P
petercj
As most people will know, Julian Assange is currently seeking asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy because he believes that if taken to Sweden re enquiries on an allegation of sexual offences he will be extradited to the USA to suffer for the sins of shaking the US establishment at its very roots by whistle blowing in the way that he has become famous for.
This week the British Government have talked of storming the Embassy and removing him by force, which caused me to do a double-take on the details, only to find that 'yes', we are talking about an Embassy in London, and 'yes' it was the British Government and not some far off Right Wing dictatorship that was making the threats.
I've just listened to a repeat of this weeks edition of Any Questions on BBC Radio 4, and I was quite shocked by the biased and bigoted line taken by the panel, being a hand-picked bunch of middle-class members of the establishment, no doubt selected by the BBC for their "intellectual" and "impartial views" - clearly not!
The first thing to be mentioned was that, apparently, it is costing £50.000 per day to put a police guard on the Embassy. For the purpose of clarity and to avoid any confusion, that is: fifty thousand pounds per day!!!
So my first thought was: how the .... can it cost £50K per day to put a police guard on a few doors?
This statement, be it true or false, gave impetus to the criticism of Assange right from the start of the discussion for: "costing the British tax-payer £50k per day". No one questioned the figure, but then as the esteemed panel were clearly out to down Assange as much as they could, perhaps that's not surprising.
Assange was called an "idiot", and generally discredited and insulted by the panel. The term: "facing charges" was used a number of times, when in fact, he hasn't been charged with anything as yet.
No mention was made of the fact that he has agreed to be interviewed by the Swedish police re these matters at the Embassy, and no mention was made of the fact that he has said he will go to Sweden if they will give an assurance that he won't be extradited to the USA afterwards.
In the BBC 4 program of Any Answers that followed, two of the people phoning in pointed out that no mention of Assange's offers of co-operation had been made during the program. These offers to co-operate have previously been made public by various independent News channels over the past few days.
The response of the BBC presenter of Any Answers was to say: "well why should the authorities agree to Assanges' offers to co-operate!"
She also referred to the difference between someone seeking political asylum, and someone avoiding criminal charges, which is at best an assumption of guilt, and at worst a libelous statement.
Personally, I hope Assange runs every word of the program past his lawyers.
If anyone has any thoughts that Assange might be somewhat paranoid over this matter, then I suggest listening to this program - it's available to play again on the BBC's website.
Julian Assange has seriously rocked the boat of the establishment, and boy, oh boy, are they out to get him!
This week the British Government have talked of storming the Embassy and removing him by force, which caused me to do a double-take on the details, only to find that 'yes', we are talking about an Embassy in London, and 'yes' it was the British Government and not some far off Right Wing dictatorship that was making the threats.
I've just listened to a repeat of this weeks edition of Any Questions on BBC Radio 4, and I was quite shocked by the biased and bigoted line taken by the panel, being a hand-picked bunch of middle-class members of the establishment, no doubt selected by the BBC for their "intellectual" and "impartial views" - clearly not!
The first thing to be mentioned was that, apparently, it is costing £50.000 per day to put a police guard on the Embassy. For the purpose of clarity and to avoid any confusion, that is: fifty thousand pounds per day!!!
So my first thought was: how the .... can it cost £50K per day to put a police guard on a few doors?
This statement, be it true or false, gave impetus to the criticism of Assange right from the start of the discussion for: "costing the British tax-payer £50k per day". No one questioned the figure, but then as the esteemed panel were clearly out to down Assange as much as they could, perhaps that's not surprising.
Assange was called an "idiot", and generally discredited and insulted by the panel. The term: "facing charges" was used a number of times, when in fact, he hasn't been charged with anything as yet.
No mention was made of the fact that he has agreed to be interviewed by the Swedish police re these matters at the Embassy, and no mention was made of the fact that he has said he will go to Sweden if they will give an assurance that he won't be extradited to the USA afterwards.
In the BBC 4 program of Any Answers that followed, two of the people phoning in pointed out that no mention of Assange's offers of co-operation had been made during the program. These offers to co-operate have previously been made public by various independent News channels over the past few days.
The response of the BBC presenter of Any Answers was to say: "well why should the authorities agree to Assanges' offers to co-operate!"
She also referred to the difference between someone seeking political asylum, and someone avoiding criminal charges, which is at best an assumption of guilt, and at worst a libelous statement.
Personally, I hope Assange runs every word of the program past his lawyers.
If anyone has any thoughts that Assange might be somewhat paranoid over this matter, then I suggest listening to this program - it's available to play again on the BBC's website.
Julian Assange has seriously rocked the boat of the establishment, and boy, oh boy, are they out to get him!
