Assange gets Aboriginal passport

15 Sep 2012, 5:15 pm   -   Source: AAP, AFP
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WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange has been offered an Aboriginal Nations passport in a ceremony in Sydney because they say he was abandoned by Australian authorities.

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WikiLeaks frontman Julian Assange has been offered an Aboriginal Nations passport in a ceremony in Sydney because they say he was abandoned by Australian authorities.

His father, John Shipton, accepted the document at a Darlington celebration today.

He says his son's been jilted by the Australian government, and the passport ceremony - which follows Ecuador's decision to grant Mr Assange diplomatic asylum - is a show of solidarity.

Indigenous Social Justice Association president Ray Jackson says the Australian government hasn't given Mr Assange sufficient aid.

The passport will be sent to Mr Assange in London in the next few days.

John Shipton, Assange's biological father, said he spoke frequently with the 41-year-old who won asylum from Ecuador to escape extradition from Britain to Sweden, where he faces sexual assault allegations.
  
"He's in a small room... and in that he has a treadmill and a sunlamp," he told AFP in Sydney's Redfern where he had accepted an Aboriginal Nations passport, for use when travelling within Australia, on behalf of his son.
  
"But he faces his future with equanimity. He says he may have to spend 12 months in this situation. I think that he's prepared himself for his long meditation."
  
Shipton, 68, said his son was still pressing ahead with his plans to run for the Australian Senate in the national election due next year, and had asked his father to write the constitution for his yet-to-be founded political party.
  
Sydney-based Shipton said he felt Australians were "genuinely concerned and moved" by the plight of Assange and the work of WikiLeaks, which has published hundreds of thousands of documents online, including confidential United States State Department emails.
  
He said he had spoken to Assange about the Aboriginal Nationals passport -- used for travel through Aboriginal lands in the country.
  
"This occasion is a further opportunity to generate support for Julian's situation," he said.
  
"The irony is it's a great help to bring to notice to people that the situation is well, very questionable, morally very questionable.
  
"The (Australian) foreign minister could do a little more. Although he says he has done a lot, he won't speak to me."
  
Shipton, who said he had always kept in touch with Assange's mother but had little contact with his son from when he was three until his twenties, spoke of his pride in Assange, a former computer hacker.
  
"I am astounded, absolutely astounded. And each day more impressed," he said.
  
"He seems as though he handles himself at those rarefied atmospheres really quite well.
  
"It must have taken a great deal of suffering to have learned so quickly how to move amongst those people... and not display fear when the whole American empire wishes to crush you."
  
But Shipton won't be watching a new movie about Assange's earlier life called "Underground: The Julian Assange Story" which is set to screen on Australian television early next month. He doesn't have a television.

Julian Assange. , Passports

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Who are the real terrorists?????????

Take_A_Step_Back - from Berwick, 8 months ago

Lets stop and think for a moment! This word "terrorists", "evil empire" and "access of evil" has been thrown around like a over used pickup line by us in the west and it is time we took a real hard look at our selves before we point fingers at others. Do Iran, Palestine, Afghanistan have an occupying army in another country to protect it's "security/economic" interest? No! Get the hell out of their country and not let them be. Israel is the dark horse, so watch out as they are cooking some thing

Assange's legacy

c shapiro - from canberra, 8 months ago

Does anyone remember when Mordechai Vanunu was taken? He was trying to tell the world that israel had nuclear weapons and was crushed quickly. He was lured by a female mossad agent, captured in Rome, and has been in prison in Israel since. Assange may have been victimised for a crime he didn't commit, because like all freedom press fighters, he wanted to show the world what was really happening in diplomatic and political cables. I think we need more people in the world like him to take a stand

Why isnt the UK treating him like Thatcher treated Pinochet?

Dee - from Katoomba, 8 months ago

Why has Assange had to take refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy when the UK is so hospitable to others. Maggie Thatcher arranged for Pinochet to return to Chile when Spain wanted him extradited for trial for torture. Legal processes were overturned in Britain, but Maggie kindly arranged Pinochet's travel home and presented him with a model ship and an apology from Britain. Go figure? !

you will all want one in the future

sam - from aus, 8 months ago

One day the passport will be more official than the current Australian passports, thats the legal reality, learn about the legallitys of Australian settlement

Dirty Washing....ton

Wag - from Sydney, 8 months ago

Gee if the Australian government treats Julian the same as other Aboriginals ,the US suspected terrorist torture chamber would be a walk in the park

often misrepresented story

Adam - from Melbourne, 8 months ago

This story is often misrepresented.The women involved in the charges in sweden freely admit the sex was consentual,but in sweden sex without a condom can be considered sexual assault. Since the pirate bay trial,sweden appear to be trying to prove to america that they are not the rouge country they were painted as at that time. Assange has not been charged and has agreed to meet those who want to speak to him in the uk. He should be worried about extradition, something is not right with that case

Good

Gavin Farmer - from Melbourne VIC, 8 months ago

I'm very happy for Mr Assange. The Australian government have sold their souls, their people, and their country to the United States for a war on terror which is nothing more than about the United States achieving their globalization agenda. Mr Assange's work is essential so the people of the world may WAKE UP and understand what is really going on. May God bless Mr Assange, and condemn the United States and it's lying, unfaithful, allies.

they(OZ) still remember that Assange is an Australian

Arnav - from New Delhi, 8 months ago

at last they (OZ) realised this, that Assange is their citizen....bullied by US,UK & many more

He is no saint nor an aboriginal, but a coward

FranklySpeaking - from Rowville Needs Railway, 8 months ago

He is not man enough to face the music and the Media is to blame for creating celebrity status for someone alleged to have committed sex crimes. He should, like anyone else, face the court and defend himself against any charges. Also, flooding the world online with sensitive info from many countries is the work of a criminal mind. He may not have betrayed or been a traitor but he could have ignited Third World War by his rash actions acted out through his huge ego. Just another Ned Kelly!

A lesson the reality TV types should pay heed to.

That Guy - from Darwin, 8 months ago

When it comes to being relentlessly being able to breath life into your 15 minutes of fame this bloke is second only to Kim Kardashian. I'm sure the relentless stream of reality TV contestants and flash in the pan pop singers are taking copious notes...

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