Julian Assange faces charges of sexual assault in Sweden, for which he should stand trial. But the reason he remains holed up in an embassy resisting extradition, is a whole other matter. Even as we choose between candidates for President we must never forget that whoever we choose will need to lie to us. When a vast military empire poses as peaceful democracy its leaders must wear a mask before its people. Once the people have been propagandized and passified into unquestioning consumers, they must never be shown an actual mirror.
Whatever wrongs Assange did in Sweden are not the reason he is being hunted by the U.S. As this article points out, all Sweden would have to do is quarantee that they wouldn’t extradite him to the U.S. and Assange would lose his excuse for not facing those charges. As the article points out:
“This is a man, after all, who has yet to be charged, let alone convicted, of anything. But as far as the bulk of the press is concerned, Assange is nothing but a “monstrous narcissist”, a bail-jumping “sex pest” and an exhibitionist maniac. After Ecuador granted him political asylum and Assange delivered a “tirade” from its London embassy’s balcony, fire was turned on the country’s progressive president, Rafael Correa, ludicrously branded a corrupt “dictator” with an “iron grip” on a benighted land.”
What should bother us as responsible citizens is, when heartbreaking truths leak out about the true nature of our foreign policy, our leaders do not rise to correct the situation, they rise to crush the messengers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/21/why-us-is-out-to-get-assange