Julian Assange Exclusive Interview with MSNBC

Julian Assange, founder of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, was interviewed on the 21st December 2010 by Cenk Uyger of MSNBC.  Having watched this interview I found myself captivated by what Assange had to say and how he defended both himself and the Wikileaks organisation.  There are two major points from the interview that I would like to discuss further, but firstly I encourage you to watch the interview for yourselves:

Interesting?

Ok, so here I go.  The first part of the interview that I wish to comment on was the part when Assange discussed some of the comments made by some major political figures/analysts.  I agree completely with what Assange says on the matter and as a result I don't believe I can say anything that he hasn't already said himself.  I think that it is absolutely disgraceful that the United States, the 'land of the free' where free speech is 'protected' by the First Amendment, can allow important politicians to openly call for the illegal murder of a publisher.  After all, regardless of what documents Wikileaks has published, they are simply publishing documents that they have been sent by others and even though these may contain information of a sensitive nature, according to both NATO and the Pentagon, to date no one has been hurt as a result of these publications.

As Assange himself said in the interview:

"If we are to have a civil society we cannot have senior people making calls on national tv to go around the judiciary and illegally murder people.  That is incitement to commit murder, that is an offence. We can not have senior people on national TV asking people to commit an offence.  That is not a country that obeys the rules of law.  Does the United States obey the rule of law? because Europeans are starting to wonder..." 

Im sure that the United States would have been quick to condemn any Russian politician who called for the illegal assassination of a member of the press.  Do you remember the controversy around the case of Alexander Litvinenko, the former KGB/FSB officer turned journalist who suddenly fell ill in November 2006, due to what was established as a case of radioactive poisoning?

The video below shows Bob Beckel and a Panel of Analysts discussing and calling for the assassination of Julian Assange:

The second point that I wish to briefly address is the treatment of Private Bradley Manning who is suspected to have been responsible for a major leak of classified documents to Wikileaks.  Manning has been kept in solitary confinement at a military prison since May 2010, under extremely pressing conditions yet has not been convicted.  The treatment of Manning has been referred to as 'cruel and inhumane' by many of the worlds top human rights analysts and personally I am a member of the same school of thought.  If Manning is guilty of leaking official documents, then he should face a fair trial and the justice system should agree the correct punishment.  He should not be held, under such conditions, based upon the fact that he may be guilty.  Whatever happened to the idea of 'innocent until proven guilty'? 

Liar Liar!

Unfortunately, Captain Ska's Liar Liar didn't make it to Christmas No.1 this year.  It got stuck down at number 89. Regardless of this, I would like to see the popularity of this song continue to grow in the New Year.  I agree with Captain Ska!

Wikileaks - A Documentary.

I just thought that I would share this documentary with you all.  For now, I have decided to not comment about my own personal opinions on Wikileaks or Julian Assange.  There are many reasons for this decision, the main (in all honesty) being that I have as of yet still not formed any strong opinions or solid ideas/views.  I was linked this documentary late last night and found it extremely interesting and so thought that I would share it with you.  Please feel free to comment with your own ideas or views on Wikileaks here.  I am encouraging an open debate.  I hope the documentary is of interest to you.

Watch the Documentary Here..The Story of Wikileaks

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Hello!

I just wanted to leave a short message wishing you all a very very merry christmas!! I hope that you all have truely fantastic day's!  Thank you for reading my blog! Ben x

Met. Police seek to take away democratic right to protest.

In yet another shocking development from the developing UK police state, Chief commissioner of the Met. Police Paul Stephenson (the sir has deliberately been left out here) has refused to rule out the possibility of banning further protests in London city.

"It is one of the tactics we will look at and something we will keep under review, and if we think it is the right thing to do then we will do it" he has said.

Whilst it is important to remember that demonstrations cannot be banned in the UK (yet) marches can be - meaning that we still retain the right to gather in any particular area to demonstrate but the police will have the right to control our movements and where we are allowed to congregate.  Under these plans we will no longer be able to march from location to location.  So, basically when turning up to a demonstration you will be turning up directly at the police 'kettle' and then they will be able to move us where ever they like, most likely out of sight from the public.

How can Britain, a nation that prides itself as being a pioneer of democracy, allow such plans to be openly discussed by our police?  Especially using as valid reasoning some small-scale violence witnessed at recent protests.  The UK is not the only country in Europe to face violent protests in these times of austerity.  Countries such as France, Greece and Italy have been rocked by rioting in recent months, yet none of these states have proposed such preposterous measures.

To quote the words of Aaron Porter, the president of the NUS (National Union of Students) "Peaceful protest is an integral part of our heritage and it is the responsibility of the police to help facilitate that."

I cant help but think that should such measures ever come into effect the resulting backlash would be an increase in violence and destruction at any future event fueled by anger and frustration aimed at the police.  This however may be just the reaction the met are looking for in order to use the stories published in the media as a tool to discredit those who attend protests.  There can be no denying how recent police tactics have been designed to enrage protesters who are falsely imprisoned for hours in the freezing cold with no access to food, water or toilet facilities.

Peaceful protests, the media are just not interested enough.

Whenever there have been so called riots on the streets of the UK the media coverage has been overwhelming, yet for some reason if the protests don't turn violent, well we just don't hear a thing.  Although similar criticisms can be made of all the mainstream media, from the newspapers to internet and television broadcasters I have decided to focus primarily on the BBC for the purpose of this post.  After all the BBC is our 'unbiased national news network' and so if there was any news network that would be expected to show us what's happening in our own country, Im sure the BBC would be the one.  Well, thats simply just not the case.  More so than ever, since the growing number of regular protests in opposition to the ConDem governments fees and cuts, I have noticed the bias of our mainstream media.  It appears that the majority, and in some situations ALL of the mainstream UK based media will simply not cover stories that in any way give attention to peaceful protesters and their cause.

Whilst the BBC covered in great detail (although in my opinion in a completely bias manner) some of the larger protests in London that have turned violent, most recently those in Parliament Square on the 9th of December, they have chosen to completely ignore similar protests about tuition fees that have taken place.  On tuesday 14th December protesters in London once again took to the streets, although in far fewer numbers, as the House of Lords prepared to vote on the issue of tuition fees.  Where were the news reports?  Similarly protesters turned up at New Scotland Yard as part of a protest against recent acts of alleged police brutality and the Metropolitan Police's tactics of containment, known to most as 'Kettling'.  The protest, although small, addressed an extremely important issue especially in light of the injuries suffered by Alfie Meadows following a blow to the head from a baton and the appalling treatment of Jody McIntyre, who was on two separate occasions (the second caught on film) dragged from his wheelchair by a police officer.  Neither of these two protests appear to have received any media attention.

Yesterday protesters took to the streets across the country as part of a nationwide day of protests against the proposed cuts, no BBC reporters made it to any of these gatherings it seems.

The lack of media attention given to the protests across the nation raises some important questions.  Firstly on the effectiveness of peaceful protests.  Whilst in no way attempting to condone violence or rioting it appears that unless such tactics are used the media simply do not care enough to address the issues being raised by those gathering on our streets.  At numerous times in the past few weeks I have heard those involved in acts of criminal damage or violence make statements along the lines of if we do not act this way we will not be heard, and whilst the government, police, press and even fellow protesters are quick to condemn such actions i believe there is certainly an element of truth to such statements.  If peaceful protests are simply, just ignored, then what is the point in protesting?

Interestingly enough, whilst our own news networks failed to shed any light on the protests happening in our own country, if you were to switch over to Islamic Republic of Iran state funded Press TV on the 14th there was extensive coverage of the protests.  Below I have just one photo from Press TVs website from Tuesday the 14th covering the protests.  Please note the date on the left under the logo and news.

The second major question that comes to my mind is why have the BBC chosen to give no attention to the protesters, after all they are meant to be an impartial news broadcaster aren't they?  Well it appears to me that the BBC are simply the voice of the state, and thus are not likely to address issues that may weaken or oppose the current coalition government in any way.  Giving attention to the peaceful protesters and their message may generate more support for the cause, it is the BBC's role as well as that of most of the mainstream media to discredit the protesters and support the state.

Whilst discussing this issue yesterday on a social networking site, someone made a comment on my question of why the BBC had chosen not to cover the protest taking place across the country on that day and on the previous day, the 14th.  This persons response for why there had been no coverage was:

"It just doesn't seem very news worthy really. The BBC has an obligation to report on things of interest."

A comment to which i could only reply ...

"And so thats why for the past hour they have been showing a harrier jet take off and land ... now thats interesting news ..."

Riots in London? Im sure they were protests with a few minor scuffles.

This is just a short post aimed at expressing my frustration at the way many public figures and the media are addressing recent protests in London.  The protests are very often being referred to as riots now, and although granted there was some violence, and there was a degree of vandalism and destruction I believe that it is ridiculous to claim that London was at any point recently host to riots.  London has been host to a number of both large and small demonstrations over the past few weeks some of which have have turned violent, regardless of this calling these protests riots is just another attempt by the media and politicians to discredit the students.  If what we have seen in London so far can be considered riots, what will happen if we see riots of the scale seen in Greece, for example, here in the UK.  Im guessing headlines along the lines of ARMAGEDDON are to be expected.

"Let there be light!" The Creation Story of this Blog.

Greetings,

and welcome to my blog :)

This first post is aimed at explaining a little bit about why, at long last, I have decided to create this blog and what I aim to get out of it.  For longer than I can remember now I have been actively involved in what I believe in, but have never used a platform greater than the likes of social networking sights such as Twitter and Facebook to put across my ideas to my friends/others.  Although the use of such websites can be useful in conveying information and more often my own feelings and ideas I believe they lack the structure of an organised blog and ideas can usually only be shared as short status updates or tweets.  These updates only give one a small number of characters in which to express BIG ideas and so although they can capture attention they lack detail.  Through this blog I intend to gather an audience to which I can share my ideas with; I welcome followers who both agree with my views or oppose them and thus welcome an open debate on each and every post I make.

What is this Blog about?

This blog is about everything and anything.  What I mean by this is that this blog is not about any certain subject other than movements, political events, global events or beliefs that I have or am involved in.  As a result here you will find posts ranging from the Israel/Palestine conflict to the illegality and handling of raves in the UK.  I will make posts about things that in some way affect my life or about things that I am passionate about.  Due to the timing of the creation of this blog for example, Im sure that many of the first posts here will be in relation to the British coalition government and recent proposed plans regarding fees/cuts and the public backlash that have resulted from them.  As I can not predict the future events of the world, I shall not be able to predict future trends in my posts.

Creating and getting this blog up and running smoothly is going to be a difficult task, mainly due to the sheer amount of information I wish to share already.  My head is full of thoughts and ideas that I would like to post here already; so please bear with me if for the first few weeks if this blog appears slightly unorganized.