Update | By Martin Michaels
After announcing his run for the Australian Senate last week, Julian Assange returned Thursday with another major announcement. The renegade WikiLeaks founder told a crowd of 200 supporters and members of the international press gathered outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London that he plans to release more than a million classified documents in 2013, affecting “every country on earth.”
Assange has been living inside the Ecuadorian Embassy for more than six months, avoiding arrest and extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for a case involving alleged sex crimes. The U.S. Justice Department is also actively pursuing Assange for espionage and crimes affecting U.S. national security.
(MintPress) – The enigmatic Julian Assange announced plans last week to run for Senate in Australia, his home country. The WikiLeaks founder announced his candidacy while declaring the formation of a new political party from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. Assange has been residing in the embassy for the past six months, avoiding extradition to the U.S. where he could be executed for revealing classified documents from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The U.S. has sought Assange’s extradition for a range of charges including, most seriously, charges relating to espionage. Assange, confident that the U.S. Justice Department will drop its case against him, has announced his candidacy for the Australian Senate receiving the necessary minimum 500 signatures to run.
Assange’s Senate bid
Assange announced his decision to form the WikiLeaks political party in Australia to Fairfax Media, Australia’s largest media company, in a recent interview. Assange, noted that plans were “significantly advanced” in the process of forming a registered WikiLeaks political party.
Assange added that “a number of very worthy people admired by the Australian public” expressed interest in running on the WikiLeaks Party ticket in upcoming elections, possibly bringing the activists’ radical free speech agenda into the mainstream political arena.
Despite being confined to the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Assange is confident that mounting pressure in the U.S. will lead to the Justice Department to drop charges against him.
Assange noted that “the building of political opposition to the persecution of a media organization” will lead to his being able to travel to Australia to run for office and serve as the new party leader.
Under Australian law, Assange can run for Senate while in London. Should he be elected to office, a proxy can be vetted to serve in his place while he remains confined to the embassy. “If Mr Assange were elected but he was unable to return to Australia to take up his position, a nominee would occupy a Senate seat,” the Age’s Philip Dorling reports.
Although Assange is wanted for questioning regarding alleged sex crimes in Sweden and faces numerous espionage charges in the U.S., he remains somewhat popular in the eyes of the Australian public.
Opinion polls conducted by UMR Research, the company the Australian Labor Party uses, suggest that Assange could be a competitive candidate in more liberal states of New South Wales or Victoria, pitting him against the Green Party.
WikiLeaks has released more than 1 million classified cables since 2006, revealing high level corruption and criminal activity in the U.S. military, including, most notably, the killing of innocent civilians and international journalists during the Iraq War.
Will the US drop its case?
Julian Assange is confident that the U.S. will drop its case against him. The calculated risk is a reasonable one considering negotiations in the standoff do not appear to be advancing.
Although President Obama has publicly supported Assange’s extradition, the issue is not a top priority for his administration at the moment. However, lawmakers in the U.S. Congress appear willing to wage war against the non-violent free speech organization.
Last month, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Congressman Peter King (R-N.Y.), two U.S. lawmakers described as “right-wing extremists” by Julian Assange, persuaded major credit card companies Visa and Mastercard to suspend donations and payments to the WikiLeaks website.
This type of coercion is in direct violation of the federal laws stipulating that the U.S. Treasury Department determines which terrorist organizations or countries the U.S. should embargo.
Lieberman had called previously for WikiLeaks to be labeled a foreign terrorist organization and has pushed for strengthening the Espionage Act of 1917. Bradley Manning, one of the key whistleblowers responsible for the WikiLeaks tape “Collateral Murder,” is being tried under this Act.
Nearly 95 percent of funding for the site was cut off in the illegal maneuver that circumvented the U.S. Treasury Department. As a non-profit organization, the WikiLeaks site depends entirely upon funding from supporters and volunteers.
Elections in Ecuador
One variable in the Assange saga is Ecuador’s upcoming presidential elections in February 2013. Assange has relied largely upon his close personal relationship with Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa as a means to secure asylum in the South American nation’s London embassy.
However, Correa a president with an unfavorable relationship with Washington, could be unseated should the public decide to vote one of his challengers into power, upsetting the delicate relationship allowing Assange to reside in the embassy.
Correa declared that he would run for a third term last month, a decision driven largely by his popular standing with the public. Recent opinion polls show that 54 percent of the Ecuadorian public favors Correa, indicating strong support for his presidency, especially among poorer communities.
Correa, a member of the burgeoning left wing Bolivarian movement sweeping Latin American politics, is expected to win another term, due partly to a weakening, fragmented opposition.
“We’ve done a lot but there’s a lot more to be done, to turn this bourgeois state into a truly popular state that would serve everyone, especially the poor,” Mr. Correa said as he accepted the nomination.
Before seeking asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy, Assange interviewed Correa on his Russia Today talk show “The World Tomorrow.” The two maintained a warm on-screen rapport, leading to speculation earlier this year that Assange would seek to flee the U.K. and seek asylum in Quito.