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A lot hinges on Julian Assange’s fate. If he can be thrown into a dark hostile prison for telling the truth about the US establishment’s crimes, then you can too, eventually. Donald Trump would probably not have won the election in 2016 if it had not been for the Wikileaks revelations about Hillary and the Democrats and the dirty tricks they played to shut Bernie Sanders out of the race. So how does Donald thank Assange for that? Trump never mentions Assange. However, he and his fan club do not stand for the Constitution and they do not stand for human rights anywhere on the planet. They have traded in traditional Christianity and the Judaic “love your neighbour as yourself” for legalistic pre-Christian, pre-Judaic Zionism. Trump’s unprecedented admission that he intends to “keep the oil” in Syria is the expression of a colonialist mind. His virulent anti-China statements betray a frank racism that no other president has ever expressed. He and the rest of the Establishment – which some call the Deep State – believe in their hearts that the world’s resources all belong to the US and Washington has the right to plunder them. https://www.crikey.com.au/2020/02/19/my-prison-visit-with-julian-assange-by-andrew-wilkie/ My prison visit with Julian Assange by Andrew Wilkie Independent MP Andrew Wilkie writes about his alarming visit with Julian Assange in Belmarsh Prison. ANDREW WILKIE FEB 19, 2020 “Today’s 90 minute visit to Julian Assange in London’s Belmarsh Prison was an alarming experience. The place is everything you’d expect of a supermax jail and the process of entering and departing was security on steroids. Just the place for a supervillain. Once inside we waited. And waited. And waited. Despite the half hour it took us to be processed on entry, and me being ejected temporarily because I had a small hole in the bottom of one of my suit pockets, and the fact that all the other prisoners had already been allowed into the cavernous visitors area, Julian Assange was nowhere to be seen. But then, finally, there he was, the last prisoner to see any visitor. Clearly the special one. No wonder he looked tired, a man under enormous pressure, not just from years of incarceration, but also for the chilling prospect of being sent to a US federal prison for the rest of his life. The injustice in all this is profound. Sure, people have all sorts of views about Julian Assange. But when push comes to shove none of that is relevant. The substantive matter is that Julian Assange publicised US misconduct and presented hard evidence of their war crimes. Because at the end of the day no one should be punished for doing the right thing.” https://www.crikey.com.au/2019/10/23/julian-assange-left-behind/ The man we left behind The Australian media this week launched a vociferous public campaign decrying attacks on journalists and whistleblowers. But what about Julian Assange? CHARLIE LEWIS OCT 23, 2019 He worked with a military whistleblower to uncover and publish a video from the gun sights of an American Apache helicopter in Iraq that opened fire on a group of men and then a van that stopped to help them. The driver of the van was killed and his two children were wounded. He published revelations that exposed drone strikes, corruption and extrajudicial executions by governments across the world. His website partnered with internationally-recognised outlets such as The New York Times, Le Monde and The Guardian. [Yes, and isn’t it amazing that these Establishment newspapers could publish with impunity the information that Assange uncovered, supposedly illegally, but Assange and only Assange is deemed a criminal? Why not criminalize the entire world population that read the Wikileaks revelations? Three is a total lack of logic in the charges against him – Vince Dhimos] He won a Walkley Award for “most outstanding contribution to journalism”. By this time, he was also the target of an ”unprecedented” US government criminal investigation. His cause was clouded by a criminal investigation into allegations of sexual assault and molestation. The charges were later dropped. He sought asylum in a foreign embassy in London. He did not leave the building for seven years. A UN working group described his situation as a violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Meanwhile, virtually every move that the US government made against him has since been used against mainstream journalists. He was arrested after being expelled from the embassy and charged with multiple counts of espionage and related crimes under the US Espionage Act. He is facing up to 170 years in prison. [Yes, but legislation related to whistle-blowers exonerates Assange because he only uncovered government crimes and misconduct. BTW, the same goes for Chelsea Manning. Vince] His lawyer told the press his arrest set a “dangerous precedent for all media and journalists in Europe and around the world.” The two biggest employers of journalists in Australia responded by publishing pieces which insisted the man is “not a journalist.” His health deteriorated. At a court hearing to try and delay his extradition to the US, he appeared querulous and confused, struggling to recall his name and age. His application was dismissed. That same week, the Australian media united to launch a public campaign decrying attacks on journalists and whistle-blowers. The name of the campaign: “Right To Know”. He has received no assistance from his government.
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