Greens remain silent on witch-hunt against Australian citizen Julian Assange

[Joanne98]

The Greens, whose parliamentary votes help keep the minority Labor government of Prime Minister Julia Gillard in power, have maintained a deafening silence on the global witch-hunt that has been mounted against WikiLeaks’ editor and Australian citizen Julian Assange.


A matter of principle is at stake. Julian Assange has courageously risked his personal liberty, safety—and even his life—to publish documents provided to WikiLeaks by whistleblowers within the American political and military establishment. The web site has brought to the light of day evidence that the United States’ government is responsible for mass killings, torture, illegal spying on its international counterparts, and other crimes.


In retaliation, the US government of President Barack Obama is attempting to destroy WikiLeaks. It has declared the media organisation’s actions to be “criminal” and is trying to whip up an international lynch mob against Assange. American internet regulators have been pressured to close down WikiLeaks’ domain name, forcing it to establish a raft of new web addresses, such as www.wikileaks.ch, which currently remains accessible.


High ranking figures within the American political establishment, such as Sarah Palin and Senator Joe Lieberman, have called for Assange to be prosecuted and sent to prison. Others have made open death threats against him, including an advisor to the Canadian prime minister, who told a television audience that the web site editor should be “assassinated”.


Under such conditions of persecution and threats by a foreign government, any Australian citizen living overseas would expect to find sanctuary in the closest Australian embassy or consulate and support from diplomatic staff. The Australian government would be obligated to do everything it could to defend the democratic rights of its citizen.


Julian Assange, who is believed to be in England, has been denied any such protection. The Gillard Labor government has closed ranks behind its US ally and condemned Assange’s actions as “illegal”. Like the Obama administration, it is trying to fabricate criminal charges against him under Australian law, and Attorney-General Robert McClelland has declared the Labor government will provide “every assistance” to the prosecution of Assange in the US.


McClelland has also demanded that other governments detain the WikiLeaks’ editor and extradite him to Sweden, where he faces politically-motivated allegations of sexual misconduct. Assange’s lawyer Mark Stephens has condemned the Swedish arrest warrant as “persecution and not a prosecution”.


Not a single member of the parliamentary Labor Party has raised one word of opposition to the witch-hunt being conducted against Assange or condemned the death threats made against him. The opposition Liberal and National parties have thrown their support behind Gillard, while the rural independents, Rob Oakeshott, Tony Windsor and Bob Katter, have also kept their mouths firmly shut. Tellingly, they have been joined by Andrew Wilkie—a former whistleblower on the Iraq war lies, and now an independent supporting Labor. This is despite the fact that Wilkie told journalists on Wednesday that the Swedish charges of sexual misconduct against Assange “could be a set-up”. From the mass media through to civil liberties organisations, barely a voice can be heard speaking out in defence of Assange.


The silence of the Greens is, however, the most politically significant. Greens’ parliamentarians such as leader Bob Brown and MP Adam Bandt have spared no effort in presenting themselves as the “progressive force” in Australian politics, and staunch defenders of human rights and civil liberties. Yet they have felt no need to issue so much as a press statement in defence of Assange and WikiLeaks.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/gree-d04.shtml

[PSPS]

1. "High ranking figures within the American political establishment, such as Sarah Palin..."

I stopped reading there.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. This came up with colleagues last week

One offered that since the Greens have been leaked on (email exchanges on Global Warning), that perhaps they are not as sympathetic to Wikileaks as they might have been. I had not considered that previously, and do find their silence odd.