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Assange leads online poll for 'Person of the Year'
Ashis Ray, TNN, Dec 9, 2010, 01.11am
LONDON: Embattled WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leads an online people's choice as Time magazine's 'Person of the Year' with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and pop singer Lady Gaga well behind him.
The 'Person of the Year' will be selected by Time's editors next Wednesday; and the issue with the winner on the cover will appear in the last week of December.
Lawyers of the founder of WikiLeaks website, Julian Assange (39), said they will fight his extradition to Sweden, arguing that the case against him was politically motivated.
Indeed, in what could be a dramatic, full court hearing on Tuesday next, Geoffrey Robertson, a high profile human rights lawyer is expected to defend Assange.
Claes Borgstrom, the Swedish representing the two women, said, "Mr Assange is lying when he says that my clients are part of a US-led conspiracy against him and WikiLeaks. It's two ordinary Swedish women who admired Assange for his work who have accused him."
Assange was denied bail despite half-a-dozen sureties totalling £180,000; among them from film director Ken Loach, veteran Australian journalist John Pilger and ex-wife of former Pakistani cricketer, Imran Khan, Jemima Khan.
Top voices speak out for WikiLeaks
Many global voices have come out in the support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
"I'm disgusted by Amazon's cowardice and servility in abruptly terminating its hosting of the Wikileaks website. I want no further association with any company that encourages legislative and executive officials to aspire to China's control of information and deterrence of whistleblowing. Yours (no longer)" — Daniel Ellsberg (Former US military analyst who, in 1971 caused a political controversy by releasing the Pentagon Papers.)
"Whatever you think of WikiLeaks, they have not been charged with a crime, let alone indicted.... Yet look what has happened to them.
What is really going on here is a war over control of the internet, and whether or not the internet can actually serve its ultimate purpose — which is to allow citizens to band together and democratize the checks on the world's most powerful factions." — Glen Greenwald (Constitutional attorney and blogger)
"Formerly, back in the days of Orwell, every power could be conceived of as a Big Brother watching over its subjects' every move. The citizen became the total victim of the watchful eye of the state.
But when it transpires, as it has now the state has its eye on every citizen, but every citizen, or at least every hacker — the citizens' self-appointed avenger — can pry into the state's every secret." — Umberto Eco (Italian philosopher, and novelist.)
We should understand ... that one of the major reasons for government secrecy is to protect the government from its own population. What that reveals is the profound hatred for democracy on the part of our political leadership and the Israeli political leadership. — Noam Chomsky
.
Ashis Ray, TNN, Dec 9, 2010, 01.11am
LONDON: Embattled WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leads an online people's choice as Time magazine's 'Person of the Year' with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and pop singer Lady Gaga well behind him.
The 'Person of the Year' will be selected by Time's editors next Wednesday; and the issue with the winner on the cover will appear in the last week of December.
Lawyers of the founder of WikiLeaks website, Julian Assange (39), said they will fight his extradition to Sweden, arguing that the case against him was politically motivated.
Indeed, in what could be a dramatic, full court hearing on Tuesday next, Geoffrey Robertson, a high profile human rights lawyer is expected to defend Assange.
Claes Borgstrom, the Swedish representing the two women, said, "Mr Assange is lying when he says that my clients are part of a US-led conspiracy against him and WikiLeaks. It's two ordinary Swedish women who admired Assange for his work who have accused him."
Assange was denied bail despite half-a-dozen sureties totalling £180,000; among them from film director Ken Loach, veteran Australian journalist John Pilger and ex-wife of former Pakistani cricketer, Imran Khan, Jemima Khan.
Top voices speak out for WikiLeaks
Many global voices have come out in the support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange
"I'm disgusted by Amazon's cowardice and servility in abruptly terminating its hosting of the Wikileaks website. I want no further association with any company that encourages legislative and executive officials to aspire to China's control of information and deterrence of whistleblowing. Yours (no longer)" — Daniel Ellsberg (Former US military analyst who, in 1971 caused a political controversy by releasing the Pentagon Papers.)
"Whatever you think of WikiLeaks, they have not been charged with a crime, let alone indicted.... Yet look what has happened to them.
What is really going on here is a war over control of the internet, and whether or not the internet can actually serve its ultimate purpose — which is to allow citizens to band together and democratize the checks on the world's most powerful factions." — Glen Greenwald (Constitutional attorney and blogger)
"Formerly, back in the days of Orwell, every power could be conceived of as a Big Brother watching over its subjects' every move. The citizen became the total victim of the watchful eye of the state.
But when it transpires, as it has now the state has its eye on every citizen, but every citizen, or at least every hacker — the citizens' self-appointed avenger — can pry into the state's every secret." — Umberto Eco (Italian philosopher, and novelist.)
We should understand ... that one of the major reasons for government secrecy is to protect the government from its own population. What that reveals is the profound hatred for democracy on the part of our political leadership and the Israeli political leadership. — Noam Chomsky
.
