Julian Assange asylum: Ecuador is right to stand up to the US | Mark Weisbrot | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
by pinkagendist
“Today, the US claims the legal right to indefinitely detain its citizens; the president can order the assassination of a citizen without so much as even a hearing; the government can spy on its citizens without a court order; and its officials are immune from prosecution for war crimes. It doesn’t help that the US has less than 5% of the world’s population but almost a quarter of its prison inmates, many of them victims of a “war on drugs” that is rapidly losing legitimacy in the rest of the world. Assange’s successful pursuit of asylum from the US is another blow to Washington’s international reputation. At the same time, it shows how important it is to have democratic governments that are independent of the US and – unlike Sweden and the UK – will not collaborate in the persecution of a journalist for the sake of expediency. Hopefully other governments will let the UK know that threats to invade another country’s embassy put them outside the bounds of law-abiding nations.”
Our country has gotten really bad with people’s rights over the last couple decades. Our gov has used the “terrorism” excuse, to snoop, spy, detain, search, without any probable cause.
For instance, we have forced check points where they stop every car going by to see if you’re drunk/on drugs or have drugs in your car. They will let a dog sniff around the car. This is unacceptable.
America is becoming a police state.
It is TOTALLY unacceptable- and to our embarrassment that’s going on here too ever since the Madrid train bombings. It’s a shocking disrespect of probable cause and a total abuse of power.
The UK govt lets war criminals come and go, tortures and turns a blind eye to those tortured by friendly regimes, oppresses third world populations and allows the rich to stash their stolen loot offshore yet suddenly says it has to uphold an international warrant for JA.
Double standards all round barman!
Julian Assange is one of ‘ours’ yet the Australian government would prefer if he were out of sight and out of mind somewhere far, far away. Bush pulled the rug out from under democracy and the keystone cops still don’t know where it went.