If you really believe in WikiLeaks, you must want Assange to face up to justice

[struggle4progress]

Governments cannot be trusted currently to deliver justice and accountability
Laurie Penny
Wednesday 22 August 2012

... Let's be clear here: nobody should have to stifle one set of principles in order to allow another to live. If you choose to do so, that's a matter for your conscience. For myself, I believe in freedom of speech, and in the power of journalism– it's what I do for a living. I believe that governments need to be made to answer for pursuing profit in the name of peace and massacring thousands in the name of security. I believe in ending the age of secrecy, and I believe that the United States currently seeks to prevent that by pursuing and prosecuting hackers, whistleblowers and journalists across the world. And I also believe women.

I believe women when they say that their sexual consent is infringed, violently and by coercion, by men they trust and admire, as well as by strangers. I believe that rape and sexual violence are wilfully ignored and misunderstood by governments, except when they happen to be accusing radical transparency campaigners of assault. I believe that it is possible to believe women and to support WikiLeaks at the same time without moral hypocrisy, and I believe that those across the left who seem to have a problem with holding those two simple ideas in their heads at the same time need to ask themselves what accountability actually means.

Nobody should be forced to choose between defending investigative journalism and freedom of speech, and fighting for justice in the global war on women's bodies. So please don't ask if one alleged sex attacker out of hundreds of millions currently walking free and unpursued across three continents should be made to answer for his actions in a court of law when all that distinguishes him from the rest of the army of decent men doing despicable things to women without facing the consequences is the fact that he happens to have personally embarrassed several governments. Please don't ask, because the answer hurts ...

It is not only possible to defend both women's rights and freedom of speech. It is morally inconsistent to defend one without the other other. Cultures of secrecy, covert violence and unaccountability need to be exposed. That's what WikiLeaks is supposed to be about, and it's also what feminism is about, and right now, governments are terrified of both. That, if nothing else, should tell us where the lines of power are really drawn.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/laurie-penny-if-you-really-believe-in-wikileaks-you-must-want-assange-to-face-up-to-justice-8069906.html

[Agnosticsherbet]

1. I think that people don't want to consider that a hero can also be a villain.

We want things simple. Human beings, by their very nature, are not. I think Assange should return to Sweden and face the charges. A man who championed open government might have done something wrong in another aspect of his life. He isn't a saint. He is just a man.

[struggle4progress]

2. +

[flobee1]

3. The swede gov

have been invited to arrive and enter the embassy to question him whenever they want. They have traveled much farther, for much less severe crimes.

The women that initially accused Assange, now say it did not happen

If the swede gov can say that he will not be sent to any other country, he will immediately comply and walk out the front door

If this had anything at all to do with rape, this situation would be old news.
but it does not

[struggle4progress]

4. I eagerly await your link announcing Swiss involvement

[flobee1]

5. sorry, meant sweden :-)

nt

[Bodhi BloodWave]

6. once the second interview is done

and the charges brought against him then the trial has to happen within two weeks(if i recall Swedish law correctly)

If Sweden were to go to the embassy and question/charge Assange at that time as some want, do you seriously think that Assange would go "Ok, now that I've been properly charged(as he sees it) I'll leave the safety of the embassy and head to Sweden for my trial" after having spent 2 years fighting extradition and losing in the British courts each step on the way.

Personally i see the likelihood of him leaving the embassy for Sweden as close to nil

[tama]

7. Horribly idiotic framing:

If you don't believe the women (which story by whom?) you are against women's rights.

I believe women when they say that their sexual consent is infringed, violently and by coercion, by men they trust and admire, as well as by strangers.

Automatically believing women in any and all cases and demanding that everybody else should just "believe women" - or they are against womens rights - is horribly sexist and unjust.

Where and how do you find the stuff you flood DU with? Do you have a special radar for vile and/or idiotic?

[Fumesucker]

8. You Better Believe It n/t

[just1voice]

9. If you really want justice you'd want propagandists to be held accountable

LOL, in hillbilly parlance, "I have turnt the tables".