F.Froger / D6, pour FranceSoir
Visiting France to promote asylum here for his son Julian Assange, John Shipton granted FranceSoir the honour of an interview on Friday November 12th.
As Mr. Shipton sees it, his son's mission has been that of Prometheus, Unbound : in 2005, as Julian put into place what became WikiLeaks, he believed that were certain critical items of strategic information to become widely available, the citizenry would be aroused to act on an array of matters vaster even than the strictly political.
videas.frThe phenomenon that Julian intended to see emerge at that time is that of a mass-based, grassroots awareness. It has now become manifest as several billion people reject the « English-speaking faction's policy of Never-Ending War » as John Shipton puts it.
The information released by Julian he says, has been taken up worldwide by over one hundred publications, including those in the mainstream such as The Guardian, El Pais, Der Spiegel or Le Monde.
Henceforth, aware of these foreign wars with their train of disasters, the citizenry will no longer put up with it. Thanks in large measure to Julian's revelations, the camp at Guantanamo has gone from 800 prisoners (including small children), down to 80, while the USA has been compelled to withdraw from Afghanistan and now, through too gradually, from the Middle East.
A striking feature of the « English-speaking » authorities conduct towards Julian, has been its sheer nastiness, indeed malevolence : libel and defamation, contemptuous remarks made in open Court, blithe disregard for international treaties notably the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights, the waving-aside of UN Special Rapporteur Nils Melzer's finding that Julian has been tortured.... Part and parcel of the Western world's collapse into barbarity over the past 20 years, of which the events unfolding in Australia are most telling.
Julian has had close ties to France since 2005 ; he lived in the Marais, founded and registered Wikileaks there, fought his first lawsuits there and has a French family. It was on his way back to France that he was arrested in the UK. The devise of the French Revolution - Liberty Equality Fraternity - its symbolism, is as potent as the Revolution itself. To John Shipton, the Gilets Jaunes are its expression and to him, the Gilets Jaunes have already won, being the ferment raising an entire society.
France too has benefited from Wikileaks, which has exposed the telephone tapping of France's highest authorities by the United States, and industrial espionage against France costing the country tens of billions. Mr. Shipton, who says « my job is to advocate for Julian ; I do not meet with politicians but set out the circumstances in which the politicians can act », would like to see France offer asylum to his son as 38 French MPs now propose. To that end he will be speaking in the French Parliament next week.
Mr. Shipton seized the occasion to express his respect for former US Army Intelligence Analyst Chelsea Manning, whom he describes as « a Joan of Arc » : to stand up to that kind of pressure for a year or two, he says, is one thing - to stand up to it for over a decade shews real steel. He also raised the gaoling in Scotland, for alleged contempt of Court, of Ambassador Craig Murray, a close friend and supporter of Julian Assange. Ambassador Murray had been reporting daily on the first round of extradition hearings; on his latest trip to Scotland, Mr. Shipton stayed with his family.
In conclusion, Mr. Shipton notes that although he is now 78 years of age, he has undertaken an unceasing round of travel from one capital to another in his attempts to free his son. This has been possible only through a groundswell of support worldwide, for which he wishes to express to the countless thousands « A Thousand Thanks ».