RAY McGOVERN: German TV Exposes the Lies That Entrapped Julian Assange

A major German TV network has aired an interview with the UN rapporteur on torture that reveals the invention of the Swedish “rape” case against Julian Assange.

By Ray McGovern
Special to Consortium News

Ray McGovernTruth has broken through for those confused about how a publisher ended up in a maximum security prison in London with a one-way extradition ticket to court in the U.S. and the rest of his life behind bars.

One of the main German TV channels (ZDF) ran two prime-time segments on Wednesday night exposing authorities in Sweden for having “made up” the story about Julian Assange being a rapist.

Until last night most Germans, as well as other consumers of “major media” in Europe, had no idea of the trickery that enmeshed Assange in a spider-web almost certainly designed by the U.S. and woven by accomplices in vassal states like Sweden, Britain and, eventually, Ecuador.

ZDF punctured that web by interviewing UN Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer. One ZDF “Heute Sendung” segment (in German) is especially telling from minute 13:00 to 15:30 . The second is ZDF “Heute Journal” (minute 25:49 to 30:19.)

Both ZDF programs show Melzer being interviewed, with minimal interruption or commentary, letting his findings speak for themselves about how allegations against Assange were “made up” and manipulated to hold him captive.

The particularly scurrilous allegation that led many, including initially Melzer, to believe Assange was a rapist — a tried and tested smear technique of covert action — was especially effective.  The Swedes never formally charged him with rape — or with any crime, for that matter.  ZDF exhibited some of the documents Melzer uncovered that show the sexual allegations were just as “invented” as the evidence for WMD before the attack on Iraq.

Melzer had previously admitted to having been so misled by media portrayals of Assange that he was initially reluctant to investigate Assange’s case.  Here is what Melzer wrote last year in an op-ed marking the International Day in Support of Torture Victims, June 26.

No major media would print or post it. Medium.com posted it under the title “Demasking the Torture of Julian Assange.”

Excerpts:

“But surely, I found myself pleading, Assange must be a selfish narcissist, skateboarding through the Ecuadorian Embassy and smearing feces on the walls? Well, all I heard from Embassy staff is that the inevitable inconveniences of his accommodation at their offices were handled with mutual respect and consideration.

This changed only after the election of President Moreno, when they were suddenly instructed to find smears against Assange and, when they didn’t, they were soon replaced. The President even took it upon himself to bless the world with his gossip, and to personally strip Assange of his asylum and citizenship without any due process of law.

In the end it finally dawned on me that I had been blinded by propaganda, and that Assange had been systematically slandered to divert attention from the crimes he exposed.” (Emphasis added.)

Melzer ended his op-ed with this somber warning:

“… This is not only about protecting Assange, but about preventing a precedent likely to seal the fate of Western democracy. For once telling the truth has become a crime, while the powerful enjoy impunity, it will be too late to correct the course. We will have surrendered our voice to censorship and our fate to unrestrained tyranny.” (Emphasis added.)

Melzer’s indefatigable efforts to expose what Assange has gone through, including “psychological torture,” met with some modest success in the days before the German ZDF aired their stories. Embedded in the linked article is by far the best interview of Melzer on Assange.

Opposition to extraditing Assange to the U.S. is becoming more widespread. Another straw in an Assange-favorable wind came last week when the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called for Assange’s immediate release, ending years of silence by such European institutions.

It remains, nonetheless, an uphill struggle to prompt the British to think back 800 years to the courage of the nobles who wrested the Magna Carta from King John.

Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He is co-creator of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

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66 comments for “RAY McGOVERN: German TV Exposes the Lies That Entrapped Julian Assange

  1. Lily
    February 10, 2020 at 19:04

    During the report in the German TV Nils Melzer rightly compares the treatment of Julian Assange to a medival witch hunt.

    The report continues with the official press conference of the government where the speaker of Chancelor Merkel says that they did not change their mind and that they have no reason to doubt the UK’s judical system.

  2. jimmy
    February 10, 2020 at 16:23

    Jon Adams, Amen.
    Nor shall we forget that other Secretary of State cackling “WE CAME, WE SAW, HE DIED.”

  3. StarryOrange
    February 10, 2020 at 13:56

    Ray McGovern’s no ‘lying dog faced pony soldier.’

  4. Christian K.
    February 10, 2020 at 06:14

    There’s even more going on in Germany.
    Last week there has been a press-conference( location was the same as
    the daily represantative speakers of government assemble to counter questions of
    journalists) and the topic was: Julian Assange.
    The podium was equipped with former ministers Sigmar Gabriel, Herta Däubler-Gmelin, Gerhart Baum,
    famous(in Germany) journalist Günther Wallraff, to name a few.
    At the same time there have been ads in various german newspapers, the biggest one the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
    even granted a price-reduction demanding theimmediate realease of Julian Assange.

    See.youtube.com/watch?v=MldXC5sWP4w

  5. February 9, 2020 at 17:24

    And something i forgot to add that should be widespread public knowledge. Former Minister of the Interior of Iceland Ögmundur Jónasson? blocked U.S. interference in 2011 when he discovered that a group of Secret Service and FBI agents had secretly arrived in Iceland with the specific objective of setting up and framing Assange, this was to be done on a clandestine basis without any without disclosing their mission or presence to the Icelandic authorities and without any official permission.

    “In June 2011 I was told that U.S. intelligence had discovered that hackers were preparing an attack on Icelandic governmental institutions. I was asked if we wanted to cooperate with the Americans.”
    When I heard of this, I asked my colleagues in the Ministry if, unknown to me, the FBI had been given permission to carry out police work in Iceland. I certainly had not given such a permission and the decision should anyway have been on my table.”
    “I am the proof. When I say they came here to frame Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, I don’t say this lightly, I am selecting my words very carefully, I know what I am talking about. I am stating this in accordance with my word of honour that I knew this was the case. I have testified to this effect in front of a parliamentary committee and in the parliamentary assembly, and my words have not been contested.”
    “In a way, it might be said that they wanted to frame us as well, by turning Iceland from being the uncritical complaisant ally (like most of the NATO’s partners are) to become the complicit one in the war against WikiLeaks.”
    Ögmundur Jónasson.

    On discovering their clandestine operation he refused to comply with their requests and refused to allow them to continue in their mission to frame Assange and expelled them from Iceland, they went from there directly to Denmark and then onto Sweden. Denmark kept quiet about the US frame up attempt, we know what happened in Sweden.

    If you want to hear this directly from the mouth of Mr Jónasson you can see him speak in this interview on the matter.
    See: youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v=hkgruy7gqv4&feature=emb_logo

  6. Lily
    February 8, 2020 at 22:11

    Carol,

    Merkel will never agree to give asyl to Assange neither to Snowdon. There is now an initiative of two former Ministers, a famous investgative journalst and a MB from the party Die Linke. (The Left). They published 130 names covering a whole page in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) declaring their solidarity with JA. and they gave a press conference in favour of J.A. that he should be released immediately.

    At the same time Merkels official speaker Seibert said in a different press conference that they did not change their mind meaning they never read Nils Melzers report, they don’t know enough about J.A., they do not want to know i.e. they want to keep out of this in order not to annoy their American masters.

    I wish you were right but you sadly overestimate Merkel. She has nothing to do with the sudden change of the Main Media which was caused solely by different private initiatives.

  7. Jim other
    February 8, 2020 at 18:13

    What an opera this story would make:
    The Punishment of Julian Assange, the Truth Teller

    It has drama, intrigue, false judges, corrupt prosecutors, cruel and inhumaine imprisonment and in the background: The Evil Empire.

    Unfortunately it’s really happening to Mr Assange.

    • Mark Stanley
      February 9, 2020 at 13:07

      An Opera–excellent idea Jim other.
      Julian is the tenor, alone and pleading for sanity in a viscous world. The fellow protagonist Belmarsh prisoners are two basses belting it out for decency from the bottom of humanity, while ornate sickly baritones and thick altos scheme and plot, and screeching sopranos scream for his demise. He is championed by one lone coloratura, who loves him from afar, and manages to rescue him because she is so simple– a faceless servant– she’s not even seen by the power elite..

    • February 11, 2020 at 14:09

      A sign of the times! We live on a planet where the entire population is so totally brainwashed, not one will state that the “emperor is naked”!

  8. Lily
    February 8, 2020 at 16:46

    www(dot)nachdenkseiten(dot)de(flash)?p=58336#h01

  9. Lily
    February 8, 2020 at 16:13

    Nils Melzer is a good man. I admire his research, his courage and his engagment.

  10. Ottmar Straub
    February 8, 2020 at 13:24

    The ZDF (one of the most important mainstream-media in Germany) is transatlantic. That does not mean that they are fully in line with its goals. In Germany people are mistrustful to the “bad ones” and more and more people are waking up. Still this report may lead to the dismissal of this brave assistant.

  11. February 8, 2020 at 09:44

    Did President Kennedy not intend to disband the CIA and Stop ISRAEL from achieving NUCLEAR Capability… Thing that LBJ did nothing about???…. Was the “Death Bed” confessions OF EX – CIA Operative E.Howard Hunt’s TRUTH or speculation????? Seems coincidental

  12. Lily
    February 8, 2020 at 06:56

    There has been another report with Nils Melzer speaking in the German/Austrian Channel 3sat, a very good channel emphasizing on cultural matters.

    In the end they asked for Assanges immediate release.

    Thank you Ray for this article. Thank you CN.

    #FreeAssange!

  13. Donald Duck
    February 8, 2020 at 05:59

    ”It remains, nonetheless, an uphill struggle to prompt the British to think back 800 years to the courage of the nobles who wrested the Magna Carta from King John.”

    Speaking as a Brit I can safely say that the British establishment are unfortunately little more than vassalised, Petainist scum who will do anything that their American controllers tell them.

    • Anonymous
      February 9, 2020 at 14:17

      I am so very tired of hearing this position put forward. Just following the evidence, it almost all points towards the opposite; a situation where the British aristocracy, monarchy, and City of London moneyed interests direct and guide American policy. For example, the semi-famous recording of Hillary Clinton talking about going to the CFR to “be told what to do” many know about, but many don’t know that the CFR is just the American branch of the RIAA/Chatham House, created alongside the other roundtable groups (trilateral, bilderberg, etc) by Cecil Rhodes.

      It was through this organization that I trace one of the first major changes in American foreign policy to Woodrow Wilson, who was with any research verifiably controlled by British interests.

      The increase of this “America controls the UK” rhetoric is a scary indicator to me that the US is being setup as a kind of “fall guy”, of course we have done lots of these things, but the ultimate takeaway is that the group always hated the American revolution and our Constitution and it’s principles, and it is, in almost all cases those things the oligarchs and powers that be on both sides of the pond work to undermine.

  14. Tina Anderson
    February 8, 2020 at 01:44

    Sergei Magnitsky was (reportedly) mistreated and fell gravely ill while in pre-trial custody and eventually died due to inadequate medical care. Will there be a world wide Assange Act when UK & US kill him the same way?

    • AnneR
      February 9, 2020 at 10:23

      Highly unlikely!

      The only two MSM that blurt into this household – and only in order to reduce the deafening silence is life since my husband’s death and to sort of keep an ear on the Orwellian propaganda (gotta know what we are *supposed* to believe, think, perceive) – are NPR and the BBC World Service, and they have as yet to even mention Assange, his Cointelpro/MKULTRA style capture, imprisonment and likely extradition. Not that they would ever mention, whisper anything related to the criminal nature of his being imprisoned or the atrocious treatment he is subjected to by the UK-US authorities, mind. Oh no – that’s what the Iranians, Chinese, Russkies do, don’t you know (or so we are constantly being told they do – not that I believe half of any of that rubbish). Not us – we’re as righteous as the driven snow…

    • AJ
      February 9, 2020 at 14:50

      I read an interview with his attorney some time ago about an appearance Assange made in court months ago. The lawyer was not allowed to visit with him, and said he looked unhealthy and unkempt. Assange read a statement to the court, and said he was being drugged, the drugs were affecting his cognition, and had not had medical attention while ill. He is in solitary, and allowed to exercise alone one hour per day in a room with no windows. They are probably working a plan designed to end in his death.

  15. Dick
    February 7, 2020 at 21:17

    The submission of the OPCW and UN to US demands and threats shows how weak these institutions have become. Once credibility is lost; it cannot be retrieved.

    “Pity the nation oh pity the people who allow their rights to erode and their freedoms to be washed away…” – Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet

    “A Society of Sheep must in time beget a Government of Wolves” – Bertrand de Jouvenel

    “When the law no longer protects you from the corrupt, but protects the corrupt from you – you know your nation is doomed.” – Ayn Rand

  16. GoinFawr
    February 7, 2020 at 19:33

    Julian Assange = Richard Adams Blackavar.

    Where’s Thlayli when you need him?

  17. Jpc
    February 7, 2020 at 16:18

    You hear so much in the MSM about “hate crime” and the need for “anti hate’ legislation.
    Bar a few articles such as this.
    No one comments on the calculated spiteful hateful campaign against Assange.
    His treatment is premeditated evil in the face of the total lack of evidence against him.
    His only crimes are revealing the truth.
    Especially wrt Afghanistan, and guess what he was 100% correct.
    And the response from media and politicans arse scratching indifference!
    The moral of the story!
    Choose your investigations.

  18. dhinds
    February 7, 2020 at 15:26

    Julian Assange has committed no crime. That much is clear.

    On the other hand, those who are captured and are holding him prisoner against his will ARE committing a crime and sooner or later, should be held responsible for their criminal actions.

    That too is clear.

    Those responsible may believe they’re immune from prosecution. Little do they know what the future holds in store for them. (Maybe they should be worried).

    • February 8, 2020 at 07:19

      Everyone behind it should be identified and remembered.

  19. February 7, 2020 at 14:44

    Yes and Julian published documents revealing that Hillary Clinton lied, cheated and stole, which explains Julian’s fate.
    And now, again I find myself asking:”What to do? WTF to do?” Thanks once again to Ray McGovern for keeping us
    informed.

  20. Tommy Prince
    February 7, 2020 at 14:28

    Magna Carta died with the Scripals

  21. Eugene F Parte
    February 7, 2020 at 12:45

    Julian’s future is in the hands of Trump’s coat carrier Boris and his soleless Home Secretary Priti Patel. The fix is in!

    • February 9, 2020 at 04:04

      And the judges and Arbuthnot and her husband.Why are Julian’s lawyers not
      asking or prepared to charge these cruel judges with obstruction of justice?
      Are they immune?why are the judges not being investigated for conspiracy?It
      Is so obvious they are being paid by U.S.A.Also what is his charge for being detained in Belmarsh?

  22. Jill
    February 7, 2020 at 12:21

    Ray, do you know how this got onto a MSM program in Germany? If so, maybe there is a way to reproduce this result in other nations?

    I don’t think the US would ever allow such a thing but maybe it could air in Canada and Scotland so perhaps people in the rest of the UK and US might hear of it?

    • February 8, 2020 at 09:29

      CANADA is no longer an independent NATION (If it ever was) in 2017 P.M. TRUDEAU/ F.M. FREELAND signed a PACT called “AMERICA FIRST” Furthering the previous HARPER CONSERVATIVE Treasonous act of sell out CANADA to the EVIL EMPIRE.
      In essence CANADA is “NOW” nothing but a Territory of the USA and it’s actions against the Governments and people of VENEZUELA, NICARAGUA, HAITI, BOLIVIA, ECUADOR SYRIA, IRAN and MOST Certainly LIBYA is totally UNLAWFUL and CRIMINAL and these CANADIAN GOVERNMENTS should be made to pay for the DAMAGE “THEY” have CAUSED to innocent Peoples…

    • Theo
      February 8, 2020 at 10:52

      I’m really surprised myself as I live in Germany. I stopped watching the news on public TV here. So I missed the Interview. The ZDF ( Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen) normally is a stalwart advocate for American led western policies and NATO expansion.They even referred to “Bellingcat” as a reliable news outlet in the Skripal case. What has happened I wonder.

  23. February 7, 2020 at 12:12

    It takes a real statesman, or maybe a man of God, to be blessed with as handsome a beard as Ray McGovern has grown!

    Thank you, Ray McGovern, for everything!
    Now, can you sing the songs of The Weavers/Pete Seeger & Woody Guthrie?

  24. February 7, 2020 at 10:33

    “citizen-consumers are daily less interested in whether something is a fact than in whether it is convenient that it should be believed.”

    “When ‘truth’ has been displaced by ‘believability’ as the test of the statements which dominate our lives…ingenuity is devoted less to discovering facts than to inventing statements which can be made to seem true.” – Daniel Boorstin (1961)

    “Emphasis by repetition gains acceptance for an idea, particularly if the repetition comes from different sources.” — Edward L. Bernays, Biography of an Idea: The Founding Principles of Public Relations, 1965

    And so the State and MSM in coordination simply “create reality” out of thin air, made to order to serve their purposes. Meanwhile we Western “consumers” opt, as always, for “convenience.”

  25. Vera Gottlieb
    February 7, 2020 at 10:26

    Some people just plain don’t care how low they sink. The scary part is, at least to me, how this sick mentality has infected our so-called “civilized’ world. The more dirt…the better.

  26. OlyaPola
    February 7, 2020 at 10:09

    “it’s a feature.”

    Quite so, often used when We-the-people-hold-these-truths-to-be-self-evidentness loses potency and sleight of handness is required to facilitate immersion in keep-with-the-teamness.

    Some hold that torture is counter-productive but evaluation is always a function of purpose and not everyone has the same purpose.

    If the purpose is to “corroborate” a fiction then in the short-term torture can have utility, but when deemed “counter-productive” resort can be made to other coercive features including but not restricted to those facilitated by:

    “ Spectators are often prone to conflating attempt with achievement, resorting to belief, lets-move-onism and scurrying into memory-holes to bridge doubt when expectations and outcomes vary, thereby re-iterating the conflation of attempt with achievement.

    Spectators often “believe” that the purpose, including that of its sub-set “success”, is that of the “initiators” whom are often deemed “planners”(agents), thereby conflating attempt with achievement” in turn rendering some self-designated would-like-to-be-agents spectators, as functions of hubris.

    Spectators are often immersed in what-you-see-is-what-you-getism thereby facilitating what-you-get-is-what-you-don’t-see encouraging the continuance of spectatorship – the best laid “plans” of mice and men gang aft agley given that tortures and their attempted implementations are not made in vacuums but often through vacuity.”

    One of the many Achilles heels of the self-perceived Praetorian guards of the opponents is their contempt of others – a feature which regularly facilitates what-you-get-is-what-you-don’t-seeness.

  27. A. Coburg
    February 7, 2020 at 09:54

    It’s true that the ZDF is basically Merkel’s own TV channel and I hope that the German government will act in this case. There is a cross-party initiative in Germany. Mr. Steinmeier, former foreign minister, said cryptically that he’d understand any member of the government who’d not discuss this case in public. I wonder if there’s anything going on behind closed doors? Mrs. Dagdelen accused the German government to take the easy way out by doing nothing

    Mr. Melzer’s warnings are spot-on- I’m really impressed he didn’t back down, even when pressured by his superiors.

  28. Skip Scott
    February 7, 2020 at 09:30

    I fear that if Julian is finally released he will still not be “free”. If he wants to live to see old age, he will need a good hiding place and a new identity. The evil ones never take “no” for an answer. They never give up.

    • Lily
      February 10, 2020 at 02:05

      The only place where Julian Asssange will be able to live a secure life is Russia.

    • Jim other
      February 11, 2020 at 08:59

      Russia would love to get their paws on Assange. Wikileaks published secret Russian languageKGB manuals.

  29. February 7, 2020 at 09:26

    GMCasey~
    I was with you until you jumped the REPUBLICAN SENATE (you must be a DEM.)! I used to be a little left leaning until I followed all
    the “fairytale” stories coming from the “DOSSIER” saying POTUS is a russian asset-wrong, he was being illegally spied on-right! So after investigating all this myself and seeing all the lies they tell on all the TV news-only a non-informed person could believe the democrats.

    • Mark W. Stroberg
      February 8, 2020 at 19:28

      Contempt for the corruption of the Republican Party does not make one a Democrat. There are many of us, and a growing number at that, who find little or no principled difference between the corruption of the two major party. Partisanship is for blind sheep, not principled human beings.

    • GMCasey
      February 10, 2020 at 17:06

      jeffrey buckthorn___
      I was making a comment on what occurred with the Republican held Senate—-when the Republican Senate majority refused any witnesses and and written evidence. I found that as there was no trial—-then Trump is where he was when this all started. To refuse evidence does not make a person guilty or innocent—-but there certainly was no trial to prove anything. Denial of a trial makes Trump and the GOP more suspect..

      Personally, my last presidential vote was for Jill Stein, and I truly wish that the DNC person, Perez, was gone., as he was untruthful—Once the Supremes made corporations “people” the jig was up! Besides—-what makes you think that I believe the democrats? The Dems are often as unrecognizable to me as the Repugs. We do not have a democratic republic, nor do we have a functioning nation for We the People. However, it was nice to hear Mitt Romney—a man I did not previously find to be worthy of the Senate——-finally come forward and speak his truth. Perhaps America might be America someday–when more politicians actually care about truth and in a creating a functioning future.

  30. John Danziger
    February 7, 2020 at 09:18

    Surely it is important that the content of the ZDF broadcast can be translated into English so that many more and particularly those in Australia can be exposed to the facts. If the German version is put under the noses of Australian politicians you can be sure it will be ignored. If it is in English at least the Prime Minister and his cohorts might have to face stronger criticism for their docile attitude to US government criminality.
    Shame on you Scott Morrison.

  31. Me my self
    February 7, 2020 at 08:54

    It seems as BREXIT passed the EU no longer has to cover for one of its delinquents.

  32. Will
    February 7, 2020 at 08:51

    Part of the psy-ops win of our new century: the CIA,FBI, Comey and Mueller good, Assange and Snowden bad. Amazing that the bulk of American Liberals fell for it.

    • VallejoD
      February 7, 2020 at 10:17

      Truly astounding that so called “liberals” have fallen for these massive lies.

    • Lisa Lowell
      February 7, 2020 at 12:13

      That is the understatement of the decade. I live in NYC and every “friend” is living in a livid fog of conceptual war, lost in the loathing of our president and oblivious to all else. The energy is lost, and a staggering cloud of hopelessness surrounds us. I post about what’s being done in terms of journalistic suppression and social engineering and 12 people get it. Maybe 13. Out of thousands. Lost, lost, lost.

    • jimmy
      February 10, 2020 at 16:18

      Actually, it is not so surprising that “liberals” fell for it, certainly not to be blamed exclusively on the Trump Derangement Syndrome, since Bill Clinton was elected on the “ it’s the economy, stupid” platform. There is no party of the working class, no party for the free thinkers, and perhaps…. there never was.
      Only when we realize that we outnumber the elite, and they have nothing to offer short of war and enforced obedience, will another party emerge….I fear it will not be a painless birth.

  33. rick
    February 7, 2020 at 08:50

    Melzers sombre warning cannot go unheeded as it expresses unequivocally the reality of this moment in which truth is an inconvenience to the rich and powerful who beset with the madness of systemic crisis seek to perpetuate and reinforce our powerlessness.

    • robert e williamson jr
      February 10, 2020 at 18:01

      Rick if you haven’t you may want to watch Ukraine Gate Part 3 – A Not So Noble President – at about 49:20:00 Andrii Telizhenko former diplomat from Ukraine responds to the question “Do you think Perichenko was a corrupt president?”

      He responds, “Oh yes. He was a kleptomaniac and from what I see loved money. And he was one of the most corrupt presidents because he basically made money out of war. He made money on the blood of Ukrainian soldiers. So he’s more corrupt than anybody else. You have to be so cynical and unethical and love money so much to make money on the death of his own people.”

      So I agree. Melzers warning cannot go unheeded, much thanks to Ray for the info. I feel Andrii’s statement here is of the same vein.

      An former ambassador from Ukraine who seems to be mirroring an observation I have of pretty much the entire U.S. congress. Billionaires make money off death every day. Lots of money. especially when the markets are doing to great!

      Thanks again Ray for being very human.

  34. colodactylon
    February 7, 2020 at 08:50

    Good on the Germans and their state TV. It sure took em long enough!
    I bet this gave Merkel and her bootlickers an uneasy tummy.
    Melzer is a good man! But Boris Johnson is a pompous evil clown..

  35. Lily
    February 7, 2020 at 06:48

    This is truly amazing as the ZDF channel, one of the two main channels in Germany is known as the straight voice of Angela Merkel and her government. So much so that it is called the State Media or even Merkel Media. This country is one of the most loyal vassalles of the USA.

    The report via the ZDF could mean that the wind has turned thoroughly in Assanges favour. There is still hope.

    #JulianAssange!

    • Carol
      February 7, 2020 at 09:20

      Lets hope. Perhaps Merkel’s government will give Assange asylum as they should have years ago.

    • Mick conway
      February 7, 2020 at 14:51

      Testabc
      I ve supported JA from about 3 Months after he was 1st obliged to seek refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in London and The first 3 months prior,, I spent what time I could trying to work out whether I should support JA or not.
      Regarding your comment, I think you are correct as this seems to be a significant and positive development for people who oppose those who are seemingly trying to put JA in prison in the USA and have held JA incarcerated in the UK 4 the previous 8 Years or so.
      Anyhow, the idea that I have is as follows;
      Why don’t people who live outside of the UK and obviously oppose the attempt to extradite JA to the USA, consider the merits of making an individual “” Trade Pledge”” with Britain to the value of whatever they can afford or think is appropriate, which they can then conclude as long as, of course JA is NOT SENT to the USA from Britain via the decision or verdict of the Magistrates court in the UK where JA’s extradition hearing is due to take place commencing in February 15 and concluding, sometime in May 2020 according to press reports ?
      Perhaps, a web page could be organised to allow people to Publicly or even anonymously make such a “” Trade Pledge”” in order of course or with the objective being to facilitate JA’s release in May later this year 2020.
      This would allow ordinary folk, who may not be able to travel to London to protest against JA being Extradited to the USA, the opportunity to do something practical in regard to this issue and therefore perhaps this initiative could considered as outlined briefly above.
      Free Julian Assange

  36. February 7, 2020 at 05:34

    Wonderful, Ray. You keep up with the German news better than I do here in Germany. I try to publish translations of noteworthy German public statements, mostly by Linke (Left) party politicians like Sevim Dagdelen, since after all they are actually in the government (parliament). I do that on a Facebook page called “Die Linke in English.” The cross-party initiative launched yesterday (Feb. 6) in Berlin to free Assange is a breakthrough. It even made the TV news. The petition already has over 3000 signatures: assange-helfen.de.

    • Litchfield
      February 7, 2020 at 13:38

      Thanks for the link.
      I tried to sign the petition but am not sure that it went through.
      It would be nice if many Americans would sign (there is an English version of the petition here
      https://assange-helfen.de/en/).

  37. Eugenie Basile
    February 7, 2020 at 03:17

    Some good advice for those of you who travel to Sweden: always use the ‘consent app’ before having sex.

    Finally something is moving on the continent as ZDF can be considered part of MSM.
    Free Assange.

    • February 7, 2020 at 14:05

      Keep a take recorder on at all times, get written approval for even asking a woman out to dinner. What ever you do do not touch one. When in Sweden it is a good idea to look at all women as poisonous snakes. DON`T TOUCH, DON`T TALK TO THEM UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO. If you have sexual urges take e it to Denmark or Finland before giving in to them.

  38. GMCasey
    February 6, 2020 at 22:17

    Julian Assange is still here—-and I think that the 1st Amendment is still here——-but after seeing the actions of the Republican Senate—I am wondering if America is still here. And I wonder if it will be here for very long.

    • February 7, 2020 at 15:49

      Thanks to President Donald Trump, America will remain a UNITED and prosperous Country. Our flag still stands and proudly waves!!!

    • Josep
      February 8, 2020 at 17:09

      @Mary Mills
      You can’t say the same about the other countries the USA has pillaged over the decades.

  39. February 6, 2020 at 21:42

    Thanks for this clear outline.

    I really don’t know whether truth matters at all anymore in America’s activities abroad.

    They are all called by names other than what they are.

    Perhaps, that is the clearest sign of creeping tyranny and absolute corruption.

    It was the American Secretary of State, the current sleaze holding the title, who openly bragged with laughter of his time at CIA, “We Lied, Cheated and Stole”

    .

    • VallejoD
      February 7, 2020 at 10:24

      Yep. And then the Christo-fascist scream about the “decay of morality “ because women don’t want to be forced to give birth against their will or Mike wants to marry John. But of course slaughtering innocent men, children and pregnant women or torturing or caging them elicits not a whisper of protest.

      Has there ever been a bigger inversion of morality?

    • February 8, 2020 at 07:23

      We will probably see a lot of truth revealed in Milwaukee this year. To me it was revolting to see Nancy Pelosi lead a standing ovation for the CIA stooge ‘Guido’ during the “state of the union” while pretending to be “RESISTING” Donald Trump.

    • Selim Sulaiman
      February 10, 2020 at 16:20

      Not the first time neither the last time!

    • Selim Sulaiman
      February 10, 2020 at 16:20

      Not the first time neither the last time!

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