Open Letter to Julian Assange

You say you have documents pertaining to BP, other oil companies, and the American government. Then, nothing. Poof. You're gone. Not a peep follows.

You see, sometimes I really admire what you've done; I consider you downright heroic. Then at other times, I think maybe you're a bit of a poser. A little man with a toy gun.

Which are you?

The information you say belongs to the world? Then why do you withhold it, if indeed it truly exists? Don't wait. Don't mince. Let it go. We need that information. We need to shake it like a fist in the faces of our corrupt governments, worldwide.

You've said it yourself, no matter how you got it, it doesn't belong to you. You said it just before the camera flashed, when you looked so serious and humble. A few flashes on though, and we could see it was all getting to you. The cover of this magazine and that. All the sudden your a personality; a bit of avant garde humor like Andy Warhol. A little boy with a secret.

Seriously, man, you can't expect to prance around like a rock star and call yourself a great humanitarian as well, can you? You can't have it both ways. It doesn't work like that.

I'll give you an example of what I am talking about. Put Gandhi in your shoes. What would he do, or perhaps Martin Luther King Jr.? Let the scenario play a bit. Now picture them. Are they behaving as you are doing now? Are they preening for cameras when there is real and vital truth that needs to be shared, or are the quietly just doing it?

There's a BP on every corner in my town. Every day I go about my business surrounded by the offending green and yellow signs. They are everywhere now. Look, they've opened another even as I was boycotting. And here's another and another. Bloody monopoly is what they're building, while they're moaning about losing money, boo-hoo, to their oil spill.

I'm no different than the next guy in whatever town, in Australia, in the UK or in the United States. These oil companies are ubiquitous, and there's none more so than BP, a worldwide mega conglomerate. It's note even really British anymore, is it. It's become something more than that, something monstrous and ugly. More powerful than the British Raj ever was, populated in the upper realms by the worst sort of pencil pushers. Nothing heroic about steamrolling over "the little people" then feigning like you'll make them whole again. And it's not just here in the hated USA is it. They've moved on to your neck of the woods: Australia. How do you like them apples?

I'll level with you mate, I would really like to know what these guys are up to behind the scenes. You know what I mean?

This firm freaking OWNS my Pentagon, my congress people, my president, for Chrissakes. They OWN the war! They and others like them keep priming the pump and supplying the gas. Isn't this precisely what you're on about? The injustice and so on? Directly or indirectly these firms are killing our children, Australian, British, America, Iraqi... Killing us. They are polluting our collective environment, and they simply don't give a fuck, because they are rock stars too, baby.

They're the reason, along with all the other oil barons, the world hates my nation's everlasting guts. They're the reason why fossil fuels are always chosen as the way to go over a fledgling solar industry that, ah shucks, just never quite seems to get off the ground.

So don't trivialize what's happening. Release what you know, now. If you don't, God, or Karma, or whatever you want to call it will come knocking. And it will not be pleased.

No one saying you can't enjoy the ride you're on. Go for it. Live it up. Lap it up. Love it. But nothing excuses you from the duty of disseminating that information that just might change the world for the better. If indeed you really do have it.

Karma has placed you where you are today for a reason.

Don't screw it up. Tell us what you know.