Harry Williams: OK…Christine, umm I wanna take you back, way back. Ahhh Julian as a child, was he a sort of risk taking, independent, possibly uncontrollable child
Christine Assange: He wasn’t uncontrollable at all, he was a lovely little boy … he’s very curious, very bright umm and the question he asked most was why and so we would spend time discussing the various theories around the answer. He enjoyed thinking about all the different reasons why, not just wanting to have whatever I said. In many ways he was a normal little boy, he used to go off with his friends adventuring, we always lived in the country and he had a dog and he’d built rafts on the river and he very much loved to read. I would read to him every night … we would read adventure stories, the classics, the Greek legends, fairy tales, Robin Hood … the Incredible Journey. I suppose the theme in all the stories was about good triumphing over evil after a terrible struggle, I think all children enjoy that.
Harry Williams: Thank you…Sounds just like me, when I was a kid…Now, as you can see tonight we’ve got a fair volume of people in attendance and in fact possibly more than I’d hoped we’d get. So, beside Newcastle and you can see there’s a lot of people interested in what you have got to say, ah how are you sort of finding public support in general across Australia? It is comforting to you?
Christine Assange: When people know the facts of the case then they’re almost 100% supportive. The problem is that the mainstream media isn’t giving people the facts … the support comes from some unusual places … does anyone here, has anyone heard of the, you know that Julian and WikiLeaks have won many awards but has anyone heard of the Sam Adams Award? Put your hand up if you’ve heard of it … yes, the mainstream media really wouldn’t like you to know about this one. In 2010 Julian was awarded … the Sam Adams Award for Intelligence for integrity in Intelligence and that was awarded by a panel of retired senior US Military and Intelligence Personnel (laughter and applause!). It was given to him because of his very accurate portrayal of what it’s like, what it’s really like in war … the Afghan War Logs and there isn’t anybody who knows what war is like better than a soldier, or what the Intelligence community it up to better than a CIA Officer. But the support is growing umm as you can see here, there’s many people here this evening there’s many people here tonight from Newcastle, I’ve had a wonderful response from Newcastle, thanks so much, give yourselves a big clap (applause). The reason I have had to come here and go round the Country on panels is because the mainstream media won’t report the facts of the case. I haven’t seen the leaflets, do they have any links to them, that people can…the leaflets, do you have any links on those? Ok, alright, I encourage you to have a look at that, particularly what your own Government knows, now … you might like to ask that question actually … I’ll back to you (laughter).
Harry Williams: You can ask yourself questions, make me redundant, I don’t care. Yeah, um, until I get into that question um … How do you, I mean, do you have any fear about him, especially considering he is taking on the World’s only superpower, do you have any fear within yourself, any deep seated fears on what, any possible outcome may be?
Christine Assange: I would be very naive if I didn’t. Um back in 2010 there was a one hundred and twenty man task force up against Julian and that was two years ago. You can imagine how big it is now … the cable coming from the Australian Embassy in Washington stated that the investigation into Julian and WikiLeaks was unprecedented in scale and nature, it was bigger than Osama bin Laden and they are using all the resources. The Stratfor emails that you may have seen in the media the Global Intelligence Company, they have been working day and night, there are four thousand emails, as I think one of the speakers said, about Julian, that they intend to water board him … to make him a bride in prison and we all know what that means, that’s a horrible thing for a Mother to have to think of, um … they’re going to bankrupt the bastard, ruin his life. Well, they have already made him bankrupt and they’re ruining his life. Another Intelligence data company HB Gary that Anonymous broke into, hacked into, multimillion dollar Company employed by the Bank of America had a power point demonstration that looked like a Military strategy um satellite photos and the rest of it and um and we see what’s happening in Sweden, as a result of them going to set him up, they did set him up, they set him up on sexual allegations in Sweden, and that’s a holding case awaiting a US extradition. What people may not realise is how a um US extradition comes about and in this case in comes about via what’s called a Secret Grand Jury and Kellie made reference to Virginia with a little smirk on her face. The reason she was making that little smirk on her face is that Alexandra, in Virginia, is where they hold the Grand Jury, and there’s a reason for that, that’s the highest concentration of Military Contractor families and that’s where the jury pool will be taken, in the jury looking at the evidence against Julian. But just to ensure they get their conviction they are going to have four Prosecutors and no Defence materials allowed or a judge. So on the basis of the lack of due process in determining that indictment, no Country in the World should honour it and this Country should not honour it and this Country should require that Sweden and the UK not honour it because it is not due process.
Harry Williams: Thank you ummm….one of the other questions is on a bit of a personal note, when was the last time you spoke to Julian or arh made other contact and if you do, how frequently do you contact him?
Christine Assange: I spoke with him a couple of days ago, um I don’t have as much contact as he or I would like unfortunately our ‘phones are monitored so, we can’t actually be frank with each other. So that’s put a dampener on our relationship but there’s love there, and I’m fighting for him and he knows that. I’m looking forward to seeing him and I hope he will come home soon but I need him to come home to a Government that is going to protect him, not a Government that is demonising him and changing extradition bill amendments four days before and expected Supreme Court decision. I don’t know if you are aware of this but um on the 29th of February, under the cover of the leadership spill and the new Carr appointment an extradition amendment …amendment to the extradition act and criminal mutual and legal assistance act was past. For the first time now in Australia’s history, we, Aussies, can be extradited for minor offences, also the protections of, of having a political nature to your case have been very much slackened off, as is the protection of the death penalty, as is the protection of dual criminality. At the same time Americans are ramping up Copyright Legislations around the World in everybody’s Country, Eric Holder, the Attorney General has stated that he would do anything to get Julian and he is looking at every loophole there’s a possibility that with the United States saying that they are going to try and Copyright Public Works, that he could go for something as small as a Copyright infringement from Australia now and then be held under the NDAA amendments signed as the Professor was talking about and never see a trial.
Harry Williams: So, I take it that from your question or from that answer, I take it that you know that they are ease dropping on every bit of conversation you have with Julian?
Christine Assange: This is not supposition, I’ve had ‘phones that have burnt out. I don’t want to get into all this CIA stuff really, but it’s no great news to anybody. Given, the information that has come out of WikiLeaks, about the Global Intelligence Agencies, the shadow CIAs they’re called, Stratfor the Global Intelligence Files that were all monitored. My ‘phone holds a charge for about two hours, you know, obviously they know what to know what I’m talking about, funny messages on the ‘phone. But that’s not really the issue here, the issue is Julian and what they are going to do to him. They torture their own Bradley Manning is being tortured. The UN Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez, has stated he is being tortured. 60 Members of the European Parliament have written in protest to President Obama. So they torture their own, what are they going to do to my Son.
Harry Williams: Christine, thank you. You did mention a word in your response there about being demonised and I mean everybody here would know that the easiest way that you deconstruct your opponent is to demonise them. It happened to Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction, Ghadhafi that infamous Murdoch Press ad with him strutting around with women’s clothes on and all this other rubbish that went on and yet with Julian I’ve heard the words eccentric being tossed about. I heard the word…that crazy Aussie, that white haired Aussie…you know, this is all the time being bandied around the press as though he’s some sort of mentally unstable person.
Christine Assange: As Kellie said, not one person was hurt by the information that WikiLeaks released the American cables etc., not one US Politician has stated that those cables were not valid, so what have they got left? They have to smear Julian, what else can they do? So they’re going into overdrive. There’s great big comments about his hair, he’s got this weird, this white haired weirdo. Well, if you’ve got Celtic genes your hair goes grey earlier. If you go through a Family Court case like Julian does, you go through it…you go through it even earlier, if you’ve been to Family Court, you’ll know that. Even if what you were doing, you were in the right and trying to protect your child. Eccentric…well, what do we call eccentric in Britain, eccentrics are loved and appreciated. Is it eccentric to want the truth, is that eccentric? Have we become so jaded in our society that wanting truth and justice is eccentric? Maybe people that call him eccentric need to look at their value system. Julian is not normal, normal people don’t go and put themselves in the line of fire for other people. He’s an extraordinary human being and I don’t say that because I’m his Mother, I have admiration for him as a citizen and extraordinary human beings don’t have dinner exactly at six o’clock. (applause)
Harry Williams: In past conversations I’ve had with you in private you’ve indicated to me that Julian has been framed. That’s pretty strong terminology, on what basis do you say that?
Christine Assange: On the case facts, I hope they’re on your pamphlet there. I’ve actually taken a bit of trouble to do what the Journalists should be doing, which is researching the case facts, now I’ve gone onto web sites where other people have done a lot of work justice4assange.com, being one of them and umm. Also, as I was going to say earlier and then decided to go back to my question, are you aware that your Government is very well aware that Julian was being framed? This is my last resort being here, at first of all wrote to the Australian Government, I wrote to Kevin Rudd with case facts and I got a standard form letter. I sent that letter to every MP and every Senator and asked them to read it and that’s freely available on Brisbane WikiLeaks Defence; Christine Assange eight page letter, you can have a look for yourself and I asked them to look at this letter and put aside their Party politics and act upon their conscience and I actually got a bite from Andrew Manning MP in Queensland who was mortified at the facts that he was reading and what he’d researched further and suggested that the Australian Parliament really needed to be apprised all these facts. I was very hopeful, so we put together three lawyers, and ex DFAT, Department of Foreign Affairs Diplomat Tony Kevin, who had also been an ex Ambassador and they went to Parliament, they put submissions to Parliament. One of them was Greg Barnes head of Lawyers…Australian Lawyers Alliance and the Australian Parliament was told in no uncertain terms based on the case facts and the chronology, the time-line that Julian was being framed. He was a political prisoner and the case in Sweden was merely a holding case awaiting a US extradition and there was a lot of excitement in Parliament apparently about it and a lot of hope that something would be done and they told me that they would have regular cross bench interest…special interest group would meet. That was the end of it, I never heard a thing again. People who’d been speaking up in the Labor Party, one Sharon Grierson here in your local electorate who was speaking up, they were all gagged…and then began a series of Bills against WikiLeaks, one being the WikiLeaks Amendment. I’d like to tell you some of the facts about the Swedish extradition, so you can understand why I said he’s being framed. First of all the timing, Julian has never had a claim of sexual abuse about him and he is forty years old. Suddenly, he gets two right in the middle of Cablegate. That’s a little bit more coincidence than you would like. He…neither of the women actually accused him of rape, in fact woman SW and these are all facts, these are undisputed facts. Woman SW, was in fact so upset that the Police alleged rape that she did not sign the statement and ran out of the room from the interview. Her statement was later altered without her consent and without her signing it to get the European Arrest Warrant to make it look even worse. Woman AA submitted a condom 12 days later to the Police after she alleged that Julian deliberately tore the condom but when the condom was forensically examined there was no DNA evidence of either Julian or woman AA. Woman AA and the police officer that interrogated woman SW and both the Lawyers that represented them were all members of the same Political Party. They were all standing together for elections at the same time, four weeks after the sex allegations were made and one of the strong platforms of that Party is widening the definition of rape within consensual sex. Another fact, the business partner of one of the Lawyers representing the women Thomas Bodstrom, when he was Justice Minister he signed off on CIA rendition torture flights on Egyptian refugees, later Sweden had to make compensation because they were innocent. The other fact I point you to is that Julian…the rape allegation was dropped within 24 hours by the Chief Prosecutor Eva Finne and it was only raised again when woman AA who was running for election went to the lawyer running for election and found a Prosecutor Marianne Ny who a Swedish judge Brita Sonheim Berg, described as a radical feminist and the three of them put their heads together with the condom and raised the rape allegation again and you may not be aware that you can be in gaoled for rape in Sweden for non violent, consensual sex. The definition of rape is not like ours at all and the last point, there are many points but this is the last one I’ll leave you with in regard to that case, you can see many more on my Wlcentral.org/node/2486. The European Arrest Warrant was taken out for questioning and that is a misuse of the warrant, the warrants are only supposed to be taken out for a prosecution or to bring back someone who has absconded. So, it was taken out for questioning, Julian stayed five weeks in Sweden to try and secure an interview to clear his name and they refused every time. So, he was given permission to leave Sweden on the 15th of November, once he left Sweden, then they organised an interview and when he couldn’t come back with one day they issued the warrant started the process to issue the warrant. Through his lawyers in the UK he, they wrote to Sweden saying the normal protocol if someone is overseas and they’re only wanted for questioning not for prosecution is something called Mutual Legal Assistance, to which the Swedish, the Swedish and the British are both signed up. Marianne Ny the Chief Prosecutor refused point blank to use that protocol and lied to the media and the people of Sweden and said they were not signatories to it. The European Arrest Warrant was then backed up by a Red Notice by Interpol. The only time that Red Notice has ever been used in recent times for sexual allegations was for a repeat pedophile offender, so it was an abuse of the Red Notice as well. Julian has been under House Arrest for 15 months in Britain and he has offered himself for questioning to Scotland Yard and offered himself for questioning at the Swedish Embassy and the Swedish Prosecutor Marianne Ny has refused all offers, while still pursuing an European Arrest Warrant for questioning.
Harry Williams: Thank you very much…you have sort of answered the next question. I was going to ask you about what approaches you have made to the Australian Government, I think you have satisfactorily answered that. Now for the following question and I mean this is probably one of the biggest questions of the night, what steps can people take to help Julian, what can they do to help you, help the organisation and to try and help get him back safety?
Christine Assange: Well, you’ve all taken the first step by coming here tonight, thank you very much, I really do appreciate it. On behalf of Julian, I’d like to thank you. So, that’s the first step is to become informed because this is what as Kellie said on another panel, this is an information war. The only way we can fight the smear and the lies that have been put out about Julian and WikiLeaks is with facts. So you need to arm yourself with facts, there’ll be links there to the facts. Once you’ve got the facts, start to spread the truth. You can do that among your friends and co-workers and family. But you can also do thinks like ring up talk back radio when you hear this misinformation being put out you can correct it and whether you work around the water tank or the water cooler just start to drop some of these eye opening facts into the conversation. The one that I gave you before about them all running for the same Political Party that’s the one that really stuns most people to start with. Now, arh..what else can you do? You can write letters to the local editor, you can post comments when you see articles, you can buy WikiLeaks T-shirts and hoodies and wear them with pride. The more people that stand up loud and proud for WikiLeaks the more other people will stand up. Julian has often been quoted as saying ‘Courage is contagious’ and that’s true, it’s much easier to be courageous when there is more of us. The more people that stand up, the more people that stand up. Now we must not leave our Politicians out of this although they would very much like to be left out of it. Your Politician wants your vote more than anything else in the World, I think we can see now, aside from a few Politicians that they are there mainly to feather their own nests, there are what we called career Politicians they are not people there that have taken up the call of their Country, so that Politician really want your vote. So organise and interview with your Politician and don’t take no for an answer. Take a letter armed with the facts and it’s more than just Julian, we’re talking about free speech and democracy here as well and also by the way Independents for Australia in the US, we are not the 51st State of the US, we are Australia and we’re a Sovereign free Nation (rousing applause). We come from a Colony of the US, we’re not about to become a Colony of the US and we’re fast on the way to being there and people here that are migrants will know exactly what I’m talking about. You’ve come from other Countries to escape this sort of fascism that’s fast making inroads here through America by this Government (rousing applause). So I would say to you boldly confront your politician after all we pay their wages and it’s time they remembered that and tell them that actually my plasma tellie is not the most important thing at the next election, I’d actually like to leave my children freedom. The next election is going to be about Julian Assange and it’s going to be about press freedom and it’s going to be about democracy and it’s going to be about Australian independence and if it’s not for you, then you’re out. I won’t be voting for you and if there is not anyone else to vote for you might think about standing yourself. We can do with a few more Independents and break this…this choking party politics that we’ve got where they only hold hands for pay rises and to suppress free press (applause). Now, tomorrow we got the…well you people are giving today so we may not worry about that but tell everybody about the ‘Beat the Blockade’ campaign that’s on tomorrow donate $5.00 to WikiLeaks. The other thing you can do is to umm because they’ve got enormous expenses defending themselves against this onslaught from four Governments. By the way they are actually currently working with one hundred media partners throughout the World to bring the truth to you, they haven’t been broken yet, but they do need funds to keep going and to defend Julian and the other Journalists these attacks. What else, oh yes, at the risk of being labelled ‘a terrorist’ or ‘a belligerent’ you might like to start your own little WikiLeaks Support Group, that can be just one person and flyers aren’t that hard to make, follow me on AssangeC, I’m on Twitter, that was my big foray into the internet. I can’t use a computer but I can tweet in bed on my pink Barbie Doll ‘phone. Interestingly the $70 Barbie Doll ‘phone aren’t as easy frozen by security because they’re too low tech enough…isn’t that funny? (laughter) So I hang onto mine for grim death. Follow me on AssangeC because within that stream I’ll be tweeting a lot of stuff and also hash tags on Assange and WikiLeaks on Twitter because you’ll find out what’s going on and you can respond to it. There’s a great series at the moment by a bloke called SomersetBean and he’s taking my facts and he’s making posters out of them and he’s putting them up and you can download them and print them and put them up all over town, posters and flyers you can letterbox. Oh, here’s a thing for Newcastle, what about a Benefit Concert, you guys are great with music, I think a Newcastle Benefit Concert would rock and show the rest of Australia, you know, what you guys can do, because, you know, I think there is something quite special about Newcastle, it’s not just some poll political smear to grease you up. There is something special about this place, it’s um, I picked it up as soon as I arrived here there’s something really gutsy and Australian here and you’re really proud of that so you can show the rest of Australia how it’s done maybe. I think that’s about it, I haven’t forgotten anything have I. I’m sure you’ll come up with other stuff.
Transcribed by Gail Malone 2012
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