This afternoon Julian Assange read out his long awaited for Statement at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. All in all it appeared to be quite a subdued event. There were none of the clichés one might have been hoping for: the electric atmosphere, the overwhelming sense of camaraderie, the nail-biting tension... It was one or two notches up from the excitement you would get when the loudspeaker announces a platform alteration at Victoria Station. True, the police presence was significant, but standing in a row and they did, they could have almost been mistaken for Carroll’s little oysters:
Their shoes were clean and neat...”
The helicopter hovering above gave the scene a touch of gravitas, but it muffled the preliminary speeches as it did so. You would have managed to glean just enough to know that you were missing some very worthwhile introductions.
Then Julian Assange appeared at a balcony that was just above street level. With so many people out for his blood, he could have been forgiven if he had chosen to speak from a turret, wearing chainmail. But there he was smartly dressed and a stone’s throw away from the public.
"I am here because I cannot be there, with you. But thank you for coming. Thank you for your resolve; for your generosity of spirit.
"On Wednesday night after a threat was sent to this embassy and the police descended on the building, you came out in the middle of the night to watch over it and you brought the world’s eyes with you.
"Inside the embassy, after dark, I could hear teams of police swarming into the building through the internal fire escape.
"But I knew that there would be witnesses. And that is because of you.
"If the UK did not throw away the Vienna Conventions the other night, it is because the world was watching. And the world was watching because you were watching."
The fact that the government of the United Kingdom came so close to flouting the "inviolable" 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations is proof enough, if proof were needed, that this is more than a story about a allegations about sexual misconduct. Undermining the convention puts diplomats at risk all over the world. It is the most reckless political decision since the invasion of Iraq. How could the government be so irresponsible? And how could the opposition let those involved get away with it? Clearly, when it comes to the United States of America there is no right or left in British politics: only poodles.
For the most part, the rest of Julian Assange's speech was simple and to the point. He thanked all those there were to thank, particularly Ecuador and other supportive Latin American countries; he mentioned the plight of other whistleblowers, such as Bradley Manning, John Kirakou and Thomas Drake; and he spoke of the need to resist oppression and intimidation.
“There is unity in the oppression; there must be absolute unity and determination in the response.”
And then it was all over. But not for him, not by any means.
Assange wanted by Interpol
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