WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange expressed strong support for US Sen Rand Paul yesterday.
His comments came during an online Google hangout Q&A hosted by OurSay.org.
Sen. Paul (R- Ky.) is one of the few Washington lawmakers in either party that is unwilling to give a blank check to what now might be called the military-industrial-surveillance complex.
In filibustering John Brennan’s CIA nomination back in March for example, Paul — who is also a medical doctor — made clear his opposition to deploying legal drones against American citizens who don’t pose an imminent threat and have yet to receive due process in a court of law.
When asked about Paul, a vocal critic of big government, Julian Assange had this to say about the Republican senator:
“I am a big admirer of Ron Paul and Rand Paul for their very principled positions in the U.S. Congress on a number of issues. They have been some of the strongest supporters of the fight against the US attack against WikiLeaks and on me in the US Congress. They have been the strongest opponents of drone warfare and extra-judicial executions. And so that’s quite an interesting phenomenon in the United States — the position of the libertarian Republican… right. Coming from a principle of non-violence, which is the American libertarian intellectual position, that produces interesting results… ”
While the libertarian approach may be too simplistic in some instances, Assange contended, he also claimed that “nearly every Democrat in Congress has been corrupted by the Obama administration or corrupted by DC social networks.” He added that the Republicans are often in bed with the “war industry.” Because of that, “the libertarian aspect of the Republican party is presently the only useful political voice really in the US Congress.”
Assange also praised Matt Drudge of the Drudge Report as a news media innovator whose platform provides an alternative to the self-censorship of the mainstream news media.
The WikiLeaks founder is still hold up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London while trying to run for the Australian senate. He faces extradition to Sweden if he leaves the embassy.
US soldier Bradley Manning faces up to 90 years in prison for leaking a massive amount of classified information to WikiLeaks.
