Everything depends on the American people: if they decide that it’s not tolerable to extradite a journalist for espionage, then there will be no extradition.
Here are some more notable quotes from the (Paris Match) interview with Julian Assange referenced below. Mr. Assange seems to have a firm understanding of the power that the American people have over their own government. Shifts in power don’t happen often in relatively stable societies, and neither do revolutions, but in a nation whose voters still hold some of the cards, growing intolerance to corruption will eventually tip the scales in favor of the people.
This may not happen in our own lifetime, though we hope that it does, and Julian Assange may come out of this a martyr, though we hope that he does not, but eventually, every declining system hits rock bottom so that it might be rebuilt. Only then can positive change happen.
As quality of life for the average American declines in proportion to the corruption of its government and financial system, Americans will eventually remember and take to heart the words of Robert F Kennedy:
“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.” (Day of Affirmation Address, June 7, 1966)
In the words of Edward Paul Abbey:
“A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.”
If I do not provide a citation for this quote, it is only because I recite it from memory. Everyone should.
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Julian Assange Interview Quotes
Transparency should be proportional to the power that one has. The more power one has, the greater the dangers generated by that power, and the more need for transparency. Conversely, the weaker one is, the more danger there is in being transparent.
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I have no excuses to make. It’s true, the names and addresses of our collaborators are not available. Two of our collaborators were assassinated in Kenya, we’ve also been attacked in Luxembourg. We are faced with security risks. Our finances were public, and because of that they’ve been frozen, seized. In order to protect ourselves, to protect our sources, we need secrecy. We’re not promoting transparency. Only the transparency of the most powerful organizations.
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Everybody has heard about WikiLeaks. But the reality is that I was in solitary confinement, and today I’m under house arrest. Whereas people in the American adminstration who have organized murders by the thousands, war crimes, torture, are free. We are certainly a courageous organization, but not a powerful one.
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We’ve only accomplished one fifthieth of our mission.
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Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, and Bank of America are instruments of control at the beck and call of the White House. The American system is getting more and more like the Soviet system. Without the slightest legal process, large companies exercise economic censorship on orders from Washington.
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Sarah Palin said that I should be pursued like Osama bin Laden. I say to her: “Good, that’ll take you at least ten years!”
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More and more Americans are angry about the calls to assassinate me, to extradite me. Everything depends on the American people: if they decide that it’s not tolerable to extradite a journalist for espionage, then there will be no extradition.
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Paris Match
December 23-29, 2010
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