What’s twenty large between fellow sh*t stirrers? Oscar winning documentary filmmaker and social/political commentator Michael Moore has donated a $20,000 surety toward Julian Assange’s $380,000 bail. Assange is currently being held in a London jail after being accused of sex crimes (he’s charged with one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of rape) from two one night stands that took place in Sweden last August. Regardless of his ability to put up the cash, the Guardian reports that Sweden has decided to contest the granting of bail to Assange on the grounds that no conditions imposed by a judge could guarantee that he would not flee, and the Wikileak’s founder will remain in jail pending the results.
Michael Moore’s foremost motivation behind his commentary has always been steeped in increasing awareness of transparency and openness between governments and citizens, so his support of Wikileaks was obviously a no brainer. On his website he explained why he is posting bail money for Julian Assange in an article titled I’m Posting Bail Money for Julian Assange.
He wrote:
“I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.
“Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.
“For those of you who think it’s wrong to support Julian Assange because of the sexual assault allegations he’s being held for, all I ask is that you not be naive about how the government works when it decides to go after its prey. Please — never, ever believe the “official story.” And regardless of Assange’s guilt or innocence (see the strange nature of the allegations here), this man has the right to have bail posted and to defend himself. I have joined with filmmakers Ken Loach and John Pilger and writer Jemima Khan in putting up the bail money — and we hope the judge will accept this and grant his release today.
“Might WikiLeaks cause some unintended harm to diplomatic negotiations and U.S. interests around the world? Perhaps. But that’s the price you pay when you and your government take us into a war based on a lie. Your punishment for misbehaving is that someone has to turn on all the lights in the room so that we can see what you’re up to. You simply can’t be trusted. So every cable, every email you write is now fair game. Sorry, but you brought this upon yourself. No one can hide from the truth now. No one can plot the next Big Lie if they know that they might be exposed.
“And that is the best thing that WikiLeaks has done. WikiLeaks, God bless them, will save lives as a result of their actions. And any of you who join me in supporting them are committing a true act of patriotism. Period.”
You have to admire the personal contribution that Michael Moore has made all in the name of freedom of information however I’m interested to hear what people who are pro-Wikileaks AND anti-sex crimes against women are feeling on this matter. Stay tuned for more as this intriguing case continues…
Read the full Michael Moore article at www.michaelmoore.com
Title Image by Peter Macdiarmid via Getty
