Image by Michael Fleshman via Flickr
LSUDVM on Jun 30, 2013
June 30, 2013 ABC News
Appearing exclusively on This Week, Julian Assange discussed his and NSA leaker Edward Snowden’s respective asylum situations, as well as the United States’ “disgraceful” treatment of Snowden in revoking his passport.
“There’s little I can productively say about what is happening,” Assange told host George Stephanopoulos when pressed for details on Snowden’s current whereabouts. “Why is it that Mr. Snowden is not in the United States? He should feel that he should be afforded justice in the United States,” Assange lamented, “but his situation is very similar to a situation that I face and that my staff face where we have been sucked into a grand jury Alexandria, Virginia.
Assange explained that the particular district in northern Virginia typically has jury pools made up of CIA and Pentagon workers, and is known as “rocket docket” for its “lack of scrutiny procedures” and high conviction rates.
“I think there are several countries where it is politically possible for Mr. Snowden to receive asylum,” Assange later added. “He has acted in a manner to draw attention to a very serious problem in the United States where, without the will of Congress, without the will of the American population, we now have a state within a state, we have the transnational surveillance apparatus,” he said. “No one signed up for this. Obama doesn’t have a mandate. They have been taken for a ride.”
Stephanopoulos noted that Secretary of State John Kerry has asserted that the Snowden leaks have put American lives at risk, prompting Assange to dismiss the rhetoric as “false” and pointing to his own WikiLeaks scandal, which he said has yet to prove harmful to any government officials or citizens.
Assange went on to rebuke Vice President Joe Biden for personally calling the president of Ecuador to pressure him into balking at asylum for Snowden. The U.S. government also revoked Snowden’s passport, which Assange called a “disgraceful” action.
“By cancelling his passport, [the U.S.] has left [Snowden] for the moment marooned in Russia,” he said. “I think that every citizen has the right to their citizenship, to take someone’s principle form of citizenship their passport, is a disgrace.”
“He is a hero,” Assange said of Snowden. “He has told the people of the world and the United States that there is mass unlawful interception of their communications.”
Julian Assange’s interview on This Week: Praises Edward Snowden as a hero
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[h/t: flyingcuttlefish]
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Ecuador Defies US Threats To Deny NSA Whistleblower Refuge
Sundrumify on Jul 1, 2013
Michael Ratner: As Ecuador stands up to US pressure over Snowden, leaked documents continue to shed light into US surveillance state
video no longer available
see
If It’s All Kosher, NSA, Why Lie? by William Boardman
Socialism 2013–Glenn Greenwald: Courage is Contagious + Transcript
William Blum: Snowden Would Be Better Off in Cuba, Less Chance of a Coup D’état
Dandelion Salad 
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It certainly bothers me that I am being spied upon and so by the very country that proclaims to favour ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights’. This is the epitome of hypocrisy. Kudos to Manning, Assange and Snowden – the empire’s mask has fallen, the emperor and his court are being caught with the pants down and don’t like it one bit. Too drafty?
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I don’t know exactly why, but I can’t “get right” with this Snowden character….but, I am not sure Assange’s motives are what I would like them to be. If folks would focus a little more on what was revealed instead of making “braveheart folks heros” out of self promoters, maybe I could “get with the program”
It is wise to be cautious when so much is at stake, globally.
Naomi Wolf has just posted a short article on Global Research describing her “creeping concerns” about the Snowden revelations.
In a world of triple-speak, masks, political mirror neurons, rogue elements, tactical counter intelligence, full spectrum strategy ~ contrivance and deception are the only things of which we can be certain.
The question is cui bono? What’s the real game? Who’s calling whose bluff? What are the odds?
I could be wrong but I doubt Naomi Wolf posted her article on Global Research. Instead Global Research posted her article from her website. See: http://naomiwolf.org/2013/06/my-creeping-concern-that-the-nsa-leaker-is-not-who-he-purports-to-be/ There is a follow-up article, too: http://naomiwolf.org/2013/06/some-aspects-of-snowdens-presentation-that-i-find-worth-further-inquiry-an-update/
I read that awhile back….thanks (I forget where is was posted that I read it) I think my prob with “him” (not really with him) is the jump to call anyone a hero and then, totally ignoring any negative effects of what they did, ignoring other motives they may have had (“they are pure, they are a hero, if you dont think so you are as asshole”) and, worst of all, doing absolutely nothing (like maybe, marching en masse—million person march?) in response except further chats with the not multi millionaire Assange (who asks for $1 m for participation in a movie interview now), and the media trail like “where is waldo?”{ It just turns me off so much I stop talking about it (well I guess I just did again)
Thanks for the link Lo, interesting.
Maybe we are all becoming over-informed. I remember the trend toward colossal over-load of printed matter in the eighties. Now we are becoming internet-blind.
Frankly I suspect anyone who expects me to read more than a page of opinion, of over-estimating their own “intelligence…” as almost anyone can express themselves freely online.
Not sure where this is all heading. Political Babel perhaps?
Looks to me like we’re a planet of billions with a war economy of trillions.
Weapons rule. The question is, what constitutes a legitimate weapon? If so, what can it really achieve? Can it grow a marine ecosystem? Restore an old-growth forest? Detect alien civilizations?
Yes, I agree with you on “information overload”.
On this topic, I stand with Greenwald. I believe he knows Snowden the best. See:
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2013/06/29/socialism-2013-glenn-greenwald-courage-is-contagious-transcript/
Thanks Lo, I appreciate the transcript link.
I think Naomi Wolf’s (updated) remarks are relevant, but my own instinct is that the house of cards is tumbling, and it won’t take much more to disenfranchise the entire tricky shambolic box of clever monkeys.
Can the illicit default system regroup and redeploy its insane de facto powers? That’s the big question. We dare not be naive about this, as the greater public is heinously irresponsible & resistant to moral dilemmas, usually anticipating simple answers on a plate.
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