Speech by Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, given from the Embassy
of Ecuador in London, August 19, 2012
Transcript courtesy of tucops.com
"
Can you hear me?
I am here today because I cannot be there with you today.
But thank you for coming, thank you for your resolve, your generosity of
spirit.
On Wednesday night, after a threat was sent to this embassy and police
descended on this building, you came out in the middle of the night to
watch over it, and you brought the world's eyes with you.
Inside this embassy after dark I could hear teams of police swarming up
into the building through its internal fire escape. But I knew there
would be witnesses.
And that is because of you.
If the UK did not throw away the Vienna conventions the other night, it
is because the world was watching.
And the world was watching because you were watching.
So, the next time somebody tells you that it is pointless to defend
those rights that we hold dear, remind them of your vigil in the dark
before the Embassy of Ecuador. Remind them how in the morning the sun
came up on a different world and a courageous Latin American nation took
a stand for justice.
And so to those brave people I thank President Correa for the courage he
has shown in considering and in granting me political asylum.
And I also thank the government and in particular Foreign Minister
Ricardo Patino who upheld the Ecuadorean constitution and its notion of
universal citizenship in their consideration of my asylum.
And to the Ecuadorean people for supporting and defending this
constitution. And I also have a debt of gratitude to the staff of this
embassy whose families live in London and who have shown me hospitality
and kindness despite the threats we all received.
This Friday there will be an emergency meeting of the foreign ministers
of Latin America in Washington, DC to address this very situation. And
so I am grateful to those people and governments of Argentina, Bolivia,
Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua,
Argentina, Peru, Venezuela and to all other Latin American countries who
have come out to defend the right to asylum.
And to the people of the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and
Australia who have supported me in strength even when their governments
have not. And to those wiser heads in government who are still fighting
for justice. Your day will come.
To the staff, supporters and sources of Wikileaks whose courage and
commitment and loyalty has seen no equal.
To my family and to my children who have been denied their father:
Forgive me, we will be reunited soon.
As Wikileaks stands under threat so does the freedom of expression and
the health of all our societies. We must use this moment to articulate
the choice that is before the government of the United States of
America.
Will it return to and reaffirm the values, the revolutionary values it
was founded on? Or will it lurch off the precipice dragging us all into
a dangerous and oppressive world in which journalists fall silent under
the fear of prosecution and citizens must whisper in the dark?
I say it must turn back.
I ask President Obama to do the right thing. The United States must
renounce its witch-hunt against Wikileaks.
The United States must dissolve its FBI investigation.
The United States must vow that it will not seek to prosecute our staff
or our supporters.
The United States must pledge before the world that it will not pursue
journalists for shining a light on the secret crimes of the powerful.
There must be no more foolish talk about prosecuting any media
organization be it Wikileaks or be it the New York Times.
The US administration's war on whistleblowers must end.
Thomas Drake, William Binney, John Kiriakou and other heroic
whistleblowers must - they must - be pardoned or compensated for the
hardships they have endured as servants of the public record.
And the Army private who remains in a military prison in Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas, who was found by the United Nations to have endured
months of torturous detention in Quantico, Virginia and who has yet,
after two years in the prison, to see a trial, he must be released.
Bradley Manning must be released.
If Bradley Manning did as he is accused, he is a hero, and an example to
all of us, and one of the world's foremost political prisoners.
Bradley Manning must be released.
On Wednesday Bradley Manning spent his 815th day of detention without
trial. The legal maximum is 120 days.
On Thursday my friend Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Human
Rights Center, was sentenced to three years in prison for a tweet.
On Friday a Russian band was sentenced to two years in jail for a
political performance.
There is unity in the oppression. There must be absolute unity and
determination in the response.
Thank you.
"
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