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Assange Handed Sydney Peace Medal
hihihihi writes "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation's Gold Medal for 'exceptional courage in the pursuit of human rights.' It is only the fourth time in the organization's 14-year history that the prize for extraordinary achievement in promoting peace with justice has been given out. Previous winners are Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and Japanese Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda. Foundation director Professor Stuart Rees accused the Australian government of demonizing Mr Assange and aiding US efforts to behave like a totalitarian state."
contrary to what you arrogant and self-centered right wingers in america tend to think, the people around the world think good of assange since he is exposing the SHIT that u.s. perpetrates around the world, ranging from bullying germany to prevent prosecution of the cia agents who kidnapped german citizens and tortured them in syria, to bullying spanish government to put out 3 strikes law to censor people for american copyright interests.
i find your disgust at exposition of such information, disgusting.
now scram.
Read radical news here
I like the fact that they are awarding the idea of open government and open corporatism, but what has been released that has been worth all the hub-bub?
what has been released that has been worth all the hub-bub?
Here's an article listing some of the revelations from 2010.
Did he know before they announced it?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
So it's been around 14 years, so basically before Assange it has only awarded one prize to someone who did not already have a nobel peace prize at the time of the award. Having grown up in Sydney I have got to say I am pretty uninterested in this me-too institution. Since I doubt many Australians will do anything worthy of the attention of the Norweigian government or whoever awards these things, maybe starting with Assange they can make it a sort of domestic competition with lesser criteria.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
I'm just saying.
There's a big difference between hating Jews and hating an oppressive regime. Not all Jews support Israel. I think that deserves to be pointed out every once in a while.
Bradley E. Manning should get this price, he is the real hero. He put his life on the line to release this information, what did Assange risk?
Manning was held naked in a prison cell without windows for 23 hours a day, Assange won't even go to Sweden to face the charges for sex-crimes (not even after being assured he will not be sent to any other country without britains concent).
But it also kicks families out of the house where they've lived for generations. It built a wall that separates farmers from their fields. Israel goes out of its way to disrupt the lives of normal Palestinian families. It's not oppressive to the people it likes, but it is oppressive to the people it oppresses. The fact that there are also people who are not oppressed by the Israeli government doesn't change this simple fact.
The Sweden "court system" for this issue is almost a regular medieval political circus. Look at what Sweden has all but promised Assange in his "fair" trial: Solitary confinement before trial without access to his lawyers. Closed door secret court - no one will hear let alone be able to refute any testimonies. Three of the four judges to be (or appointed by) politicians! Not to forget that the case was closed before being reopened by, you guessed it, a politician - apparently because they say the girls did not know they were being raped at the time and it is up-to their court of laypersons to decide (I kid you not, crazy system Sweden has, huh). The rabbit hole of deceit by Swedish authorities goes way deeper than most would like to see however - in this case starting with the Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny, lawyer Mr Claes Borgström and their relationship with the Swedish Democrat party which stands to gain from this circus.
Who in the right mind would not try to fight for a fairer trial than this? I don't care if it is Assange or anyone else, Sweden should be ashamed of these "courts", if you can even call them that.
The only good thing coming out of this abuse is the increased scrutiny on the very broken European extradition laws - and perhaps some Swedish rethinking their leaders (although the last election shows this to be unlikely).
I'm Swedish and this is 100% accurate, +100 Insightful. The Swedish justice system is a huge embarrassment and completely broken. Hopefully this case will shed some light on it so it can be fixed.
You also forgot to mention two other interesting facts of Claes Borgström, both of which you can find in his Wikipedia article. First of all he was the attorney of Thomas Quick, a case that is one of the biggest scandals in Swedish justice history. Basically Quick was mental and admitted to a whole bunch of murders he never committed and was sentenced guilty without a shred of evidence. Secondly Claes Borgström is an extreme left wing feminist nutjob that thinks men has a "collective guilt" against women and should pay a special tax for being men.