They are unable to find any evidence that linking Julian Assange to Manning’s account.
On the 20th October 2022, Kevin Gosztola reports in The Dissenter on Chelsea Manning’s new book ‘Readme.txt’
In the United States government’s case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, prosecutors claim that he communicated with US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning through an encrypted chat client known as Jabber.
Prosecutors highlight several alleged exchanges between Manning and a username, or handle, associated with Assange. Yet they have never been able to definitively prove that Manning was chatting with Assange, and Manning’s new book, README.txt, further complicates their case.
Manning recalls in February 2010 that she told a chat room with individuals she believed to be associated with WikiLeaks that they could expect an “important submission.” She received a response from someone with the handle “office,” who changed their handle to “pressassociation.”
At this time, Manning had prepared what became known as the “Collateral Murder” video for submission to WikiLeaks. The video showed an Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad by US soldiers that killed two Reuters journalists, Saeed Chmagh and Namir Noor-Eldeen, and Saleh Matasher Tomal, a good Samaritan who pulled up in a van and tried to help the wounded.
…
In the indictment against Assange, prosecutors state, “No later than January 2010, Manning repeatedly used an online chat service, [Jabber], to chat with Assange, who used multiple monikers attributable to him.”
“The grand jury will allege that the person using these monikers is Assange without reference to the specific moniker used,” according to the indictment.
This illustrates the intent of US prosecutors to rely upon circumstantial evidence to tie Assange to the account, like they did during Manning’s court-martial. However, as was true during the court-martial, the government still cannot prove Assange was the WikiLeaks associate chatting with Manning under a “specific moniker.”
During a four-week extradition hearing in September 2020, Assange’s legal team had Patrick Eller, a command digital forensic examiner responsible for a team of more than eighty examiners at US Army Criminal Investigation Command headquarters, provide testimony to the UK district court. He had access to the court-martial record.
Eller said that he was unable to find any evidence that linked Assange to the “Nathaniel Frank” account.
Now, in a government affidavit from 2019, assistant US attorney Kellen Dwyer claimed the US has a witness that the FBI interviewed in 2011, who will testify that Assange used the pressassociation account. The witness is a woman who was “romantically involved” with Assange and met him in Berlin in 2009.
Dwyer also indicates that Siggi Thordarson, an FBI informant from Iceland who is a diagnosed sociopath and serial criminal, will testify that Assange used “pressassociation” as “one of his online nicknames.”
None of this featured in the extradition proceedings, and Crown prosecutors did not contest Mark Summers QC, an Assange attorney, when he had Eller address the lack of proof that Assange used the account that chatted with Manning.
Thank you for your warm welcome and introduction, Laura.
It is a great pleasure to be with you at Australia’s National Press Club on Ngunnawal land. I pay my respect to Ngunnawal elders past, present and emerging – and to all First Nations people here today and joining us remotely.
I’d like to also acknowledge the presence today of those who have supported Julian and his family – including:
Members of the Friends of Assange Parliamentary group, Senators Peter Whish Wilson and David Shoebridge as well as Member for Kooyong, the Hon Dr Monique Ryan;
Bernard Collaery, whose endurance, courage and integrity inspires so many of us; And
David McBride, the whistle-blower still facing trial, who remains the only person charged years after the Brereton Report
I have been working on Julian Assange’s defence and talking about its implications for freedom of the press and democracy for more than a decade.
You might have heard some media soundbites from me on these themes over the years: about the stark injustice that Julian faces 175 years in prison for committing acts of journalism; about how the US seeks to condemn him to life in prison for the very same publications for which he has won awards the world over – including the Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism and the Sydney Peace Prize Medal; and that his prosecution sets a dangerous precedent for free speech and journalists everywhere.
But having an opportunity to elaborate is rare, so my thanks to the National Press Club for giving me this time with you today.
I’m often asked how Julian is, so let me start there: I don’t know how much longer he can last.
The world was shocked by his appearance when he was arrested in 2019. I wasn’t.
For over 7 years, I had been watching his health decline inside the Ecuadorian embassy where he was protecting himself from US extradition.
After years of government statements and media commentary claiming Julian was paranoid and should just leave the embassy, some were surprised when Julian was served with a US extradition request.
I wasn’t. It was exactly what we had been warning about for a decade.
For the past 3.5 years, Julian has been in a high security prison in London – and I have watched his health decline even further.
Then last year, during a stressful court appeal hearing, Julian had a mini stroke.
As the prosecution was deriding the medical evidence of Julian’s severe depression and suicidal ideation – and the risk to his life – those with video access saw Julian in a blue room in Belmarsh with his head in his hands.
I’ve seen Julian on some pretty bad days, but he looked terrible. I was alarmed. And for good reason.
As it turned out, he had just had – or was experiencing as we watched – a mini stroke, often the harbinger for a major stroke.
Once again, we were witnessing Julian’s health deteriorate in real time.
Julian’s wife Stella waits anxiously for the phone call she dreads. As she has said, Julian is suffering profoundly in prison – and it is no exaggeration to say he may not survive it.
***
Unless a political resolution is found – and this case has always been political – Julian will be detained for many years to come.
It is impossible to accurately predict the timeline, but here is a brief overview of where we are and what the legal process ahead looks like.
After a year-long extradition hearing process, interrupted by COVID outbreaks, Julian won his case in early January 2021. If extradited to the US, he would be placed under prison conditions known as Special Administrative Measures – or SAMs – which has been described as the darkest black hole of the US prison system. The magistrate ruled that Julian’s extradition would be oppressive because the medical evidence shows that if extradited and placed under SAMs, he would suicide. So she barred his extradition.
But the Trump administration appealed – and in its last days, sought to get around the court decision and shift the goal posts by offering an assurance that Julian would not be placed under SAMs.
As Amnesty International has said, US assurances aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.
But in Julian’s case it’s even worse that that because the US assurance was conditional: the US only promised not to place him under SAMs unless they decide he later deserves it.
And who would decide? The CIA. And he would have no right to appeal their decision.
Before the US government appeal was heard, we learned – thanks to important investigative journalism – that the CIA had planned to kidnap and kill Julian.
Yes: let’s pause there for a moment.
The CIA had planned to kidnap and kill an award-winning Australian journalist in London.
Again: the Central Intelligence Agency had plans in place to send someone to London to kidnap and assassinate Julian Assange. We know this because of an investigation based on interviews with 30 official US government sources.
And this is the intelligence agency which has the power to place Julian, once extradited to the US, under prison conditions that doctors say would cause his suicide.
When the news broke, I thought – finally – this has got to end the case. But no.
The British courts accepted the US assurance and ruled Julian could be extradited despite these circumstances.
In June, the British Home Secretary ordered his extradition.
We have filed an appeal and we should learn soon whether the High Court will grant permission and hear it.
If it does, we can expect a process that could take years – through the High Court, and to the UK Supreme Court. If we lose, we will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights – that is, if the conservative British government doesn’t remove its jurisdiction before we are able to.
If our appeal fails, Julian will be extradited to the US – where his prison conditions will be at the whim of the intelligence agencies which plotted to kill him. He will face an unfair trial and once convicted, it could take years before a First Amendment constitutional challenge would be heard before the US Supreme Court.
Another decade of his life gone – if he can survive that long.
And that is why I am here.
This case needs an urgent political solution. Julian does not have another decade to wait for a legal fix. It might be surprising to hear me, as a lawyer, say this: but the solution is not legal, it is political.
When you hear politicians or government officials in the UK or US or in Australia using language like due process and rule of law – this is what they are talking about. Punishment by legal process. Bury him in never-ending legal process until he dies.
In fact, there’s been very little “rule of law” or “due process” in what’s been inflicted on Julian. As we argue in our appeal, the case has been rife with abuse.
The case against him is unprecedented – it is the first time in history a publisher has faced prosecution for journalism under the Espionage Act. And the US is going to argue that, as an Australian citizen, Julian is not entitled to constitutional free speech protection at all.
The UK-US extradition treaty prohibits extradition for political offences – and yet the US is purporting relying on this treaty to extradite Julian under the Espionage Act. Espionage is a political offence.
We have seen the fabrication of evidence against him – the US’ key witness in Iceland has admitted he lied but the US continues to press charges based on his evidence. And its indictment deliberately misrepresents the facts.
We have seen unlawful surveillance of Julian, on me personally and his lawyers, on his medical treatment, and the seizure of legally privileged material. At the extradition hearing, we heard evidence from Daniel Ellsberg, the revered leaker of the Pentagon Papers. Ellsberg explained that his prosecution under the Espionage Act by the Nixon administration was thrown out – with prejudice – for far less abuse than Julian has faced. But Julian’s prosecution commenced under the Trump administration – and now continues under Biden. What does that say about our civil liberties and our democracies in 2022?
The list of abuse goes on and on. [take a breath…]
As a lawyer working on human rights cases, it’s important to remain focused on the principles at stake and the work at hand. An essential part of the job is being dispassionate and level-headed in the face of injustice.
But it has become harder and harder over the years to remain unaffected by what Julian is being put through – as a human being and fellow Australian.
In 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, reported his findings on Julian’s case and concluded Julian had been subjected to torture. Years before, we had made a complaint to Melzer’s mandate – but we heard nothing back. Melzer would later admit he had ignored our complaint because, like many, he was prejudiced against Julian after years of government propaganda and media coverage attacking Julian’s reputation.
But in 2019, he agreed to read our complaint. And what he read shocked him and forced him to confront his own prejudice. He has since written a book about what he learned, The Trial of Julian Assange, which I highly recommend.
In his UN findings, Melzer put it this way:
‘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’.
It hasn’t always been easy to remain dispassionate in the face of this persecution – and its impact on Julian and his family.
Julian’s has two small children, Gabriel and Max, who are just 5 and 3. When they tell me about going to see Daddy “in the queue” – they are talking about seeing him in prison. They call it “the queue” because of the security queue they have to stand in, as guards pat down and search their little bodies, checking inside their ears and mouths, in their hair and in their shoes, before they can see their father.
It is heart-breaking.
Due to COVID restrictions, Julian wasn’t allowed to see his children for 6 months. When they were finally let into see him, ongoing prison restrictions meant there was a period he wasn’t allowed to touch them or give them a cuddle. Explain that to a child.
It is heart-breaking.
Last week, thousands of people linked hands to form a human chain around British Parliament in an inspiring protest to demand Julian’s freedom. The kids came to the protest and I walked with them around the chain. They were wearing their “Free My Dad” t-shirts, and chanted along with the crowd “Free Julian Assange”.
It is heart-breaking.
I say this because I want to remind you all today of the very real, human consequences of this case.
***
But what is Julian in prison for? Why are he and his family being put through all of this?
The events that led to Julian’s indictment started in a room similar to this one.
On 5 April 2010, at the National Press Club in Washington DC, WikiLeaks shared the Collateral Murder video with the world. It put WikiLeaks – and Julian – on the map in all kinds of ways.
As you know, it showed the murder of civilians, children and journalists by US forces in Iraq. A war crime, which the US authorities then tried to cover up.
An Australian journalist, Dean Yates, was the head of Reuters in Iraq at the time. He sought answers about what had happened to his colleagues. The US claimed their forces had complied with their rules of engagement. That was a lie. Freedom of Information requests were rejected – and Yates and Reuters were denied the truth.
It was only after the video and rules of engagement were published by WikiLeaks that the world understood what happened.
I want to emphasise here: Julian is being prosecuted for publishing evidence about the murder of your journalist colleagues in Iraq.
After the release of Collateral Murder came the Afghan War Diary, the Iraq War Logs and the State Department Cables. In each of these releases, WikiLeaks pioneered global collaborations between journalists on a scale never seen before. Working together with WikiLeaks, journalists from mainstream media outlets, analysed large sets of data, identifying patterns and trends to understand what was really happening, and tell the story.
The publications showed that thousands more civilians were killed in American wars than the US government had ever admitted. They showed evidence of war crimes, extrajudicial killings, and torture by US forces, western governments and their autocratic regime allies. They revealed the dense networks of support between those governments and major corporations and the extent to which foreign and trade policy was driven by corporate interests.
Journalism like this, at its core, is about subjecting power to scrutiny, and holding it accountable.
And the powerful didn’t like it. WikiLeaks was responsible for hundreds – even thousands – of stories about how power really works in Washington, in London, in Canberra, in capitals across the world – about what it means in the streets and homes of people in countries like Iraq and Afghanistan – and about the price that is paid for the application of power in shattered lives and dead and broken bodies.
Rather than shame, WikiLeaks provoked rage – rage that journalism was exposing the powerful.
The Obama administration opened a criminal investigation which Australian diplomats reported was unprecedented in size and scale.
But the Obama administration ultimately did not indict Julian. Their concern was the “New York Times problem”: that is, that prosecuting Julian would mean criminalising what the New York Times does every day.
President Trump had no such qualms. After all, he called the media, “the enemy of the people” and said he wanted to see reporters in prison. And the result is an indictment against Julian which describes – and criminalises – routine journalistic practices.
But let’s not forget that Trump was willing to play politics with this prosecution.
Back in 2017 – before Julian had been indicted – a Congressman came to visit Julian in the embassy to offer him a deal.
Julian asked me to attend to observe the meeting and I would later give evidence about it for his extradition hearing.
It was at the height of the Mueller investigation – about Russian interference in the 2016 election – when President Trump was a subject of the investigation. Julian had already stated in public that the material was not from a government source. But Trump clearly wanted to know more.
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher made clear that President Trump was aware of and had approved of him coming to discuss a proposal.
It was what he called a “win-win solution” that would allow Julian to “get on with his life”. Julian was asked to identify the source of the 2016 election publications – which the Congressman explained would solve Trump’s political problems and help him put a stop to the Mueller investigation. In return, Julian would receive a pardon or some form of protection against US extradition.
Julian refused to provide the identity of his source.
A publisher’s promise to sources is solemn, as would be well understood in this room, even if it carries a cost.
Trump too, made good on his promise, his administration indicting Julian after he refused to name his source.
Julian has had other opportunities to act in his own interest rather than in the interests of democracy and free speech – and he has always put his own interests second.
And the result is an indictment against him which threatens free speech and democracy. The Freedom of the Press Foundation calls Julian’s prosecution “the most terrifying threat to free speech in the 21st century”. And that is not an exaggeration.
One of the 18 charges relates to taking measures to protect the identity of a source. The remaining 17 charges, all brought under the Espionage Act, relate to receiving and publishing information – and there is no public interest defence.
And around the world the media has responded – The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Guardian have warned that the US is criminalising public interest journalistic practices.
Journalists unions have responded – IFJ, MEAA, NUJ, have condemned the prosecution and called on the US to drop the charges.
[…]
Today, at the National Press Club of Australia, I want to make very clear: the Trump administration indicted Julian to send a message to the press. To deter journalism and publishing. Prosecuting Julian is intended to send a message to all of you.
With those reflections on the case against Julian, let me now turn to the implications for free speech and democracy.
***
Julian founded WikiLeaks with a mission statement – the goal is justice, the method is transparency. He could see that secrecy breeds injustice and that by shining a light, governments can be held accountable. He knew that transparency deters unlawful conduct and encourages better policy-making.
And he was right: WikiLeaks publications have been used in human rights cases the world over – including in some of my cases – to hold government accountable and enforce your rights.
Julian founded WikiLeaks to improve democratic accountability. As he says, we cannot act if we do not know. He wanted to provide the public with the information they need to make more informed democratic choices.
And he was right: Amnesty International credited Wikileaks with sparking the Arab Spring – and democratic movements for change.
Julian once said, if lies can start an unlawful war, then the truth can stop it.
And again, he was right: WikiLeaks publications led to the Iraqi Parliament removing immunity for US troops in occupied Iraq – which led to the withdrawal of US troops.
For this work, he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year for the past decade – that is more times than any other Australian.
WikiLeaks was out in front in recognising the implications of the internet for journalism and its promise and potential for protecting sources with anonymity guaranteed by technology. Julian created technology that has been replicated by media organisations the world over to protect themselves and their sources.
For this work, Julian has won journalism awards around the world. And for this work, he faces life in prison.
This injustice could not be more obvious. No matter how long the US government drags this out, we must all resist the normalisation of this treatment of an Australian journalist and publisher – or he won’t be the last of you to suffer.
As the President of the IFJ said this week, ‘If Julian Assange is jailed in the US, there is not a journalist on earth who will be safe”.
And she is right.
If Julian is extradited, the precedent being set means that any journalist, anywhere in the world, can be extradited and prosecuted in the US for publishing truthful information in the public interest. Would we stand by and accept this if it was Russia or China doing the same?
*********
I want to make a few concluding remarks about Julian’s future. About what the Australian government can do. And about what you can do.
Those who resolve Julian’s case – by securing his release – will be remembered well in the books that will be written about it. They will be on the right side of history.
Australians remember well who brought David Hicks home. We remember well who got Peter Greste, Melinda Taylor and James Ricketson out of overseas prisons. We remember well who got Kylie Moore-Gilbert out of prison in Iran. If we can put an end to an espionage case against an Australian citizen in Iran, we can do it in respect of an equally outrageous espionage case in the US.
And what a great day that was, when Kylie was free.
I look forward to another great day, when this Australian Prime Minister and this government gets Julian out of prison.
For more than a decade we have had nothing but silence and complicity from consecutive Australian governments. Government after government – on both sides of politics – did not have the courage to speak to our close ally and act to protect an Australian citizen and journalist.
We now have a Prime Minister who has said, and I quote, “Enough is enough”.
“I fail to see what purpose is being served by the ongoing incarceration of Julian Assange. A heavy price has been paid.”
I couldn’t agree more.
We now need to see action.
We all want to see our Prime Minister taking questions at a press conference about Julian’s release – rather than about Julian’s death in custody.
And what will help force the government bring this to a close? You – the journalists in this room.
You, above all people, are able to differentiate between publishing and espionage; a distinction that the US government and its allies seem intent on erasing.
You have the unique opportunity and responsibility of facing the Prime Minister and his colleagues day after day. You can ask what is being done and when it is we will see Julian brought home. Ask them this – the Attorney General, the Foreign Minister, the Prime Minister – at every press conference until Julian is free.
If we don’t see that day, Julian Assange won’t be the last of your colleagues to have his life destroyed in this line of work.
What will also help force our government to do the right thing and bring Julian home?
You – the public.
Protest, write to your MP, write to the Prime Minister, turn up at their offices and demand action. Working for democratic accountability is why Julian is in prison – and I believe democratic accountability can help him get out of it.
So hold our government to account. And let’s bring Julian Assange home. Thank you.
Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) Julian Assange is first and foremost a symbol: the symbol of citizens’ right to know the truth. That is why I am very pleased to have managed to collect the necessary signatures, to nominate Julian Assange for the Sakharov Prize 2022 for Freedom of Thought. The Sakharov Prize, awarded annually by the European Parliament, is the European Union’s highest award in the field of human rights.
This nomination arise from the realization that his case and his detention are a representation of how power seeks to ‘punish’ those who do not conform to pre-packaged truths. With documents, films and concrete evidence, Assange, with his association WikiLeaks and in collaboration with the world’s leading newspapers, has allowed citizens to learn about horrific war crimes, arbitrary detentions, human rights violations and cases of torture unworthy of states that call themselves democratic. This journalistic work was carried out by obscuring sensitive sources and data, to avoid endangering those working in the field.
Assange could have sold the secrets he came into possession of, but he did not do so in the name of freedom of the press. This is why he is a defender of freedom of expression and protection of human rights. It was precisely to promote and preserve these values that the prestigious Sakharov Prize was established for.
“The judicial treatment reserved to him embodies an attack on these fundamental freedoms, of which the European Parliament, above all, is proud to be a constant defender. Regarding the case of Mr Assange, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also recently intervened, denouncing how Mr. Assange’s possible extradition and prosecution raises concerns about press freedom and the possible chilling effects on investigative journalism and whistleblowing activities.
Assange’s case puts at the center of the political debate the issue of freedom of expression and the role of journalism in protecting citizens’ right to know the truth. If his case is not supported, the message to journalists, activists and citizens is extremely serious: that power can silence freedom of expression, the right to inform and to be informed. Assange’s nomination is meant to be a message in the opposite direction: democracy is not afraid of the truth.
The WikiLeaks founder now faces days being isolated in his prison cell
Stella Assange told the PA news agency she is concerned for his health, which has deteriorated since he was sent to Belmarsh prison three years ago after being dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London
Mrs Assange said: “Julian was feeling unwell last week but started feeling sick on Friday. He started coughing and had a fever. He was given some paracetamol. He tested positive for Covid on Saturday, the same day thousands of people came out onto the streets to support him.
“I am obviously worried about him and the next few days will be crucial for his general health. He is now locked in his cell for 24 hours a day.”
Mrs Assange said she was overjoyed at the number of people who formed a human chain around Parliament on Saturday, estimating there were well over 5,000 in attendance.
It was the biggest event of its kind in support of the WikiLeaks founder, who has won support from human rights organisations, journalist groups and others across the world.
Last month, US lawyers and journalists who visited Assange when he was at the Ecuadorian Embassy said they are suing the CIA, claiming it spied on their private conversations in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
The Ministry of Justice has been approached for a comment.
On the 9th October 2022, Ford Fischer filmed Chris Hedges speech at the US Department of Justice
“Merrick Garland and those who work in the Department of Justice are the puppets, not the puppet masters,” said Pulitzer-winning journalist Chris Hedges Saturday outside the DOJ.
“The engine driving the lynching of Julian Assange is not here on Pennsylvania Avenue. It is in Langley, Virginia, located at a complex we will never be allowed to surround, the Central Intelligence Agency. It is driven by a secretive inner state, one where we do not count, in the mad pursuit of empire and ruthless exploitation.
“We cannot fight on behalf of Julian Assange unless we are clear who we are fighting against,” he then described as “A global billionaire class who have orchestrated a social inequality rivaled by Pharaonic Egypt.”
Merrick Garland and those who work in the Department of Justice are the puppets, not the puppet masters. They are the façade, the fiction, that the longstanding persecution of Julian Assange has something to do with justice. Like the High Court in London, they carry out an elaborate judiC.I.A.l pantomime. They debate arcane legal nuances to distract from the Dickensian farce where a man who has not committed a crime, who is not a U.S. citizen, can be extradited under the Espionage Act and sentenced to life in prison for the most courageous and consequential journalism of our generation.
The engine driving the lynching of Julian is not here on Pennsylvania Avenue. It is in Langley, Virginia, located at a complex we will never be allowed to surround – the Central Intelligence Agency. It is driven by a secretive inner state, one where we do not count in the mad pursuit of empire and ruthless exploitation. Because the machine of this modern leviathan was exposed by Julian and WikiLeaks, the machine demands revenge.
The United States has undergone a corporate coup d’etat in slow motion. It is no longer a functioning democracy. The real centers of power, in the corporate, military and national security sectors, were humiliated and embarrassed by WikiLeaks. Their war crimes, lies, conspiracies to crush the democratic aspirations of the vulnerable and the poor, and rampant corruption, here and around the globe, were laid bare in troves of leaked documents.
We cannot fight on behalf of Julian unless we are clear about whom we are fighting against. It is far worse than a corrupt judiC.I.A.ry. The global billionaire class, who have orchestrated a soC.I.A.l inequality rivaled by pharaonic Egypt, has internally seized all of the levers of power and made us the most spied upon, monitored, watched and photographed population in human history. When the government watches you 24-hours a day, you cannot use the word liberty. This is the relationship between a master and a slave. Julian was long a target, of course, but when WikiLeakspublished the documents known as Vault 7, which exposed the hacking tools the C.I.A. uses to monitor our phones, televisions and even cars, he — and journalism itself — was condemned to crucifixion.
The object is to shut down any investigations into the inner workings of power that might hold the ruling class accountable for its crimes, eradicate public opinion and replace it with the cant fed to the mob.
I spent two decades as a foreign correspondent on the outer reaches of empire in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans. I am acutely aware of the savagery of empire, how the brutal tools of repression are first tested on those Frantz Fanon called “the wretched of the earth.” Wholesale surveillance. Torture. Coups. Black sites. Black propaganda. Militarized police. Militarized drones. Assassinations. Wars.
Once perfected on people of color overseas, these tools migrate back to the homeland. By hollowing out our country from the inside through deindustrialization, austerity, deregulation, wage stagnation, the abolition of unions, massive expenditures on war and intelligence, a refusal to address the climate emergency and a virtual tax boycott for the richest individuals and corporations, these predators intend to keep us in bondage, victims of a corporate neo-feudalism. And they have perfected their instruments of Orwellian control. The tyranny imposed on others is imposed on us.
From its inception, the C.I.A. carried out assassinations, coups, torture and illegal spying and abuse, including that of U.S. citizens, activities exposed in 1975 by the Church Committee hearings in the Senate and the Pike Committee hearings in the House. All these crimes, especially after the attacks of 9/11, have returned with a vengeance. The C.I.A. is a rogue and unaccountable paramilitary organization with its own armed units and drone program, death squads and a vast archipelago of global black sites where kidnapped victims are tortured and disappeared.
The U.S. allocates a secret black budget of about $50 billion a year to hide multiple types of clandestine projects carried out by the National Security Agency, the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies, usually beyond the scrutiny of Congress. The C.I.A. has a well-oiled apparatus to kidnap, torture and assassinate targets around the globe, which is why, since it had already set up a system of 24-hour video surveillance of Julian in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, it quite naturally discussed kidnapping and assassinating him. That is its business. Senator Frank Church — after examining the heavily redacted C.I.A. documents released to his committee — defined the C.I.A.’s “covert activity” as “a semantic disguise for murder, coercion, blackmail, bribery, the spreading of lies and consorting with known torturers and international terrorists.”
All despotisms mask state persecution with sham court proceedings. The show trials and troikas in Stalin’s Soviet Union. The raving Nazi judges in fascist Germany. The Denunciation rallies in Mao’s China. State crime is cloaked in a faux legality, a judicial farce.
If Julian is extradited and sentenced and, given the Lubyanka-like proclivities of the Eastern District of Virginia, this is a near certainty, it means that those of us who have published classified material, as I did when I worked for The New York Times, will become criminals. It means that an iron curtain will be pulled down to mask abuses of power. It means that the state, which, through Special Administrative Measures, or SAMs, anti-terrorism laws and the Espionage Act that have created our homegrown version of Stalin’s Article 58, can imprison anyone anywhere in the world who dares commit the crime of telling the truth.
We are here to fight for Julian. But we are also here to fight against powerful subterranean forces that, in demanding Julian’s extradition and life imprisonment, have declared war on journalism.
We are here to fight for Julian. But we are also here to fight for the restoration of the rule of law and democracy.
We are here to fight for Julian. But we are also here to dismantle the wholesale Stasi-like state surveillance erected across the West.
We are here to fight for Julian. But we are also here to overthrow — and let me repeat that word for the benefit of those in the F.B.I. and Homeland Security who have come here to monitor us — overthrow the corporate state and create a government of the people, by the people and for the people, that will cherish, rather than persecute, the best among us.
You can see my interview with Julian’s father, John Shipton
Supporters are encouraged to download the paper version and collect signatures Page 1 is the cover page with full petition Page 2 allows for more signatures and can be printed as required
Please mail signed pages back to our office at Assange Campaign Incorporated 40 Glencairn Avenue Camberwell VIC 3124
On Wednesday the 28th September, Assange Supporters are gathering to hear speeches and witness the State Parliament voting on a motion to Support Julian Assange
Frank Pangallo – South Australian Best MLC has an extremely important motion being voted on that could potentially be the catalyst for life-saving actions to be taken in regard to Australian award-winning publisher Julian Assange. I am proud that South Australia will likely become the first State Government in Australia to move on such an important issue. This is not only an important motion for WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange but a brave stand to defend free speech, free press, our democratic right to know and to reclaim investigative journalism.
As we all know too well, Julian Assange has been in some form of arbitrary detention for over 12 years, just for speaking truth to power. It is time to end this extreme overreach of US governmental authority and move to release Julian Assange immediately. We believe wholeheartedly that it is in the best interest of our future generations and our great nation, that this motion is passed and acted on swiftly. Collectively, we will push forward with conviction and enthusiasm to bring Julian and his young family home to Australia safely. We hope that this can be realised by the end of 2022.
Speeches by: David McBride – Australian Whistleblower / former Australian Army lawyer Frank Pangallo – SA Best MLC Rex Patrick – Australian politician Stephen Kenny – Julian Assange’s Lawyer Tammy Franks – The Greens MLC
On the 22nd September 2022, Chris Hedges reports on ScheerPost and interviews John Shipton available on You Tube
The persecution of Julian Assange is a window into the collapse of the rule of law, the rise of what the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls our system of inverted totalitarianism.
A society that prohibits the capacity to speak in truth extinguishes the capacity to live in justice.
Tyrannies invert the rule of law. They turn the law into an instrument of injustice. They cloak their crimes in a faux legality. They use the decorum of the courts and trials, to mask their criminality. Those, such as Julian Assange, who expose that criminality to the public are dangerous, for without the pretext of legitimacy the tyranny loses credibility and has nothing left in its arsenal but fear, coercion and violence.
The long campaign against Julian and WikiLeaks is a window into the collapse of the rule of law, the rise of what the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin calls our system of inverted totalitarianism, a form of totalitarianism that maintains the fictions of the old capitalist democracy, including its institutions, iconography, patriotic symbols and rhetoric, but internally has surrendered total control to the dictates of global corporations.
I was in the London courtroom when Julian was being tried by Judge Vanessa Baraitser, an updated version of the Queen of Hearts in Alice-in Wonderland demanding the sentence before pronouncing the verdict. It was judicial farce. There was no legal basis to hold Julian in prison. There was no legal basis to try him, an Australian citizen, under the U.S. Espionage Act. The CIA spied on Julian in the embassy through a Spanish company, UC Global, contracted to provide embassy security. This spying included recording the privileged conversations between Julian and his lawyers as they discussed his defense. This fact alone invalidated the trial. Julian is being held in a high security prison so the state can, as Nils Melzer, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, has testified, continue the degrading abuse and torture it hopes will lead to his psychological if not physical disintegration.
The U.S. government directed the London prosecutor James Lewis. Lewis presented these directives to Baraitser. Baraitser adopted them as her legal decision. It was judicial pantomime. Lewis and the judge insisted they were not attempting to criminalize journalists and muzzle the press while they busily set up the legal framework to criminalize journalists and muzzle the press. And that is why the court worked so hard to mask the proceedings from the public, limiting access to the courtroom to a handful of observers and making it hard and at times impossible for us to access the trial online. It was a tawdry show trial, not an example of the best of English jurisprudence but the Lubyanka.
It is imperative that those of us who care about a free press and the persecution of an innocent man, for Julian has not committed a crime, make our presence felt in the streets. I will be in Washington on October 8 with, I hope, thousands of others to ring the capital to call for Julians’ release, an act that will be replicated by protesters surrounding the British parliament the same day. Joining me from Mexico, where Mexican president Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has defended Julian’s innocence and offered asylum to the WikiLeaks founder, is Julians’s father John Shipton.
