Statement by publisher Julian Assange: Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop today called Edward Snowden, a man for whom my organisation found political asylum, "A traitor of the highest order." The Minister's statement is not only wrong in law, but it rubs salt into the wound of Australia's largest trading partners -- including China and Indonesia -- who are already deeply troubled by Australia's ongoing complicity in US mass spying activities. Rather than distancing the Australian government from such overreach the Minister attempts to ingratiate her office with the US intelligence structure that caused the problem in the first place. FM Bishop makes Australia look weak, untrustworthy and out of touch. Mr. Snowden is not a "traitor the the highest order" but Julie Bishop is fast becoming a Foreign Minister of the lowest order.



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Wed Mar 12 17:37:36 UTC 2014



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