Mayor Dimitrios Mourtzis speaks on Aegina, Citizens’ Europe, 26th January, Julian Assange

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Yanis Varoufakis and Julian Assange

On DiEM25’s advisory panel is Julian Assange, an Australian who fled European law by entering the Ecuadorian embassy. Is he a fit person to advise on Europe?

Varoufakis: I’m very proud to count Julian as one of my friends. You will have noticed that the Swedish prosecutor has dropped any intention of charging him. It seems absurd that someone is deemed guilty even though no charge have been laid upon him. Julian Assange is being persecuted for a very simple reason: he embarrassed the US and the surveillance establishment. Wikileaks is a brilliant attempt to turn the mirror on Big Brother. This is why Julian is effectively incarcerated in the Ecuadorian embassy.

Are we to believe his accusers were part of a conspiracy to extradite him to the US?
 Varoufakis: I have no interest in speculation. What I do know is that the Swedish prosecutor never charged Julian with anything. Now the US government has explicitly stated that there is a grand jury convening in secret, all ready to request his extradition on charges of espionage. The court case will be a sham. His lawyers will not be given the charges or evidence. It will be held behind closed doors and he will disappear into a supermax prison for ever. No liberal can support this process.

Ο Δήμαρχος Δημήτριος Μούρτζης μιλάει για την Αίγινα, την Ευρώπη των Πολιτών, την ημερομηνία 26η Ιανουαρίου, τον Τζούλιαν Ασάνζ

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O Γιάνης Βαρουφάκης για τον Τζούλιαν Ασάνζ:

Στη συμβουλευτική επιτροπή του DiEM25 βρίσκεται ο Τζούλιαν Ασάνζ, ένας Αυστραλός που διαφεύγει του ευρωπαϊκού νόμου στην πρεσβεία του Εκουαδόρ. Είναι το κατάλληλο πρόσωπο να συμβουλεύει για την Ευρώπη;

Βαρουφάκης: Εϊμαι περήφανος για τη φιλία μου με το Τζούλιαν. Θα προσέξατε ότι ο Σουηδός δικαστής απέσυρε κάθε σκέψη άσκησης δίωξης εναντίον του. Φαντάζει τουλάχιστον περίεργο που θεωρείται ένοχος ενώ δεν υπάρχουν κατηγορίες εναντίον του. Ο Ασάνζ κατηγορείται ουσιαστικά για έναν απλό λόγο: γελοιοποίησε το σύστημα παρακολούθησης των ΗΠΑ. Τα wikileaks είναι ένα λαμπρό παράδειγμα του πως μπορεί κανείς να στρέψει τον καθρέφτη απέναντι στον ίδιο το Μεγάλο Αδερφό. Για αυτό ο Τζούλιαν είναι πρακτικά υπό κράτηση στην πρεσβεία του Εκουαδόρ.

Να πιστέψουμε δηλαδή ότι οι κατήγοροί του συμμετείχαν σε σκευωρία με σκοπό την έκδοσή του στις ΗΠΑ;

Βαρουφάκης: Δε με ενδιαφέρουν οι εικασίες. Αυτό που ξέρω είναι ότι στη Σουηδία δεν κατηγορήθηκε τελικά για τίποτα. Τώρα οι ΗΠΑ δήλωσαν ξεκάθαρα ότι ετοιμάζεται μυστικό δικαστήριο για να ζητήσει την έκδοσή του με κατηγορίες κατασκοπίας. Ένα τέτοιο δικαστήριο θα είναι μια παρωδία, μια ντροπή. Οι δικηγόροι του δε θα μπορούν να λάβουν καν στα χέρια τους τη δικογραφία. Θα διεξαχθεί κεκλεισμένων των θυρών και θα τον εξαφανίσουν σε μια φυλακή υψίστης ασφαλείας για πάντα. Κανένας φιλελεύθερος άνθρωπος δεν μπορεί να δεχτεί μια τέτοια διαδικασία.

Raul “Ilargi” Meijer on Assange

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Lawrence Davidson: Julian Assange and the Fate of Journalism

Julian Assange is the Australian founder of Wikileaks—a website dedicated to the public’s right to know what governments and other powerful organizations are doing. Wikileaks pursues this goal by posting revelatory documents, often acquired unofficially, that bring to light the criminal behavior that results in wars and other man-made disasters. Because Wikileaks’ very existence encourages “leaks,” government officials fear the website, and particularly dislike Julian Assange.

Essentially, Wikileaks functions as a wholesale supplier of evidence. Having identified alleged official misconduct, Wikileaks seeks to acquire and make public overwhelming amounts of evidence—sometimes hundreds of thousands of documents at a time—which journalists and other interested parties can draw upon. And since the individuals and organizations being investigated are ones ultimately responsible to the public, such a role as wholesale supplier of evidence can be seen as a public service.

(link to read rest of article)

Comment by Ilargi:

This starts out all right, albeit with all things that 1000 others have said before, but at the end goes completely off the rails by singling out FOX as a source of ‘confirmation bias’. But we all know what FOX wants. Its the others that hide their intentions behind a veil of credibility, not FOX. It’s CNN, NYT, WaPo who keep up the pretense of objective news. Not FOX, their audience and targets are well defined.
There is of course the question of what side Assange himself would prefer today. If one side appears to stand up for him, it would seem to be the right side.

 

Inside Bannon’s Plan to Hijack Europe for the Far-Right

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Bannon is moving to Europe to set up The Movement, a populist foundation to rival George Soros and spark a right-wing revolt across the continent. SOURCE LONDON—Steve Bannon plans to go toe-to-toe with George Soros and spark a right-wing revolution in Europe. Trump’s former White House chief advisor told The Daily Beast that he is setting up a foundation in Europe called The Movement which he hopes will lead a right-wing populist revolt across the continent starting with the European Parliament elections next spring. The non-profit will be a central source of polling, advice on messaging, data targeting, and think-tank research for a ragtag band of right-wingers who are surging all over Europe, in many cases without professional political structures or significant budgets. Bannon’s ambition is for his organization ultimately to rival the impact of Soros’s Open Society, which has given away $32 billion to largely liberal causes since it was established in 1984. Over the past year, Bannon has held talks with right-wing groups across the continent from Nigel Farage and members of Marine Le Pen’s Front National (recently renamed Rassemblement National) in the West, to Hungary’s Viktor Orban and the Polish populists in the East. He envisions a … Continue reading →

Function of honour and tribute at monument in Tourlos to the executed political prisoners

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For the second consecutive year on 1st May a function of commemoration and tribute was organized by the local SYRIZA group of Aegina and held in the naval base at Tourlos, honouring the political prisoners executed during the German occupation and the subsequent civil war. Participating in the function were the Alternate Minister for Social Solidarity Theano Fotiou, the SYRIZA Europarliamentarian Stelios Kouloglou, the SYRIZA national parliamentarians for Piraeus 1st District and for the Islands Thodoros Dritsas and Eleni Stamataki and the SYRIZA parliamentarian for Athens 2nd District Christoforos Papadopoulos.

On behalf of the SYRIZA chapter in Aegina the municipal councilor Antonis Delis explained the reasons why the function is being held. A text on the history of the day was read by the medical doctor Mr. Giorgos Bogris

In the course of the function a number of the participants laid wreaths and flowers on the monument. The co-ordinators of the local group Mr. Panagiotis Patsakios laid a wreath and flowers were presented by Mesdames Fotiou and Stamatakis, Messrs Dritsas, Kouloglou and Papadopoulos, the mayor of Aegina Dimitrios Mourtzis and the granddaughter of “Captain Moria” Georgakopoulos.
The function was also attended by the president of the social organization of the Municipality of Aegina KEDA Mrs. Kaiti Salpea, the Deputy Mayor Panagiotis Marmarinos, the councilor Nektarios Leousis, and numerous citizens.

Address by the Mayor of Aegina Dimitrios Mourtzis

I am with you to express my emotion, to condemn those who wish to stigmatize a different ideology, those who since seventy-one years ago when the last execution took place here unfortunately have not realized that in this country we are who we are, we are Greeks, we are Hellenes, we are Greece, without dividing lines, with different viewpoints, with the ideology of mutual respect, an ideology that is the greatest ideal we have within us, within our conscience, and it is not possible for anyone to take this ideology away from us. My hope is that the actions that took place here will never again occur in our country. This day that we are here I wanted all the groupings of the parliament to be here. Whatever mistakes there were, the policies behind them are to be condemned and we should show by our presence that something has changed in this Greece that is struggling to move beyond these narrow confines that have been imposed on us.

I came here as mayor, with great emotion but also as a Hellene, to say that my presence here is necessary, irrespective of whether I represent, in an honorary capacity, this region. I come here as Dimitrios Mourtzis, to present, along with the condemnation of this behaviour, the message that we must at long last stop what has been plaguing us for so many years. The last execution took place here seventy-one years ago. Seventy-one years passed, unexploited. I address my friends the ministers that I see facing me, my friends of the Greek parliament, all the members of the municipal council, all the people who came here to declare their concern.

Statements by Theano Fotiou, Thodoris Dritsas and Eleni Stamataki on the commemorative function at Tourlos

Statements on the function at the monument in Tourlos to the political prisoners executed during the German occupation and the subsequent civil war were made to Aegina Portal after the end of the ceremony by the Alternate Minister for Social Solidarity Theano Fotiou and the SYRIZA parliamentarians for Piraeus 1st District and the Islands Thodoris Dritsas and Eleni Stamataki.

Theano Fotiou: “It is the first time for me that I am celebrating May Day in this way, honouring the executed activists of the National Resistance, and indeed in Aegina. Truly for me the whole function was serious. It was an opportunity for reflection on exactly what happened. On the one hand let us not forget, on the other let us learn and never ever allow fascism to raise its head again.

Thodoris Dritsas: “For a second time this year we see this marvellous initiative by the SYRIZA local organization in Aegina to commemorate the activists held in the Aegina prison and then executed at Tourlos in the period between 1940 and 1944 and subsequently 1947 to 1949. Justice, progress, peace, vindication of the struggles of these people gave their lives for the highest ideals. The participation of local government, the mayor and many other representatives of Aegina society is very promising and paves the way for this initiative to be embraced by all the social and political forces of Aegina. It is a worthwhile objective within the prospect of peace, progress and vindication of the struggles of the Greek people.”

Eleni Stamataki: “For us today is not a day of celebration. It is a day of commemoration and tribute. We remember and honour those who struggled, throughout the world, for equal rights and equal conquests and this is why we are here, on this sacred site where eighteen activists of the National Resistance were executed, surreptitiously and illegally. They are the ones we honour today.