Assange Addresses The Union

The tenth annual Sam Adams award ceremony at the Oxford Union saw Professor Thomas Fingar awarded an attractive wooden candlestick for his ‘integrity and professionalism’ in helping prevent the Bush/Cheney administration from launching war against Iran in 2008.

Fingar, after showing momentary distress that there was no podium for him to place his acceptance-speech-papers upon, spoke in detail about his experience within the government, emphasising the fact that ‘integrity and objectivity are the norm in the US intelligence community’.

Other fellow ‘whistle-blowers’ in attendance included Coleen Rowley, Annie Machon, Thomas Drake and, of course, Julian Assange.

Assange, communicating via an exclusive live videolink, broke any initial tension by hastily explaining that a team at the Ecuadorian embassy had put together the technology needed for this session, and thus that ‘if something goes wrong, it’s entirely their fault!’

He then moved on to congratulating Fingar for his work and discussed the importance of WikiLeaks as the most important mechanism for expressing the truth ‘since the printing press.’

There has been considerable controversy regarding Assange’s participation in the Union event, as protesters claim that his appearance diminishes the seriousness of rape and sexual assault.

The Q and A session after Assange’s speech saw the WikiLeaks founder persistently avoid answering questions regarding his current legal situation. To the question of why he is resisting facing prosecution, Assange simply stated that ‘Sweden refuses to act like a normal, decent state and follow European procedures’. He then referred the student to a website, suggesting that they read more about it there.

Similarly, on being asked how much longer he was planning to stay in the Ecuadorian embassy, Assange simply replied, ‘We will see…Who knows?’

Assange did, however, get more impassioned as he noticed that the students posing such questions were choosing to use the word ‘fugitive’ to describe his current legal status. Assange, seemingly agitated, corrected them by explaining that his formal legal status is rather ‘political asylee’.

Ready to endorse Assange’s contribution to the event was Craig Murray: author, broadcaster and human rights activist. Gesturing out of the window towards the protesters, his defence of Assange concluded with the outburst, ‘Some of you have got your values seriously messed up!’ Murray was also the one to present Assange to the listeners, introducing him as his ‘friend’.

Oxford students were keen to justify their attendance at the talk. Jeff Chen, an American student on a year out in Oxford, told The Tab, ‘coming here does not mean I endorse rape’. Meanwhile student Kit Dorey chirpily explained that he had come because he ‘would like to see Assange challenged’ and Gina Brady expressed her interested in hearing Assange speak in a situation where he is not being magnified and sensationalised by the media.

It must be said that the majority of students queuing outside were, in an endearingly English fashion, far more interested in commenting on the cold weather.