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Two of our SAAII members have made a persuasive case that the seminal event of our times -- the attacks of September 11, 2001 -- might have been prevented had WikiLeaks been available to whistleblowers at the time. Coleen Rowley (an attorney with the FBI) and Bogdan Dzakovic of the Federal Aviation Administration, in a little-noticed Los Angeles Times op-ed of October 15, 2010, make that sad but telling point. The authors write that FBI and FAA agents, frustrated by their ossified bureaucracies, might well have used WikiLeaks to make public their anxious warnings about missed opportunities for investigation, and serious vulnerabilities at airports to impending attack.
Digesting the WikiLeaks disclosures at a time when so-called "mainstream" media have largely abdicated their watchdog role as the Fourth Estate, and knowing first-hand the courage it took on Julian Assange's and WikiLeaks' part to expose the dishonesty and crimes of the powerful, the SAAII nominating committee selected Julian Assange for our annual award for integrity in 2010. SAAII member Daniel Ellsberg presented the award to him in London on October 15, 2010.
Except for Julian Assange, only one of the other nine annual award recipients to date was imprisoned as a result of disclosures -- in this case, about bogus intelligence before the attack on Iraq in 2003. He is Danish Army Major Frank Grevil, an intelligence analyst who was jailed for giving the Danish press documents showing that then-Denmark's Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen disregarded Danish intelligence warnings that there was no authentic evidence of WMD in Iraq. Aping former-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld just before the war, Rasmussen declared: "Iraq has WMDs. It is not something we think; it is something we know." (Yes, this is the same Rasmussen who is now Secretary General of NATO.)
That Dane was performing tricks taught by Washington. Truth-teller Grevil blew the whistle and paid the price. It appears that the U.S. expects President Correa to roll over in a similar way. This could be seen in a long editorial on June 20 in the Establishment's mouthpiece, the Washington Post. The editors made an undisguised threat of serious economic retaliation: "If Mr. Correa seeks to appoint himself America's chief Latin American enemy and Julian Assange's protector [before Congress decides on trade preferences], it's not hard to imagine the outcome."
It is an open secret that Establishment Washington is lusting to get Julian Assange to the U.S. and try him for espionage, no less. What a wonderful boon that would be for the re-election prospects of President Barack Obama, who is trying hard to appear tough. First taking out Osama bin-Laden -- and now Julian Assange! An automatic four more years, is the way White House strategists would see it. And, if he were sent to Sweden, there is every reason to expect the Swedes, based on recent past performance, to hand him over to Washington.
Little attention has been given to Assange's repeated offers to make himself available for questioning during almost five weeks in Sweden and at the Swedish embassy in London and Scotland Yard under conditions foreseen and set down for such cases in a treaty between Sweden and the UK.
We believe it reasonable to assume that Assange would similarly be willing to submit himself to such questioning at your embassy in London. Why the Swedes have resisted questioning him, either in Sweden or in London, but rather insisted he be extradited, before even being questioned, much less charged, feeds suspicion that they are dancing to Washington's baton.
For many of us, Monsenor Romero put it correctly in reminding us to speak out for Justice: "Ser cristiano hoy en dia significa no temer, no callar por miedo."
And so we choose not to remain silent. We are convinced not only that your President and his advisers will know the right thing to do, but that they will have the courage to do it.
Thank you for your help in passing this along to your government.
Respectfully,
/s/
Raymond L. McGovern (for Sam Adams Associates for Integrity
in Intelligence)
703-994-1459 (mobile phone)
Enclosures
-SAAII citation for 2010 integrity award to Julian Assange-WikiLeaks and 9/11: What if? Los Angeles Times, October 15, 2010
-Information Sheet: Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence (with list of annual recipients)
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