Friday 29th of March 2024

saving assange from the hypocrites' justice...

assange

The judge who was previously in charge of the Julian Assange extradition case was in the headlines again over another extradition case, this time refusing to extradite a UK couple because they faced a life sentence for murder, with no prospect of release.


Senior District Judge Emma Arbuthnot ruled that a London couple could not be extradited to India for trial over a double murder because, if convicted, they faced life imprisonment with no prospect of release – she said “an irreducible sentence” and a lack of a review would be “inhuman and degrading”, under the UK Human Rights Act, which incorporates the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law.


Instead, the couple will now be allowed to go free and receive no trial at all, despite accepted prima facie evidence implicating them in a brutal double murder.


By contrast, this same judge, Emma Arbuthnot, foresaw no such problems extraditing Julian Assange to the USA, to face a 175 year prison-sentence. Realistically, Assange would have no prospect of release, in any circumstances.


In USA, sentences of life without parole are frequently imposed, often for quite minor offences, under “three strikes” laws – these prisoners are frequently kept in until they die, with no compassionate release. If these minor offenders have no chance of parole, what chance has Assange? Parole after 1/3 of his sentence – i.e. after 58 years?


Or is the mere existence of a nominal review process, regardless of whether this has any real meaning, enough to satisfy the Human Rights Act? Is this what human rights are about in Britain – a mere box-tick, rather than real protection?


Is the USA a nation that applies the standards of treatment for prisoners required by Human Rights Act and the ECHR? What about the other abuses applied to political prisoners, such as the conditions under which Bradley/Chelsea Manning was held, in solitary confinement, wakened every 20 minutes during the night, as alleged “suicide protection”?


What about other prisoners held for decades in solitary confinement, such as Albert Woodfox in solitary for 40 years? What about the widespread, often systemic, abuse of ordinary prisoners, which has led to protests, huge prisoner–strikes and uprisings?


This is before even considering whether any nation that wants to prosecute a journalist for the political crime of telling the truth has any meaningful system of justice at all, or whether its courts merely hold show-trials.


What does the Human Rights Act require, in terms of treatment of prisoners, in the eyes of Judge Emma Arbuthnot and of British justice in general?

 

Read more:

 

https://off-guardian.org/2020/02/12/assange-extradition-blatant-judicial...

tortured and deprived of his human rights...

Julian Assange has been tortured, according to experts, and has yet to receive the proper medical attention he requires despite his fast approaching extradition hearings. The WikiLeaks publisher faces up to 175 years in prison in the US and there is concern that his condition will prevent him from properly participating in his defence.

The pre-eminent medical journal The Lancet has published a letter from 117 physicians and psychologists from around the world demanding an “end to the psychological torture” of Julian Assange.

“Since doctors first began assessing Mr. Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in 2015, expert medical opinion and doctors’ urgent recommendations have been consistently ignored,” the letter, organised by a group of medical professionals known as Doctors for Assange and published on 17 February, says.

In May 2019 UN torture expert Nils Melzer, along with two other medical experts who specialise in assessing torture victims, concluded that the WikiLeaks founder exhibited symptoms of "psychological torture".

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/uk/202002171078337046-117-physicians-from-18-cou...

the british stink...

Despite a tiny general media response, voices have been raised and actions have been organised to protest the extradition of the founder of WikiLeaks, now locked up ILLEGALLY in the Belmarsh high security prison, to America .

 

With the last hearings on the potential extradition of Julian Assange to the United States approaching, and faces up to 175 years of imprisonment, some organisations of the journalistic world wished to sensitise the general public on the present urgency of the situation that affects the founder of WikiLeaks. Defending Julian Assange is crucial for the future of journalists investigating state secrets. On February 14, NGO "Reporters Without Borders", launched a petition to oppose the extradition to American soil of Australian national currently imprisoned in the British high security prison at Belmarsh.

 

"The Trump administration's use of the" Spy Act "could result in the sentencing of Julian Assange to 175 years in prison. This procedure marks a dangerous precedent for all journalists who have published classified information of general interest, said the online petition, which has so far collected just over 10,000 signatures. In a short video published on social networks, Christophe Deloire, secretary general of the NGO, summarises the issue of the Assange case.

 

“The fate of Julian Assange concerns us all. On the basis of the "Spy Act", [he] is prosecuted for his contribution to journalism, for having allowed the disclosure by the media of essential information on the American wars in the Middle East. Defending Julian Assange is crucial for the future of journalists who investigate state secrets" he said.

 

Find out more about RT France: https://francais.rt.com/international/71320-petition-rsf-communique-snj-...

free assange today...

Boris Johnson should block attempts to extradite Julian Assange to the US, say two Australian MPs who have flown to the UK to visit the WikiLeaks founder.

Andrew Wilkie, an independent federal MP, said the extradition of Assange, who has been charged by the US with conspiring to hack into a secret Pentagon computer network, would set a dangerous precedent.

This will establish a precedent that if you are a journalist who does anything that offends any government in the world then you face the very real prospect of being extradited to that country,” he said. “This is a political case and what is at stake is not just the life of Julian Assange. It is about the future of journalism.

Wilkie was joined in London by the co-chair of the Bring Julian Assange Home parliamentary group, the Liberal National MP George Christensen, who said he and Wilkie had come to speak directly with the WikiLeaks founder. He said he was joining forces with those on the left even though he was a conservative.

“I am a big fan of Trump, I am a big fan of Bojo [Boris Johnson] but I’ll tell you what I value more: free speech,” he said. “There are a lot of Australians on the right and left who think that Julian Assange is a rat bag, that I am a rat bag, but that he should be brought home.”

Christensen said Britain’s prime minister had spoken about how he believed that the extradition treaty was somewhat imbalanced, to the cost of the UK.

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I hope that Boris Johnson withdraws this case that is before the courts,” he said. “There is a problem here … What if it was a British journalist or an outspoken British citizen who went on holiday to another country that has an extradition treaty with China, and China wanted to extradite that British citizen?


The MPs’ appearance in London ahead of the start of an extradition hearing next week came as a letter by a group of doctors representing 117 physicians and psychologists from 18 nations called for an end to what they described as “the psychological torture and medical neglect of Julian Assange”.

The letter, which was published in the medical journal the Lancet and has also been sent to the Australian foreign affairs minister, Marise Payne, expresses concern over Assange’s fitness to take part in the legal proceedings.

The letter, which echoes the concerns raised by the UN special rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer, on Assange’s health, adds: “Should Assange die in a UK prison, as the UN special rapporteur on torture has warned, he will have effectively been tortured to death.

“Much of that torture will have taken place in a prison medical ward, on doctors’ watch. The medical profession cannot afford to stand silently by, on the wrong side of torture and the wrong side of history, while such a travesty unfolds.

Assange’s father said he feared that sending his son to the US would be akin to a “death sentence”.

John Shipton told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme on Tuesday: “The ceaseless anxiety that Julian’s been under for now 10 years, it has had a profoundly deleterious effect.

“I can’t speculate onto his state of mind, but I imagine that he will be really worried because being sent to the United States is a death sentence.”

 

 

Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/feb/18/julian-assange-australian-...

 

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Free Assange today.

torture from the crooked UK judges...

Australian MPs Andrew Wilkie and George Christensen have raised concerns over Julian Assange's mental wellbeing after meeting with him in a British jail.

Key points:
  • Australian MPs said Assange's mental state reflected his long period of isolation 
  • WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson said Assange was taken from isolation thanks to pressure from fellow inmates
  • The Wikileaks founder's US extradition hearing starts next week

 

Mr Wilkie and Mr Christensen, who are both part of the Bring Assange Home parliamentary group, spent over an hour with the WikiLeaks founder at London's Belmarsh prison, where he is being held ahead of an US extradition hearing next week.

Assange has been held there since he was dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London last April and arrested for skipping bail.

Prior to that he had spent seven years inside the embassy after seeking asylum in 2012, and Mr Christensen said his lack of exposure to the outside world showed.

"It was kind of state you'd expect from a man who has been absolutely and utterly isolated and who doesn't know what has been going on," he said.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-18/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-...

 

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The UK judges on the Assange case could not sleep straight at night, could they?

 

FREE ASSANGE TODAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the law says...

TO OBSERVE CHELSEA Manning’s actions over the last months is to know that she will not be coerced. She could have avoided her current incarceration at Alexandria Detention Center in Virginia, where she has been held for nearly a year. She could have freed herself at any point. She could have avoided accruing fines of $230,000 and counting. She could still avoid further days in jail and further crippling debts to the government. All she would have to do — all she ever had to do — is testify in front of the federal grand jury currently investigating WikiLeaks.

 

What has long been clear — no amount of jail time will coerce Manning into speaking — is now, surely, undeniable. The sole purpose of Manning’s detention has been to coerce her to testify, and it has failed.

On Wednesday, Manning’s legal team filed what’s known as a Grumbles motion in court, asserting that Manning has proven herself incoercible and so must, according to legal statute, be released from her incarceration.

It is a grim peculiarity of American law that a person who refuses to cooperate with a grand jury subpoena may be held in contempt of court and fined or imprisoned with the express purpose of coercing testimony, but when the coercive condition is absent, such incarceration becomes illegal. Wednesday’s motion directs Judge Anthony Trenga, who is presiding over the grand jury and Manning’s imprisonment, to accordingly recognize the illegality in this case.

“The key issue before Judge Trenga is whether continued incarceration could persuade Chelsea to testify,” said Manning’s attorney, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, on filing the Grumbles motion. “Judges have complained of the ‘perversity’ of this law: that a witness may win their freedom by persisting in their contempt of court. However, should Judge Trenga agree that Chelsea will never agree to testify, he will be compelled by the law to order her release.

 

 

Read more:

https://theintercept.com/2020/02/19/chelsea-manning-free-prison-grumbles...

 

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FREE ASSANGE and MANNING TODAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

operation hotel...

Barrister Geoffrey Robertson shuffles into the entrance to Ecuador's embassy in London, a camera recording the sound of his shoes echoing on the hard tiles.

Key points:
  • A security company embedded in the Ecuadorian embassy during Julian Assange's residence is under investigation
  • Recordings and other surveillance were allegedly passed on to 'American intelligence', according to statements from former workers
  • Australian lawyers were among those surveilled in 'Operation Hotel'

 

It's just after 7:00pm on January 12, 2018.

The camera rolls as Robertson stops at the front door, unbuttons his overcoat and removes his cap.

Once inside the embassy, other cameras follow him as he's ushered into a meeting room, where the storied Queen's Counsel is offered a cup of tea.

After a few minutes, he is greeted by the embassy's most famous resident, Julian Assange.

The camera continues to roll, recording every word of the confidential legal conversation which follows.

While this may be typical surveillance at a secure diplomatic property, what Robertson did not know was he and a handful of other lawyers, were allegedly being targeted in a remarkable and deeply illegal surveillance operation possibly run at the request of the US Government.

 

Read more: 

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-23/surveillance-of-julian-assange-ca...

 

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the most important man in the world today...

A slew of public celebrity support has given Julian Assange’s father hope the WikiLeaks founder will avoid extradition to the US.

About 500 people rallied in support of Assange at a gathering in London on Saturday, pre-empting the start of the extradition hearing on Monday that will determine his fate.

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde and Brian Eno joined Greek politician and writer Yanis Varoufakis, British Iraqi rapper Lowkey and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood at the protest at Parliament Square.

John Shipton, Assange’s father, hopes the display of support will spur the UK government into intervening in the case.

“What I perceive is an upwelling amongst the people of support – a historical moment of change that will ensure the government of the United Kingdom can act firmly in their own interests,” Mr Shipton told AAP.

“So that the … plague of malice that emanates from the Crown Prosecution Service, and brings into disrepute the administration of law in the United Kingdom, can be stopped and Julian’s freedom can come.”

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/2020/02/23/assange-protest-london-...

 

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our collective conscience...

by 

 

Julian Assange is our collective conscience, our cause of speaking truth to power. Since the establishment of WikiLeaks in 2006 Julian Assange has performed an essential role in exposing the lies and dark crimes of the rich and powerful that normally operate above the law and beyond reproach.

For performing that role he has been the victim of a vile and vituperative campaign of lies, distortions and slanders. The allegations of rape and sexual assault which were so enthusiastically highlighted and spread across the world by the billionaire controlled mainstream media were deliberately designed to undermine Assange’s credibility and reputation as a precursor for the US and UK authorities to justify aggressive pursuit of the man as a loathsome criminal who deserved to be taken down. Many people were deceived by the lies.

Assange Was Targeted For Character Assassination by the Powerful

The world was led to believe that Assange should face extradition to Sweden to face the serious charges of rape which were levelled against him. Any human being recognises that crime as amongst the most odious and atrocious. Assange pleaded his innocence of any such deplorable action but his words were dismissed and drowned out by the clamour from within the powerful mainstream media beast. Assange explained it was a cruel ruse to have him extradited to Sweden on behalf of the US in order for them to arrest him on Swedish soil and transport him to America to face an impossibly rigged trial for charges of espionage carrying a sentence of 175 years in prison. Assange had embarrassed America through exposing their war crimes and they wanted to shut him up and exact revenge.


In 2010 Assange leaked thousands of US Army classified documents which exposed unlawful killings in Iraq, coordinated torture in Guantanamo Bay detention centre and multiple war crimes against humanity which rendered US demands on other nations to observe international laws as nothing less than pathetic hypocrisy. The world’s self-appointed policeman was guilty of the crimes it alleged against others. It was politically guilty of both chasing with the hounds while also running with the foxes.

Assange Leaks Exposed Lies about US in Iraq and Afghanistan

The lies told to their own people and the rest of the world to justify bloody and brutal bombings and/or invasions and fermenting of illegal coups in places like Vietnam, Cambodia, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Grenada, Libya and many others were eventually exposed years later on the back of often rare and courageous investigative journalism but here in irrefutable documentary and video form was evidence of US criminality and monstrous lies in relation to the invasion of Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Julian Assange performed a service to the world and did what real journalists should do. He exposed the deceit, lies and crimes of the powerful. For that he was targeted for severe character assassination and imprisonment. The rape charge was a lie introduced to further that targeting campaign.

Reject the hired liars and repugnant hyenas that pollute the mainstream press and broadcasting outlets with their puerile fabrications and read reputable investigative journalists like John Pilger:

“That Assange has been right all along, and getting him to Sweden was a fraud to cover an American plan to “render” him, is finally becoming clear to many who swallowed the incessant scuttlebutt of character assassination. “I speak fluent Swedish and was able to read all the original documents,” Nils Melzer, the United Nations Rapporteur on Torture, said recently, “I could hardly believe my eyes. According to the testimony of the woman in question, a rape had never taken place at all. And not only that: the woman’s testimony was later changed by the Stockholm Police without her involvement in order to somehow make it sound like a possible rape. I have all the documents in my possession, the emails, the text messages”. 

Rape Allegations against Assange Were Fabricated

Ask yourself why that evidence which completely debunks the rape charges against Julian Assange has never been highlighted and reported in the mainstream media? The United Nations Rapporteur who has accused the UK Government of torture for the way Assange has been held in solitary confinement in the high security Belmarsh prison has the evidence which illustrates how cruelly Assange has been fitted up but it is not considered newsworthy.

How many of you were aware that Democratic Presidential nominee in 2016, Hilary Clinton, was made fully aware of the role Saudi Arabia and Qatar were playing in funding the murderous and barbaric Jihadists ISIS BEFORE she accepted millions in donations from those same partners in terror to her Clinton Foundation?

Hilary Clinton Exposed by Assange as a Friend of Terrorist Funding Regime

That she, while US Secretary of State in the Obama Administration, approved the world’s biggest arms deal to Saudi Arabia despite her knowledge of that regime’s role in sponsoring the terror group ISIS?

Hilary Clinton, promoted by the mainstream media as a Liberal luvvie and feminist icon and given platform after platform to publicly attack Julian Assange, doubled US arms sales to the tyrannical theocracy and approved an $80 billion arms deal despite knowledge of their support for terrorism.

Assange leaked the emails which proved Bernie Sanders was cheated out of the Democratic nomination in 2016 to make way for Clinton. She was also exposed as the principal cheerleader in the illegal and unjustified bombing and invasion of Libya which claimed in excess of 40,000 lives and unleashed a living hell of displacement, torture, slavery and malnutrition across a previously successful and flourishing country. She literally cheered the brutal and illegal murder by sodomisation of Libyan leader Gadhafi. Thousands of women and girls were condemned to life as refugees and sold as sex slaves in the broken country created by ‘feminist’ Hilary Clinton.

No wonder the Democratic Party elites wanted Hilary as their Presidential nominee and not Bernie Sanders. While Clinton cosies up to reprehensible regimes like Saudi Arabia and arranges arms deals and accepts donations dripping with the blood of war crime victims in Yemen and ISIS victims in Libya and Syria Bernie calls Saudi Arabia out as “murderous thugs”:

"For years, we have loved Saudi Arabia - our wonderful ally. The only problem is, the people who run that country are murderous thugs," Sanders said on Tuesday. 

The Vermont senator added that instead of "being really cozy" with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman - whom he described as a "billionaire dictator" - Washington should try to resolve the issues between the kingdom and Iran to bring peace to the Middle East 

Assange Deserves Praise for Exposing Lies, Not Criminal Charges

Julian Assange exposed Hilary Clinton as the charlatan she is. He exposed the Afghan and Iraq logs which contained scores of incidents proving the US had committed multiple war crimes. There was the helicopter gunship incident which resulted in twelve men being mown down in a Baghdad street. The soldiers claimed they had come under gun fire from the men. The secret video Assange leaked showed a group of unarmed civilians, including two Iraqis working for the Reuters news agency, shot in cold blood. It was a war crime plain and simple.

For exposing American government lies and war crimes Assange faces an extradition hearing on Monday 24th February in Woolwich Crown Court in London. He faces an extradition hearing despite having committed no crime. Julian Assange is a modern day journalistic hero, not a criminal. Hopefully thousands will attend the Free Julian Assange demonstration in London this Saturday. Thousands more should come to the court on Monday and stand in solidarity with a man who has sought to speak truth to power, to expose the dark lies and crimes of the rich and powerful, particularly the United States of America.

Julian Assange must not be extradited, he should be honoured, lauded and thanked for doing a service to ordinary people across the globe. If you value truth you must stand up for and support Julian Assange. I give the last word to the journalistic colossus and epitome of truth, courage and integrity, John Pilger:

“WikiLeaks has informed us how illegal wars are fabricated, how governments are overthrown and violence is used in our name, how we are spied upon through our phones and screens. The true lies of presidents, ambassadors, political candidates, generals, proxies, political fraudsters have been exposed. One by one, these would-be emperors have realised they have no clothes.

It has been an unprecedented public service; above all, it is authentic journalism, whose value can be judged by the degree of apoplexy of the corrupt and their apologists” 

 

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/columnists/202002201078362044-julian-assange-sho...

 

 

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the furphy from the yanking yanks...

...

Mr Lewis sought to make clear that Assange was not wanted because he had embarrassed the United States but because he had broken the law and put lives at risk.

"I would remind the court that these were individuals who were passing on information from Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran," Mr Lewis said.

Hundreds of people across the world had to be warned after the WikiLeaks disclosures and some had to be relocated from their countries, he said.

"Some sources identified by WikiLeaks … subsequently disappeared," he said, although he added US authorities could not prove that was a result of WikiLeaks' action...

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-24/julian-assange-appears-in-court-f...

 

---------------

 

"Putting lives at risk" has also been the claim of some "respectable journalists", trying to distance themselves from Assange — after having used the information he supplied. This is crap. The US themselves have put lives at risk by their bellicose behaviour and have killed millions for nothing, since their adventures in Iraq and anywhere else... By their support to war, people like Joe Biden have killed more American soldiers than Assange who killed none...

 

Julian Assange's revelation WHICH ARE THE US OWN embarrassing secrets, have killed no-one...  They have exposed the duplicity of a US war machine, embarrassed some diplomats who were playing dirty political games in other countries — and may have influenced the result of the last US Presidential election, in 2016. On this last affair, Hillary Clinton showed herself to be a duplicitist warmonger, a cheat, a lout and a liar BEFORE WIKILEAKS revelations... In fact, a certain other Australian, Rupert Murdoch, did do La Madam Clinton in and promoted the mad Trump...

 

The reveation of US deceit, distortions of the truth and manipulations of diplomacy may be annoying to the US war machine, but it is essential for us, the sleepy sheep, to know the extent of the hypocrisy that rules our little patch. In fact, by trying to extradite Assange, the US boffins only highlight and reinforce the gamut of their hypocrisy. One can be tempted to read and analyse more of the despicable way they have acted over the years. Letting Assange go free would do a lot towards redeeming their sins...

 

The way Assange has been treated is illegal, vengeful and dangerous. The UK has not shown justice so far...

 

The judge has only one option: DO JUSTICE.

 

And Justice requires to FREE ASSANGE today...

 

 

 

 

US plans to kill assange...

Julian Assange kickstarted his legal battle against extradition to the US where he is wanted on 18 espionage and hacking charges, shortly after he was stripped of Ecuadorian asylum in April 2019.

US spies plotted to kidnap and poison Julian Assange with the help of covert Spanish detectives, his extradition hearing has heard, the Daily Mail reported, citing his QC and saying that the operation inside the premises of the Ecuadorian embassy was supposed to look like an "accident." 

As Kristinn Hrafnsson, Wikileaks' chief editor, pointed out, "it was chilling" to hear the revelation that the "the door was left open" so that the US agents "could kidnap him [Julian Assange] in the embassy." "It shows how highly politicised the case is, where nothing is sacred," the journalist commented. "It also indicates [...] how far the superpower and its agencies are willing to go to actually apprehend Julian," Hrafnsson summed up.

Human rights barrister Edward Fitzgerald said that private security from an outsourced Spanish company was involved in the "intrusive and sophisticated" surveillance of his client, but were uncovered by an unnamed Iberian whistleblower that is mentioned in court files as "witness two."

Referring to the latter's testimony, Fitzgerald said: "there were conversations about whether there should be more extreme measures contemplated, such as kidnapping or poisoning Julian Assange in the embassy."

According to the barrister, covert monitoring that took place, allegedly started after a person called David Morales returned from a Las Vegas security trade fair in July 2016 with a contract supposedly for a yacht on his hands.

"But in fact, Mr Morales had indeed made a side agreement to provide information gathered about Mr Assange to the dark side - in other words, to US intelligence agencies," Fitzgerald told the court, further specifying what devices were used for monitoring the state of affairs during Assange's 7-year embassy confinement.

Visitors were, for instance, reportedly targeted by live-stream audio and video devices planted inside the premises and laser microphones on the outside. 

The overwhelming conspiracy claims were made on the first day of Assange's legal showdown with the American Government, whose representatives are struggling for the Wikileaks founder to be deported to the US. The second hearing at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in London continues on Tuesday.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/society/202002251078402827-us-intel-plotted-to-k...

 

FREE ASSANGE TODAY...

assange has saved lives...

 

by Kelley Beaucar Vlahos

 

The American brief in a London court today against Julian Assange is that he put informants at risk by publishing hundreds of thousands of pages of U.S. military documents and State Department cables in 2010. 

According to The Guardian’s reporting this morning, Washington’s lawyer, James Lewis, told the court that informants had “disappeared” after the leaks. But no one knows of course whether they just wised up and faded away.

“The US is aware of sources, whose unredacted names and other identifying information was contained in classified documents published by WikiLeaks, who subsequently disappeared, although the US can’t prove at this point that their disappearance was the result of being outed by WikiLeaks,” he told the court in south-east London.

Let’s make this clear, there has never been any evidence presented in the decade since those cables were released, that anyone was ever harmed. This is a baldfaced canard deployed by Washington from the start and it is now being used to attempt to drag Assange back to the U.S. where he faces 18 federal charges of espionage, including theft and hacking, and for that, up to 175 years in prison.

At this rate—despite the enormous crowds of support outside the courtroom, despite his more than capable lawyers and celebrity supporters—the chances of Assange beating this rap are thin. Why? Because the UK has no constitutional guarantee of a free press and its free speech rights are practically non-existent today, which means his pleas for both won’t buy him a basket of fish and chips from the local pub.

It also remains to be seen whether the most egregious evidence of U.S. tampering—that private conversations between Assange and his attorneys in his former Ecuadorian embassy sanctuary were being secretly taped and delivered right into the hands of American officialswill make any difference to the magistrates in London. Is this a ‘fair trial’? 

In other words, putting trust in the British system of law is a gamble. The British establishment hated Assange from the beginning too. And why not? Former PM Tony Blair was President George Bush’s poodle, and dragged his country into the war in Iraq against the majority of his countrymen’s wishes. They were right there with us as the lies played out in real time. That goes for Afghanistan too. So when the Iraq War and Afghan War logs came out, followed by the damning State Department diplomatic cables, the Brits had just as much mud on their faces and blood on their hands. 

The U.S. Justice Department is no doubt salivating over the idea that Assange will be theirs to toy with, much like Chelsea Manning, who has been languishing in jail for nearly a yearbecause she refuses to testify against Assange.

Meanwhile. American press is decidedly against Assange and any attempt to make him “one of them.” Much of this is because of the so-far-unproven connection he has with the Russians and the DNC email scandal. A story that former Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher supposedly delivered him a clemency offer from Trump in 2017  (Rohrabacher and the White House later denied this) was published last week and has muddied the waters. Of course anything with the taint of Trump, even a journalist who exposed war crimes and government lies, cannot be defended, ever.

Journalists would be gravely stupid to ignore the implications of Assange’s persecution, just like Richard Gizbert says in this video. But this doesn’t seem to be in the American hive’s DNA to defend their own rights, of course until it’s too late.

 

Read more:

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/state-of-the-union/doj-drooling-...

 

 

 

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By his journalism exposing the truth, ASSANGE HAS SAVED MANY LIVES.

 

FREE ASSANGE TODAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

 



NOT A RATBAG...

The slicked-back hair and castaway beard are long gone, but behind Julian Assange’s clean veneer lurks a deeply troubled man, independent MP Andrew Wilkie has said following his visit to the WikiLeaks founder.

The unlikely pair of Mr Wilkie and Liberal National MP George Christensen visited Assange in a London prison on February 18 to show their support for the Australian, whose US extradition hearing began on Monday.

“He’s had a haircut and he looked OK,” said Mr Wilkie, recalling Assange’s “wild” appearance at the time of his arrest at London’s Ecuadorian embassy on April 11.

“But from time to time you’d get a glimpse at a broken man.

“He was doing his best to put on a brave face, but I think it was theatre because every now and then he’d sink into quietness – he’d look down and close his eyes.

“Particularly when we were touching on things like his family, you could see he was really struggling.”

Assange would have plenty of reasons for that state of mind.

“Yesterday Mr Assange was handcuffed 11 times, he was stripped naked two times at Belmarsh, and was put in five separate holding cells,” his barrister told a court on Tuesday night (Australian time).

Assange has been in London’s Belmarsh prison for more than 10 months. He was jailed following his eviction from the embassy, where he had been granted asylum for seven years while avoiding facing sexual assault allegations in Sweden (that case has since been dropped).

Having served half of a 50-week prison term for skipping bail in Britain, Assange has remained in custody, pending the outcome of the extradition case.

Assange is being brought into the Woolwich Crown Court every day to hear whether he will be forced to go to the US to face espionage charges.

In the second day of his hearing, Edward Fitzgerald QC urged a judge to intervene over the treatment of his client, arguing it was inhumane.

During the afternoon’s proceedings Assange appeared to be drifting off, prompting the judge to direct a member of his legal team, Gareth Pierce, to check on him.

“Mr Assange is struggling, he’s finding it hard to concentrate, he can’t communicate with his legal team and he’s finding it very difficult,” Mr Pierce said.

Judge Vanessa Baraitser said she did not have the legal power to comment or rule on Assange’s prison conditions, but encouraged his legal team to formally bring the matter up with authorities.

“I think everyone in the court supports a fair hearing,” she said.

The US government accuses the Australian of 17 counts of espionage and one count of hacking.

He could face a prison sentence of up to 175 years if convicted.
On the opening day of the extradition hearing, as Assange supporters chanted for him outside court, US government-appointed lawyer James Lewis, called Assange an “ordinary criminal” and said journalism was “not an excuse for criminal activities or a licence to break ordinary criminal laws”.

For Mr Wilkie, however, the matter goes to the heart of free press laws, particularly in the US through its First Amendment of the Constitution.

“The more you learn, the clearer the absurdity is,” the 58-year-old Mr Wilkie said.

“The fact is, [Assange] acted in the public interest and did the right thing, both as a human being and as a journalist. The substantive matter is that he acted as a journalist.”

The US charges stem from WikiLeaks publishing classified US material in 2010 and 2011.

The material relates to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and included the infamous Apache helicopter footage that showed US forces killing multiple civilians, including journalists, in Baghdad in 2007 (it is understood the soldiers believed the people were holding weapons).

The prosecution also accuses Assange of conspiring with US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack into a Pentagon computer, while acquiring the classified material.

At their meeting in the prison, which Mr Wilkie says was frustratingly complicated to arrange (and involved Assange’s London-based father John Shipton donating his allocated visiting time to the politicians), he and Mr Christensen discussed with Assange “how he was going, the circumstances of his incarceration”.

“Then we moved on to the trial,” Mr Wilkie said.

Is Assange confident he will be set free?

“No one’s optimistic, but no one’s given up hope,” Mr Wilkie said.

“To look at the facts, you would be supremely confident that no way would [a court] allow extradition.

“Then you take your rose-coloured glasses off and remind yourself how intensely political this matter is and how determined the US is. And how complicit the UK and even Australia has been.”

To that end, Mr Wilkie feels a solution should be worked out among the relevant leaders, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison making the call.

“Get on the phone and tell the US to back off,” said Mr Wilkie, who is the federal member for Clark in Tasmania.

“This is a political problem and it would be easily solved through a political resolution.

“Surely Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Scott Morrison should work this out between themselves.

“If they don’t, it will become a thorn in the side of the Attorney-General, just like [Australian convicted terrorist] David Hicks did.”

Indeed, some legal experts estimate the case and its inevitable appeals process (no matter who wins), could drag on for years, leaving Assange languishing in limbo.

“As George Christensen said, Julian may be a rogue or ratbag but he’s our rogue or ratbag, and he should be brought home,” Mr Wilkie said.

“A lot of people in Australia don’t like the man, but they also don’t like to see an Australian citizen being pushed around by other governments.”


The hearing continues
.

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/2020/02/26/julian-assange-wikileak...

 

No Mr George Christensen  and Mr Wilkie, Julian Assange ISN'T A RATBAG, NOR A ROGUE. The ratbags are Tony Blair, G W Bush and John W Howard, plus all the other US presidents who have played the game of war. Our Scomo is a ratbag for not supporting Assange and that loony Johnson is a ratbag... Assange should not be humiliated nor tortured...

 

Julian Assange deserves our admiration. HE IS NOT A RATBAG...

 

Assange should be free...

the inhuman injustice of the UK courts...

Julian Assange’s lawyers have repeatedly submitted unsuccessful requests to the Judge on his case, over the past few months, for her to intervene over his prison conditions, which have included denying Assange proper access to his case file. 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been subjected to “horrendous” treatment at the hands of prison authorities, the Belmarsh Magistrate’s Court (sitting at Woolwich Crown Court) heard on 25 February. The award-winning journalist and publisher was handcuffed 11 times as he was shuttled between the courthouse and the prison (despite the two locations being practically connected to each other), he was also strip-searched twice, and his legal papers were confiscated from him, according to his legal team and fellow WikiLeaks journalists.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/uk/202002261078408817-assange-hearing-judge-reje...

the trial behind glass?...

Julian Assange had sat behind a glass-fronted dock in court room two at Woolwich Crown Court for days in silence, listening to legal arguments from the team of lawyers trying to have him sent to the United States and his own defence.

Always dressed in a grey suit and jumper, he normally looked straight ahead, showing no emotion.

But not today.

On Wednesday, Judge Vanessa Baraitser asked Assange’s lawyers to check whether the Australian was happy to continue with the hearing, noting he looked tired and that his eyes were closed.

She had been told at the start of day three of proceedings that the 48-year-old was now on medication that could mean he would need to break more frequently.

As his lawyers approached the dock to speak to their client, Assange stood and began to speak in frustration.

“I’m as much a participant in the court as a spectator at Wimbledon,” he told the court.

He told Judge Baraitser he had very little contact with his lawyers and can’t confidentially speak or instruct them from the dock, given there is a microphone above him and two security guards sitting on either side.

He also pointed to embassy staff sitting in the court room, two of whom were from Australia.

“This case already has enough spying on my lawyers as it is,” he said, making an apparent reference to the secret surveillance of him while he was holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Assange’s lawyer Edward Fitzgerald QC later told the court his client was finding it “very difficult” and “very unfair” that he could not properly communicate with his legal team.

Mr Fitzgerald would lobby to have his client sit with the defence legal team and indicated to the court he could apply for bail to allow that to happen.

James Lewis QC, acting for the US government, said he would oppose any bail application, but did not oppose the idea of Assange sitting in the court room itself.

Judge Baraitser said it was not for her to decide as it was a matter for security, and will be discussed ahead of the start of the hearing on Thursday.

 

Read more:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/2020/02/27/assange-wikileaks-extra...

 

 

Free Assange today... today today today....

FREE ASSANGE TODAY...

The prominent whistleblower is in prison for breaching his last bail conditions out of fear of being extradited to the US. His concerns have been partially confirmed as he is currently facing court hearings that will decide whether Washington will have the chance to prosecute him for leaking classified data online.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s lawyers will apply for bail over fears that prisons could become new hotbeds for COVID-19 infections, a statement from the "Don't Extradite Assange Campaign" said. According to the statement, the lawyers will emphasise that Assange is vulnerable to possible coronavirus infection.

"Prisons are considered epicentres for the spread of COVID-19 due to overcrowding and the propensity of the virus to spread in closed environments. Andrea Albutt, the President of the Prison Governors Association, has warned that 'there will be deaths' in UK prisons" the statement warned.

The campaign recalled that a number of countries, namely the US, Iran, and Spain, have already started releasing so-called "low-risk prisoners" to reduce the threat of local epidemics. The statement also stressed that Julian Assange qualifies for bail release under the guidelines of the Prison Advisory Service independent legal charity.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/uk/202003231078683996-julian-assange-to-apply-fo...

 

Meanwhile:

 

In A Pandemic, The US Addiction To Incarceration Comes Back To Haunt Us

For decades, police could surveil and drug test thousands of Americans every day. Why can’t those same resources be used for coronavirus testing? Police Accountability Report continues its analysis of overpolicing and public health.

 

Read more at RealNews Network...

 

 

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FREE ASSANGE TODAY...