Progressive Pakistani bloggers in support of Julian Assange

I endorse the following petition by the Reader Supported News (RSN) and express my dissatisfaction with the timing and the veracity of charges levelled against Julian Assange.

On behalf of progressive, anti-establishment Pakistani bloggers, I am writing this post as an expression of our full support for Julian Assange and his right to free speech. We commend his services towards exposing the neo-colonial Empire of the USA and the network of its stooges around the world in particular its military servants in Pakistan and monarchical servants in Saudi Arabia. (Abdul Nishapuri)

Petition

We here undersigned express our support for the work and integrity of Julian Assange. We express concern that the charges against the WikiLeaks founder appear too convenient both in terms of timing and the novelty of their nature.

We call for this modern media innovator, and fighter for human rights extraordinaire, to be afforded the same rights to defend himself before Swedish justice that all others similarly charged might expect, and that his liberty not be compromised as a courtesy to those governments whose truths he has revealed have embarrassed.

In earnest support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange:

You can sign the petition at the following link:

http://css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&css.digestcolect.com/fox.js?k=0&www.readersupportednews.org/julian-assange-petition

In Support of Julian Assange
November 27th, 2010
Source: Thomas Davis

I have wrestled with this concept for some time; that of the full openness of Wikileaks; of publishing, without restraint, all of the materials they have. Wikileaks has put on the internet, for the entire world to see, so many state secrets and embarrassing documents that the world governments are virtually conspiring to silence him (bringing into reality the far-fetched fiction of novelists and psychotics). Is Julian Assange a visionary or an anarchist?

Many of his friends and supporters have abandoned him. He has been labeled a fugitive by Sweden for sex crimes – Sex crimes in Sweden!? – one of the only countries able to do so without it looking like retaliation for his postings. Julian Assange has been blamed for the suggested deaths of honorable patriots from leaked information of enormous quantities. He is a renegade in a modern world where such a notoriety is all but obsolete.

Yet, Julian Assange has stayed the course. He lives like a paranoid conspiracy theorist and alien abductionist combined into one neurotic soul – with good cause. The world is out to get him. The powers that be can’t silence him so they influence others to, they have made numerous imagined attempts to either make him unstable or appear so, to get him to question his own course, to get him to throw in the towel as not being worth the trouble.

I’ve read the articles damning his actions and their results. I’ve seen reports on some of his (supposed) results. I’ve felt the fear rise as I imagined being in his shoes (I don’t know how he does it). I’ve also felt the conviction with which he is empowered. Most of all I have tried to balance all the goods and evils of his work.

I decided against what he does as being a “good thing” for the world today. It took a while but that was the position I came to. And I don’t come to any position lightly.

One of my greatest angst of the day is that people take positions on every topic, from the guilt or innocence of the latest felon in the news to the agenda of congress or the White House, by listening to others’ opinions, whether it be columnists or talk show hosts. Rarely does any of the proletariat consider or even apprise themselves of the facts before forming an opinion or taking a position. Most of the average people in this country allow others to think for them. I point to the working class as the more educated tend to give more consideration to the facts but they too are subject to this lethargy of idealism just a bit less so.

But it kept at me, this basic concept which must be driving Julian to keep at it. I considered that we all need secrets and even need to tell lies at times. Much of these same fundamental ideas are the same as those advanced and propitiated in support of positions to stop his work. The hardest retorts are those that claim patriotic lives are lost, that good men and women serving their country are killed from his “childish idealism.”

I came to a point, in my considerations, where someday – I always love those “someday” arguments; their such a cop out – his views would be relevant. We imagine a perfect world, someday, where governments hold no secrets and actually existed for the good of the people, where kindness and brotherhood are more than words in poems and great quotes. As I indicated the problem with these someday arguments is that they are both an admission of what is right and an excuse for denying it.

With hesitation, I understood Julian Assange is doing the right thing. He is persisting on a course that most others would have abandoned long ago. Julian Assange is a true world changer, one of those great souls that are chastised in their own time. Some time in the future historians will look back at his efforts and mark him as one who had great affect on the course of history. Much is left to be written yet but he shall, will, and has inspired others to follow in his path. Even as those supporters of his jumped ship more boarded, albeit silently and without his knowledge, but on board they are. Julian has began writing a new book, one that has many volumes and one that will have many contributors. The time of governments keeping secrets has reached its peak and is now on a downward slope.

What is needed is more of those brave souls that broke the secrets to WikiLeaks. More from other countries, especially. I ask what if the leaks came from Iran, China, or any other of our world’s current antagonists instead of the US and its allies, what if the information was highly useful to our governements? Would the wave of opposition to Julian be so full spectrum? He would be a hero (and probably have been assassinated). By doing what he is doing he inspires others to break their codes of silence and expose the dirt that keeps them up at night.

Keeping WikiLeaks up and running gives new hope in Someday. Julian Assange is one person to finally ask the obvious question that’s been hanging right before our eyes and yet no one saw it, Why can’t someday be today?

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