Hey Joe

Monte Cristo

Midnight Express

Stella and the Timekeepers

The arrest of Julian Assange

Giorgio Agamben, Quodlibet, April 13, 2019

I met Assange two years ago at the Embassy of Ecuador in London, and thinking back to what he said to me during our encounter, I believe we can understand why he was arrested today. Assange told me he was investigating the use Google was planning to make of the immense amount of information at its disposal. According to Assange, it was a matter of providing for sale to insurance companies and secret services data on interests, desires, purchases, health status, reading tastes — in short, on all aspects of life of millions of people. According to Assange — and I believe we should share his view — this would mean an unprecedented increase of control effectiveness by the economic and police powers over human beings. Hence, what is at stake in Assange’s arrest is not merely the desire to punish WikiLeaks for its past investigations, but actually to impede the ongoing investigation, which is obviously viewed as a threat by all concerned parties. It is a reason more to voice our own unreserved solidarity with Assange.

(English translation by I, Robot)

Stella Moris (pictured above) and Julian Assange got married on Wednesday, March 23, 2022 at Belmarsh high-security prison in south-east London. The wedding is “a declaration of love and resilience in spite of the prison walls”, said the bride. Photo: Peter Nicholls/Reuters.

True Odds

Speaking to Fox News on Thursday, Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said there is a specific aspect of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s arrest troubling her. “There’s a lot of concern for folks who disagree or are troubled by Assange’s past. To my knowledge, the specific charges that were raised for his extradition were even ones that the Obama administration entertained but turned down because it was kind of beyond the pale in terms of an attack on journalism and journalists”, she said.

What the Cat Knows

James (pictured above), the cat which had been living with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in the Ecuadorean Embassy since a long time, is apparently safe and free, as confirmed by British journalist and author James Ball in a tweet yesterday: “For the record: Julian Assange’s cat was reportedly given to a shelter by the Ecuadorian embassy ages ago, so don’t expect a feline extradition in the next few hours. (I genuinely offered to adopt it)”. Photo: Peter Nicholls/Reuters.

I have lived magnificent days

The 8,761 documents published by WikiLeaks focus mainly on techniques for hacking and surveillance The U.S. intelligence agencies are facing fresh embarrassment after WikiLeaks published what it described as the biggest-ever leak of confidential documents from the CIA detailing the tools it uses to break into phones, communication apps and other electronic devices. [Read more].

• Ewen MacAskill, WikiLeaks publishes “biggest ever leak of secret CIA documents”, The Guardian, March 7, 2017

Ernesto Che Guevara and Fidel Castro in a rare picture together in the 1960s. Photo: Reuters.

State of the Union

London, United Kingdom: Julian Assange’s cat looks out of the window of Ecuadorian embassy as Swedish prosecutors question the Wikileaks founder inside. Photo: Chris J. Ratcliffe/Getty Images.

Ghost Rider

WikiLeaks founder Julian Paul Assange plays with a kitten, a gift from his children to keep him company, at the Ecuadorian embassy in central London, England. Photo: Reuters.