risks to provide materials to Wikileaks. For example, when two Kenyan activists were killed after Wikileaks publication of Kenyan materials, Assange merely said that they hadn't been careful enough. And Assange has similarly shown very little interest in helping Bradley Manning, whose document release is the major reason for Assange's current fame: in a year when his organization took in nearly $2 million, Assange promised $50K for Manning's defense and used Manning's name for fundraising purposes -- but he only ever delivered $15K. The natural impression will be that Assange is mainly interested in protecting himself
Nor is it clear, when Assange claims to be defending everybody from US "attacks," exactly what "attacks" he is imagining. He does manage to mention that Sweden and the UK are military allies of the US: could he really believe the US is plotting some paramilitary operation against him? No -- it seems far more likely that he simply wishes to obfuscate his flat-out refusal to face the sexual assault complaints of his Swedish sexual partners
He claims that "Like Cuba, we are subject to blockades from Washington" citing problems "collecting online donations made with credit cards" and claims that these "locks ... are political and operate outside the law," adding "much work is needed to combat large organizations such as VISA and Bank Of America." In fact, there's just no evidence of a US blockade of Wikileaks: Assange may have real problems with large financial institutions -- but then why does he need to imagine some Federal conspiracy? Neither VISA nor BoA is headquartered in DC: VISA's offices are in San Francisco and BoA's are in Charlotte. And given the way he yanked BoA's chain -- snickering about how much fun he had making them squirm and later saying he really didn't have anything on them -- it wouldn't be at all surprising if company lawyers put in a bit of overtime, trying to figure out how they could get even with him
How richly ironic it is, that Assange complains he believes other people "operate outside the law" when he has skipped bail to avoid extradition for a criminal prosecution!
The interview ends on a similar self-serving note, when the interviewer asks: "In your work in WikiLeaks, did you ever imagine you would be stuck in such a political crisis as this?" And Assange replies: "my greatest regret is that my children did not agree to this cost." But, of course, this is more of his usual vacuous claptrap: his son Daniel, estranged from him for years, describes his father as ""a criminal mastermind"
Julian Assange: El presidente Rafael Correa ha demostrado que no tiene miedo a aferrarse a sus principios sobre soberanía nacional
Enviado por Edwin.Ulloa en Lun, 09/17/2012 - 14:24
http://andes.info.ec/node/6526
TEXTO COMPLETO: Declaración del gobierno de Ecuador dando asilo a Assange
http://www.democraticunderground.com/11084744
... The main beneficiary has been founder Julian Assange, who has drawn 66,000 Euros (about $86,000) in salary thus far this year, the Journal reports. Wau Holland has paid a total of 100,000 Euros in salaries to the entire WikiLeaks staff, which means Assange is getting the lion's share ...
WikiLeaks' Julian Assange Now Making $86k/year
December 24, 2010 1:50 PM
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20026597-503543.html
... he told MoJo about two Kenyan human rights activists with links to a WikiLeaks leak who were later gunned down, their mistake was that they 'weren't acting in an anonymous way' ...
Behind the Arrest of Alleged Wikileaks Source
Max Fisher
Jun 7, 2010
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2010/06/behind-the-arrest-of-alleged-wikileaks-source/24178/
WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy Web site, has yet to make good on a July pledge to contribute financial aid to the legal defense fund of a U.S. Army private suspected of leaking classified documents to the site, the fund's director said Tuesday ... According to Paterson, Courage to Resist corresponded with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in July and on subsequent occasions confirming that WikiLeaks would cover about half of the expected fees, or $50,000, for Manning's defense. On its Twitter page, WikiLeaks frequently solicited donations for the defense fund through a German charity, the Wau Holland Foundation ...
WikiLeaks hasn't fulfilled financial-aid pledge for suspect in leaks, group says
By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 7, 2010; 10:36 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/07/AR2010120704817.html?sid=ST2010120701470
WikiLeaks Contributes $15,000 to Bradley Manning’s Defense
By Kim Zetter
01.13.11 2:50 PM
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/01/manning-donations/
... "I think it's great," Assange told the venerable US television news magazine 60 Minutes on Sunday evening. "We have all these banks squirming, thinking maybe it's them." ...
Assange relishes US banks 'squirming' over 'megaleak'
Accuses America of chucking free speech in rubbish bin
By Cade Metz in San Francisco
31st January 2011 05:06 GMT
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/31/assange_says_us_cant_take_wikileaks_down/
WikiLeaks has data from Bank of America Corp., but founder Julian Assange isn't sure whether it holds any big news and it may be difficult to interpret, according to a Reuters report this week ... "Assange privately acknowledged the material was not self-explanatory and that he personally was unable to make much sense of it," the Reuters story Wednesday stated, citing the sources. "Assange indicated it would require a substantial amount of effort by financial experts to determine whether any of the material was newsworthy." ...
WikiLeaks: Assange doubts value of Bank of America e-mails
Posted on Friday, February 11, 2011
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/02/11/108626/wikileaks-assange-doubts-value.html
... "That man does have a way of making a lot of female enemies," Daniel Assange, 21, said about his embattled dad ... In a Twitter post, Daniel has called his dad "a criminal mastermind with a political vision" ... He describes himself as "estranged" from his dad, who waged a nasty custody battle with the boy's mother in the early 1990s. She has never been publicly identified ...
My Wiki dad's just awful with the ladies
Leaker's son speaks out on sex case
By JEANE MacINTOSH and ADA CALHOUN
Last Updated: 8:43 AM, August 27, 2010
Posted: 4:37 AM, August 27, 2010
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/my_wiki_dad_just_awful_with_the_lPuc6BTUKeNNMwZLeUTFJK
