Mr. Rafael Correa, President of the Republic of Ecuador
Dear Mr. President
On behalf of the Seriously Free Speech Committee – Vancouver, Canada, I am writing to support your decision to offer asylum to Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks. Mr. Assange has been the target of a wide-spread campaign of disinformation and vilification by the US, British and other governments for simply providing information on the real politics and actions of their governments. Information to which all people should have access. In the second decade of the 21st century, forcing open government information leads to terrorism and espionage charges being leveled.
The history and convoluted process of the Swedish charges against Mr. Assange are not believable. Sweden has made no effort to pursue their investigation on British soil. There is no guarantee that once extradited to Sweden, Sweden will not simply extradite him to the US. Indeed there is every reason to believe that the US has already prepared charges through secret Grand Jury hearings. Mr. Assange is at clear risk of torture, if not death, at US hands given the documented torture already inflicted on Bradley Manning (the accused whistle blower). And, to use a Chomsky metaphor, ¨it would take a genius to deny the obvious¨ that the UK and Swedish governments are in collusion withe the Americans in trying to spirit Assange into a US prison.
Wikileaks has provided access to information on a broad range of important international and domestic issues, confirming and expanding the political understanding of activists. This has allowed activists the opportunity to organize and plan based on credible, concrete information. From our perspective, the release of the Palestine Papers was a significant contribution to understanding the realpolitik of Palestine/Israel secret negotiations and provides an opportunity for Palestinians and Palestine Solidarity activists to see documentation of the betrayals of the Palestinian people by the Palestinian Authority negotiators. This provides an understanding of why Palestine/Israel negotiations have been so unsuccessful for the Palestinians.
The Julian Assange case is a landmark in the defense of freedom of expression and freedom for whistle-blowers. Providing asylum represents one of the first times, if not the first time, that a whistle-blower has been protected from the US extra-territorial justice system.
The Seriously Free Speech Committee is committed to defending those individuals and organizations who are being attacked for their criticism of Israel or their support for Palestinian human rights.
Again our support and congratulations on this bold and historic position.
Sincerely
Brian Campbell
Co-Chair, Seriously Free Speech Committee
cc: Ambassador of the Republic of Ecuador to Canada, Support Jullian Assange Support Committee