Let Us Not Trade
Democracy for Assange and His Ilk (Malagahoy, Spain)
"The conspiranoics may confabulate that America's secret
services manipulate Sweden like a marionette and that Assange would be
extradited to the United States only to be condemned to death by a kangaroo
tribunal. I have read and heard it all. I have also read and heard that Hitler
went into hiding at the North Pole and Elvis is still alive."
Swashbuckling former Spain Judge Baltasar Garzón: Most widely known for seeking to arrest and prosecute Bush Administration officials for war crimes, his latest assignment is to get Julian Assange out of Britain without being arrested.
I trust democratic governments more than Assange and
cyber-pirates, Wiki-spies or hackers. I trust more in the U.K. and Sweden as
defenders of human rights than in Ecuador. Amid the grotesque circus mounted by
Assange and his lawyers, among whom is legal star BaltasarGarzon Real [the judge who sought to try Bush Administration
officials for war crimes] one couldn't miss several alarming nuances - the most
serious of which is the discrediting of politicians and parliamentary
democracies.
This lack of esteem, which is not without cause, could
lead to disenchantment with democracy, which always results in fertile ground
for adventurers, demagogues, totalitarians, opportunists and other speculators of
despair who appear in moments of social crisis, economic constraint and
political suspicion, offering a dangerous trade: existing democracy for a more
perfect “real democracy,” that always ends up in dictatorship or something even
more corrupt.
Posted by Worldmeets.US
A few days back in the ABC
newspaper, Ignacio Camacho was warning that Garzón or
“Conde Sanchez Gordillo[banker convicted
of corruption turned politician] could become Führers
of the disillusioned.” Berlusconi was just such a figure, and on a grand scale,
as was Gregorio
Jesús Gil y Gil on a small one. Assange could be
added to their number. His case, in essence, is similar to that of MarcialMaciel - a Mexican-born Catholic priest, founder
of the Legion of Christ, accused of sex abuse with little boys and father of at
least one child]: both are accused of sex crimes and sought refuge in a “holy
cause” - defending Christian purity or freedom of speech and transparency -
while their supporters argue that the accusations against them are due to conspiracies
on the part of enemies of God (Maciel) or freedom
(Assange) striving to end their work of redemption or liberation. In both cases,
the Devil himself or demons of the corrupt, capitalist, neocolonial governments
that pretend to be democratic are said to be behind the charges against them.
But it so happens that it was the Pope who accused Maciel. In Assange's case, it is some
of the oldest, most established and most advanced of our democracies. Among
them, as the prosecutor of sexual offenses, is Sweden, one of the most admired
democracies in the world. I don’t believe that the Pope serves the Devil, nor
that Sweden is a totalitarian and corrupt country lacking respect for human
rights where and the accused lack assurances of a fair trial.
The conspiranoics may
confabulate that America's secret services manipulate Sweden like a marionette
and that Assange would be extradited to the United States only to be condemned
to death by a kangaroo tribunal. I have read and heard it all. I have also read
and heard that Hitler went into hiding at the North Pole and Elvis is still
alive. Too bad there are those who believe this and have more trust in the Web
than they do in parliaments or opportunistic adventurers than in
democratically-elected politicians.
