Life is not fair

Image: courtesy Freedommouthpost

Life is not fair but for governments it should be seen to be fair.

Governments of the West believe that they govern on high standards. Fair enough, that is no less than what the voters expect. Everyone knows that this does not always work out fairly but rendition, what goes on in Guantanamo Bay and reported atrocities in Iraq don’t go down well. For any of us who have experienced life under fire, there is no need to explain what is involved and how you can’t judge in a court what people had to experience when someone is shooting and trying to kill you.

It becomes unfortunate for the government when a WikiLeaks Video is released showing a US air crew shooting down Iraqi Civilians (April 5, 2010) with comments “HaHaHa. I hit em”and “Oh yeah look at those dead bastards”. Again it does not show the government up in good light and perhaps is not a good idea for WikiLeaks to show what could have been an isolated instance even when we can see that it was not. It’s an embarrassment.

So such WikiLeaks releases could be argued as damaging US interests and painting the country in a bad light while also providing ammunition to the enemy. There are lots of arguments on why governments should keep these secrets under a “War on terror”. On the other hand, a country which prides itself for freedom of speech has a higher standard to maintain. If not, Hypocrisy is defined as “The practice of claiming to have higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case.” Do countries want to be labelled hypocrites?

All of the earlier almost weekly embarrassing videos which had been leaked have now gone into the ethos and the public have moved on to conflicts elsewhere. Except that instead of letting it all go away, the publicity on Julian Assange bailed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London continues to bring it back to life. Harvard Management 101 tells you that when under press attach, NEVER respond no matter how bad. If you do, it starts a two way argument, say nothing and it eventually goes away. They hadn’t let it go away. Today according to AFP, after spending some $20 million taxpayer’s money providing police presence around the embassy so that he couldn’t escape, the British government have decided to withdraw 24 hours surveillance on Assange. Perhaps a lesson is being learned.

Again, leaving aside whether Assange should or should not have made the decision that the public had a right to know the truth of what had transpired behind the scenes, does his treatment stand the test of freedom of speech under the first Amendment, where while there are some exceptions, one would need to still find a link to cover Wikileaks. The US claim he was the source and link with material provided by their Chelsea Manning, court martialled in 2013 so want to go after him under their Espionage Act. He has denied the link. In November 2010 it was reported that there was “an active” ongoing criminal investigation against WikiLeaks. In 2012 the US admitted that there was a sealed indictment on Assange. Again it does not look good publicly when one has “sealed”, secret indictments for revealing secrets. Remember Assange is an Australian, not a US citizen.

The scary part in this is how it looks from outside and how fairly obviously Sweden is being manipulated and British action shows complicity. The US have not filed for extradition. So let’s look at why exactly Assange is holed up in fear of his life. He has not been officially charged with any crime and is only wanted for questioning in Sweden on a sexual assault complaint. No charges laid. Assange denies these allegations and from outside observation the case would seem very thin reduced to a “he said she said” argument. One part was “fail to use a condom” when she wanted one on what might have been otherwise consensual sex; hard to prove. The Swedish prosecutors have had every opportunity to go to London to interview Assange in relation to the charge. They have somehow been unable to do this. All this fuss over conducting an interview. Where do people get extradited without charge just for an interview?

Assange says all of this is a conspiracy between the Swedes and the USA with British assistance to extradite him back to the States since there they have admitted there is a “sealed indictment” against him, and where he says he has already been tried and convicted without having had a say. It is hard to believe that any other thinking person would not agree that all of this reeks.

Back to life not being fair. No it’s not fair, but it should appear to be fair or otherwise the whole structure of society could collapse. And if you are going to go via a back door, you don’t do it so blatantly where everyone feels that there is much more the government is hiding where it wants to frighten anyone off who might dare to challenge their right to keep “We the people” in the dark.