Assange Re UN Espionage Charges: Obama "Must Resign" If There Is Evidence He Approved

[Turborama]

Julian Assange: "Geopolitics will be separated into pre and post 'Cablegate"

JOSEBA ELOLA - Madrid - 12/05/2010

Saturday the 4th of december. 6.41 pm. Julian Assange seats in front of his computer for a chat interview with EL PAÍS. Interpol is looking for him. His webite is under constant attacks. The 39 year old Australian, and Wikileaks founder, says he has a terrible headache. The last 24 hours were tough.

=snip=

Q. What will be the consequences of this megaleak?

A. It is too early to say yet. The ripples are just starting to flow throughout the world. But I believe geopolitics will be separated into pre and post cablegate phases. Two more questions. I have to go soon I'm afraid...

Q. Speaking to Time magazine you said that Clinton should resign if it can be shown that she was responsible for ordering US diplomatic figures to engage in espionage in the United Nations. Should that be the case, shouldn't it be Obama the one who should resign?

A. The whole chain of command who was aware of this order, and approved it, must resign if the US is to be seen to be a credible nation that obeys the rule of law. The order is so serious it may well have been put to the president for approval.

Q. So, should Obama resign, then? And please, allow just five minutes for a couple of questions, if you can, please.

A. Obama must answer what he knew about this illegal order and when. If he refuses to answer or there is evidence he approved of these actions, he must resign.

Full interview: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Julian/Assange/Geopolitics/will/be/separated/into/pre/and/post/Cablegate/elpepuint/20101205elpepuint_3/Tes


(edited to fix their typo)

[ibegurpard]

1. I think he should just continue doing what he is doing and stop the interviews

[snappyturtle]

2. Frankly, I like seeing the interviews because then we know JA is still with us. nt

[yurbud]

12. maybe not stop interviews, but leave the action part of the analysis to others

if he proposes actions, people who might disagree with the action might skip sifting through the stuff to come to their own conclusions.

[MineralMan]

3. "But I believe geopolitics will be separated into pre and post cablegate phases."

Delusions of grandeur. Hmm...

Julian Assange seems to me to be much taken with himself.

[glinda]

4. So if the Dems in office come down we are stuck with Boner as President?????

[MineralMan]

5. Assange isn't a U.S. citizen. He may not understand how

things work here. I doubt he cares, either.

[Ozymanithrax]

6. I vote for him not giving a damn...

Wikileaks published goal is regime change throughout the world. If they can force that it won't matter what the next regime is. That can be changed, also.

[MineralMan]

7. Assange has been described by many as an anarchist.

He's more or less said that himself. Anarchists don't like any government. I believe that's where his reasons for his actions arise, in his belief that anarchy is a superior idea to any system of government.

So, I think you're right. He doesn't give a damn. Disruption is his goal, no matter what government. I find that to be an unacceptable motivation.

But, that's just me. Others' opinions may differ.

[Ozymanithrax]

8. I agree with you, but I'm a liberal not anarchist. n/t

[MineralMan]

9. I didn't mean to imply that you were.

I'm sorry if I was misunderstood.

[Ozymanithrax]

10. No, it's cool. n/t

[glinda]

11. I see anarchy as a method and not as an end in itself. I have felt that for a long time things

have been so screwed up that nothing short of a major event could cause to pause and re-evaluate. And maybe not even that.

[struggle4progress]

13. If you read the "UN-spying" cable (available at The Guardian website)

the little bit about collecting stuff like credit card numbers or frequent flyer miles seems really out of place. The main thrust of the long cable is entirely different

It's possible to advance a number of hypotheses about how that wishlist got into the cable, such as:

(1) Perhaps Clinton insisted the wishlist be put there -- but it's not clear to me how folks at the US mission to the UN would go about collecting credit card numbers or frequent flyer miles for foreign diplomats, and anyway I expect Clinton is smart enough to realize most people who seek diplomatic careers don't really want to spend their time trying to collect credit card numbers or frequent flyer miles
(2) Clinton authorized the cable in a general way, and agreed to an information-collecting wishlist, but didn't review the wishlist that was passed along from elsewhere
(3) The cable is largely boilerplate, that gets edited and re-sent regularly, and this wishlist has been in the boilerplate for some years, so is never noticed by people who edit their own small sections
(4) Somebody later edited the cable to add the wishlist