I am here, today, because I cannot be there, with you, today.
But thank you for coming.
Thank you for your resolve, and your generosity of spirit.On Wendsday night, after a threat was sent to this embassy, and the police descended on this building, you came out in the middle of the night to watch over it, and you brought the world’s’ eyes with you.
Inside the embassy, after dark, I could hear teams of police swarming up into the building through the internal fire escape.
But I knew that there would be witnesses.
And that is because of you.If the UK did not throw away the Vienna Conventions the other night, that is because world is watching.
And the world was watching because you were watching.So the next time somebody tells you that it is pointless to defend those rights that we hold dear, remind them of your vigil in the dark before the Embassy of Ecuador, reminded how in the morning the sun came up on a different world, and a courageous Latin America nation took a stand for justice.
And so, to those brave people.
I thank President Correa for the courage he has shown in considering and then granting me political asylum.And I also thank the government, and in particular Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patino, who have upheld the ecuatorian Constitution and its notion of universal system sheet (rights), in their consideration of my asylum.
And to the ecuadorian people for supporting and defending this constitution.
And I also have a debt of gratitude to the staff of this embassy, whose families live in London and who’ve showing me hospitality and kindness despite the threats that they all received.
This Friday there will be an emergency meeting of the foreign ministers of Latin America in Washington DC, to address this very situation.
And so I am grateful to those people and governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Argentina, Peru, Venezuala and to all the other Latin American countries who have coming up to defend the right to asylum.
And to the people of the United States, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Australia, who have supported me in strength, even when their governments have not.
And to those wiser heads in government who are still fighting for justice. Your day will come.
To the staff, supporters and sources of WikiLeaks, whose courage and commitment and loyalty has seen no equal.
To my family and to my children who have been denied their father. Forgive me. We will be reunited soon.
As WikiLeaks stands under threat, so does the freedom of expression, and the health of our societies.
We must use this moment to articulate the choice that is before the government of the United States of America.
Will it return to and reaffirm the values, the revolutionary values it was standing on.
Or will it lurch off the precipice, dragging us all into a dangerous and oppressive world, in which journalists fall silent under the fear of prosecution, and citizens must whisper in the dark?I say that it must turn back.
I ask President Obama to do the right thing.The United States must renounce its wich-hunt against Wikileaks.
The United States must dissolve its FBI investigation.
The United States must vow that it will not seek to persecute our staff, or our supporters.
The United States must pledge before the world that it will not pursue journalists for shining, shining a light on the secret crimes of the powerful.
There must be no more foolish talk about prosecuting any media organization, be it WikiLeaks or be the New York Times.
The US administrations war on whistleblowers must end.Thomas Drake, and William Binnery, and John Kirakou and the other heroic US whistleblower must – they must – be pardoned and compensated for the hardships they have endured as servants of the public record.
And the Army Private who remain in a military prison in Fort Leavenworth Kansas, who was found by the UN to have endured months of torturous detention in Quantico Virginia, and who has yet – after two years in prision – to see a trial, he must be released.
Bradley Manning must be released.
If Bradley Manning did as he is accused, he is a hero, an example to us all, and one of the world’s foremost political prisoners.
Bradley Manning must be released.On Wednesday, Bradley Manning spent his 815th day of detention without trial. The legal maximum is 120 days.
On Thursday, my friend, Nabeel Rajab president of the Bahrain Human Rights Center, was sentenced to 3 years in prison for a tweet.
On Friday, a Russian band were sentenced to 2 years in jail for a political performance.
There is unity in the oppression.
There must be absolute unity and determination in the response.
Thank you.
Ma grazie per essere venuti.
Grazie per la vostra determinazione e la vostra generosità di spirito.
Nella notte di mercoledi, dopo che una minaccia è stata inviata a questa ambasciata e la polizia ha circondato questo edificio, siete venuti fuori nel bel mezzo della notte per vegliare su di esso, e avete portato gli occhi del mondo con voi.
Ma sapevo che ci sarebbero stati testimoni.
E questo è grazie a voi.
E il mondo stava guardando, perché voi stavate guardando.
Così la prossima volta che qualcuno vi dice che è inutile difendere quei diritti che ci stanno a cuore, ricordate loro della vostra veglia nel buio davanti all’ambasciata dell’Ecuador, ricordate come la mattina il sole sorse su un mondo diverso, e una coraggiosa nazione dell’America Latina prese posizione per la giustizia.
E così, a quelle persone coraggiose.
E al popolo degli Stati Uniti, Regno Unito, Svezia e Australia, che mi hanno sostenuto in forza, anche quando i loro governi non l’hanno fatto.
Come WikiLeaks si trova in pericolo, lo è la libertà di espressione, e la salute della nostra società.
O barcollerà sull’orlo del precipizio, trascinando tutti noi in un mondo pericoloso e opprimente, in cui i giornalisti tacciono sotto il timore di procedimenti giudiziari, e i cittadini devono sussurrare nel buio.
Chiedo al presidente Obama di fare la cosa giusta.
Bradley Manning deve essere rilasciato.
C’è unità nella oppressione.
Grazie.