Assange exposed war crimes, Pinochet committed them.
By Santiago Escobar and Camila Uribe Rosales (trans)
The double standard of the so-called “democratic” governments, specifically England, Sweden and U.S. have been unveiled through the recent events surrounding Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks.
In the corporate media, we are constantly told that Assange is wanted in Sweden for charges of sexual assault. Yet, Assange has not been charged, and instead is wanted for questioning. Swedish authorities have refused to question him on British soil and have demanded his extradition to Sweden.
Assange asked the Ecuadorian State for political asylum because he, and many others, believe that the U.S. is pulling strings so that they can extradite him to the U.S., where he could face the death penalty.
One of those people is J. Wagner, an ex-American soldier and writer, who during the Vietnam War was forced by the U.S. Army to torture Vietnamese soldiers. He was later punished for refusing to continue these acts. He recently sent a letter to Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, expressing his concerns that Assange would be another victim of the atrocities committed by the United States, just as he was.
In contrast to Assange’s persecution, in 2000 the English government gladly released, after one year of house arrest, the Chilean former dictator Augusto Pinochet, a man responsible for the death, torture, and disappearance of tens of thousands of people. During Pinochet’s house arrest in London, he was visited by his old friend and ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who thanked him for his support during the Falklands conflict and for “restoring democracy” to Chile.
The same English government recently threatened to violate the Vienna Conventions and raid the Ecuadorian embassy in order to extradite Assange.
Over 8,000 signatures were gathered in support of his petition to Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, amongst which were: Noam Chomsky, Naomi Wolf, Hollywood directors Oliver Stone and Michael Moore, actor Danny Glover, comedian Bill Maher, as well as Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked documents related to the USA’s war crimes in Vietnam. Demonstrations of solidarity followed soon after. While our politicians back dictators, we have to rely on the strength of people to fight for a better world.
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