A round-up of good recent reads
This is an absolute ripper about an Australian reporter’s journey to Britain in pursuit of Assange and leaked cables. News-gathering and espionage intersect here.
Analysis of the Wikileaks fall-out from an Australian and law/rights perspective. Academic Scott Burchill says Assange better get himself back here to be bodily as safe as possible - but we have the obstacle of a government that (so far) won’t support him. The PM answers to Joe Lieberman.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/pm-tanks-at-home-20101210-18srp.html
An examination of how the Australian PM stands on this issue. There is unprecedented and very vocal support for Assange from the people so some pundits are predicting this could be Gillard’s undoing. Incidentally, among the fascinating disclosures from wiki cables this week has been the information that the US had been grooming her for a couple of years before she became PM - in a coup rather than by election - in June. She (or her party) didn’t win the federal election that followed either, but scraped a minority government together after sealing deals with independents.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxCK1uUbxaY&feature=player_embedded
Brief interview with Julian’s laid-back, bohemian mother. She comes across as very different from J except that they share a fierce, uncompromising I would say, independent spirit. So there’s inspiration here!
In depth portrait of a highly unusual person - filling in some of the gaps in popular knowledge about Mr Assange. “He’s a very minimalist human being. He’s like a religious aesthete, two robes and a pair of sandals. Aesthetes live a very sombre existence in terms of material goods and that’s what he’s like.”
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See my StumbleUpon or Facebook page for more - lack of time; I am only doing the occasional update in Tumblr
