Video - Jullian Assange of Wikileaks. Should those calling for his murder should be held to account?
rawstory | The editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks called on US authorities to seek charges against high-profile Republicans Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee for "incitements to kill" by the use of "violent rhetoric" against the anti- secrecy outlet.
Julian Assange's plea came in a press release Monday night in the aftermath of the Tucson murders Saturday that left 6 dead and 14 others wounded, the victims of which included Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and federal judge John Roll.
"No organisation anywhere in the world is a more devoted advocate of free speech than WikiLeaks but when senior politicians and attention seeking media commentators call for specific individuals or groups of people to be killed they should be charged with incitement -- to murder," Assange said, mentioning comments made by, among others, Palin and Huckabee, two likely contenders for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.
In recent months, as WikiLeaks has engaged in the unauthorized leaks of embarrassing state secrets about the US and other countries, Huckabee has called for the "execution" of Assange, while Palin has urged authorities to pursue him "with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders."
"Those who call for an act of murder deserve as significant share of the guilt as those raising a gun to pull the trigger," said Assange, who is presently under house arrest in England and faces a court trial for alleged sex crimes.
WikiLeaks has likewise become the target of a criminal investigation by the Obama administration and has been cast as a villain by top Republicans, Democrats, and media figures, several of whom have likened him to a terrorist.
Assange cited commentators at Fox News and the conservative website TownHall.com for inflammatory language against his group, heeding the Arizona murders as a warning sign that violent rhetoric can perhaps lead to violence.
"WikiLeaks has many young staff, volunteers and supporters in the same geographic vicinity as these the broadcast or circulation of these incitements to kill," he said, adding: "We call on US authorities and others to protect the rule of law by aggressively prosecuting these and similar incitements to kill."
rawstory | The editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks called on US authorities to seek charges against high-profile Republicans Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee for "incitements to kill" by the use of "violent rhetoric" against the anti- secrecy outlet.
Julian Assange's plea came in a press release Monday night in the aftermath of the Tucson murders Saturday that left 6 dead and 14 others wounded, the victims of which included Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and federal judge John Roll.
"No organisation anywhere in the world is a more devoted advocate of free speech than WikiLeaks but when senior politicians and attention seeking media commentators call for specific individuals or groups of people to be killed they should be charged with incitement -- to murder," Assange said, mentioning comments made by, among others, Palin and Huckabee, two likely contenders for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.
In recent months, as WikiLeaks has engaged in the unauthorized leaks of embarrassing state secrets about the US and other countries, Huckabee has called for the "execution" of Assange, while Palin has urged authorities to pursue him "with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders."
"Those who call for an act of murder deserve as significant share of the guilt as those raising a gun to pull the trigger," said Assange, who is presently under house arrest in England and faces a court trial for alleged sex crimes.
WikiLeaks has likewise become the target of a criminal investigation by the Obama administration and has been cast as a villain by top Republicans, Democrats, and media figures, several of whom have likened him to a terrorist.
Assange cited commentators at Fox News and the conservative website TownHall.com for inflammatory language against his group, heeding the Arizona murders as a warning sign that violent rhetoric can perhaps lead to violence.
"WikiLeaks has many young staff, volunteers and supporters in the same geographic vicinity as these the broadcast or circulation of these incitements to kill," he said, adding: "We call on US authorities and others to protect the rule of law by aggressively prosecuting these and similar incitements to kill."
1 comments:
Thoughtfulness and Statesmanship are missing in our collapsing Empire; if one read novels and accounts of Britain’s, we would understand what we see now deeper. Policing the integrity of one’s system is one thing done even among insects; the irresponsibility and circumventing civil law is quite different. In Arizona Glock (btw never had a 30 banana clip in the Nam) sales when up after the shooting, as if, I the person needs to keep up with the weapon of choice. I find it a sad commentary. Our gun manufacturing is the most productive of all our classic manufacturing. Says quite a bit; Julian Assange’s plea raises conscious about the mores’ of my nation.
I was watching Green Hornet (1966) on Syfy last night. Bruce Lee is an immortal of mine. I was struck by a few things. 1) The level of violence was soft, and it had introduced some great techie tools already. It was all about the craftiness of the Euro male star and Lee. 2) I would agree that the depiction of violence got truer with Holden in the Wild Bunch 1969, and of course my man Lee Marvin in Point Blank 1967. Yet there was a separation of drama with brilliant punctuations of violent act. Today the drama is the violent tones. 3) Politics and governances cannot be ruled by the same praxis, even if we accept our rough talking tradition. It has become us in our political engagement, and history teaches that even though hate speech does not equate hate action; it is the ecology that is created that triggers the possibility of organized putsches against governance. No open violent political ruling comes over night; it has to evolve, in a space where social contemplation and compassion is weak. Of course I will see the new Green Hornet, it gives honor to our great Bruce Lee, who understood righteous and responsibility in the use of violence. And it will be more violent, yet replace the cartoon nature of the original.
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