Exclusive Julian Assange Interview With Cenk Uygur (12/22/10)

Transcript: http://tinyurl.com/24nwcxu

Cenk Uygur (host of The Young Turks) interviewed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan show. They discussed critics of Assange, the treatment of Private Bradley Manning and more.

Portion of Transcript:

CENK: Well Julian I want to get to as much as possible here so I want to give you a chance to respond one by one to your critics, first to Mitch McConnell who is of course the leader of the Republicans in the Senate and to Joe Biden who both said that called you a high tech terrorist how do you respond to Joe Biden the Vice President of the United States saying that to you?

JULIAN: Well let's look at the definition of terrorism, the definition of terrorism is a group that uses violence or the threat of violence for political ends now no one in our four year publishing covering over 120 countries has ever been physically harmed as a result of what we've done. Now that's not just us saying that, that's the Pentagon saying that, that's NATO and Kabal saying that. No one, not a shred of evidence. Now believe me if they could find or even easily manufacture a shred of evidence they would be doing that immediately so it's clear that whoever the terrorists are here it's not us. But we see constant threats from people, Republicans in the Senate trying to make a name for themselves, to people like Sarah Palin to Shock Jocks on Fox and unfortunately some members also of the Democratic party calling for my assassination calling for the illegal kidnapping of my staff and just a few days ago on Fox that was the phrase that was used "illegal, he should be illegally murdered if necessary, assassinated by the law if possible if not illegally" what start of message does that send about the rule of law in the United States? That is conducting violence in order to achieve a political end the elimination of this organization or the threat of violence to achieve a political end the elimination of a publisher and that is the definition of terrorism.

CENK: Now I want to give you a chance to respond personally though because here Mike Huckabee is making it very personal you saw that quote we had up, he says "I think anything less than execution is too kind a penalty for you" Sarah Palin saying that you are like Al-Qaeda and the Taliban and that you should be pursued with the same urgency so how would you respond to Mike Huckabee who is a top Republican leader, likely to run for President again. How would you respond to Sarah Palin, top Republican leader who might run for President again?

JULIAN: Oh it's just another idiot trying to make a name for himself, but it's a serious business I mean if we are to have a civil society we cannot have senior people making calls on national TV to go around the Judiciary and illegally murder people that is incitement to commit murder that is an offense you cannot have senior people on national TV asking people to commit an offense. That is not a country that obeys the rule of law. Does the United States obey the rule of law, because Europeans are starting to wonder whether it is still obeying the rule of law and it needs to be very careful is it going to descend into an anarchy where we don't have due process where those great Bill of Rights traditions about due processes thrown to the wind whenever some shock jock politician just thinks that they can use it to make a name for themselves? Or do we take things according to laws expressly made by the people and their representatives that is the way things should be done and when people call for illegal deliberate assassination and kidnapping of others they should be held to account they should be charged for incitement to commit murder.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• wikileaks
• julian
• assange
• leaked
• documents
• government
• secrets
• media
• journalism
• attacks
• traitor
• assassination
• sarah
• palin
• mike
• huckabee
• shock
• jocks
• united
• states
• america
• treason
• sweden
• news
• politics
• cenk
• uygur
• dylan
• ratigan
• tyt
• young
• turks

[austr8lia]

Assange, Mate you have them on their back foot, you are 110% correct, they are idiots trying to make a name for them selves, here they are Real Terrorist and they put Assange in jail.. Its Pathetic they are pathetic individuals not only idiot but disgusting vile pieces of human filth. Palin, Biden , etc they are all scum. All cowardice scum scared of being exposed for the criminals and terrorists and pathetic pieces of filth they are.

[659851]

This man is a hero to 95% of the world population ... This man will be remembered by the world as a pionneer for new age freedom of press, will be known as one of the main factor why the ''american colonial/imperial'' plan will fail ...

Yet he's viewed by americans like a terrorist ... This is such a shame .. He'll propably loose his life trying to free people who won't even recognize him...

That's honnor, That's heroic. That's worthy of the highest prestige...

Cheers

[innie721]

@janisakironmaiden uh he is Australian.

[b002velska]

Europeans have stopped wondering, dude! No due process any more.

"We are a country of laws, not of men." was the motto way back when USA was a democracy.

[ajtgarber101010]

I love how many of his opponents are calling for his assassination or kidnapping, but he responds calmly, with responses that are well thought out.

[EndureFocusEngageDie]

"line in the sand, erosion" lol naturkunskap & geografi?

[EndureFocusEngageDie]

Assange lmao, you think he is on 'our side' damn you people are stupid. fuck!

[Cheapshot420420]

@beartocouch hey i didnt compare you at all, i said you guys let her exist and do her thing. you all should be shaming her into a corner for making you all look bad. shes ignorant, a hypocrite, and a liar, yet people show up in droves wearing shirts with her name/face on it, asking her to run in 2012. it makes americans look bad and america should, to quote the poet Snoop D. Dogg. "scratch her off my bawws with my motherfucking paws"

[Salaame]

Host of the Nobel Peace Price, mind you, not the rest.

[Gh0stface89]

FREE ASSANGE

[beartocouch]

@Cheapshot420420 I'm American and if you ever, EVER compare me to Sarah Palin again i will hunt you down, cut off your balls and staple them to your chin, lol ;-P

[Rimmer7]

What is it with you people and your aversion to the word "torture"? Call a spade a spade, Cenk.

[funeocons]

@Cheapshot420420 I think most people realize that accidents can happen in war which is another reason we should just not go to war without real cause. But sometimes bad things happen due to bad decisions or someone just losing it. So it is okay for a soldier on the ground to lose it and kill 30 innocent civilians and this person not be charged but it is okay to charge the person who released the videos showing the horrible crime take place? We are not talking stealth technology here.

[Cheapshot420420]

wow sarah palins comments here and her "target" on tucson "dont retreat, reload" seriously what the fuck is wrong with americans, they should be calling for justice for making american look terrible in the worlds eyes. instead they sit there and watch jersey shore.

[Elizabethan79]

Those people are only ignorant. Julian Assange, you're fantastic, for real and are very welcome to our world. Thank you and keep up the good work.

[aresres]

"hes the reason those US soldiers got in trouble" ,,,and not the shills who sent em to an unwinnable war for the wrong reasons? He's pretty careful with information, more so than the CIA (Google "cia lebanon pizza hut" if you don't believe me), though yeah he had some majorly misplaced faith in the Guardian. And now they're a hairbreadth from torturing Bradley Manning.

[greyface01]

Julian is shill anyway, hes the reason those US soldiers got in trouble, he was being lazy with security cuz he was too busy being a camwhore. Theres a whole interview with the guy that wrote the code for wikileaks, only known as 'the Architect', look it up if you dont believe me.

[DungbeetleXL5000]

Im sorry Julian...but if you followed republican politicians for any amount of time you would realize that they consistently feel they are above the law..they care about one thing...money.

[jsgdk]

The gender war <- Search for this on youtube.. Docu on radical feminism in Sweden.

I was like lol.. but then i was like omfg.

Suprise Sex lol.. i heard swedish guys joking about it but omfg.

[rtkramer36a]

This is one very "hushed" video. =p

[kkamalanii]

@firstdicehawk The only prize this piece of shit fagit need to get is a huge kick in his ass but don't worry his time will come sooner then later.

[janisakironmaiden]

@kkamalanii he is swedish...

[rtkramer36a]

Your video is popular on Brunei

[kkamalanii]

@HawK047 Get, some windex stupid little fag it.

[kkamalanii]

You, fucking fag it! some where some how you will get it. so enjoy your fucking fagit parade of hate and your sick twisted crapp..I been in Norway is a cute little sad country.nothing happening there so thy married each other so they all look like this crapp ass.

[workatthefarm]

@firstdicehawk Norway is a crap country