The U.S. secretary of state confirmed Australia has lobbied the U.S. to end the WikiLeaks publisher’s prosecution, but said unequivocally that it would continue, reports Joe Lauria.
Left to Right: Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles, Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Saturday in Brisbane. (Richard Marles and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade)
By Joe Lauria
Special to Consortium News
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has publicly rebuffed efforts by the Australian government to free WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange.
Speaking at a press conference with Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Brisbane on Saturday, Blinken said he understood Australians’ concerns about their imprisoned citizen, but took a hard line against any move to end his persecution. Blinken said:
“I really do understand and can certainly confirm what Penny said about the fact that this matter was raised with us, as it has been in the past. And I understand the sensitivities. I understand the concerns and views of Australians. I think it’s very important that our friends here understand our concerns about this matter.
What our Department of Justice has already said repeatedly, publicly, is this: Mr Assange was charged with very serious criminal conduct in the United States in connection with his alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of our country.
The actions that he is alleged to have committed risked very serious harm to our national security, to the benefit of our adversaries, and put named human sources at grave risk of physical harm, grave risk of detention.
So I say that only because just as we understand sensitivities here, it’s important that our friends understand sensitivities in the United States.”
As was shown conclusively by defense witnesses in his September 2020 extradition hearing in London, Assange worked assiduously to redact names of U.S. informants before WikiLeaks publications on Iraq and Afghanistan in 2010. U.S. Gen. Robert Carr testified at the court martial of WikiLeaks‘ source, Chelsea Manning, that no one was harmed by the material’s publication.
Instead, Assange faces 175 years in a U.S. dungeon on charges of violating the Espionage Act, not for stealing U.S. classified material, but for the First Amendment-protected publication of it.
Chapter Closed
Albanese tells ABC while in London for the coronation that he has spoken to US about Asaange. (ABC News: Adrian Wilson)
Blinken’s remarks effectively close a chapter in Assange’s ordeal that had given hope to his supporters around the world.
Expectations had grown in Australia in May that a deal may have been in the works to liberate him. The hopes began with the clearest statements yet on the case from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who said on May 4 for the first time that he had spoken directly to U.S. authorities about Assange; that he wanted the prosecution to end and that he was concerned for his health.
Optimism grew further when five days later, Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador to Australia and daughter of slain President John F. Kennedy, agreed to meet a group of six, pro-Assange, Australian MPs, from three different parties, plus an independent.
U.S. envoy Caroline Kennedy (third from left) meets a delegation of MPs championing the Assange cause, including Bridget Archer, Josh Wilson, Andrew Wilkie, Julian Hill and David Shoebridge. (U.S. Embassy)
Kennedy, however, presaged Blinken’s comments by telling Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio last Thursday, when asked if the U.S. would drop the case:
“I met with Parliamentary supporters of Julian Assange and I’ve listened to their concerns and I understand that this has been raised at the highest levels of our government, but it is an ongoing legal case, so the Department of Justice is really in charge but I’m sure that for Julian Assange it means a lot that he has this kind of support but we’re just going to have to wait to see what happens.”
Asked why she met with the parliamentarians at all, she said: “Well, it’s an important issue, it has, as I’ve said, been raised at the highest levels and I wanted to hear directly from them about their concerns to make sure that we all understood where each other was coming from and I thought it was a very useful conversation.”
Asked whether her meeting with the MPs had shifted her thinking on the Assange case, Kennedy said: “Not really.” She added that her “personal thinking isn’t really relevant here.”
A Plea Deal?
Jennifer Robinson and Stella Assange in Canberra, May 22. (Cathy Vogan/CN)
Further remarks from Albanese in May that Assange would have to play his part led to speculation that some sort of plea deal for Assange was possible.
On May 22, two days before President Joe Biden was due to visit Australia on a trip he then canceled, Assange lawyer Jennifer Robinson said for the first time on behalf of Assange’s legal team that they would consider a plea deal.
Robinson told the National Press Club in Canberra:
“We are considering all options. The difficulty is our primary position is, of course that the case ought to be dropped. We say no crime has been committed and the facts of the case don’t disclose a crime. So what is it that Julian would be pleading to?”
Labor MP Julian Hill, who met with Kennedy and has been championing such a deal, told Consortium News that he traveled to London earlier this month to visit Assange but that the authorities at Belmarsh Prison refused to let him in, even though the meeting had been pre-arranged.
He told The Sydney Morning Herald last Wednesday:
“The reality is that Australia cannot force the United States to [release Assange], and if they refuse, then no Australian should judge Mr Assange if he chooses to just cut a deal and end this matter.
His health is deteriorating and if the US refuses to do the right thing and drop the charges then no one would think less of him for crossing his fingers and toes, pleading guilty to whatever nonsense he has to and getting the hell out of there.”
But talk of a plea deal has now been seriously dampened if not quashed by Blinken’s hardline remarks. While the U.S. is receiving loyalty from Australia on Washington’s military plans against China, it is offering nothing in return to the Australian government in regards to its citizen, imprisoned for publishing the truth about American war crimes.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and numerous other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He is the author of two books, A Political Odyssey, with Sen. Mike Gravel, foreword by Daniel Ellsberg; and How I Lost By Hillary Clinton, foreword by Julian Assange. He can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @unjoe
There is no limit to American super-powered arrogance in this century. It appears our only virtue in the 20th century was fear of communist criticism.
Biden and Blinken and Nuland……oh my!
Julian Assange is an actual journalist—–we have so few in America lately. Julian Assange did nothing wrong—but many in America do not see that this is a setup and a dishonest one towards Julian —they are in essence doing a wrong toward their own nation and their own citizens.
We have so few REAL journalists now—-and truly to read the novel,”1984,” as a fiction is wrong. Julian Assange one of the few journalists for truth telling , should be respected for his work in truth telling and freedom. The UK should stay out of this.
Biden, Blinken and Nuland should crash into a swamp and be eaten by gators—-America needs TRUTH TELLERS—not liars like Biden , Blinken and Nuland. If Julian is not freed, America will soon be crashing into its own self made ocean of inequity.
But hey, at least he (Biden) is not Trump, amirite? /s
American politicians are always talking about the will of the American people. If they were true to that statement they would free Julian. He’s already been convicted. All that remains is the sentencing and that too is known and looming in the background. Where is Batman when we need him?
The media really has to challenge Blinken on the implications of this malicious prosecution and false imprisonment. Blinken has never faced the fact that Iraqis and Afghans are effectively being told that the right thing to do is collude to hide military atrocities against their people and Reuters personnel covering the armed violence.
I don’t know if it could be done, but I would like to see reporters and lawyers [1] digging into this topic: who are the individuals are who are blocking Mr. Assange’s release? What’s their history; who are their friends; what’s their incentive to keep pushing; do they still beat their wife in the closet; and etc.?
It’s pushing into the bowels of the deep state and would for sure meet resistance, but the mere fact that the press is pushing to shine some sunshine on them can produce considerable movement.
[1] Lawyers are needed to litigate Freedom of Information Act requests.
I agree completely. Some leads I’d like to see followed up are in
War Profiteer Story
hxxps://war**profiteer**story.blogspot.com
[Note: Please remove asterisks and replace xx with tt to use link.]
Not exactly a proud moment for Australia as it becomes another forward operating base for war on China.
Giving into the bully just makes a bad situation worse.
Blinken is a bloody liar. Everything he said just repeated the lies. Julian did not endanger any lives through his release of the war documents. He redacted names. It was that swine Luke Harding who released unredacted material and he is the one who should be held responsible. As Joe says, U.S. Gen. Robert Carr admitted this fact. I have never despised any government as much as I despise the government of my own country. They are monsters and mountebanks.
“Julian did not endanger any lives through his release of the war documents.”
Julian endangered the lives of the vile war-mongers who run the US government, who should ALL be in Guantanamo for the atrocities they committed and continue to commit in our names.
cue an old film clip of Gomer Pyle saying “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!”
Is anyone really surprised?
Or, can anyone see that this was all a diversion and misdirection to try to convince the gullible portions of the right-wing in both countries, (the ones who delude themselves that they are really ‘left-wing’), that the Democrats and Labour are not both horribly evil parties who only care about the rich? See, we pretend to care! Kinda. But not really, not with any real effort that could ever be believed.
Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!
The US government, no matter which party is in power, is a vindictive capitol pig that wants to control all things, including the free press. If the Tories send Assange to the U.S., that would be a death sentence for both him and the free press. But most of our citizens have no clue who Julian Assange is and couldn’t care less, even though Wikileaks exposed the awful war crimes the U.S. has committed. Biden and Blinken are both two-faced about war crimes and democracy. They speak with forked tongues.
No countries’ news makes me want to puke as news coming from the US. The lowest of the low…
Avoid it.
Life is better without it, and you spend less time cleaning up after yourself.
I agree with you and I’m a U.S. citizen. I despise the government of my country. They are nothing but murderers.
I totally agree with you!
US and UK depravity knows no bounds. They will do anything to prop up their dying empire including jailing journalists who disclose criminal behavior on their part. What a sad spectacle this country has become.
FREE ASSANGE!
One of Blinken’s main reasons for the relentless pursuit of Julian is that the “endangered lives.”
What an absurd and hypocritical, and unfounded assertion; but he’s the US Secretary of State so he can say whatever he likes and timid journalists refrain from challenging him.
Blinken’s comments were made in the following context:
• The ‘Talisman Sabre’ war games are currently being held off the shores of Queensland. War games, where the aim is to increase one’s proficiency at endangering lives, and even better, actually killing people. So, according to Blinken, it’s OK to practice endangering lives on a mass scale.
hxxps://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-20/talisman-sabre-war-games-townsville-tent-city/102611442.
While Blinken asserts that Wikileaks “endangered lives,” the actual facts on the ground dispute that lives were actually lost.
“The largest intelligence leak in U.S. history, disclosed by Pfc. Bradley Manning to WikiLeaks, did not lead to the deaths of any military sources, the government’s first sentencing witness testified Wednesday. … the former brigadier general who headed the Information Review Task Force investigating the leaks said that he had never heard that a source named in the Afghan war logs was killed.”
Blinken’s scratching for straws here, hoping that because he’s the US Secretary of State his fake facts will not be challenged.
hxxps://www.courthousenews.com/military-fails-to-link-leaks-with-any-deaths/
The there’s the question of the role of the Guardian in all this – including then editors and hacks.
Assange and a small team were frantically trying to redact their copies of the leaks at the same time as the MSM papers were preparing to go to print.
The Guardian warrants special consideration as it was they who published the password to the unredacted files in WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy (2011).
So why is the Guardian getting off scott free?
Mark Davis’s ‘Politics in the Pub’ warrants viewing: hxxps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Phons4ZrDA
Presently, in Australia, the Biden regime is milking the Australian government for everything it can procure, without public input or consultation; all the while there is media silence on what it was that Julian did that really pissed-off successive POTUSes: the Collateral Murder video, and exposing how inefficient US administration of the war ON Iraq really was.
So true!
Anthony Blinken is the same man who brazenly lies to the American public about why billions of American dollars are being spent to attack Russia through Ukraine.
He brazenly lies to cover up Israel’s longstanding, ongoing terrorism against the Palestinians, including mass murder, land thefts, and blatant violations of international law.
In my view he is the public point man for a war profiteering, criminal, neocon cabal who believes it is their God-given right to plunder and wreck the world. They have captured major American institutions, and are driving the country to Catastrophe.
That is exactly what he is. These violent neocons are the ones running the country, not the senile and demented Joe Biden. Our government, bad as it already was, has been effectively kidnapped by these insane war monsters. I fear for the planet.
Yes, all the independent analysts say the neocons are crazy / insane. Only in terms of their desire to rule the world do their actions make any “sense”.
Australian politicians have ceded sovereignty to the US, set Australia up as a prime target in any future US war, is transferring hundreds of billions of dollars to the US MIC, in fact there is nothing left for Australia to hand to the US. And for all that, the US won’t even hand back one Australian citizen. One single very ill Australian is not worth all of that.
Australia now has the uni party Robyn not much difference we do as Washington instructs.
Pathetic.
Another day another slap for the faithful puppy. Are there any patriots of the universally accepted definition in Aus or are they all imperial brown nosers?
Pardon my ignorance, but what prevents Australia from receiving Assange directly from the UK and then rejecting a US request for extradition? My guess is that the UK would not be part of such an arrangement without approval from its American boss. Perfidious Albion lives up to its name. Am I right?
Didn’t a UK court already approve extradition last year? I thought that was very old news at this point.
There is an appeals process, and it is still going on.
None so blind as those who do not want to see.
“The actions that he is alleged to have committed risked very serious harm to our national security, to the benefit of our adversaries, and put named human sources at grave risk of physical harm, grave risk of detention.” (Blinken)
There was no serious harm; adversaries were not benefited in the way implied (that is, to a military advantage of some sort); human sources were not put at grave risk.
The issue then is “the risk” of his disclosures—that is, risk that had he not handled the disclosures very carefully, reducing their significance to the criminal nature of what they involved, there could have been a problem. However, the only problems have been the embarrassment of being caught, much as with an official discovered violating his/her office responsibilities; and the need to produce covering rhetoric and apply it to a person who might–if released–continue to use such embarrassing scrutiny. This in itself is not wrongdoing; it is truth-seeking. But this is the key problem Blinken must cover with his “sensitivities” messaging. Assange must be shut up; his threat is to the future, not the past.
In response to Assange as a truth-seeker and moral publicist, US intelligence, aligned with its European partners, have persecuted him for many years. Not much spoken of now is a first effort to crush him with accusations he had violated at least one of two Swedish women. It was odd that these women continued to party with him after the supposed incident had occurred, and with investigation here the persecution started in. Assange was required to wear an ankle bracelet and visit police morning and evening for one full year. Aware that his situation was about to get much worse, he then took to Ecuador’s embassy in London, where he found a confining but secure refuge for several years until the gestapo took him to Belmarsh.
Historically, this application of political cruelty with its accompanying vile justifications reminds of the middle-ages and challenges to the earth-centric view of the universe. Galileo, confined to his house for life, would have understood this travesty of “thinking” by the authorities past and present, in a roster of companions from Nero to Hitler.
Assange went to the embassy after losing his appeal against extradition to Sweden in the UK Supreme Court.
As long as the typical American believes the U.S. is basically good, they’ll imagine important security issues outweigh the downsides of allowing the government to have such secrecy. And they’ll think Assange was just being a punk. An relatively upstream factor in our problems is the public’s general belief in American exceptionalism. And shockingly much of Europe, Australia and some other countries also believe it. Given the extreme depth of our exposure to propaganda it’s going to be hard to make people realize even Obama was one of the most evil men of our times. Our desire to believe in American exceptionalism is a big part of why we are so willing to expose ourselves to propaganda. How do we battle that upstream barrier to progress? Because if we don’t, it may be a permanent roadblock to progress.
An accurate assessment of the US citizens’ complacency problem. The arrogance, ignorance, hypocrisy and hubris are reaching all-time highs. We are due for a comeuppance. I regret that the sensible, thoughtful, caring people among us are going to suffer right a long with those deserving of wrath. The roadblocks to progress are there already, how to overcome them I do not know. I’d like to think where there’s a will, there’s a way- but there still isn’t enough will yet.
The fact that many stupid Americans believe all of this BS about American exceptionalism drives me crazy. I was just chatting to someone the other day who told me she admired and loved the war criminal Hillary Clinton! I told her the truth about Clinton and she looked at me like I was mad. For those among us who know the truth about the violent criminals in the U.S. government, it is an uphill struggle to explain the truth. There are days when I am profoundly depressed by the brainwashed American public. You see, they watch television–that vile brainwashing machine–and seem not to be aware of alternative, independent media. But I keep up my efforts to break through the hypnosis of American lies because I have to. We all have to.
I’m am 2 yrs older than Julian .. but I guess my question in regard to the bad behavior of the US BULLY .. is where are the Special OP Patriots who go on clandestine missions to free the oppressed? Julian has been bound and splayed .. under the heat of the Sun .. upon the altar of US Hegemony!!! The next question .. what would it be like for Julian if he was “set free”??? Does that indeed make him more vulnerable than he already is??? When Julian takes his last breath .. who will be blamed .. and will he become a fresh martyr for a new generation of believers??? The question must rise like the sweetest cream .. to the surface .. what about “ET” (eternal life)??? You see .. the most innocent .. stands in dramatic contrast .. to the most guilty!!! When the MOB decides it’s better that one die .. a blood libel .. to cover their exposed sins .. then there is nothing too expensive .. 30 pieces of silver .. or 30 trillion pounds of gold. Julian Assange has two sons .. who carry his DNA .. but more than that .. all those who refuse to wear a “face diaper” .. in their writings .. and in their social demeanor .. will carry a torch into the future with Julian’s name on it. We must all fight Censorship .. the suppression of Free Speech .. the most fundamental right for all people.
As long as Mr. Global keeps Julian Assange alive .. but in torment .. the sympathy and empathy of the massive populations will hope for a passive and peaceful Mandela style release .. and throttle their own voices .. and energy. Always remember .. that every molecule has a sympathetic response that vibrates .. resonates throughout the universe. If we want freedom .. we must not agree to be captured. We must not agree to become slaves to Mr. Global.
“Wait and see what happens?” Maybe Australia will refuse
to cooperate with U.S. military’s provocation of China? The CIA
didn’t wait to see what would happen in November, 1963.
The anti-human rights Biden admin has not a single redeeming characteristic. It is malign through and through.
Yes, it is.
Trying to channel my rage, and my disgust with Blinken into something constructive. Here’s a thought: Gordon Kromberg, the lead DOJ prosecutor in the Assange case (and reportedly, whose hatred for Julian holds no bounds), and probably his entire team, (to say nothing of Merrick Garland himself), is certainly violating legal ethics in pursuing a case where there has been such egregious prosecutorial misconduct. So, anyone know a member of the D.C. Bar that can file a legal ethics violation claim against Kromberg?
Additionally, there is a form on the DOJ website, in the Inspector General’s section, whereby anyone can complain about the misconduct of any DOJ employee. Wouldn’t it be great if DOJ was flooded with complaints against Garland and Kromberg!!
While I had already submitted several messages and complaints to the offices of AG Garland, alongside Deputy AG Lisa Monaco and (especially) Associate AG Vanita Gupta, via the form on the US Department of Justice (DoJ) website regarding the Assange case, your comment inspired me to submit a legal misconduct complaint against Gordon Kromberg, alongside all of the others aforementioned, to the Civil Rights division of the US DoJ, also bringing up Kromberg’s sordid record in the terrorism-related prosecutions of Sami Al-Arian and former DC police officer Nicholas Young.
Thanks, Casey! And you inspire me to submit complaints to Monaco and Gupta.
Come on, rest of you CN followers, join in the effort!
A nightmare continues while the rest of the world sleeps. Thank you #JoeLauria for always supporting the truth in this case and Julian’s freedom as he never should have been incarcerated in the first place. One can only hope that one at a time or a few at a time will wake up and the support will grow too big to ignore. Or that Australia will grow a spine. Or that SOMEONE in the UK will wake up and tell the truth and/or stop bribing the corrupt judges?!
I feel rage and despair about this situation.
Sorry, it is difficult to get either Australia or the UK to act responsibly and humanely because the imperialists have inserted a Banana and a Brinjal respectively into Australia and the UK in the form Penny and Rishi. They are simply quintessensial suckers on supreme power, to really care !
That’s the kind of behavior we expect from a good vassal. Obedience
Would be wonderful to see Oz play hard ball too, and tell the US/UK to stick their ridiculously expensive Nuclear Sub where the Sun don’t shine, reignite the French deal, and inform their erstwhile partners that they aren’t some 5 eyes vassal to do American bidding on demand. But…I’m not going to hold my breath !
I doubt that will happen. The Aussies seem much like our nation of mostly sheep. At least, the Aussies didn’t bat an eye when the CIA overthrew their prime minister in 1975. hXXps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alleged_CIA_involvement_in_the_Whitlam_dismissal
As Caitlin wrote in this publication, Australia is no longer a sovereign country. The challenge is clear. How to make it a sovereign country again? How to throw these Americans back into the sea. I’ll ask Penny Wong and Richard Marles for their help (laughing).
From the article:
“What our Department of Justice has already said repeatedly, publicly, is this: Mr Assange was charged with very serious criminal conduct”
Killing innocent civilians (“collateral murder” video) is very serious criminal conduct.
Here’s an interesting piece from NY Times nonethless:
hxxps://archive.nytimes.com/thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/u-s-officials-reportedly-said-wikileaks-revelations-were-not-damaging/
Assange goes to jail and retired general be-try-us resigns after giving top secret files to girlfriend while still married so she could write a book with full pension and top paying job on wall street. The new and improved Amerikan justice system.
I find it hard to stomach these criminal scumbags and their hypocrisy. And wtf is the matter with Australia, to just allow themselves to be treated by the US gov as an obedient pet. The whole thing reeks, not enough people care, but you can bet that when there own personal situation is somehow threatened by bad gov policy, you’ll see how much they goddamned care
He was charged but never convicted and has been incarcerated for so many years by the UK/USA “justice ” systems already for daring to tell the public the truth about some US war crimes. These crimes continue and all of NATO joins in with complete impunity.
When it comes to things Down Under, Blinken is certainly not blinking. The U.S. takes up whatever John Bull dismisses as downy ! The Zombies in the U.S. clearly need a kangaroo kick to bring them to their sense. Free Assange, idiots !