As Julian Assange continues to languish in a British prison, a growing number of politicians from his native Australia are speaking out against his incarceration and the U.S. espionage indictment against him for publishing defense information.
Australian politicians gathered on the lawn opposite Parliament in Canberra on Monday to call on the Australian government to press the United States to drop its charges against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange and have him freed from London’s Belmarsh prison where he remains on remand pending a U.S. appeal against the decision by a British judge to deny his extradition to Alexandria, Virginia.
Speaking were MP Andrew Wilkie; Senator Peter Whish-Wilson; Senator Janet Rice; Dr. Sue Wareham of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War; Bernard Collaery, former attorney general for the Australian Capital Territory; military whistleblower David McBride; WikiLeaks activist Jacob Grech and Assange’s father, John Shipton.
Consortium News was there to film the event.
Video by Cathy Vogan in Canberra for Consortium News.
Video by Raine Cilicia in Canberra for @Melbourne4Wiki.
Thank GOD that FINALLY!!! SOMEONE OF AUSTRAILIAN prestige and moral conviction other than John Pilger and so few othets, has the ethical and moral fortitude to tell truth to the oblivious political elite, and every man that to let a superpowe bully and torture a citizen of their country without calling it out is moral weakness and corrupt.
Once again…absolutely no coverage whatsoever in State friendly mass media. Assange is a “banned” person not to be covered at all.
Morrison: Together, we ?commit to promoting ?a free, open ?rules-based order, rooted in ?international law to advance ?security and prosperity and counter threats to both? in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.
Alas, rules do not cover Assange other than one of the “threat”. It is grimly amusing to watch the permutations of “rules based order”, this time “rooted in international law”.
Piotr
Alas international law is rooted. Australia is rooted. I fear the world is rooted. Australian was never a country founded on democratic principles. We were all subjects of the British monarchy and, still are. The only reference to citizen in the constitution refer to foreign citizens. Our “citizenship” (if it exists) is a statutory right set out in legislation which may be changed by parliament. Rooted means Rooted and we are. As long as we have football the “she’ll be right”.
Don’t get me started on the Yanks and their propaganda.
jack flanigan
I hope everyone realizes that even if Assange is “ freed “, his life’s work led to an utter demoralization of him as a human.
This vicious and bloodthirsty public lynching serves as a stern reminder to similar minded people, not unlike putting a head on a spike to warn people in dark years of the past.
He is no longer in jail, as the lesson the US hoped to teach has been learned by all; resist us and all physical, moral, and egalitarian principles will be liquefied by our might.
False. He is still in jail. And there is every hope among his supporters that if he is freed he will regain his strength and continue his work.
Australia’s acceptance of Assange’s 7 years of solitary confinement is to join those countries that support Nazi practices of torture. It is to join those countries that have such weak governments and uneducated populations that they are subservient, ever obedient provinces
of larger powers such as the USA and China. Australia the land of gutless governments!
I have deep respect for those people standing up for Julian. On the other hand I have nothing but the deepest loathing for each and every member of the two major parties who have done nothing to support Julian. Both of the majors are nothing other than cults. The elected Labor and coalition politicians are gutless, lying, venal two faced bastards.
I hold the Australian parliament in contempt and sincerely wish each and every member of the majors ill.
My feelings expressed above are the same towards the mainstream media.
May you all go to hell.
jack
Lucky you. From behind the oceans, we only see servile faces pronouncing the latest permutation of imperial slogans. But in Australia, they may look more pleasant at times.
What a travesty, an injustice whose enormity leaves one speechless! All engineered and driven by the “full spectrum dominance” and extraterritorial dynamics of US policies. The human element is all but absent, call it scorched earth policy. The contradictions, the gross abuses have been normalized by the lapdogs of US imperialism: the UK, Canada, Australia, etc., ready at the beck and call of the distorted imperatives of the latter. This is more than just about Julian Assange but all humanity imperiled by megalomania. This is terrorism of the first order. The Nazis and Hitler live on, only this time they don a new, even more lethal technologies and justifications, all operating under the “hallowed” system of expropriation, exploitation, and dehumanization- capitalism.