[ExI] Assange, Anonymous and Extraditions

Stefano Vaj stefano.vaj at gmail.com
Tue Aug 28 11:05:54 UTC 2012


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/08/26/ecuador_pres_slams_uk_gov/


<<British Minister likens Anonymous to fascists and racists

Ecuador pres defends Assange bedroom antics, questions Pinochet irony

By Natalie Apostolou<http://forms.theregister.co.uk/mail_author/?story_url=/2012/08/26/ecuador_pres_slams_uk_gov/>

Hacktivist cabal Anonymous has continued its attack on UK government
websites in retaliation to the UK’s treatment of Julian Assange, this time
hitting former Wales and Northern Ireland Secretary, Peter Hain.

Hain told the BBC <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-19381444> he feels
Anonymous' actions resemble those he experienced in the “anti-apartheid and
anti-fascist struggles." The MP participated in South Africa's
anti-apartheid movement in the 1970s. "I have had these attacks for 40
years, mostly from racists and fascists."

He added that Anonymous had got its targets wrong as he has been a
supporter of Assange.

Hain used the attack to urge for cyber security, taking to Twitter where he
wrote <https://twitter.com/PeterHain/status/239339211281551361> "after
targeting of several sites in recent months latest incident is more
evidence that UK needs to wake up to growing cyber security threat."
Anonymous targeted the UK’s Ministry of Justice and the Home Office last
week.

Meanwhile, Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said that the standoff
regarding Assange as an “unfortunate incident over, after a grave
diplomatic error by the British in which they said they would enter our
embassy."

Ecuadorian officials have been outraged at British government threats of
trying to seize Assange should he stray from the Ecuadorian embassy where
he has been camped for two months.

The Washington-based Organization of American States also condemned
Britain's threat with South American foreign ministers claiming Britain's
stance is unacceptable.

Correa told the UK’s Sunday Times that the sex crime allegations made
against Assange would not be deemed a crime in Latin America. "The crimes
that Assange is accused of, they would not be crimes in 90 to 95 per cent
of the planet," he said.

He also played the Pinochet card, questioning the British government’s
contradictory approach to extradition, when it did not extradite former
Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet after his 1998 arrest in London.

Pinochet was wanted on an international arrest warrant issued by Spanish
judge Baltasar Garzon, who is now featured on Assange's legal team.

"Britain supported Augusto Pinochet unconditionally. And they let him go,
they didn't extradite him on humanitarian grounds, whereas they want to
extradite Julian Assange for not using a condom, for the love of God,”
Correa said.>>

-- 
Stefano Vaj
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20120828/94182f67/attachment.html>


More information about the extropy-chat mailing list