And. Also.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you about the growing number of threats against Julian Assange. The former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has said Assange should be, quote, "hunted down," and a former campaign aide of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper went a step further in a recent interview on the Canadian Broadcasting, CBC.TIM FLANAGAN: Well, I think Assange should be assassinated, actually. I think Obama should put out a contract and maybe use a drone or something. You know, there’s no good coming of this.
AMY GOODMAN: That was University of Calgary professor Tim Flanagan, who served as the Conservative Party’s campaign manager in Canada’s general election in 2004 and 2006. Jennifer Robinson, as Julian Assange’s attorney, your response?
JENNIFER ROBINSON: These calls for his assassination are absolutely outrageous and, indeed, illegal. I think that the prosecuting authorities ought to consider prosecuting these individuals for incitement to violence. Obviously assassination is illegal, and we take these concerns very seriously. Now, the press around the fact that my client is in hiding to evade arrest is absolutely incorrect. And one can imagine that when you have very public officials making these sorts of serious calls for assassination, that one would be concerned for their personal safety. I also think that it raises genuine concerns when you have Sarah Palin making such allegations for the prospect of my client receiving any sort of due process in the U.S.
Great publicity for the UofC, too, eh?
8 comments:
These calls for Assange to be "assasinated/disappeared" are likely both illegal and immoral.
No matter how one feels about Assange, we do live in a lawful society. Assange, if he broke any laws, should be dealt with according to those laws. A moral case can probably be made that in making these leaks, Wikileaks could be saving some lives (even though it could endanger some as well).
Having said that, it does not surprise me to hear such outrageous calls from some Conservatives/Republicans. After all, the attack on Afghanistan has now been deemed by many to be both illegal (since the UN Security Council apparently did not authorize any armed attacks on Afghanistan), and immoral (since many people are now convinced that there is no credible evidence linking Bin Laden and/or Al Qaeda with the attacks on the twin towers) --- see Dr. Griffins's lecture on 9/11: http://canadawantsthetruth911.blogspot.com/2010/05/is-afghanistan-war-justified-by-911-dr.html
Conservatives would not be blamed for reacting strongly if some Middle eastern politician had opined that people like Bush/Harper should be "disappeared" because of their attacks on Muslims around the world.
So where are the outraged howls from politicians/media that Flanagan had gone too far?
Alternatively, can you imagine the howls from the likes of Harper and Baird if any opposition politician and/or their previous political advisors/staffers had said what Flanagan said?
But then that is why some 2 out of 3 voters had not voted Cons over 3 elections, eh? Imagine a Harper majority ...
You know, I'm glad Democracy Now highlighted Flanagan's disgrace but you would think at least American progressives could pay a little attention to detail. Time after time, the US media get details wrong about non-American subjects. It says a lot about American media - even the good, progressive kind - that it is so sloppy, so cavalier about reporting properly.
It makes you wonder if media outlets in the States are just stupid partisan arms of stupid partisan political parties. With Democracy Now, we're not talking about some blog, but a prominent news organization. Amy Goodman needs to pay attention to the details or they will come back to bite her on the ass. And that's the last thing a progressive outlet needs, even if it is an insular American one.
Jymn, I agree. It's like when Avaaz got the name of the owner of Fox News North wrong. They called it SunCor not Quebecor. So that gave the wingers all kinds of ammunition for 'See? They don't know what they're talking about.'
But to be fair, this is the rush transcript. Maybe they'll correct it.
Tim, Tom, Turd ... they can call him whatever as long as his nickname 'Fatwa' Flanagan gets around.
Thank you, dBO, for amending my labels for this post. Henceforth, I shall obey and use 'Fatwa Flanagan' every time his name flows from my fingertips.
uh-oh. Am I in beeeeg trouble here?
How about every time we use 'Fatwa' Flanagan in a blogpost, a devil gets a new cattle prod ...er, we link to your post here.
OK, that was a bit snarky. But I am trying to help the usage go viral.
So in Alberta, you can get fired for telling a reporter that you want to eat your cookie, but get to keep your job if you tell a reporter you think someone needs to be assassinated.
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