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Alternative Media Articles
2020-10-16 The US Should Indict American War Criminals, Not Julian Assange The US is attempting to imprison one of its critics, Julian Assange, by claiming a global right to prosecute any journalist in the world. If that prosecution succeeds, it would be a severe blow not just to press freedom, but to our very right to oppose imperialism and empire. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/10/julian-assange-wikileaks-espionage-act-war-crimes
2020-10-15 Proposed Reform to US Espionage Act Would Create Public Interest Defense Legislation proposed in Congress would amend the United States Espionage Act and create a public interest defense for those prosecuted under the law.
“A defendant charged with an offense under section 793 or 798 [in the U.S. legal code] shall be permitted to testify about their purpose for engaging in the prohibited conduct,” according to a draft of the bill Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard introduced.
Such a reform would make it possible for whistleblowers like Edward Snowden, Reality Winner, Terry Albury and Daniel Hale to inform the public why they disclosed information without authorization to the press. The legislation called the Protect Brave Whistleblowers Act is supported by Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg.
“If this long-overdue revision of the 1917 Espionage Act had been law half a century ago, I myself could have had a fair trial for releasing the Pentagon Papers in 1971: justice under law unavailable to me and to every other national security whistleblower indicted and prosecuted since then,” Ellsberg declared. Defending Rights And Dissent (DRD), a group committed to the freedom of political expression, backs the legislation as well. https://rootsaction.org/news-a-views/2347-proposed-reform-to-us-espionage-act-would-create-public-interest-defense
2020-10-15 Steal This Secret: CIA Does Exactly What it Accuses Julian Assange of Doing While the spy agency boasts about its record, WikiLeaks is subject to prosecution. “Hell yeah, we steal secrets,” Mike Pompeo acknowledged in 2017, when he was the director of the CIA. “That’s what we do. It’s in our charter.”
WikiLeaks denies its own engagement in this practice, saying it does not steal, but reveals. The organization identifies itself as a media organization that specializes in publishing secret information about war and espionage. In recent years, WikiLeaks has partnered with several leading news organizations, including The New York Times, to expose lies, misconduct, and criminal activities by governments around the world.
U.S. officials, on the other hand, repeatedly brag that they steal secrets. They argue that their efforts are noble and legitimate. https://progressive.org/dispatches/cia-does-exactly-julian-assange-hunt-201015/
2020-10-14 THE UNPRECEDENTED AND ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN TO ELIMINATE JULIAN ASSANGE OVER THE 17 DAYS of Julian Assange’s extradition hearing in London, prosecutors succeeded in proving both crimes and conspiracy. The culprit, however, was not Assange. Instead, the lawbreakers and conspirators turned out to be the British and American governments. Witness after witness detailed illegal measures to violate Assange’s right to a fair trial, destroy his health, assassinate his character, and imprison him in solitary confinement for the rest of his life. Courtroom evidence exposed illegality on an unprecedented scale by America’s and Britain’s intelligence, military, police, and judicial agencies to eliminate Assange. https://www.parkindymedia.org/the-unprecedented-and-illegal-campaign-to-eliminate-julian-assange/
2020-10-12 The Tortured Trial of Julian Assange Most people might be excused for not knowing it, because the story is mainly ignored, or is shamelessly misreported in the corporate media when it does get any attention. A courageous Australian journalist, abandoned by his own country, is being railroaded by a British court towards extradition to the US where he could face life in prison in solitary confinement for the “crime of espionage”—exposing US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq.
What Julian Assange and his organization Wikileaks have revealed for the whole world to see is the systematic devastation of peoples, of lands, and perennial military pollution of planet earth. The main perpetrator is the most powerful and self-declared “greatest democratic nation” in the world, the United States of America—accompanied by its European and Commonwealth vassal states, plus proxy allies in the Middle East and Zionist Israel.
The villainous perpetrators are the prosecutors. The truth-telling hero is their prisoner. https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/12/the-tortured-trial-of-julian-assange/
2020-10-05 Reporters Claim Facebook is Censoring Information on Julian Assange Case “90% of my traffic has just been cut off by what seems to be a general algorithm command of some kind to downplay Assange.” “I think it is as simple as that.” Asked about the situation by former New York Times reporter Chris Hedges, Murray explained that Anybody who is at all radical or takes any view of anything that is out with the official establishment view gets used to occasional shadow banning, but I have never seen anything on this scale before.”
“90% of my traffic has just been cut off by what seems to be a general algorithm command of some kind to downplay Assange,” he added. “I think it is as simple as that.” https://www.mintpressnews.com/reporters-claim-facebook-is-censoring-information-on-julian-assange-case/271773/
2020-10-04 The call to free Julian Assange echoes around the world Ahead of and during the extradition hearings for Julian Assange, political leaders, activists, journalists and lawyers across the world have condemned the prosecution and demanded the dropping of charges. Assange is being punished for working with Chelsea Manning to release documents that exposed war crimes and atrocities by the US and its allies in Afghanistan and Iraq, and other similar documents.
Over the past several months, activists and world leaders have called for Assange’s release and condemned the US and British attempts at prosecuting him for publishing leaked documents. Earlier this year, a group of senior journalists released an open letter titled “Speak Up For Assange”, which has more than 1,500 signatures from around the world. https://peoplesdispatch.org/2020/10/04/the-call-to-free-julian-assange-echoes-around-the-world/
2020-10-02 Eyewitness to the Agony of Julian Assange The prevailing atmosphere has been shocking. I say that without hesitation; I have sat in many courts and seldom known such a corruption of due process; this is due revenge. https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/10/02/eyewitness-to-the-agony-of-julian-assange/
2020-10-02 ASSANGE CASE SUMMARY: Jen Robinson, Kristinn Hraffnson, John Shipton, Craig Murray & Joseph Farrell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9F61V1s7C0
2020-10-01 Julian Assange’s Prosecution for Publishing Leaked Government Documents Is an Extremely Dangerous Precedent In a time when journalists soliciting leaks from high-level sources have been cast as the vanguard of the resistance to Trump, his efforts to criminalize that very practice seem to have been given a free pass.
Since 2016, Assange has become a bipartisan enemy of the state, hated by conservatives for exposing US government war crimes and general malfeasance, and hated by liberal politicians for exposing various misdeeds of the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign, which they believe cost her the election.
This has given the Trump administration a prime opportunity to attempt to criminalize the publishing of US government secrets, a long-standing goal of the national security establishment. https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/10/julian-assange-prosecution-wikileaks-government-documents
2020-09-28 As his extradition trial drags on, media and rights groups are still ignoring Julian Assange with the case widely seen as setting an important precedent for freedom of speech and of the media worldwide. Yet as the case reaches its pinnacle, a number of press freedom groups have gone silent on the matter. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has not mentioned Assange in months, on either its website or its Twitter account. London-based PEN International has only one article this year on the Australian and appears to have gone quiet since July. The CPJ has also refused to include him among its list of jailed journalists, arguing that Wikileaks’ role is more that of a publisher. While this could be debatable, the omission of by far the most famous and influential of the world’s 248 imprisoned media figures could be seen as a politically calculated decision.
Big media outlets seem just as uninterested in the U.S. government’s attempts to capture the man who released hundreds of thousands of documents detailing American war crimes http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/30889
2020-09-26 Julian Assange: Press shows little interest in media ‘Trial of Century’ The extradition, widely viewed as politically motivated, has profound consequences for journalists worldwide, as the ruling could effectively criminalize the possession of leaked documents, which are an indispensable part of investigative reporting.
Since the hearing began on September 7, the Times, for instance, has published only two bland news articles (9/7/20, 9/16/20)—one of them purely about the technical difficulties in the courtroom—along with a short rehosted AP video (9/7/20). There have been no editorials and no commentary on what the case means for journalism. The Times also appears to be distancing itself from Assange, with neither article noting that it was one of WikiLeaks’ five major partners in leaking information that became known as the CableGate scandal. https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/julian-assange-press-shows-little-interest-in-media-trial-of-century/
2020-09-23 DOCTOR DIAGNOSED JULIAN ASSANGE WITH ASPERGER’S SYNDROME Dr. Quinton Deeley, who works for the National Health Service (NHS), conducted an Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) test on Assange and produced a report. He interviewed Assange for six hours in July. https://shadowproof.com/2020/09/23/doctor-assange-aspergers-prison-extradition-trial/
2020-09-23 The true cost of resistance: Consider what happened to Julian Assange and Roger Hallam https://www.salon.com/2020/09/23/the-true-cost-of-resistance-consider-what-happened-to-julian-assange-and-roger-hallam/
2020-09-22 Julian Assange says he ‘hears voices’ in prison: psychiatrist Michael Kopelman, a psychiatrist who has interviewed Assange around 20 times, said the former hacker would be a “very high” suicide risk if he were extradited to the United States for leaking military secrets.
He cited as evidence Assange’s “severe depression” and “psychotic symptoms”, which included auditory hallucinations while in solitary confinement in his cell at the high-security Belmarsh Prison in southwest London. https://www.rawstory.com/2020/09/julian-assange-says-he-hears-voices-in-prison-psychiatrist/
2020-09-18 Daniel Ellsberg warns US press freedom is under attack “The American press has remained in kind of a state of denial for 40 years, really, since my case, that the Espionage Act has wording in it that could be aimed directly at them,” says Ellsberg, who testified in Assange’s defense at his extradition trial via video stream from the United States. “Now the American press is staring right down the barrel at the use of the Espionage Act against American journalists and publishers for doing journalism.” https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/daniel-ellsberg-warns-us-press-freedom-is-under/
2020-09-18 ‘Putin’s favorite congressman’ offered Julian Assange a pardon if he covered up Russian meddling: lawyers American prosecutors said this week that former Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) offered WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange a pardon from President Donald Trump if he agreed to help cover up Russia’s role in interfering in the 2016 presidential election.
Rohrabacher was joined in the meeting by Charles Johnson, a pro-Trump racist internet troll, and the two men led officials at the Ecuadorian embassy in London to believe they were acting on behalf of the president. “They stated that President Trump was aware of and had approved of them coming to meet with Mr. Assange to discuss a proposal https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/putins-favorite-congressman-offered-julian-assange-a-pardon-if-he-covered-up-russian-meddling-lawyers/
2020-09-16 “A Disgrace”: Amnesty International Blocked From Monitoring Trial of Julian Assange Amnesty International’s Europe Director described the hearings against Assange as an “assault on the right to freedom of expression” that would have a “chilling effect on media freedom.” https://www.mintpressnews.com/amnesty-international-blocked-from-monitoring-julian-assange-trial/271218/
2020-09-12 GLENN GREENWALD MOVES TO CLOSE THE DEAL ON TRUMP’S ELECTION HELP QUID PRO QUO https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/09/12/glenn-greenwald-moves-to-close-the-deal-on-trumps-election-help-quid-pro-quo/
2020-09-11 Failed Irish politician pushes agenda shaped by Israel’s spies We should be jealous of how he and his team have unearthed more facts about US imperialism in the 21st century than any other media organization. Disgracefully, contributors to supposedly serious publications like The Guardian have mocked Assange and effectively applauded his tormentors. As well as doing a disservice to their profession, those “journalists” have conveniently forgotten recent history. Not long ago, The Guardian was happy to team up with Assange and publish his scoops.
One of the numerous US diplomatic cables which entered the public domain as a result deserves more attention than it has received. It summarizes a two-hour meeting held on 26 July 2007 between Frances Townsend – at the time the “homeland security” assistant to President George W. Bush – and Meir Dagan, then head of Israel’s spy agency Mossad.https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/failed-irish-politician-pushes-agenda-shaped-israels-spies
2020-09-09 Selected Articles: Extradition Trial of Julian Assange https://www.globalresearch.ca/selected-articles-extradition-trial-julian-assange/5723421
2020-09-09 Julian Assange, Prometheus Bound Prometheus is being punished not for stealing fire – but for exposing power under the light of truth, thus provoking the unbounded ire of Zeus The Exceptionalist, who’s only able to stage his crimes under multiple veils of secrecy. Prometheus pierced the myth of secrecy – https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/09/09/julian-assange-prometheus-bound/
2020-09-07 The Stalinist Trial of Julian Assange When I first met Julian Assange more than ten years ago, I asked him why he had started WikiLeaks. He replied: “Transparency and accountability are moral issues that must be the essence of public life and journalism.”
It is this morality of purpose that so threatens the collusion of powers that want to plunge much of the world into war and wants to bury Julian alive in Trumps fascist America.
In 2008, a top secret US State Department report described in detail how the United States would combat this new moral threat. A secretly-directed personal smear campaign against Julian Assange would lead to “exposure [and] criminal prosecution”. The aim was to silence and criminalise WikiLeaks and its founder. Page after page revealed a coming war on a single human being and on the very principle of freedom of speech and freedom of thought, and democracy. The imperial shock troops would be those who called themselves journalists: the big hitters of the so-called mainstream, especially the “liberals” who mark and patrol the perimeters of dissent. https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/09/07/the-stalinist-trial-of-julian-assange/
2020-09-07 Julian Assange: prolific leaker of secrets back in spotlight He has spent most of the past decade either in custody or holed up in Ecuador’s London embassy as he has tried to avoid extradition — first to Sweden to answer allegations of rape, and then to the United States. Swedish prosecutors confirmed last year they had dropped the rape investigation, saying that despite a “credible” account from the alleged victim there was insufficient evidence to proceed. But as he had feared, after his arrest it was revealed that Washington was charging him with violating the US Espionage Act over the 2010 leaks. https://www.rawstory.com/2020/09/julian-assange-prolific-leaker-of-secrets-back-in-spotlight/
2020-09-05 Extraditing Assange Would Be a Crushing Blow to Free Speech Soon, the American left will make a decision that may have grave consequences for global press freedom. No, it’s not the election in November where two capitalists will fight it out to decide who will implement deadly austerity. It’s the trial of WikiLeaks co-founder, Julian Assange, or more accurately, a trial on press freedom. Assange is being used as an example of what happens when someone challenges the U.S. empire, and whether or not the left stands in solidarity with him will impact all future efforts to platform voices that fight against Western, capitalist propaganda. https://www.leftvoice.org/extraditing-assange-would-be-a-crushing-blow-to-free-speech
2020-06-15 Request for Compassionate Release of Julian Assange As current and former elected representatives in democracies committed to human rights, the presumption of innocence and the rule of law, we wish to support the urgent appeal sent to you by Australian MPs Andrew Wilkie and George Christensen, who wrote https://www.globalresearch.ca/request-compassionate-release-julian-assange/5715950
2020-05-18 Exposed: CIA used Sheldon Adelson’s firm to spy on Julian Assange Max Blumenthal’s new exposé details how the US surveilled and targeted Assange inside Ecuador’s London embassy, all while working with Trump mega-donor and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson’s security team and a Spanish company that had initially been hired to protect the embassy. Drawing on court testimony and internal documents, Blumenthal reveals how the CIA sabotaged an asylum plan for Assange; installed software that allowed it to directly monitor him; and harassed and monitored Assange’s attorneys, friends, family, and journalist colleagues.https://thegrayzone.com/2020/05/18/exposed-cia-used-sheldon-adelsons-firm-to-spy-on-julian-assange/
2020-05-04 WATCH: Outpouring for Assange on World Press Freedom Day https://consortiumnews.com/2020/05/04/watch-outpouring-for-assange-on-world-press-freedom-day/
2020-04-29 Newly released FBI documents reveal extent of Roger Stone’s direct communications with Julian Assange: report FBI records, according to AP, show that in a direct Twitter message sent in June 2017, Stone “reassured Assange that the issue was ‘still nonsense’ and said, ‘As a journalist, it doesn’t matter where you get information — only that it is accurate and authentic.”
Stone, AP reports, mentioned a 1971 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that paved the way for newspapers and magazines to publish the Pentagon Papers — documents about the Vietnam War that had been classified. The Trump ally, via Twitter, told Assange, “If the US government moves on you, I will bring down the entire house of cards. With the trumped-up sexual assault charges dropped, I don’t know of any crime you need to be pardoned for — best regards. R.” https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/newly-released-fbi-documents-reveal-extent-of-roger-stones-direct-communications-with-julian-assange-report/
2020-0-4-27 Journalist John Rees Describes ‘Farcical’ Experience of Listening to Assange’s Hearing by Audio Link https://sputniknews.com/interviews/202004271079110270-journalist-john-rees-describes-farcical-experience-of-listening-to-assanges-hearing-by-audio-link/
2020-04-27 Julian Assange’s extradition case is delayed as support from fellow journalists grows The next stage of Julian Assange’s extradition hearing may be delayed until November, a court has heard. The delay in his case comes as signatories to an international journalist statement in support of Assange grows to nearly 1,500. https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-news/2020/04/27/julian-assanges-extradition-case-is-delayed-as-support-from-fellow-journalists-grows/
2020-04-25 Video: The Criminal Indictments against Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning Colonel Wright’s presentation at April 25, 2020 Forum. The 25th of April commemorates the 75th anniversary of Italy’s Liberation https://www.globalresearch.ca/video-the-criminal-indictments-against-julian-assange-and-chelsea-manning/5710973
2020-04-16 Dirty War on Assange in His Ecuadorian Asylum in London https://sputniknews.com/uk/202004161078968237-assanges-planned-escape-from-uk-in-2017-foiled-by-embassys-security-chief—journalist/
2020-04-13 A Year Since the Arrest of WikiLeaks Publisher Julian Assange A year later, there can be no doubt that the assault last April 11 marked the beginning of an attempted US-British political assassination. Assange sits in the maximum-security Belmarsh Prison, dubbed the UK’s Guantánamo Bay, as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps through the facility. This lawless treatment, which recalls the actions of the fascist regimes of the 20th century, and Assange’s arrest, is the culmination of a years-long campaign to destroy the WikiLeaks publisher, spearheaded by the US and supported by all its allies. As early as 2008, the US military had prepared a secret report detailing the means that could be used to suppress Assange and WikiLeaks. https://www.globalresearch.ca/year-since-arrest-wikileaks-publisher-julian-assange/5709458
2020-04-13 Fiancée of Julian Assange Reveals Couple Have 2 Children, Calls for His Release https://www.democracynow.org/2020/4/13/headlines/fiancee_of_julian_assange_reveals_couple_have_2_children_calls_for_his_release
2020-04-12 Diapers and WikiLeaks: The Unknown Romance and Children of Julian Assange
2020-04-12 Julian Assange: One Year In Belmarsh Having spent a year at Her Majesty’s Belmarsh prison, the WikiLeaks publisher faces the permanent danger of contracting COVID-19 as he goes through the bone-weariness of legal proceedings. Even during the extradition hearings, he has been treated with a snooty callousness by District Court Judge Vanessa Baraitser, which does not bode well for a favourable finding against the US submission. As he endures them, he suffers in a facility that is succumbing to the misrule caused by the coronavirus.
On April 9, Assange’s friend Vaughan Smith gave a description of conditions that gave little cause for Easter cheer. “Julian is now confined alone in a cell for 23.5 hours every day. He gets half an hour of exercise and that is in a yard crowded with other prisoners.” “With over 150 Belmarsh prison staff off work self-isolating, the prison is barely functioning.” https://countercurrents.org/2020/04/julian-assange-one-year-in-belmarsh
2020-04-06 As it releases thousands of prisoners, UK government keeps Julian Assange locked-up in danger In response to the coronavirus crisis, the British Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has announced plans for the early release of up to 4,000 prisoners in England and Wales—just under 5 percent of the prison population. The selected “low-risk” prisoners in the last two months of their sentences will be electronically tagged and allowed back into the population to ease overcrowding.https://countercurrents.org/2020/04/as-it-releases-thousands-of-prisoners-uk-government-keeps-julian-assange-locked-up-in-danger
2020-04-02 Assange’s Privacy Breached During 24/7 Surveillance of Ecuadorian Embassy A Spanish private security firm, Undercover Global S.L., which was hired as security for the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, was allegedly responsible for employing a number of surveillance devices to spy on Julian Assange during his lengthy asylum stay at the embassy. Assange and his lawyers allege that workers from Undercover Global planted a number of microphones in the embassy in 2017 and early 2018. They were hidden in things like fire extinguishers and inside the women’s bathroom where Assange’s lawyers would meet to avoid any potential prying eyes and ears. Employees from Undercover Global were also instructed to set up a streaming access point so that recordings could be accessed remotely. The Spanish news company El Pais reported that one of the three parties who were given access to this footage included agencies in the United States.
Beyond raising general concerns over privacy, these secret surveillance methods could be seen as a serious breach of attorney-client privilege, as conversations and meetings between Assange and his legal team would be picked up and broadcast through the embassy bugging network. What’s more, the head of Undercover Global, David Morales, has some ties to individuals close to President Trump, providing circumstantial evidence that the US might have been involved in the operation. https://www.projectcensored.org/assanges-privacy-breached-during-24-7-surveillance-of-ecuadorian-embassy/?
2020-03-06 Espionage Act Reform Bill Would Protect Journalists Like Julian Assange Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Ro Khanna introduced a bill to reform the Espionage Act, the archaic piece of legislation used to prosecute Julian Assange and other Whistleblowers. https://www.mintpressnews.com/espionage-act-reform-bill-protect-journalists-like-julian-assange/265516/
2020-03-06 Espionage Act Reform Bill Would Protect Journalists Like Julian Assange Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Ro Khanna introduced a bill to reform the Espionage Act, the archaic piece of legislation used to prosecute Julian Assange and other Whistleblowers. https://www.mintpressnews.com/espionage-act-reform-bill-protect-journalists-like-julian-assange/265516/
2020-03-05 Podcast: Kevin Gosztola Discusses the Latest Developments in the Case Against Julian Assange https://www.mintpressnews.com/podcast-kevin-gosztola-julian-assange-extradition/265504/
2020-03-02 Julian Assange Lawyer: What’s at Stake in Extradition Case Is Freedom of the Press https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/2/julian_assange_extradition_case_uk
2020-03-02 End Torture and Medical Neglect of Julian Assange https://www.globalresearch.ca/end-torture-medical-neglect-julian-assange-2/5705197
2020-02-26 Free Julian Assange! By depriving the WikiLeaks founder of his freedom, US and Britain prosecutors are intimidating journalists—and abetting torturers, war criminals, and kleptocrats everywhere. https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/assange-wikileaks-extradition-prison/
2020-02-24 Trump’s Betrayal of Julian Assange One thing we’ve learned from the Trump Presidency is that the “deep state” is not just some crazy conspiracy theory. For the past three years we’ve seen that deep state launch plot after plot to overturn the election. It all started with former CIA director John Brennan’s phony “Intelligence Assessment” of Russian involvement in the 2016 election. It was claimed that all 17 US intelligence agencies agreed that Putin put Trump in office, but we found out later that the report was cooked up by a handful of Brennan’s hand-picked agents.
The real tragedy of the Trump presidency is nowhere better demonstrated than in Trump’s 180 degree turn away from Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange. President Trump should preempt the inevitable US show trial of Assange by granting the journalist blanket pardon under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. The deep state Trump is serving by persecuting Assange is the same deep state that continues to plot Trump’s own ouster. Free Assange! https://www.globalresearch.ca/trump-betrayal-julian-assange/5704693
2020-02-24 Julian Assange lawyer tells court: After pardon fell through, Trump administration resorted to ‘extortion’ https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/julian-assange-lawyer-tells-court-after-pardon-fell-through-trump-administration-resorted-to-extortion/
2020-02-21 John Pilger: Julian Assange Must be Freed, Not Betrayed https://www.mintpressnews.com/john-pilger-julian-assange-must-be-freed-not-betrayed/265037/
2020-02-21 Drop Charges and Extradition Pursuit of Assange, Says Amnesty International, Denouncing US Govt’s “Full-Scale Assault on the Right to Freedom of Expression”
“The potential chilling effect on journalists and others who expose official wrongdoing by publishing information disclosed to them by credible sources could have a profound impact on the public’s right to know what their government is up to.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/02/21/drop-charges-and-extradition-pursuit-assange-says-amnesty-international-denouncing
2020-02-19 Julian Assange says he was promised a Trump pardon if he would lie about Russia’s DNC hacking https://www.rawstory.com/2020/02/julian-assange-says-he-was-promised-a-trump-pardon-if-he-would-lie-about-russias-dnc-hacking/
2020-02-13 Free All Political Prisoners –- Including Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning All of our fates are entwined with that of Julian Assange, a political prisoner of the global imperial state. Assange, an Australian currently held in solitary confinement in Britain’s Belmarsh prison, faces 175 years behind bars if extradited to the United States, the imperial power whose international crimes and domestic machinations have been severely compromised by Wikileaks, the journalism operation Assange founded. https://www.blackagendareport.com/free-all-political-prisoners-including-julian-assange-and-chelsea-manning
2020-02-10 The Truth About Julian Assange UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, speaks in detail about the explosive findings of his investigation into the case of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. According to the testimony of the woman in question, a rape had never even 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. https://www.globalresearch.ca/truth-about-julian-assange/5703054
2020-01-20 Why Americans should be concerned about Julian Assange’s extradition case WikiLeaks has radically changed the media landscape. By publishing truthful information about the United States, the organization came head-to-head with the Pentagon and the CIA. Yet, effectiveness of his fearless journalism is not the only reason Assange became a political prisoner; designated as an enemy of the state and psychologically tortured inside Belmarsh prison (once known as the UK’s Guantanamo Bay).
WikiLeaks 2010 publication of the Collateral Murder video shed light on a hidden history of the United States. Assange, through his work with WikiLeaks, not only informed the public about America’s troubled beginning but also provided a mechanism for people to redeem its unaccounted past. From Manning to Jeremy Hammond to Edward Snowden—waves of whistleblowers created an insurgency of contagious courage. People inside the institutions who want change came forward to defy the unjust laws in order to uphold the high ideals. This kick-started an open experiment of democracy, creating a network that seeks to understand flaws, collaborates to amend them, and invites all to participate in envisioning a new society. https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/why-americans-should-be-concerned-about-julian-assanges-extradition-case/
2019-12-27 Wikileaks Still Holding Powerful to Account as Founder Julian Assange “Slowly Dies” in Prison Assange is kept in being kept in solitary confinement 23 hours per day, often sedated, in Britain’s notorious Belmarsh Prison. https://www.mintpressnews.com/?s=Julian+Assange
2019-12-11 Why did this top ‘press freedom’ group exclude Julian Assange from its list of jailed journalists? https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/11/cpj-committee-to-protect-journalists-assange/
2019-11-26 FlashPoints – John Pilger on The Persecution of Julian Assange https://kpfa.org/episode/flashpoints-november-26-2019/
2019-11-25 Torturing and Killing Julian Assange Slowly https://www.globalresearch.ca/torturing-killing-julian-assange-slowly/5695898
2019-11-20 The Trials of Julian Assange A new book offers a sweeping defense of the controversial Wikileaks publisher. The just-published book In Defense of Julian Assange demonstrates convincingly that what is at stake in his upcoming trial is the future of free journalism, here and abroad. It is edited by British socialist scholar and writer Tariq Ali and civil rights attorney Margaret Kuntsler. Assange is an Australian citizen. He never set foot in the United States. He never published untruthful materials. https://portside.org/2019-11-20/trials-julian-assange
2019-11-19 Sweden Drops Investigation of Julian Assange https://defend.wikileaks.org/2019/11/19/sweden-drops-investigation-of-julian-assange/
2019-11-11 The Persecution of Julian Assange Assange’s real “crime” is that he exposed American and British war crimes and crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan. Because of this legitimate action, Assange is punished and used to remind journalists and reporters of the consequences if anyone dares to follow in his path, exposes Western regimes’ war crimes and crimes against humanity. “Despite Assange’s award-winning journalism and truth-telling, the Western corporate mainstream media have shown utter disregard for his plight. Indeed, such media have tended to bolster the vilification and character assassination piled on Assange by the American and British governments.” https://countercurrents.org/2019/11/the-persecution-of-julian-assange
2019-11-07 Flash Points – John Pilger on Assange & Whistleblowers https://kpfa.org/episode/flashpoints-november-7-2019/
2019-10-25 “I Was Fired for Helping Julian Assange, and I Have No Regrets” We talk to Fidel Narvaez, the ousted Ecuadorian diplomat who handled Julian Assange’s case about why Lenín Moreno caved to international pressure, broke his promises, and gave Assange up to British authorities. https://www.jacobinmag.com/search?query=Julian+Assange
2019-10-23 UK authorities may have just provided the perfect reason why Assange’s extradition should end At a 21 October court hearing, Assange’s lawyers made it clear to district judge Vanessa Baraitser that the US extradition request should be denied because of surveillance in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Significantly, that surveillance included the monitoring of privileged client-lawyer discussions. https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2019/10/23/uk-authorities-may-have-just-provided-the-perfect-reason-why-assanges-extradition-should-end/
2019-10-23 FlashPoints – Julian Assange: Countdown to Freedom, Continues with Randy Credico, of Live on The Fly. Today we are joined by former British Ambassador, Craig Murray. Later we speak with civil rights attorney, author, Margaret Ratner Kunstler, about her book, In Defense of Julian Assange. https://kpfa.org/episode/flashpoints-october-23-2019/
2019-10-22 EDITORIAL: Don’t Railroad Julian Assange to Virginia this were a normal legal case, WikiLeaks’ lawyers would almost certainly be able to get the extradition request by the United States for their client Julian Assange thrown out on the grounds that his privileged conversations with his lawyers at Ecuador’s London embassy were secretly videotaped. The very nation that wants him extradited to stand trial in Virginia has obtained access to those videos. In a normal extradition case it would be hard to imagine Britain sending a suspect to a country whose government has already eavesdropped on that suspect’s defense preparations. But this is not a normal legal case. https://consortiumnews.com/2019/10/22/editorial-dont-railroad-julian-assange-to-virginia/
2019-10-21 Assange Lawyer Decries ‘Legally Unprecedented’ Assault on Journalism as Judge Denies Request to Delay US Extradition Hearing “This is part of an avowed war on whistleblowers to include investigative journalists and publishers.” Assange’s legal team requested a three-month delay to submit new evidence in the U.S. extradition case, including reports that a Spanish security firm spied on Assange on behalf of U.S. intelligence agencies. The allegation is the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Spanish National Court.
If Assange is sent back to the U.S., he could face up to 175 years in prison on more than a dozen charges related to WikiLeaks’ publication of classified documents that exposed American war crimes and other state secrets. “I don’t understand how this is equitable,” Assange said Monday. “This superpower had 10 years to prepare for this case and I can’t access my writings. It’s very difficult where I am to do anything but these people have unlimited resources.”
“They are saying journalists and whistleblowers are enemies of the people,” Assange said of the Trump administration. “They have unfair advantages dealing with documents. They [know] the interior of my life with my psychologist. They steal my children’s DNA. This is not equitable what is happening here.” https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/21/assange-lawyer-decries-legally-unprecedented-assault-journalism-judge-denies-request
2019-10-21 Coverage of Assange’s court appearance shows what a sorry state the media is in Clearly, the full weight of the British and US state apparatus is bearing down on the WikiLeaks founder in this extradition case. That was made explicitly clear in a statement by Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture, in May. He urged the UK not to extradite Assange to the US, saying:
In 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution I have never seen a group of democratic States ganging up to deliberately isolate, demonise and abuse a single individual for such a long time and with so little regard for human dignity and the rule of law
Assange’s own comments in court show he’s well aware of the titan he faces. He’s not the mess the media is making out. And as a letter he sent from prison shows, he’s also aware this fight isn’t just about him:https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2019/10/21/coverage-of-assanges-court-appearance-shows-what-a-sorry-state-the-media-is-in/
2019-10-12 Calls rise to demand the release of Julian Assange Singer MIA has joined the call to demand the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange after visiting him in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison.
The rapper and songwriter – real name Mathangi Arulpragasam – is one of a number of celebrity supporters who have been to see Assange since he was sent to Belmarsh earlier this year after spending seven years in the Ecuadorean embassy in the capital to avoid extradition. https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/2019/10/12/calls-rise-to-demand-the-release-of-julian-assange/
2019-10-03 ‘Is It a Crime to Expose Crimes Already Committed?’ Last year, it was reported (not widely) that the Office of Inspector General in the United States conducted a six-month investigation into whistle-blower retaliation, which was abruptly terminated in April 2017. The report revealed that out of 190 cases brought to the attention of the inspector general of the intelligence community, only a third were investigated—and of those the IG judged only one case in favor of the whistle-blower, and that case took 742 days to complete! All this despite a presidential directive (PPD19) in 2012 designed to prevent whistle-blower retaliation. If the “lawful” means to public disclosure are so unreliable and fraught with negative backlash—as we’ve seen again just now with the Ukraine revelations—what other form can disclosures in the public interest take? https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/trump-snowden-whistleblower/
2019-09-29 Julian Assange’s lawyers were placed under surveillance. But that’s not the whole story. A private security company organised 24/7 surveillance of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during his stay at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. This included confidential meetings between Assange and members of his legal team. The surveillance was provided directly to the CIA. These revelations could possibly jeopardise the viability of the US extradition case.https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2019/09/29/julian-assanges-lawyers-were-placed-under-surveillance-but-thats-not-the-whole-story/
2019-09-24 FlashPoints – John Pilger on Hong Kong, Brexit & Julian Assange extended interview with Emmy Award Winning filmmaker, John Pilger, about what’s going on in Hong Kong, Brexit and the endangered fate of Julian Assange. https://kpfa.org/episode/flashpoints-september-24-2019/
2019-09-06 Embassy insider exposes CNN lies about Julian Assange https://thegrayzone.com/2019/09/06/embassy-insider-exposes-cnn-lies-about-julian-assange/
2019-09-03 ‘Free Julian Assange!’ say Roger Waters, John Pilger, and British MP Chris Williamson https://thegrayzone.com/2019/09/03/julian-assange-roger-waters-john-pilger-chris-williamson/
2019-08-29 Bernie Sanders’ Silence On Assange Raises Serious Questions https://action4assange.com/bernie-silent-on-assange
2019-08-29 40 rebuttals to the media’s smears of Julian Assange – by someone who was actually there https://thegrayzone.com/2019/08/20/cnn-media-smears-julian-assange-fidel-narvaez/
2019-07-31 Judge’s ruling throws huge spanner into US extradition proceedings against Assange A US judge has ruled that WikiLeaks was fully entitled to publish the Democratic National Congress (DNC) emails, which means no law was broken. The ruling is highly significant as it could impact upon the US extradition proceedings against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, as well as the ongoing imprisonment of whistleblower Chelsea Manning.
The ruling: On 30 July, federal judge John G. Koeltl ruled on a case brought against WikiLeaks and other parties in regard to the alleged hacking of DNC emails and concluded that: If WikiLeaks could be held liable for publishing documents concerning the DNC’s political financial and voter-engagement strategies simply because the DNC labels them ‘secret’ and trade secrets, then so could any newspaper or other media outlet.
In other words, if WikiLeaks is subject to prosecution, then every media outlet in the world would be. The judge argued that: [T]he First Amendment prevents such liability in the same way it would preclude liability for press outlets that publish materials of public interest despite defects in the way the materials were obtained so long as the disseminator did not participate in any wrongdoing in obtaining the materials in the first place.
Significantly, the judge added that it’s not criminal to solicit or “welcome” stolen documents, and how: A person is entitled to publish stolen documents that the publisher requested from a source so long as the publisher did not participate in the theft. https://www.thecanary.co/us/us-analysis/2019/07/31/judges-ruling-throws-huge-spanner-into-us-extradition-proceedings-against-assange/
2019-07-09 Selling Out Julian Assange https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/07/julian-assange-ecuador-lenin-moreno-rafael-correa
2019-06-29 Julian Assange, the Espionage Act of 1917, and Freedom of the Press The case against Assange represents the first time the 102-year-old act has been used to target a media organization. https://prospect.org/justice/julian-assange-espionage-act-1917-freedom-press/
2019-06-12 The Torture of Assange Is Public Policy in U.S. Prisons https://www.blackagendareport.com/torture-assange-public-policy-us-prisons
2019-06-06 After Assange’s Espionage Act Indictment, Police Move Against More Journalists for Publishing Classified Material Less than two months after the arrest of journalist Julian Assange, and two weeks after his indictment under the Espionage Act, emboldened governments have sent the police after journalists who’ve challenged the state. https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/06/06/after-assanges-espionage-act-indictment-police-move-against-more-journalists
2019-06-04 The Murdering of Julian Assange https://www.globalresearch.ca/murdering-julian-assange/5679492
2019-06-03 Letters and Politics – A History of the Espionage Act and the Case of Julian Assange https://kpfa.org/episode/letters-and-politics-june-3-2019/
2019-05-31 Democracy Now – U.N. Special Rapporteur Calls For Julian Assange to Be Freed Citing “Psychological Torture” https://kpfa.org/episode/democracy-now-may-31-2019-2/
2019-05-31 Trump’s Charges Against Julian Assange Would Effectively Criminalize Investigative Journalism Ever since the Pentagon Papers case, an Espionage Act loophole has been waiting for a president thuggish enough to make use of it. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/assange-wikileaks-journalism-free-press/
2019-05-30 The Law Being Used to Prosecute Julian Assange Since 1917, the US government has used the Espionage Act to restrict freedom of speech, to imprison activists and whistle-blowers, and to dismantle progressive organizations. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/julian-assange-wikileaks-1917-espionage-act/
2019-05-29 Endless procedural abuses show the Julian Assange case was never about law It is astonishing how often one still hears well-informed, otherwise reasonable people say about Julian Assange: “But he ran away from Swedish rape charges by hiding in Ecuador’s embassy in London.” US finally admitted hat it wants to lock up Assange for 175 years on bogus “espionage” charges – a hand anyone who wasn’t being willfully blind always knew the US was preparing to play Assange faces no charges in Sweden yet, let alone “rape charges.” Assange did not seek sanctuary in the embassy to evade the Swedish investigation. No state in the world gives a non-citizen political asylum to avoid a rape trial. The asylum was granted on political grounds. Ecuador rightly accepted Assange’s concerns that the US would seek his extradition and lock him out of sight for the rest of his life.https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/endless-procedural-abuses-show-the-julian-assange-case-was-never-about-law/
2019-05-29 National Lawyers Guild Echoes Smear Campaign Against Julian Assange https://www.blackagendareport.com/national-lawyers-guild-echoes-smear-campaign-against-julian-assange
2019-05-24 Sanders, Warren, and Wyden Slam Assange Indictment, a Renegade Use of the Espionage Act to Criminalize Journalism “Let me be clear: it is a disturbing attack on the First Amendment for the Trump administration to decide who is or is not a reporter for the purposes of a criminal prosecution,” Sanders wrote in a tweet Friday afternoon after The Intercept contacted his office for comment. “Donald Trump must obey the Constitution, which protects the publication of news about our government.”
Warren distanced herself from Assange but condemned the Justice Department’s move to curtail press freedom. “Assange is a bad actor who has harmed U.S. national security — and he should be held accountable,” Warren said in a statement. “But Trump should not be using this case as a pretext to wage war on the First Amendment and go after the free press who hold the powerful accountable everyday.”
“This is not about Julian Assange,” Wyden said in a statement. “This is about the use of the Espionage Act to charge a recipient and publisher of classified information. I am extremely concerned about the precedent this may set and potential dangers to the work of journalists and the First Amendment.” https://theintercept.com/2019/05/24/julian-assange-extradition-espionage-congress/
2019-05-24 Lee Camp: 18 Ways Julian Assange Changed the World https://www.mintpressnews.com/lee-camp18-ways-julian-assange-wikileaks-changed-the-world/258790/
2019-05-24 Amnesty International Hangs Julian Assange Out to Dry — or Possibly Just Hang https://www.mintpressnews.com/amnesty-international-hangs-julian-assange-out-to-dry-or-possibly-just-hang/258780/
2019-05-23 Julian Assange Indicted for Publishing US Secrets Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks leader, has been indicted on 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act for his role in obtaining and publishing secret military and diplomatic documents in 2010, the Justice Department announced on Thursday — a novel case that raises profound First Amendment issues. https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/05/julian-assange-indicted-for-publishing-us-secrets/
2019-05-23 18 Ways Julian Assange Changed the World Julian Assange is a dick. It’s important you understand that. Assange and WikiLeaks revealed the American military’s war crimes, the American government’s corruption and the American corporate media’s pathetic servile flattery to the power elite. So, if you’re a member of our ruling class, you would view those as textbook examples of dickery. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/18-ways-julian-assange-changed-the-world/
2019-04-23 Daniel Ellsberg Speaks Out on the Arrest of Julian Assange “Without whistleblowers we would not have a democracy. And there have to be people to distribute work and publish it.” https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/04/23/daniel-ellsberg-speaks-out-arrest-julian-assange
2019-04-22 Remembering the Crimes of the Powerful Exposed by Wikileaks’ Julian Assange Assange’s “crime” was revealing deep, embarrassing, sometimes deadly, malfeasance by numerous actors, including the U.S. government, the media, the Democratic Party-Clinton machine, and Israel. https://www.mintpressnews.com/remember-the-crimes-of-exposed-by-julian-assange/257652/
2019-04-18 Foreign Correspondent: Can Wikileaks’ Julian Assange Get a Fair Trial? “I’m sure he’s going to get a kangaroo court. I don’t see the government allowing Assange to put on a vigorous defense.” https://progressive.org/dispatches/can-julian-assange-get-a-fair-trial-erlich-190418/
2019-04-17 First They Came for Assange Mike Pompeo, Trump’s first CIA director and now US Secretary of State, once described WikiLeaks as “a non-state hostile intelligence service.” That is exactly right, and it is an equally accurate description of what every self-respecting news outlet ought to be. https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/04/17/first-they-came-assange
2019-04-15 Letters and Politics – The Legal Aspects of Julian Assange’s Arrest. https://kpfa.org/episode/letters-and-politics-april-15-2019/
2019-04-12 The Media’s 7 Years of Lies about Julian Assange Won’t Stop Now Assange was reduced from one of the few towering figures of our time – a man who will have a central place in history books, if we as a species live long enough to write those books – to nothing more than a sex pest, and a scruffy bail-skipper. https://www.mintpressnews.com/7-years-lies-julian-assange-wont-stop-now/257361/
2019-04-11 Letters and Politics – The First Amendment and the Julian Assange’s Arrest. Then, the State of Disability in Media https://kpfa.org/episode/letters-and-politics-april-11-2019/
2019-04-11 ACLU Comment on Julian Assange Arrest “Any prosecution by the United States of Mr. Assange for Wikileaks’ publishing operations would be unprecedented and unconstitutional, and would open the door to criminal investigations of other news organizations. Moreover, prosecuting a foreign publisher for violating U.S. secrecy laws would set an especially dangerous precedent for U.S. journalists, who routinely violate foreign secrecy laws to deliver information vital to the public’s interest.” https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2019/04/11/aclu-comment-julian-assange-arrest
2020-04-11 London police forcefully arrest Julian Assange on behalf of the US Assange was arrested from the Ecuadorian embassy after the country withdrew the political asylum it had granted him in 2012. Assange, along with former US soldier and whistleblower Chelsea Elizabeth Manning, exposed American war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan https://peoplesdispatch.org/2019/04/11/london-police-forcefully-arrest-julian-assange-on-behalf-of-the-us/
2019-04-07 Chelsea Manning Faces Contempt Hearing After Refusal to Answer Grand Jury Questions “In solidarity with many activists facing the odds, I will stand by my principles.” Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning expressed no regrets Thursday when she revealed that she faces a contempt hearing— and possible jail time—after declining to answer a grand jury’s questions. Manning said the grand jury questioned her about her disclosure to Wikileaks, which was also the focus of her questioning in 2013 when she was court-martialed. Manning was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison for her disclosure—which helped expose war crimes by the U.S.—but her sentence was commuted in 2017 by President Barack Obama.https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/03/07/chelsea-manning-faces-contempt-hearing-after-refusal-answer-grand-jury-questions
2019-04-05 Protecting Julian Assange: A Must for People of Conscience https://www.globalresearch.ca/protecting-julian-assange/5673698?utm_campaign=magnet&utm_source=article_page&utm_medium=related_articles
2018-11-21 Prosecution of Julian Assange, America’s Betrayal of Its Own Ideals As Trump’s administration now carries on Obama’s legacy, vowing to destroy WikiLeaks for engaging in publishing activities that are protected under the First Amendment, American people are slowly coming to see their own government’s dirty war that has been waged in their name. https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/11/22/prosecution-julian-assange-americas-betrayal-its-own-ideals
2018-11-21 Julian Assange Deserves a Medal of Freedom, Not a Secret Indictment https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/11/21/julian-assange-deserves-medal-freedom-not-secret-indictment
2018-11-19 The Case Against WikiLeaks Is a Crisis for the First Amendment The Trump administration once celebrated WikiLeaks. Now it wants to prosecute Julian Assange simply for publishing things it doesn’t like. That’s a threat to all journalists. https://fpif.org/the-case-against-wikileaks-is-a-crisis-for-the-first-amendment/
2018-11-17 Julian Assange criminally charged in secret The indictment was revealed accidentally due to a copy paste error during a judicial hearing. Assange is currently in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he was granted asylum in 2012. https://peoplesdispatch.org/2019/04/11/london-police-forcefully-arrest-julian-assange-on-behalf-of-the-us/
2018-11-14 US Intel Will Bring Assange to the US in Chains Those of us who understand how revolutionary Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange are hope that he won’t suffer that fate, but it seems more and more likely. It’s hardly a surprise given that, in 10 years’ time, Wikileaks published more classified information than all other media combined. It exposed human rights abuses, government spying, torture, and war crimes on an unprecedented scale. It put government, corporations, and even the Pentagon, the FBI, the CIA and other intel agencies on notice that they could no longer count on operating in secrecy. It created a trove of primary source material that serious journalists and researchers will mine for years to come. Its publications are accessible to readers who prefer primary sources to most mediated news.
Wikileaks so infuriates the USA’s most violent, corrupt, and criminal institutions that Hillary Clinton suggested drone bombing Julian Assange, and other US politicians called for his execution by other means. https://www.blackagendareport.com/us-intel-will-bring-assange-us-chains
2018-11-09 A Mother’s Plea to Save Her Son… Julian Assange, Held 8 Years Without Charge by the UK Government https://www.globalresearch.ca/a-mothers-plea-to-save-her-son-julian-assange-held-8-years-without-charge-by-the-uk-government/5659320
2018-11-08 Trump’s “Nuclear Option” Against a Free Press ExposeFacts, a project of IPA, released a statement by Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg in 2017, “Trump Threats to WikiLeaks ‘Nuclear Option’ Against the First Amendment,” which stated: “If journalists and publishers fail to call this out, denounce and resist it — on the spurious grounds that Julian is ‘not a real journalist’ like themselves — they’re offering themselves up to Trump and Sessions for indictments and prosecutions, which will eventually silence all but the heroes and heroines among them.”https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2018/11/08/trumps-nuclear-option-against-free-press
2018-10-01 BEING JULIAN ASSANGE We, the people, are the last line of their defenze. Part of protecting WikiLeaks – and ultimately ourselves – is to understand the relentless nature of the psyops employed against them; that the hardships inflicted upon them by the enemies of human progress are not just reputational or financial but physical; that for those waging this thankless war of truth on our behalf, this is a matter of life or death. And that is why we must push back. https://popularresistance.org/being-julian-assange/
2018-05-15 How Julian Assange became an unwelcome guest in Ecuador’s embassy In June 2012, a tall, mysterious figure turned up at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He rang the bell, walked in and asked for political asylum. It was Julian Assange. Days earlier, he had lost his long legal fight against extradition to Sweden, where two women accused him of rape.
Soon afterwards, the left-leaning then president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, agreed to Assange’s request, precipitating a major diplomatic row with the British government. And a full-blown siege. Metropolitan police officers swarmed outside the building, ready to arrest Assange should he venture out.
It was against this febrile backdrop that Correa authorised a secret programme named “Operation Guest”. It was later renamed “Operation Hotel”. The guest was Assange, politely referred to as el huésped. The goal, at first, was to stop detectives bursting into the modest ground-floor embassy and dragging Assange away. But documents seen by the Guardian show it developed into something more complex. The aim seems to have changed from protecting Assange – which propped up WikiLeaks in the process – to spying on him.
Whatever its aims, WikiLeaks was able to keep going up to and beyond its role in the 2016 US presidential election, with all the seismic consequences. It was WikiLeaks that published hacked emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and senior Democratic officials, leading to claims that it was part of an alleged Kremlin plot to undermine Hillary Clinton and help Donald Trump. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/may/15/julian-assange-ecuador-london-embassy-how-he-became-unwelcome-guest
2017-11-16 We Knew Julian Assange Hated Clinton. We Didn’t Know He Was Secretly Advising Trump. WikiLeaks offer to help Trump came less than two weeks after The Washington Post had revealed that Trump had boasted of sexual assault in comments recorded during the taping of an “Access Hollywood” episode in 2005. The recording caught Trump saying that, “when you’re a star,” you can “do anything” to women, even “grab them by the pussy.” WikiLeaks released its first batch of emails hacked from Clinton’s campaign less than an hour after that report was published. https://portside.org/2017-11-16/we-knew-julian-assange-hated-clinton-we-didnt-know-he-was-secretly-advising-trump
2017-11-13 The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks The transparency organization asked the president’s son for his cooperation—in sharing its work, in contesting the results of the election, and in arranging for Julian Assange to be Australia’s ambassador to the United States. https://amp.theatlantic.com/amp/article/545738/
2017-10-10 Democracy Now – As Catalonia Plans Independence from Spain, Julian Assange Advises Organizers on Secure Messaging https://kpfa.org/episode/catalonia-plans-independence-spain-julian-assange-advises-organizers-secure-messaging-2/
2017-05-25 Julian Assange Speaks About Swedish Decision & His Detention https://popularresistance.org/julian-assange-speaks-about-swedish-decision-his-detention/
2017-04-10 Democracy Now – Julian Assange vs. Allan Nairn: Did WikiLeaks Inform Voters or Aid Trump’s Right-Wing Revolution? https://kpfa.org/episode/democracy-now-april-10-2017-2/
2016-07-25 EXCLUSIVE: Democracy Now – WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange on Releasing DNC Emails That Ousted Debbie Wasserman Schultz https://kpfa.org/episode/democracy-now-july-25-2016-2/
2016-02-04 Democracy Now – Will Julian Assange of WikiLeaks Go Free After U.N. Finds He Is Being Arbitrarily Detained? https://kpfa.org/episode/democracy-now-february-4-2016/
2015-06-17 Julian Assange and the Value of WikiLeaks: Subverting Illusions https://www.globalresearch.ca/julian-assange-and-the-value-of-wikileaks-subverting-illusions/5469675
2015-05-27 Democracy Now – Julian Assange on NSA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership: Secretive Deal, and Europe’s Secret Plan for Military Force on Refugee Boats from Libya. https://kpfa.org/episode/democracy-now-may-27-2015-2/
2014-11-20 Swedish Court Rejects Julian Assange Appeal to Lift Warrant WikiLeaks founder still faces extradition if he leaves Ecuadorian embassy in London https://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/11/20/swedish-court-rejects-julian-assange-appeal-lift-warrant
2013-01-31 Stand Up for Julian Assange – Nobel Prize Winner Calls for Support Mairead Corrigan Maguire, 1976 Nobel Peace Prize for her work for peace in Northern Ireland, calls for support for Julian Assange. His only crime is that he embarrassed the U.S. and other powerful governments with WikiLeaks’ release of documents in which the U.S. military appear to have deliberately killed civilians. https://portside.org/2013-01-31/stand-julian-assange-nobel-prize-winner-calls-support
2012-11-29 Ecuador: Julian Assange Has Chronic Lung Problem https://reason.com/2012/11/29/ecuador-julian-assange-has-chronic-lung/
2012-10-25 Anonymous Criticizes WikiLeaks’ Ethos After Instituting Paywall In the face of mounting legal fees, WikiLeaks says its newly implemented pay structure is necessary. Assange also justified the cost structure to help fund its “publishing and infrastructure costs.” WikiLeaks claims it is funded solely through donations of its site’s users and personal contacts to Assange, but first expressed financial hardship last October. A large part of the implementation of a paywall system is due to a financial blockade once set up against the site from companies such as Visa, Mastercard, Paypal and Amazon.
In response, WikiLeaks filed a lawsuit against both Visa and Mastercard. After nine months of legal battles, WikiLeaks won a ruling in an Icelandic court that ordered the credit card companies to resume processing donations made to WikiLeaks. The Assange-led site believes the economic blockade was instructed by the U.S. in order to halt leaked information, which often contained sensitive data to America. https://www.mintpressnews.com/anonymous-criticizes-wikileaks-ethos-after-instituting-paywall/38742/
&2012-10-01WikiLeaks And The MEK: The Paradoxical Labeling Of Foreign Terrorist Organizations The U.S. designated the whistleblower website, WikiLeaks “an enemy of the state,” placing the self-described free speech project in the same category as al-Qaida, the Taliban and other foreign terrorist organizations (FTO). The unprecedented labeling of the website known for leaking classified government documents signals a new escalation in U.S. efforts to shut down WikiLeaks and other groups speaking out against crimes, corruption and misconduct in the government and armed forces. https://www.mintpressnews.com/wikileaks-and-the-mek-the-paradoxical-labeling-of-foreign-terrorist-organizations/37970/
2012-08-31 Waging War On Leaks And Whistleblowers On July 30, the Washington Post headlined “A bill to stop security leaks puts a plug on democracy,” saying that journalists and others talk to officials daily. Background briefings are commonplace. Vital information is discussed. Most of it is unclassified. On May 15, HR 5743: Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 was introduced and referred to committee. On May 31, it passed. https://www.mintpressnews.com/waging-war-on-leaks-and-whistleblowers/36358/
2012-06-20 Julian Assange’s Right to Asylum https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/12015-focus-julian-assanges-right-to-asylum
2012-04-05 WikiLeaks chief: I’ve made 75 press complaints WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange has made 75 official complaints over what he describes as the shoddy reporting of his long-running extradition battle, the online activist said Thursday. Assange itemized the complaints in a submission to Britain’s judge-led inquiry into media ethics, which is examining the standards and practices of the country’s scandal-tarred press. https://www.mintpressnews.com/wikileaks-chief-ive-made-75-press-complaints/23376/
2011-02-22 WikiLeaks, Free Speech & the Future of the Internet https://www.radioproject.org/2011/02/wikileaks-free-speech-the-future-of-the-internet/
2011-01-11 WikiLeaks: Julian Assange ‘Faces Execution or Guantánamo Detention’ https://www.commondreams.org/news/2011/01/11/wikileaks-julian-assange-faces-execution-or-guantanamo-detention
2010-11-24 WikiLeaks Founder Urges US to Investigate Alleged Abuse by Its Troops Julian Assange says the US has not started any investigations into the alleged incidents detailed in thousands of documents published by WikiLeaks and has instead concentrated on tracking down those responsible for the leaks and on hounding his group. Last month, WikiLeaks published 400,000 US field reports containing evidence that US soldiers handed over detainees to a notorious Iraqi torture squad. This followed a the publication of 75,000 documents in the summer revealing how coalition forces killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents in Afghanistan. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2010/11/04/wikileaks-founder-urges-us-investigate-alleged-abuse-its-troops
2010-10-27 Pack Assange Off to Guantanamo, US Conservatives Tell Obama https://www.commondreams.org/news/2010/10/27/pack-assange-guantanamo-us-conservatives-tell-obama 2010-04-03 Collateral Murder – Wikileaks – Iraqhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0
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