WikiLeaks’ Assange gets peace prize

This video from Australia says about itself:

Professor Stuart Rees, Director of the Sydney Peace Foundation, addresses a crowd in Sydney for the second rally in support of Wikileaks and Julian Assange held on Tuesday 15 December [2010].

From Reuters:

WikiLeaks‘ Assange gets Australian peace prize

Tue May 10, 2011 2:03pm EDT

By Avril Ormsby

LONDON (Reuters) – WikiLeaks’ Australian founder Julian Assange, who enraged Washington by publishing thousands of secret U.S. diplomatic cables, was given a peace award on Tuesday for “exceptional courage in pursuit of human rights.”

Assange was awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation‘s gold medal in London, only the fourth to be handed out in its 14-year history. The not-for-profit organization associated with the University of Sydney, is supported by the City of Sydney.

Currently fighting extradition from Britain to Sweden over alleged sex crimes, the computer expert was praised for “challenging centuries old practices of government secrecy and by championing people’s right to know.”

“We think the struggle for peace with justice inevitably involves conflict, inevitably involves controversy,” the foundation’s director Professor Stuart Rees said.

“We think that you and WikiLeaks have brought about what we think is a watershed in journalism and in freedom of information and potentially in politics.”

He also criticized the Australian government, saying it must stop shoring up Washington’s efforts to “behave like a totalitarian state,” and said it was “appalled by the violent behavior by major politicians in the United States.”

WikiLeaks caused a media and diplomatic uproar late last year when it began to publish its cache of more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables, revealing secrets such as that Saudi leaders had urged U.S. military action against Iran.

Some American politicians said WikiLeaks should be defined as an international terrorist organization.

Assange himself claimed publication of the cables helped shape uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East and said WikiLeaks was on the side of justice.

Other winners include Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama.

James Russell, Truthout: “Activists from across the country converged outside of Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, on Saturday to oppose the detainment and demand the release, of Pfc. Bradley Manning, the 23-year-old accused by the federal government of sharing previously undisclosed documents to whistleblower web site WikiLeaks. The event is the first large-scale protest to be held outside of the base since he was transferred there from the US Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia, on April 20. The day-long rally, march and protest featured a variety of speakers, including GI resisters, anti-war activists and veterans, as well as members of the Bradley Manning Support Network, which helped organize the event with the local chapter of Veterans for Peace and other organizations. For activists at the protest, Manning has become both a symbol of all that is right with whistleblowing and all that is wrong with the federal government”: here.

UN’s top torture investigator denounces Bradley Manning’s detention: “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment”: here.

US Subjected Manning to Cruel, Inhuman, Degrading Treatment, UN Torture Chief Concludes. Jason Leopold, Truthout: “The United States government subjected 24-year-old Pvt. Bradley Manning to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment following his arrest in May 2010 in Iraq on suspicion of leaking hundreds of thousands of secret State Department cables and other documents to WikiLeaks, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Torture concluded in a long-awaited report”: here.

Inside a Military Court Hearing: How the Government Is Railroading Bradley Manning: here.