While media focused on Julian Assange’s cat rather than his continuing arbitrary detention, evidence shows Britain worked hard to force his extradition to Sweden where Assange feared he’d be turned over to the U.S., as Stefania Maurizi explains.
By Stefania Maurizi
Special to Consortium News
Let’s start with the cat. You never would have thought one of these beloved felines would play a crucial role in the Julian Assange case, would you?
And yet look at the latest press coverage. The mainstream media’s headlines weren’t about a man who has been confined to a tiny building in the heart of Europe for the last six years with no end insight, they were about orders from Quito to feed his cat.
There you have a man who is at serious risk of being arrested by the UK authorities, extradited to the U.S. and prosecuted for his publications. A man who has been cut off from any human contact, with the exception of his lawyers. A man whose health is seriously declining due to prolonged confinement without even an hour outdoors. Wasn’t there anything more serious to cover than the cat?
But there’s a story to be told behind Assange’s cat. One of the last times I was allowed to visit Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, before the current government of Lenin Moreno cut off all his social and professional contacts, I asked the founder of WikiLeaks whether his cat had ever tried to escape from the embassy given that, unlike his human companion, he can easily sneak out of the building without the risk of being arrested by Scotland Yard.
Assange didn’t take my question with the lightness with which it was intended, quite the opposite, he became a bit emotional and told me that when the cat was small, it had in fact made some attempts to escape from the building, but as it had grown, it had become so accustomed to confinement that whenever Assange had tried to give the cat to some close friends so the animal could enjoy its freedom, it showed fear of wide open spaces. Confinement has a deep impact on the behavior and health of all creatures, animal and human.
Strength
I have worked as a WikiLeaks media partner for the last nine years, and over these nine years I have met Assange many, many times, but only once did I meet him as a free man: that was back in September 2010, the very same day the Swedish prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for allegations of rape. Initially he was under house arrest with an electronic bracelet around his ankle, then he entered the Ecuadorian embassy in London on June 19, 2012. Since then he has remained buried in that tiny embassy: a depressing building, very small, with no sunlight, no fresh air, no hour outdoors. In my country, Italy, even mafia bosses who strangled a child and dissolved his corpse in a barrel of acid enjoy an hour outdoors. Assange doesn’t.
In these last eight years, I have never heard Julian Assange complain even once: at least in my presence, he has always reacted to the enormous stress he has been under with strength and whenever I have contacted his mother, Christine Assange, she has never wished to discuss the details of her personal feelings and concerns about the conditions of her son.
But for all his strength, this harsh situation is seriously undermining Assange’s physical and mental health. In an op-ed in The Guardian last January , three respected physicians, Sondra S. Crosby, Chris Chisholm and Sean Love, tried to draw attention to this problem, yet nothing has changed. Assange remains buried in the embassy in extremely precarious conditions due to the complete lack of cooperation from the UK authorities which have always refused to offer him safe passage to enjoy his asylum in Ecuador.
This lack of cooperation from the UK authorities – which can be reasonably interpreted as a deliberate effort to make Assange feel helpless, to break him down, so he’ll step out of the embassy and they can arrest him – has helped create this Catch-22 situation, with Ecuador attempting various options to find a solution, like giving Assange diplomatic status so he can leave the embassy protected by diplomatic immunity. But at the end of the day there is very little a small country like Ecuador can do, and with Lenin Moreno in power, Ecuador’s interest in protecting Assange seems to be fading to the extent that Ecuador is considering stripping Assange of his Ecuadorian citizenship, one of the most important shields protecting the WikiLeaks founder from extradition to the U.S..
The UK’s Special Interest?
Having spent the last 3 years fighting in four jurisdictions – Sweden, the UK, Australia and the U.S. – to access the full documentation on the Assange and WikiLeaks case under FOIA, I have acquired a few documents which leave no doubt as to the role played by UK authorities in contributing to create the legal and diplomatic quagmire which is keeping Assange confined to the embassy. Why have the UK authorities done this? What special interest, if any, do they have in the Assange case?
I mention a “special interest” because documents reveal that from the very beginning of the Swedish case, the UK authorities advised the Swedish prosecutors against the only investigative strategy that could have led to a quick solution of the preliminary investigation against Assange: questioning the WikiLeaks founder in London rather than extraditing him to Stockholm. It was this decision to insist on extradition at all costs that led the Australian to take refuge in theEcuadorian embassy, fighting tooth and nail, convinced that if extradited to Sweden he could end up extradited to the U.S.
Documents reveal that the UK authorities referred to the Assange case as not an ordinary one from the very beginning. “Please do not think that the case is being dealt with as just another extradition request,” they wrote on January 13, 2011 to the Swedish prosecutors. A few months later, a UK official added: “I do not believe anything like this has ever happened, either in terms of speed or in the informal nature of the procedures. I suppose this case never ceases to amaze.” What is special about this case? And why did the UK authorities keep insisting on extradition at all costs?
At some point even the Swedish prosecutors seemed to express doubts about the legal strategy advocated by their UK counterpart. Emails between UK and Swedish authorities I have obtained under FOIA show that in 2013 Sweden was ready to withdraw the European Arrest Warrant in light of the judicial and diplomatic paralysis the request for extradition had created. But the UK did not agree with lifting the arrest warrant: the legal case dragged on for another four years, when finally on the May 19, 2017, Sweden dropped its investigation after Swedish prosecutors had questioned Assange in London, as he had always asked.
Although the Swedish probe was ultimately terminated, Assange remains confined. No matter that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention established that the WikiLeaks founder has been arbitrarily detained since 2010, and that he should be freed and compensated. The UK, which encourages other states to respect international law, doesn’t care about the decision by this UN body whose opinions are respected by the European Court of Human Rights. After trying to appeal the UN decision and losing the appeal, Britain is simply ignoring it. There is no end in sight to Assange’s arbitrary detention.
Silence and Suspicion
There are two more suspicious elements: the fact that the UK authorities destroyed the emails regarding the Assange case, as they admitted in my litigation before the UK Tribunal, and the fact that they have always refused to provide me with any information as to whether they have communicated with the U.S. authorities on the Assange case, because they sustain that confirming or denying it would tip Assange off as to the existence or non of an extradition request from the U.S..
If there is or will be an extradition request from the U.S., the UK authorities want to be able to extradite Julian Assange for his publications just like any other criminal.
The risk of an editor or publisher being extradited for his publications should raise red flags and public debate in our democratic societies, yet we don’t see any debate at all.
Julian Assange’s situation is very precarious. His living conditions within the embassy have become unsustainable, and his friends speak as if there is no hope: “When the U.S. gets Julian”, they say, as if it is a foregone conclusion that the U.S. will get him and no journalist, no media, no NGO, no press association will do anything to prevent it.
In the last six years that Assange has been languishing in the embassy, not a single major Western media has dared to say: we shouldn’t keep an individual confined with no end in sight. This treatment of Julian Assange by the UK – and, more in general, by the West – is not only inhumane, but counterproductive.
In these years, the Russian state-funded network RT has continued to cover the Assange case intensely. It isn’t hard to understand why Russia is so ecstatic about the Assange case. The case provides Russia with the evidence to affirm that while the West is always preaching freedom of the press and aggressive journalism, it in fact crushes journalists and journalistic sources who expose state abuse at the highest levels. Chelsea Manning spent seven years in prison, Edward Snowden was forced to leave his country and seek asylum in Russia, Julian Assange has spent the last six years confined to a tiny building and in seriously deteriorating health. It’s time to stop this persecution.
Stefania Maurizi works for the Italian daily La Repubblica as an investigative journalist, after ten years working for the Italian newsmagazine l’Espresso. She has worked on all WikiLeaks releases of secret documents, and partnered with Glenn Greenwald to reveal the Snowden files about Italy. She has also interviewed A.Q. Khan, the father of the Pakistani atomic bomb, revealed the condolence payment agreement between the US government and the family of the Italian aid worker Giovanni Lo Porto killed in a US drone strike, and investigated the harsh working conditions of Pakistani workers in a major Italian garment factory in Karachi. She has started a multi-jurisdictional FOIA litigation effort to defend the right of the press to access the full set of documents on the Julian Assange and WikiLeaks case. She authored two books: Dossier WikiLeaks. Segreti Italiani and Una Bomba, Dieci Storie, the latter translated into Japanese. She can be reached at [email protected]
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Assange is essentially a middleman of information obtained for him by others.
He has not committed a US crime but he is not that much of a hero either. The heroes are his providers of information who take far greater risks than Assange himself.
Realize in a situation where a private individual has explosive information harmful to nations and entities, nothing can be as it is seen. Every see Jason Bourne? All the US assets can get him. Hollywood of course. Pinpoint satellite accuracy would have nailed him in 2 min. You can imagine Julian has a 100 mil contract minimum on him. To keep him protected anyone who would keep him protected would provide deflection. Do you really thin the most wanted man in the world was saved by a fire estinguisher in the window?
Christine Assange: #Unity4J – Julian in ‘Critical Danger’, ‘Torture’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKAFvFeOfMw
“The modern-day cage of political prisoners is no longer the Tower of London. It’s the Ecuadorian Embassy.” “A slow and cruel assassination is taking place before our very eyes in the embassy in London.” “[T]he plan was to break him down mentally. A new, impossible, inhumane protocol was implemented at the embassy to torture him to such a point that he would break and be forced to leave.” “They are setting my son up. . . .” “[T]he National Defense Authorization Act allows for indefinite detention without trial. Julian could very well be held in Guantanamo Bay and tortured, sentenced to 45 years in a maximum-security prison, or face the death penalty.” “We need to make our protest against this brutality deafening.” “I call on all you journalists to stand up now because he’s your colleague and you are next. I call on all you politicians who say you entered politics to serve the people to stand up now. I call on all you activists who support human rights, refugees, the environment, and are against war, to stand up now because WikiLeaks has served the causes that you spoke for and Julian is now suffering for it alongside of you. I call on all citizens who value freedom, democracy and a fair legal process to put aside your political differences and unite, stand up now.”
Crucifying Julian Assange
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/11/13/crucifying-julian-assange
It was not long ago that Assange was receiving standing ovations from so-called “liberals” here in the US. Much has changed in the past 5 or so years….
The life and the future of the Founder and Editor of Wikileaks Julian Assange is at an eminent danger.
We must stand up united to fight for his freedom and to protect his life. He is our Hero, very well loved and respected
across the world.
I thank Julian for the years of TPP info that fed our Occupy TPP working group and thousands of good progressive groups that defeated the corporate-rigged trade agreement. As to leaking the DNC emails, nothing new was learned – everyone knew Wasserman-Schultz had suppressed Bernie; but it was interesting to see the inside details. The question is: what can be done to advance his basic human rights at this point?
What is the matter with his lawyers? They have accomplished nothing in all these years, yet feel no shame in their careers. And one of them is always tweeting about her “brilliant colleagues”, while a former so-called ‘human rights lawyer’ jets around like a movie star, posing for paparazzi and dressing up for royal weddings and such. Seem to have made brilliant careers for themselves, and yet can hardly raise a voice. This case is more than “disappointing” – it’s a huge outrage. Why don’t they have the courage to shout about this instead of trying to look and act ‘repectable’ and not offend the tyrants that so cruelly and brazenly flout the law? Assange needs lawyers with passion and guts. This footsying around the ‘law’ while not firmly denouncing the abuses and calling out the bullshit can last forever, while they flit from one humanitarian case to the next feeling oh so noble and good about themselves.
Assange is not a journalist, and especially not an investigative one, he is an aggragator of data from others hard works, an owner ofan outlet for their works.
Am I sorry for how he was and is being treated, nowheres near as sorry for as I am for all the lesser knowns who have been jailed tortured or killed for fighting in truths name.
If Assange had not been a pretty boy from an affluent family of what on Apperancez appears to not be part of worlds exploitive. groupings, would he of been welcomed at an Ecuadorian Embassy?
An embassy of a nation where gross inequalitys by government are institutionalized, that seeing a propaganda move that cost little to put a pretty humane face forward to rest of world they jumped at it.
That the whole of Ecuadors elites then realized it was a huge mistake and it could suffer huge economic losses by their action from US and its allied nations, once in they were caught between a rock and a hard place.
Assange and Wikileaks tried to walk thin line and not cross the border of treason and international security bounds, hoping by not publishing full extent of their actions, would let himself be kept from harms way, it failed.
A huge over belief in his untouchability, and those around him, and his almost complete unknowing of the weapon types that could be assailed upon him, sent him running in fear trying to save his butt from repercusdions of his act.
Not even a hero with tainted wings , no not to be compared to others who waded through gore and dangers to bring truth to light and knew ultimate penalty being a very real possability.
A once guilded and sheltered yuppy reduced to hiding in fear beggingvfor more of his kind to save his butt.
Oh I contribute financially to group trying for his release but not because to glorify him, but for the need to fight that powers that be.
He is but a monor symbol, nothing more, of a far greater fight ongoing against qtyrrany throughout the world, one by people that deserve more of my time, energy, and meager financial means.
The fact is his worth to that ongoing war for truth would be of far more value if he walked out door on own to face the penalties.
Hell we need dead martyrs more than live ones to kick in butt the complacency of the masses.
Assange to those of secular worlds weak and peace pious, not a lot different than of religious pursuasions, outlook, but is he our he is our Messiah?
Most of his supporters are not suggesting he is a Messiah. Yes there are journalists who are killed or imprisoned by various governments, e.g. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey to name but a few. However, in most cases it is clear that these countries do not have freedom of the press, either in practice or theory. What is surprising and especially disturbing about the case of Assange and Wikileaks is that it is western countries, with parliamentary democracies as their form of government and supposed commitments to freedom of speech and of the press, who are threatening his liberty for exercising these rights. Meanwhile, most western journalists and liberals, who are supposed to care passionately about these rights either ignore his situation or actually support these governments’ persecution of him by denigrating him personally. Assange cannot be tried for treason by the U.S. because he is not an American citizen. Assange surely does qualify as a journalist, though as an editor rather a reporter. Many newspapers have published information that was given to them, unsolicited, by inside sources, one of the most famous cases being the Pentagon Papers, supplied to several papers by Daniel Ellsberg. Wikileaks has been innovative in setting up a system to make it easier for whistle blowers to divulge information without compromising themselves. It is also relevant to note that though Edward Snowden did not make his revelations via Wikileaks, they are the ones who arranged for Snowden’s escape from Hong Kong to Russia. Furthermore, it is unprecedented, at least in recent times, for a journalist or news organisation to be threatened with criminal prosecution by the U.S. government for publishing even classified information given to them. E.g., Ellsberg was prosecuted for revealing the Pentagon Papers to the press, but no newspapers, journalists, or editors were even threatened with prosecution. The government tried to stop publication by getting injunctions against papers, ultimately failing. Similarly, the reporter Judith Miller was not prosecuted for writing an article revealing Valerie Plane to be a CIA intelligence officer, although, Libby, her White House source was prosecuted (it is a Federal crime to reveal the identity of a serving CIA officer, but the offence is committed by the informant, not the journalist or news organisation who publishes the information.) The importance of the Assange/Wikileaks case is that it threatens the right to freedom of the press in precisely those western countries where it has been held to be most firmly established, especially in the U.S. which enshrines it as one of the amendments to the Constitution known as the Bill of Rights.
We have failed him, I wish I could believe that in the USA where prohibitions to cruel and unusual punishment and habeas corpus protect his rights, he’d get a daily hour outside but US Goons have the legality AND the gravitas(even liberals hate him) to simply hide him at gitmo indefinitely.
Trump could wear a uniform with epaulets and gold fringe, shoot Julian in a ceremony and Americans would ADORE Trump.
The west FAILED Julian Assange. Most people in the west are brainwashed dullards who just don’t care. Morality has been destroyed. The difference between right and wrong has gone from black and white to everything is relative. Most people in the west don’t give a flying f#ck about Julian Assange as long as they can have their Chinese phone. The ONLY thing that will bring the west back to reality is collapse.
Having spent so much time as a virtual prisoner facing an indefinite sentence, would not Assange be better off giving himself up, and ifs convicted, at least seeing the prospect of eventual freedom (maybe with some credit for “time served.”
How about because someone like Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will have Assange naked in a cage being firehosed for as long as he can hold his breath.
They can do anything to you in the name of “national security” once you are labeled a terrorist.
The infuriating part is that fucking liberals hate him too.
But both many progressives and conservatives support Assange too!
“at least seeing the prospect of eventual freedom”
Are you being realistic? Assange is hated by so many government officials for permanently tearing off their masks to reveal their pervasive lying and brutal coldness to the people they govern. Even under Trump, who benefited from Wikileaks, our government would do anything they can to punish him for life, and even take his life. They want to send the message if you dare tell the truth about us we will come for and even kill you.
I agree with the comment that Dr. Judy Wood’s research in her book, ‘Where did the tower go’ , should be required reading for all those who claim to be open minded.
f your death was determined to be homicide by gunshot, the forensic investigation better report a bullet hole in your body. Would the coroner’s report of homicide by gunshot be a theory or a conclusion from ALL of the evidence? You can’t present a theory in court. This is why Dr. Wood’s work is irrefutable. She only presents evidence and an analysis of that evidence. There is no use for a theory in forensic science. Either you know something or you don’t. That is why those in charge of a cover up don’t want people to look at the evidence in Dr. Wood’s book. Dr. Wood does not ask you to believe her. She only wants you to believe yourself and think for yourself and look at the evidence yourself and not argue about opinions of theories of speculation of ideas. That is what keeps a cover up in place. Those of us who have read Dr. Wood’s book know this to be true.
The evidence is that the buildings turned to dust right before your eyes.
https://youtu.be/aoAa_B2kRuo
Remember that the empirical EVIDENCE tells us that the majority of the buildings turned into dust in mid air. (everyone saw it happen right before their eyes) Therefore, something that can do this (turn it into dust in mid air) must exist. That is the proof that it exists. It happened. You don’t need the serial numbers for the gizmo to know what happened. When “white man” first arrived on the American continent with firearms, indigenous people did not need to know the serial numbers of their weapons to know what they can do. They didn’t need to have seen such weapons in order to know that there exists a weapon that can fire a piece of metal fast enough to kill their brothers. Likewise, by the end of the day on August 6, 1945, the people living near Hiroshima, Japan, did not need to understand how a nuclear bomb works in order to know that there exists a technology that can produce enormous amounts of heat or to know that there exists a super-duper Kinetic Energy Weapon (KEW) that is capable of destroying an entire city. So as you can plainly see, “The evidence is that the buildings turned to dust right before your eyes.” is an accurate statement.
Also remember, Directed Energy is a category. Those promoting disinformation claim it is a specific device. That’s like claiming the category of Kinetic Energy means a pea shooter or a slingshot. Dr. Wood does not name a weapon. What she does present is a comprehensive forensic investigation of what happened. Dr. Wood does not make any statement as to a device or where it was located. Only those promoting disinformation have made such claims. Why do you think that is?
Here’s a hint The EVIDENCE Dr. Wood has gathered is indisputable EVIDENCE and cannot be refuted. If this EVIDENCE became widely known, it would incriminate a lot of people and undermine the power structure. Now, who has a dog in this fight?
9/11 Finding the Truth
What really happened on 9/11? What can the evidence tell us? Who is covering up the evidence, and why are they covering it up? This book attempts to give some answers to these questions and has been written by someone who has become deeply involved in research into what happened on 9/11. A study of the available evidence will challenge you and much of what you assumed to be true. “Now we are discovering that there is a highly-sophisticated black-ops weaponization of free energy technology and it was responsible for the bizarre, low-temperature pulverization of the Twin Towers. Dr. Judy Wood has pieced together the physical evidence and Andrew Johnson has highlighted who is working to silence or smear whom, as the powers that be rush to impede or at least contain the dissemination of these startling findings.” – Conrado Salas Cano, M.S. in Physics
http://www.checktheevidence.co.uk/pdf/9-11%20-%20Finding%20the%20Truth.pdf
It is not necessary to get every dot and comma right in exposing the obvious 9/11 false flag operation, except for our own curiosity. We need only expose the clear falsity of the official explanation and demonstrate the salient facts available, the presence of explosives, the withdrawal of protection, the clear cui bono connections, the coverup, etc., and somehow inform our fellow citizens who, hopefully, might demand a proper investigative committee with subpoena powers and get Silverstein, Chertoff, Cheney and Meyers testifying under oath.
Democrats Who Smear WikiLeaks Are Assisting Trump’s War On The Press
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2018/08/04/democrats-who-smear-wikileaks-are-assisting-trumps-war-on-the-press/
“[A]ttacking and smearing a journalist (and Assange is most certainly a journalist per definition) whom this administration is actively targeting only serves this administration. All you’re doing is lubricating the way for that great leap toward Orwellian dystopia by helping to get the public cheering for something which will make it easier for the US government to imprison journalists who expose government malfeasance.”
George Orwell:
“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.”
When one thinks about Assange and our times, one can also, easily, relate 1984 — throughout:
Oceania’s four government ministries are in pyramids (300 m high), the façades of which display the Party’s three slogans. The ministries’ names are the opposite (doublethink) of their true functions: “The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation.”
Julian Assange is a Political Prisoner; the world knows it.
And, when he is taken away to be tortured for life, most of the world will look the other way.
Yes Frederike, because high profile people who are influencial can and are targeted for speaking out. A hundred fold ‘truths’ won’t be discussed at this time on a wide range of topics because if there was enough public awareness and discussion, people would have knowledge and then they could act on it. The fact that, a Central Intelligence Agency didn’t send a warning signal back when it was formed, is evidence of the public’s gullability and that future historians likely will say that a velvet coup took place when people like Allen Dulles and his cronies in the Deep State realized the ‘control plan’ would be complete; ALL information would one day be controlled. Thought control would be the next stage.
Julian Assange is undoubtedly an innocent man …
Who, then, are the real criminals in this disgraceful, years-long, irrational display of persecution and injustice?
The real criminals responsible for this untenable, historic, international law disaster are Donald Trump, Theresa May and Lenin Moreno.
Release Julian Assange … NOW!!!
Donald Trump? Excuse me, but Donal Trump has been in power since 1/2017. Julian has been persecuted quite longer than that.
..and successive Australian govts. are responsible. Great Shame. Free Julian. Now. He is a living saint.
Indeed, a very sorry state of affairs. The way the media have derided this man, a horrible character assassination, is totally inhumane. He’s the UK’s Nelson Mandela or Gandhi, each in their turn reviled by those in power at the time, and each probably with character flaws to be exaggerated and turned against them. The media in the UK and around the world have totally failed truth to power. They have instead been the complicit purveyors of calumny and hatred, it’s difficult to say this differently, against an intelligent, kind, honourable, and honest fellow citizen who has literally done nothing wrong, and has just lifted the manhole a fraction to let some light in the sewers that is our present political system.
The United States isn’t really about freedom and individuals. It’s really about conformity and commercialism.
WikiLeaks doesn’t conform to American expectation by prostituting its commodity to the highest bidder, so it’s “anti-American,” and of course, so is Julian Assange.
Where are the “celebrities”, actors, writers, musicians, tennis players, and others who have so much to gain from being able to express and “be” themselves without being censored? Why do we not hear from them in support of Assange?
Are they all afraid of loosing their audience and their sponsors? Without famous clients, the sponsors are nothing. What good is applause for shallowness and mediocrity?
There are so many opportunities for them to speak out, to make a difference. But they are busy with building mansions for themselves, to keep out those who infringe upon their rights to privacy. If it were not for Assange (and a few others), who put their lives on the line exposing how governments abuse their powers, rights of any citizen, rich or not, would be wiped out already.
I hate cowards and JA is one of the biggest that history will know. He will be famous for it.
He put his life on the line revealing secrets the public has a right to know and you… anonymously smeared him on an internet blog? Who’s the coward here again?
I feel you may be a little off the mark there Ivan. The US is afraid of Julian Assange, why ? He tells he truth. The truth about murderous wars started for the commercial gain of a few in the US and their ally’s. If standing up to powerful forces is a cowardly act, we need more cowards. The real spineless gutter rats here are the MSM who quake in their boots at the very thought of telling the truth about our ‘free democratic’ law makers.
People who cannot recognize courage and integrity in others have none themselves.
Well said Anton.
And you will not be famous at all, ever. Not even for being a dimwit. (There are so many already.)
Please go back to the old font. This font is horrible, almost unreadable.
It is revealing that the “journalists” who represent the MSM have ignored the plight of Julian Assange, having already profited from the revelations of Wikileaks . Their current silence should be cause for their embarrassment having abandoned a journalist who exposed and highlighted corruption at the highest level. But I expect the lucre was too enticing from them to fulfill their responsibility under the Fourth Estate whose brief is to hold power to account. Shame on them. They could, even at this late stage, redeem their tarnished reputations and challenge the UK government to abide by the findings of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention’s findings that the Wikileaks founder has been arbitrarily detained since 2010 and should be freed and compensated.
I can only say it is the work of a small group of powerful people belonging to an international fraternity who are working in concert to decimate Assange. They are the thread that strings up the entire chain of events. We must believe that those who do good will triump and those who do not will be held accountable before God. In their lifetime.
Is there any reason Why my earlier comments today were not published?
If there’s any problem please let me know. Thanks
Disparaging remarks by Assange against efforts to expose the 9-11 lies were all I needed to give a “s” about Assange.
Ed,
I agree w/you about 9/11. There is so much evidence which does raise questions about the govt.’s version of events. We still don’t have all the info from the govt. concerning events leading up to that attack. For example, redactions remain in the pages concerning Saudi Arabia. I’m really not certain why Assange disparages people who try to analyze actual evidence about what happened that day. That said, his actions don’t erase our duty to protect his human rights.
I live on the border where many people hate immigrants w/a passion. That is their right, even if it does not make any sense to me. What they still owe their fellow human being is support of their human rights.
If we cannot have a deeply held principle which we apply to everyone whether we hate them or like them, then we are failing our duty as human beings. I consider Dick Cheney, George Bush, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Donald Trump to be war criminals. They have each engaged in torture and other war crimes. Even so, it is my bound duty to support their human rights. Should they ever be arrested (which I doubt) I must support their right to a fair trial in a civilian court of law.
I just think we must commit to the principle of human rights. We can only do this by standing up for the human rights of everyone, even people we despise.
To Ed: Dr. Judy Wood’s research in he book, ‘Where did the tower go’ , should be required reading for all those who claim to be open minded. It was the only research done, and most other commentary was conjecture and annectdotal. It seems like many seemingly open minded folks refrained from commenting on 911 for fear of bwing ostracized.
i offer my thanks as well, Stephania, although the wiggly font is hard for my eyes to read. that said, i’m pretty sure that you hadn’t mentioned the most current developments i’d written up here: ‘
‘ecuadorian AG hatches plot for Assange exit’ wendy davis, caucus99percent.com with a new dastardly update from today.
https://caucus99percent.com/content/ecudorian-ag-hatches-plot-assange-exit
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1060282665507717123
my apologies; the link hadn’t worked. this should.
https://caucus99percent.com/content/ecuadorian-ag-hatches-plot-assange-exit-updated
I just hope and pray that if anything untoward happens to Assange, Wikileaks will do an Intel dump world-wide to expose ALL the evil corruption.
Where are our heros when we need them? Especially journalists?
Bravo Stefania!
Your efforts show clear evidence of how Julian’s case and the inhumain treatment he is receiving from the British and Ecuadorian Governments is both a travesty of justice and a serious threat to press freedom and free speech.
Obviously Snowden had learned from how badly the UK authorities had treated Assange in its cooperation with Washington and had fled to Russia for a relatively decent living conditions. And based on this Assange case, the western governments should feel ashamed should any of their media outlets parroting its government’s propaganda blame Chinese government for its human right violations — they are all just the same.
Despite the Five Eyes program headed by the US, Washington have constantly accused Russia, China and North Korean hackers of hacking into their state secrets while the US cyber forces have been innocently standing idle by. So why not ask Moscow, Beijing or Pingyang to hack into UK authorities’ email accounts and their American’s counterparts to show to the UN body just what the London and Washington’s real intention have been all these years.
BTW, it is obvious that Australia is fully in the Washington and London’s pocket, daring not to say a word in the public to protect its own citizen who had simply committed a crime for publishing the US war crimes in the Middle Eastern and North African countries.
“…to protect its own citizen who had simply committed a crime for publishing the US war crimes…”
Everyone needs to remember that publishing leaked info is not a crime!
Don’t look now, but guess who… billionaire brothers have built personality profiles of most Americans, and use them to push right-wing propaganda
The Kochs Are Watching You Through i360: Here Are Some of the Things We Know They Know About You… Yes, You
The ongoing confinement of Julian Assange by a cynical, corrupt and cowardly UK regime is intolerable. Whatever its Washington masters may say, the UK regime must cease its persecution of this brave and principled journalist, and pay him ample compensation for the years of unjust confinement he has had to endure.
The West; just what and the hell is The West?
To me the West is direction where sun went everyday due to earths rotation.
The present populace living in mainly white eurocentric acendency have the hubris of thinking the are elevated above and beyond places that share the world.
There can no longer be a claim made by eurocentric derived populations of being beacons of ideals from generations past philosophers and writings of great minds that elevated mans minds out of barbaric lives, for no matter where they predominately exist they owe their every day comforts due to past and ongoing exploitation of the people not of the nations they live in.
Wars and destructions upon peoples of non-west and unto even the earth itself by and of needs of that west populace are condoned ; needs not so much to advancement of all humankind but more on saving the west cresture comforts.
While we whine and protest one of our elite eurocentrics discomfort for pointing out truths, all around the rest of non-west peoples there are those dead and dying by outright murder from within those nations our comfort depends upon, and we wuietly protest and blame the lesders of those nations.
Assange is the darling of but a minority of well living yuppies, who in some part oee their living to protesting organizing groups.
No more than well paid and crowd koining profesdional mourners.
zif Assange were to be butchered and hacked to death and the scene broadcast to the west, a brief pouring of eords and advantsge funding to tjode profesdional wordsmiths.
Then the bast makority would look for another martyr to elevate.
Lots of talking heads, but they all remain subservient passive agressives withim the milk toast lilly white of ” The Eest” hubris.
Do you have a plan beyond whining about the ineffectiveness of words?
Ineffectiveness of words? You are clearly demonstrating such effect. I suggest you heed your Avatar and hide behind it.
Are you typing your nonsense in the dark? Or are you simply illiterate and stupid?
I don’t understand why Assange does not simply walk out now. How different will it be for him? As this article says he is already in grave peril and could die from his confinement. I agree the monstrous governments one and all will offer him no justice but there are people (not governments) who will fight for him. Even here in the declining republic of the U.S. there are people who will hold government’s feet to the fire to see that Julian is heard and that any trial would be watched like a hawk by people still interested in justice. It is something more than the pathetic situation that lets him languish and ignored in heartless U.K.
I suspect Mr. Assange fears not extradition to the U.S. but instead detention by British authorities. Extradition to the U.S. has no lawful basis. He has neither been charged with any crime nor commited any act that could be considered criminal under US federal or state laws. Specifically, publication of leaked state secrets by Wikileaks (or The New York Times) is not a crime. Even if a US authority were to charge him with another crime (which none have alleged), the UK-US Treaty on Extradition explicitly disallows extradition for politically-motivated prosecution, which it obviously would be. On the other hand, if he were to step outside the Equadorian Embassy, British authorities could lawfully arrest and hold him, at least temporarily, on a charge of violating the conditions of his house arrest in 2012. While awaiting a magistrate’s hearing on that charge, Mr. Assange would be held in seclusion and subjected to interrogation by whoever the London Metropolitan Police might allow. During that isolation, Mr. Assange’s would have a right to remain silent. I expect British authorities would honor his right to silence, but if I were in Mr. Assange’s shoes, I, too, would fear they won’t.
There are many fine points made by people here. It is such a contrast to read Ms. Maurizi’s work, backed up w/documents she worked so hard to obtain and our “press”.
Western values are murderous. They have been so for a very long time. It is bizarre to hear our “leaders” speak about human rights, freedom, etc when we don’t have these things in the US and we do not promote them anywhere else.
I’ve also wondered why the IC/courtiers don’t understand that they really do need to stand up for Assange and the rule of law. They all seem to think they are that one unexpendable person to their masters. No One is not expendable to their master, no one. That’s what having a master means. Masters decide when and how you are useful to them. There is a lot of denial about this reality in the servant class of the elites.
Liking Assange or hating him is truly irrelevant to justice. Human rights accrue to us whether we get FB likes or not! We can only stand up for his human rights in any way open to us. There is no certainty of success. However, if we do nothing, his outcome is assured.
Very true. The servants of oligarchy may dream that they are an “unexpendable person to their masters” but are tribalist opportunists with no moral values at all, from the IC to the judiciary. They rely upon their gang, their social contract is “Do unto others before they can do unto you,” and they avoid the truth because it is dangerous and does not pay. They equate money=virtue=power, claiming that if they don’t steal what they can someone else will. Our unregulated market economy has destroyed the capacity of the people for democracy.
The Australian Gov’t is responsible for not releasing him!
It’s not clear why we must feign such naiveté regarding “the West.”
When a complete hero, like J. Assange, tells embarrassing, yet incontrovertible (nor denied) truths about the West (which truths said West expends MUCH effort to KEEP secret) and, in addition, reaches a large audience in so telling, then “the West” will in fact “fail” you – directly into your grave.
Hey, you guys remember the time WikiLeaks released the information on the CIA’s program called Marble Framework?
You know, the one the CIA uses to obfuscate data. So they can make “hacks” look like Russia or China or anyone – including you and me – did it!
I remember…
WikiLeaks Reveals ‘Marble’ Source Code the CIA Used to Frame Russia and China
Surely it doesn’t have anything to do with why Hillary Clinton wonders out loud can “do a drone strike” on Julian Assange.
Nah. Couldn’t be!
Hillary Clinton on Assange “Can’t we just drone this guy”
Thank you for the clarity regarding “who” is responsible for JAs persecution. The present US administration is actually under the same gun, witness the ongoing investigation of “collusion with Russia”, while the only real evidence has shown UK agent, CIA and FBI all colluding with HRC to smear candidate Trump pre election and now, to hinder a democratically. Constitutionally elected President (who is not a part of their decades old circle of associates). Trump is an awful president, but his being tarred with the same brush re: Assange persecution as Bush, Clinton and their CIA and FBI directors (and most members of Congress) is patently absurd.
That Trump is willing to release documents, and allow the release of documents even challenge the established D.C. structure to release documents is a sign of hope. Let’s be frank about WikiLeaks, there is very little in them that could harm the current President of the US, but much that could harm previous ones, and their cabinets.
Thank you for the clarity regarding “who” is responsible for JAs persecution. The present US administration is actually under the same gun, witness the ongoing investigation of “collusion with Russia”, while the only real evidence has shown UK agent, CIA and FBI all colluding with HRC to smear candidate Trump pre election and now, to hinder a democratically. Constitutionally elected President (who is not a part of their decades old circle of associates). Trump is an awful president, but his being tarred with the same brush re: Assange persecution as Bush, Clinton and their CIA and FBI directors (and most members of Congress) is patently absurd.
That Trump is willing to release documents, and allow the release of documents even challenge the established D.C. structure to release documents is a sign of hope. Let’s be frank about WikiLeaks, there is very little in them that could harm the current President of the US, but much that could harm previous ones, and their cabinets.
One of my favorite modern dramas has always been Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People.”
The reason I like it so much is that it captures an enduring, but not always appreciated, truth about human society.
Julian Assange is today a real-life version of the play’s main character, Dr. Stockman.
Truth here is not even an issue, except for unimportant people like me.
Power and challenging that power over an issue of ethics or just plain truth has always been a losing proposition. Always.
And the greater is that power – as the imperial United States now striving to enforce its arbitrary will worldwide – the more hopeless is the situation of the challenger.
I hope we all keep supporting Assange, but I do fear it will all be to no effect.
After all, this is an America which daily shakes hands with truly evil men because they have something tangible to offer. It has no regard for someone with nothing to offer but some truth, embarrassing truth at that.
Savages like the Saudi Crown Prince or the Prime Minister of Israel are fawned over while their many victims are paid absolutely no attention.
How very succint and true. I particularly appreciate the Ibsen “connection”. The silence of the easily misled majority is deafening.
Sonja Leck, you are right!
People like you and me , will never give up until justice is done.
“The West” is fast becoming a failed project and appealing to the current crop of cretins, hucksters and sociopaths who stalk the corridors of power is a fool’s errand. There is no indication whatsoever that these people and their MSM stenographers “get” how badly they and the corrupt system they want to keep going at all costs is. The Breitbart/Trumpian right is no different. In fact, they and the DNC liberals are two sides of one coin. They are locked in a symbiotic struggle and rely on slinging crap at each other in public to keep their respective bases ignorant and focused on sex scandals, dastardly Russkies, personality conflicts…everything but the ball.
There will be no grand awakening where they learn the error of their ways. The plight of Julian Assange is not even a blip on their rader. Appealing to the decent side they haven’t got is a masochistic and impotent gesture. This is only the beginning. Outright censorship has already begun on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Torture, assassination and collective punishment are normalized and the top 0.10% income “earners” command an ever increasing share of wealth, while low and middle income earners get the barrel and tobasco sauce treatment. The war sabre rattling against Iran and Russia continues unabated. All this, yet we still expect things to go back as they were during the heady days of middle class prosperity. Not going to happen.
Assange is a living (for now) warning that says “if you reveal our lies, coverups and dirty secrets to the public, this is how you will be end up” That no person with real political influence will speak up and support him shows how far we have sunk. Even Snowden and Greenwald have largely kept quiet. They had already damaged their credibility by slamming Wikileaks as “irresponsible” and for “going to far.” They still carry water for this rotten to the core system. With friends like that, who needs enemies?
I fear Assange will die in that embassy. Even diplomatic immunity means nothing anymore when “the west” wants to jail or kill you. Remember when they said al Qaeda wants to destroy our civil liberties and freedom and that’s why we have to bounce around the globe killing people and overthrowing their governments? No, al Qaeda did not do that. We did. Our leaders did. OBL’s dream of a terminally fragmented and broken west turning on itself is coming true.
It’s never our fault, of course. First the commies were PE#1, then AQ and ISIS (briefly) and now it’s Russia and Iran. They hate us for our freedom. That’s why we have to torture and kill people in far away lands, commit the worst kinds of war crimes and actively collude with despotic and racist regimes. Oh yeah, we also have to spy on every person on earth, slowly dismantle your hard won freedoms and civil liberties and confine journalists who dare speak the truth to indefinite solitary detention. In the name of freedom and Jeffersonian democracy of course. (My irony meter exploded a long time ago.)
I really hope Julian Assange gets the justice he deserves.
All very good points, Daniel. As we endure the latest mass-killing tragedy in the U.S., and the blogs are full of discussions as to why these seem to occur regularly in America but almost nowhere else, the point that this nation is virtually bathed in blood 24/7 in the media is rarely made. In the news, “I it bleeds it leads” is the rule, and you cannot view TV news without first wading through the local mayhem of the day. T.V. programming is unspeakably vicious and violent, and t’was not always thus (when I was a kid, the worst Roy Rogers would do is shoot the gun out of the baddie’s hand.) Even the so called Law and Order programs depend on the most graphically cruel situations (and in the process routinely look the other way at police viciousness and out-and-out crime in dealing with the disgusting villains.)
I have often wondered if the airways of England, France, Germany, Italy and Israel, for example (or Russia and China, for that matter) are as inhuman. Of course a lot of it is intellectual laziness: it is a lot easier to torture and destroy than to create, but there is more to it than that- is there an intentional program to demoralize and desensitize us all? In April 2016, Christopher Bergland, in Psychology Today wrote in an article Violent Video Games Can Trigger Emotional Desensitization
“Repeated play of violent video games desensitizes gamers to feelings of guilt.” This might help prepare the so-called-humans manning armed drones, though for those called on for repeated deployment in one undeclared war after another (Congress having cravenly surrounded their authority to the President who is free to behave as a dictator in the matter) and to have to personally deal death face-to-face like David Long, the desensitization may be impossible and even create mental breakdown
The forces of evil are overpowering goodness and justice in the world. It’s like a slow-motion nightmare we can do nothing to change, even those of us who can see clearly what’s happening. The human race is in for some serious consequences for the amoral actions of a few greedy, sociopathic criminals. Maybe that’s what it will take to wake the masses.
The UK is still acting like the beasts they were in empire days; yet they are merely the pathetic lapdogs of US hegemony. Which is fortunately waning but going down like a thrashing wounded animal.
No. It’s the other way. The British running murder inc, opium wars in Central America, etc. only a maroon who knows nothing of history would believe that crap. The British empire runs the genocidal world economic system. The American System is Hamilton, Lincoln, FDR. Allies of Britain and blue blooded Tories have taken over the US. Patriots have been murdered, defamed, and prevented employment by these scum. It is time to bury the British Empire once and for all. The British and their allies have created a Nazi style police state. They are conducting an ongoing coup or colored revolution in my country like they and their puppet Obama and others conducted in the Ukraine. The British controll the intelligence agencies in Britain, Australia, Canada, and the US. This is treason to embed a historical enemy into a nations intelligence apparatus. The British instigated the War in Iraq. Exerting massive pressure oh then President Bush to join hands with Tony Blair in this illegal war of aggression. Pay attention. Who is the first to attack a country and pressure others to do the same. If anyone follows the international press they can see this. The British are always the first to promote genocidal policies. They are the ones pushing for war with Russia. A war that may exterminate the human race. If the world would unite in attacking and destroying the British Empire they would find a very appreciative ally in the besieged American Patriots. We believe that Julian Assange is a hero. Also Snowden is a hero. As George Washington said any government based on secrecy is a government moving toward outright tyranny. It’s time to burry monetarism, geopolitics, and the Assassin supporting (4 of the assassins that killed Sadat still live in London under protection by her majesty) British Empire once and for all.
God Bless America, God Damned the Queen!!!
“When the U.S. gets Julian”, they say, as if it is a foregone conclusion that the U.S. will get him and no journalist, no media, no NGO, no press association will do anything to prevent it.” And also no journalist, media or NGO will be safe from US persecution and their fascistic Patriot Act.
I have noticed a strange trend among many left intellectuals regarding him- as the right either hardly comments or wants him reigned in for betraying our country. But with the left, there seems to be this notion that before the 2016 election, Assange had been ‘passive’ or ‘objective’ in his role as mouthpiece/warrior for whistleblowers, then when he released the DNC emails, he had somehow broken this pact, and become subjective or ‘political.’ This seems to me a gross misunderstanding of what he or anyone in his situation faces- anytime anyone has or will release information of the sort, there will be questions of how releasing the info then will affect society, releasing it later, or choosing not to ect. There is no way to be, and Assange has never been, ‘passive,’ and this is a good thing- it is why folks have cheered him on, because the info he has released has clearly had positive, enlightening effects, among others. But it seems the intellectual core of the left, who were once his cheerleaders, need to own up to the fact that they felt slighted because the emails released were about Hillary Clinton, the DNC, global affairs- and almost immediately most on the left kicked in very strong, classic psychological self defense mechanisms- denial, in the significance and urgency of their info/ release, and then almost immediate projection, taking out their anger of Trumps election to office on Assange, who up until that time they’d regarded as a hero on the fringe. The neurotic behavior of much of the left, whom I have always -and still do, albeit differently- associated with has grown to massive proportions in the past few years, and in Assange’s case, it’s refusal to face it’s own shadow may very well cause an important man’s death,. It has long been the lefts role to support those valuable on the fringe- the artists, the hermits, the heretics- and they are failing.
-I have noticed a strange trend among many centrist Democratic Party intellectuals regarding him-
There, I fixed it for you.
(I always have to add that ‘centrist’ is an insult term in my vocabulary, since some seem to think it is a good thing. It’s not.)
I feel very sad the julian is locked up. Our Australian gove should bring him home
Our Australian “Govenments” past & present are dirty low down lap dogs of the USA War machine. They’re $hits!
Our cowardly A$$ licking so called Journalists are a weak pathetic low bunch of absolute wankers.
Now ask me what I really think about our “Australian” ability to look after our Citizens ? Zero care !
… Se poi una voce di onesto uomo si leva a rimproverare queste prepotenze, questi abusi, che la morale sociale e la civiltà sanamente intesa dovrebbero impedire, gli si ride in faccia …
… If then the voice of an honest man rises to reproach these overbearing things, these abuses, that social morals and civilization sanely understood should prevent, they laugh in his face …
Scritti politici
Antonio Gramsci
Things don’t change much in 100 years.
I think the title of this otherwise worthy article is unfortunate. The British government hasn’t just failed Assange, they are complicit in his terrible situation and guilty of arbitrary detention, torture and in breach of united nations resolutions. His minor infraction of UK law in jumping bail could so easily have been dealt with in a magistrates court in absentia and resulted in a large fine and or suspended prison sentence. I’m afraid Assange is being used as an example to others not to call out government criminals or become a whistle blower because if you do, this is what will happen to you. In a way he’s lucky, he could have had the “bone saw” treatment of which the British government is quite capable of doing.
I agree.This treatment is cruel and not befitting a civilized Nation.
What are these stories about Mr Asange lacking basic hygiene, etc… It seems that these stories came out after a political change in Ecuador and are an attempt to damage his character. The prison-like sejour in the ambassy and his incapacity to communicate with the outside world, is making him irrelevant in the press. The situation is reaching a crjtical point and no article is written in counterpunch or le monde-diplomatique for example, unlike consortiumnews or wsws!
No, these nasty statements were part of the “biography” by the ungrateful “Guardian” writers after the paper had hugely benefited from Wikileaks revelations. David Leigh and Luke Harding wrote a really nasty offensive book about Assange. If you have read Luke Harding’s recent articles in the Guradian(sic) about the “Skripal poisoners” full of fanciful evidence-free links to the GRU or seen him interviewed on the Real News Network you will notice what aslimy lying toad he is, and the level to which the Guradian has sunk.
The lesson is that if you kick America in the shin, you will be made to pay for it for a very long time.
This is true whether you are talking about individuals or nations, as we see in the case of Russia.
I think what bothers me most in the Assange Affair is the British government which shows not one breath of independence any more from America.
Theresa May resembles a smiling household servant rather than a leader of any kind, in this matter as in others such as the Russia nonsense.
Thank you. This is a very nice piece. I would posit that the reason for RTs ecstasy is largely watching the so-called free press of the West descend into the same abyss that the Russian media lived in during Soviet times while the Russian press is climbing out of that abyss.
I think you are right.
Our press has become pathetic.
Its always been pathetic.
Except, a bit like the “Russia/Brexit delight”, there is no evidence that Putin is the kind of schadenfreude freak that so many Westerners assume because that is what they are like. Any glance at Russian news on RT or vesti shows words and actions based on cooperation and development, not pandering to US/UK paranoia.
The lack of violence in the Soviet collapse is the brightest hope for the West. Perhaps the model applies beyond the collapse of NATO, to the collapse of the US into regional groups without civil war. That would disrupt oligarchy; but the map isn’t very promising.
In both its posture toward, and its treatment of Assange, the West demonstrates its complete lack of morality and lack of any ethical integrity, not to mention its blatant hypocrisy regarding freedom of the press. One can only imagine the pressure/threats and/or bribes offered Ecuador to insure they quietly turn the screws yet further, and how perfect, since it isn’t the U.K. or U.S. officially doing the current dirty work in this sordid game, though it is clear to any who would look who actually pulls these strings.
Where are the vaunted Western human rights NGO’s, or the U.N. for that matter? Too busy perhaps helping Western empire vilify Russia to notice – all while the U.K. & U.S. insure Assange is consigned to what amounts to life in some Kafkaesque sensory deprivation gulag in the heart of oh so “civilized” London. As always the West, its NGO’s and its MSM are predictably obsessed with the “human rights situation” of dissidents in say North Korea or Iran, but somehow manage to be completely oblivious to, and markedly uninterested in our own ongoing barbaric behavior in our treatment of Julian Assange.
The West’s concern for human rights has always been extremely selective and hypocritical.
Antiwar7 – quite true, yet that simple reality is unmentionable in polite company. Should one be so impolite as to challenge even the completely & blatantly fabricated State narratives justifying war, i.e. “Kuwaiti incubator babies,” “weapons of mass destruction,” “Gaddafi’s viagra fueled rape camps,” “Assad is gassing his own citizens,” etc. etc. – one is immediately tagged as an “apologist” for such crimes, fantasies though they may be.
One sees the operation of such demonization of questioning and dissent even in many so called “progressive” & “alternative media” outlets, a number of which got on board with repeating the government narratives on both Libya and Syria (losing all credibility in the process I might add). We’ve reached a point in the “free” Western world where simply asking questions about our daily dose of war propaganda is deemed a thought crime and thus an act of subversion.
Yes, the western mass media are no more than tools of oligarchy, run by ignorance engineers for money. The people no longer see or wish to see beyond the advertising; their social environment is propaganda. There is no public debate, only comparisons of the entertainment value and convenience of various propaganda narratives.
The federal government is corrupt in all branches, and cannot be repaired, completely controlled by oligarchy. Until the majority are very angry, there will be only consolidation of tyranny. After the bloodiest revolution in history, the ignorant majority will in anger set up something little better, based upon presumptions and careless hope. And so we enter another cycle of centuries, having learned nothing.
IF… there is a bloody revolution, it won’t be the ignorant majority who sets up the new regime. It will be the same clever people (who are responsible for the current tyranny) who will be there to pick up the pieces.
So where the Bl**dy Hell are you, was a popular Australian tourism jingo a few years back to promote Australia as a go to destination? The question should be directed towards the shameful, disgraceful Australian Govt & it’s conduct towards Julian Assange, a citizen born & raised in Australia! That open ended tourism invitation needs to be flipped on it’s head & redirected to the Australian Govt? Where the bl**dy Hell are you with regards to helping Assange out of this ridiculous, illegal & forced imprisonment & slow motion assasination? The silence has been deafening from the Australian Govt in providing support & assistance to Assange & it’s a total disgrace? Australia’s gutless Leaders & lapdog, subservient support of the Global bully called the USA, should be a source of shame for the Australian Govt over the inhuman treatment that Assange has been subjected too! But what do you expect from a Nation, settled by Criminals & Convicts & responsible for the genocide & theft of Aboriginal Lands of the first, native Australians, the Aboriginal people! Get your act together Australia & save, one of your own!
As an Australian I fully agree with you.
I’ll start with this, what a cute cat. I hope Julian and his cat someday are free to roam wherever and whenever it is in their fancy to enjoy whatever it is they should wish to enjoy. This god given right of freedom they both deserve, and then some.
Now I’ll say this that the most despicable developments of the Assange beat down comes from his own peers. How the MSM can come off as a source of truth is beyond me when you can see how they ignore this ever evolving set of circumstances involving Julian Assange. I mean wasn’t Julian doing what reporters are suppose to do, and report the news? How can his fellow journalist deny him much needed news coverage? Maybe because these MSM so called journalist aren’t journalist at all, but instead they are hacks for the ever powerful lobbies who control them. I guess Julian either didn’t get that memo from the MIC, or did he do the worst and he ignored it? Either way Julian Assange’s story needs to be heard. So thank you so very much Consortium & Stefania Maurizi for breathing more air into this dying story.
there has to be a somewhere point where truth ends and lies take hold. I do have an issue where real journalists describe what is happening and us posters do not know. If anyone who posted articles that they believe is the truth, fine post it. I am not a troll, I believe in the free press, But I will say this, On CN there are people who post tinfoil hat ideas, and
those should not be taken lightly or dismissed. Is every idea welcomed or not?
That Assange the truth teller is being persecuted by the US government lying Mafia is so obvious as to not require any further explanations or legalisms. The US is not about the rule of law, justice, or truth in any way whatever.
relax, no one is going to accuse/capture ex Assange. he is too valuable for your governments. Personally, I don’t like the guy. I do believe Assange is in it for himself, he is a self serving son of an asshole, but Assange oh well I hope the guy rots in hell. He is not what all you projected him to be. And by the way, no disrespect to his mum, the guy is simply a jerk .
Your “beliefs” are of no interest to others without evidence and argument, of which you apparently have neither.
jess garcia’s “beliefs” are of no interest, whether he has evidence and argument, or not. He is the real a*ss hole.
How can he write something so stupid and not be ashamed?
A person’s motives or character, whether journalist or not, have no bearing on their rights. A selfish asshole is no less entitled to their rights to freedom of speech or freedom of the press than a saintly idealist, for otherwise no rights at all exist, for anyone. That is what we mean by the concept of rights as opposed to privileges. Furthermore, it is bizarre of so called “left” (or centrist, if you prefer) people to abandon their defense of Assange, on the basis that the DNC revelations (regardless of their source) may have helped Trump’s electoral success. The truth of the revelations has not been denied, nor can it be argued that they were not of genuine public interest and relevance. Surely, rather than undermining U.S. democracy, they advanced its cause, which is bettered the more informed the electorate is. Would they really argue that the editor of a Trump supporting publication is not entitled to freedom of the press (which would seem to be the logical conclusion of their position)?
Thanks so much for your very thorough recount of what has happened to Julian Assange in the past 10 years.
His treatment by the UK, Swedish, USA, Australian & Ecuadorian governments is truly apalling, outrageous, and a blatant violation of his Civil and Human Rights!
It is heart-breaking and indeed alarming to witness such abuse, together with the silence, indifference and neglect by humanity!
With the steady increase of repressive governments worldwide, Humanity needs to be made aware that allowing Julian Assange’s confinement, gagging, persecution and extradition by UK to the USA, and his prosecution in the USA, sets a dangerous precedent: to fill with FEAR of reprisals and shut down any protests or actions to withhold Democracy, Human Rights and Freedom of Speech worldwide – both by citizens and journalists !!!
Your excellent article sheds a clear light, which hopefully may help awaken the public to Assange’s plight and to this imminent danger for all.
I take my hat off to you for your courage, journalistic high standard, and kindness of heart.
Bless you ???
#Unity4J
#HumanRightsAbuses
#FreeAssange
Dr. Lilliana Corredor
Founder, Scientists4Mekong
South Stradbroke Island
Queensland, Australia
Excellent article Stefania, and one that puts to shame many that appear in mainstream media. It’s no mystery why those who seek the truth, turn to journalists like yourself, Julian, Glenn Greenwald, as well as alternative outlets such as Wikileaks, Consortium News and independent voices on YouTube.
Historian Mark Curtis has a recent very good article on why journalists should support Assange but don’t.
I saw it on informationclearinghouse-sorry unsure of link
rosemerry,
Thanks rosemerry, I will look for it.
Desperately sad. They are killing a hero and the people who would save him are powerless.
Thank you for your first hand account, Stefania Maurizi. We do not get much in the way of truth from our American media about Assange. It’s really quite embarrassing how American so-called “journalists” have turned on one of their own here.