Tag Archives: Julian Assange extradition

Assange’s Extradition, Escalation of the US War on Terror, by Nozomi Hayese

Posted on March 22, 2020 | Leave a comment

If you’re an American locked in your home because of coronavirus, you’re getting a small taste of what it’s been like for Julian Assange the last eight years. Assange has been a profile in courage, the coronavirus nonsense is a study in panic and cowardice. From Nozomi Hayese at antiwar.com:

Last week the US District Judge Anthony Trenga released Chelsea Manning from detainment after concluding that the grand jury that she had been subpoenaed to testify before no longer needed her, since it was being disbanded. Manning was incarcerated because of her principled stance against the secrecy of the grand jury and her refusal to cooperate in its coercive procedure.

The release of Manning came after the US government tried to break her to the point of suicide. Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, wrotea letter to the US government late last year indicating that Manning’s imprisonment amounted to torture. Her resistance is a part of the US government’s war on the free press, going after WikiLeaks’ publisher Julian Assange.

Assange has been charged under the Espionage Act for publishing classified documents which exposed US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. This indictment is recognized by free speech groups as an unprecedented attack on the First Amendment. In February, the first week of the UK hearing of the US request for Assange’s extradition revealed a scale of this “war” that goes well beyond press freedom. What took place inside the Woolwich Crown Court in southeast London was a sign of a dangerous slippery slide towards fascism.

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Julian in the Dock, by Israel Shamir

Posted on March 13, 2020 | 1 comment

Julian Assange’s extradition hearing has been a combination kangaroo court and show trial. From Israel Shamir at unz.com:

Julian Assange’s extradition hearing has had very little media coverage. Even The Guardian and The New York Times barely mentioned it, though these newspapers made a fortune publishing Assange-provided cables. Unless you had been looking for it, you wouldn’t even know that on February 24 to 27, the first stage of Assange’s extradition hearing was being adjudicated in the secretive Woolwich Crown Court embedded within the huge Belmarsh Prison nicknamed “British Gitmo”. Luckily for us, Ambassador Craig Murray, the indomitable truth fighter, went there, waited in line for hours in the rain, underwent searches and discomfort, and wrote an extensive report (12,000 words) on this travesty of justice that went under the name of a ‘trial’. His reports leave nothing out, from the threatening atmosphere to the sinister legal arguments. He captured the menace and the abuse bordering with public torture, and delivered it to the world, something that none of the journalists on the payroll of the mass media had been allowed to do. Here are some insights from his report in my free rendering augmented with other sources.

The Court is designed with no other purpose than to exclude the public, on an island accessible only through navigating a maze of dual carriageways, the entire location and architecture of the building is predicated on preventing public access. It is in truth just the sentencing wing of Belmarsh prison.

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ASSANGE EXTRADITION: The Armoured Glass Box is an Instrument of Torture, by Craig Murray

Posted on March 2, 2020 | 1 comment

The latest of Craig Murray’s stories on the Julian Assange extradition proceeding, which he has attended every day. From Murray at craigmurray.org.uk:

In Thursday’s separate hearing on allowing Assange out of the armoured box to sit with his legal team, I witnessed directly that Baraitser’s ruling against Assange was brought by her into court BEFORE she heard defence counsel put the arguments, and delivered by her entirely unchanged.

I might start by explaining to you my position in the public gallery vis a vis the judge. All week I deliberately sat in the front, right hand seat. The gallery looks out through an armoured glass window at a height of about seven feet above the courtroom. It runs down one side of the court, and the extreme right hand end of the public gallery is above the judge’s bench, which sits below perpendicular to it. Remarkably therefore from the right hand seats of the public gallery you have an uninterrupted view of the top of the whole of the judge’s bench, and can see all the judge’s papers and computer screen.

Mark Summers QC outlined that in the case of Belousov vs Russia the European Court of Human Rights at Strasbourg ruled against the state of Russia because Belousov had been tried in a glass cage practically identical in construction and in position in court to that in which Assange now was. It hindered his participation in the trial and his free access to counsel, and deprived him of human dignity as a defendant.

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To Be Assanged: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix, by Caitlin Johnstone

Posted on March 1, 2020 | 1 comment

Random but pertinent musings from Caitlin Johnstone at medium.com:

Assange, verb. Use: To be assanged.
Meaning: when the nationless alliance of elites imprison a dissident by using their power to manipulate vagaries in the laws of their respective nations.
Eg “I have information on war crimes that I should leak but I don’t want to be assanged.”

~

Murderous governments who deceive their citizenry are not entitled to any degree of secrecy whatsoever.

~

A society is only as free as its most troublesome truth-teller.

~

The large and enthusiastic Assange demonstrations in the UK have filled me with gratitude and love, but they’ve also made me ashamed of Australia. Those crowds dwarf anything I’ve seen here in Melbourne, and he’s our man. The Brits are defending an Australian citizen better than Australia is.

This is what happens when you use the same mass media propaganda that’s used everywhere else on a population whose only cultural value is not getting worked up about things. Wake up, Australia! For fuck’s sake, now is the time to start caring about something!

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Your Man in the Public Gallery – Assange Hearing Day Four, by Craig Murray

Posted on February 29, 2020 | Leave a comment

Craig Murray reports on the fourth day of Julian Assange’s extradition hearing. From Murray at craigmurray.org.uk:

Please try this experiment for me.
Try asking this question out loud, in a tone of intellectual interest and engagement: “Are you suggesting that the two have the same effect?”.

Now try asking this question out loud, in a tone of hostility and incredulity bordering on sarcasm: “Are you suggesting that the two have the same effect?”.

Firstly, congratulations on your acting skills; you take direction very well. Secondly, is it not fascinating how precisely the same words can convey the opposite meaning dependent on modulation of stress, pitch, and volume?

Yesterday the prosecution continued its argument that the provision in the 2007 UK/US Extradition Treaty that bars extradition for political offences is a dead letter, and that Julian Assange’s objectives are not political in any event. James Lewis QC for the prosecution spoke for about an hour, and Edward Fitzgerald QC replied for the defence for about the same time. During Lewis’s presentation, he was interrupted by Judge Baraitser precisely once. During Fitzgerald’s reply, Baraitser interjected seventeen times.

In the transcript, those interruptions will not look unreasonable:
“Could you clarify that for me Mr Fitzgerald…”
“So how do you cope with Mr Lewis’s point that…”
“But surely that’s a circular argument…”
“But it’s not incorporated, is it?…”

All these and the other dozen interruptions were designed to appear to show the judge attempting to clarify the defence’s argument in a spirit of intellectual testing. But if you heard the tone of Baraitser’s voice, saw her body language and facial expressions, it was anything but.

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The only questions that should matter in the Assange extradition battle, by Elizabeth Farrelly

Posted on February 29, 2020 | Leave a comment

Julian Assange’s extradition trial has assumed an air of unreality as attorneys debate the patently obvious, such as whether or not Assange has been accused of a political crime. From Elizabeth Farrelly at smh.com.au:

Even in my bleakest moments I’m glad I’m not Julian Assange. Seven years trapped inside the embassy opposite Harrods, with fake news in the air and police in the bushes. (Yes, I was there. I saw them). That alone would send me mad.

Follow that with 10 months’ solitary in what former British diplomat Craig Murray calls Britain’s Lubyanka, the ultra-grim high-security Belmarsh Prison. There, Assange has been subject to such harassment, arbitrariness, strip searches and abuse that both the UN Special Rapporteur and a group of more than 60 British doctors were impelled to protest his “torture” and his fellow inmates petitioned for his release from solitary. And now a bizarre hearing-cum-trial-by-public-opinion ending in possible extradition, a potential 175-year penalty and likely death in a harsh foreign jail. Why? For telling the truth.

We’re familiar with people being chewed up and spat out by a government-media mobocracy. Clint Eastwood’s latest film, Richard Jewell, details such a story. Accused of planting the 1996 Atlanta bomb (when in fact he’d saved people), Jewell was eventually cleared, but not before his life was ruined.

Assange is charged with espionage. His life and psyche are already in tatters because such accusations, regardless of outcome, propel you into the nightmarish geopolitical stratosphere where law, politics and public opinion merge into a toxic soup.

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Assange extradition hearing is Damocles sword over journalists’ heads. But UK mainstream media participate in his crucifixion, by George Gallowy

Posted on February 28, 2020 | 1 comment

If Assange is extradited and then convicted in the US, freedom of the press is a dead letter, but the UK and US mainstream media are not supporting him. From George Galloway at rt.com:

Assange extradition hearing is Damocles sword over journalists’ heads. But UK mainstream media participate in his crucifixion
Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange outside Woolwich Crown Court © Getty Images / In Pictures / Claire Doherty
Assange extradition hearing should be the top story for the British media as it’s a dagger at their throat, but the majority of mainstream press either don’t care, or are actively participating in Wikileaks’ founder crucifixion.

Having myself been born onto the path of resistance and having by reason of chance and circumstance little choice but to resist, I am drawn to those who have chosen to stand there with me when not only had they alternatives, but in some cases already secured for themselves a place in the firmament of privilege. One such person spoke alongside me at the recent Assange Rally in London live-streamed to a huge audience by RT.

 

The Hon Craig Murray already had a glittering career in the British Foreign Office, Her Majesty’s Ambassador is no small thing to be even in these shrunken times for British foreign policy.

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Your Man in the Public Gallery – The Assange Hearing Day 3, by Craig Murray

Posted on February 27, 2020 | Leave a comment

Evidently allowing Julian Assange to sit with his attorneys might lead to the end of the United Kingdom as we know it. Craig Murray reports on this and other absurdities at Assange’s extradition hearing, day three. From Murray at craigmurray.org.uk:

In yesterday’s proceedings in court, the prosecution adopted arguments so stark and apparently unreasonable I have been fretting on how to write them up in a way that does not seem like caricature or unfair exaggeration on my part. What has been happening in this court has long moved beyond caricature. All I can do is give you my personal assurance that what I recount actually is what happened.

As usual, I shall deal with procedural matters and Julian’s treatment first, before getting in to a clear account of the legal arguments made.

Vanessa Baraitser is under a clear instruction to mimic concern by asking, near the end of every session just before we break anyway, if Julian is feeling well and whether he would like a break. She then routinely ignores his response. Yesterday he replied at some length he could not hear properly in his glass box and could not communicate with his lawyers (at some point yesterday they had started preventing him passing notes to his counsel, which I learn was the background to the aggressive prevention of his shaking Garzon’s hand goodbye).

Baraitser insisted he might only be heard through his counsel, which given he was prevented from instructing them was a bit rich. This being pointed out, we had a ten minute adjournment while Julian and his counsel were allowed to talk down in the cells – presumably where they could be more conveniently bugged yet again.

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First They Came for Assange… by Danny Sjursen

Posted on February 27, 2020 | 1 comment

If Assange is extradited to the US, anything other than a show trial will find him protected by the First Amendment. Of course, that doesn’t answer the question as to whether he’ll get anything but a show trial. From Danny Sjursen at antiwar.com:

“WikiLeaks, I love WikiLeaks.”
~ Donald Trump, October 10 2016, Wilkes-Barre, PA

“This WikiLeaks is like a treasure trove.”
~ Donald Trump, October 31, 2016 in Warren, MI

Back in the day, not so long ago, The Donald loved him some WikiLeaks. He said so on at least five occasions out on the campaign trail – in Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, and Michigan. That was when WikiLeaks, ostensibly at least, served his purposes by releasing hacked DNC emails that were rather unflattering to his opponent, Hillary Clinton. The MAGA crew must’ve agreed with him regarding the Julian Assange-headed web publication at the time: Trump carried all four battleground states, which propelled him into the White House. He’s had more than three years, now, to acclimate to his new digs and, somewhere along the way, pulled a 180 on Assange, whom his administration now labels “an enemy of the state who must be brought down.” So it is that this week, Assange began the fight – perhaps, quite literally, for his life – in the UK against the Justice Department’s stated intent to extradite and try him in the United States.

A journalist, a publisher, has been labeled by the U.S. Government as an “Enemy of America.” Now that’s dangerous language with scary historical precedent in America and abroad. Recall that the term has been used against “unfriendly” press elements by others: the military junta in Myanmar; Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez; Russia’s Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, President Richard “The press is your enemy” Nixon; and, you know, Cambodia’s Pol Pot, and Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, for starters. In our own history, press suppression, especially in times of war, is as American as apple pie. During World War I, the (still on the books) 1917 Espionage Act was usedto wage all-out combat against any and all critical media sources. Sometimes persecution bordered on the Orwellian absurd. For example, in September 1918, even The Nation was banned from the mail for four days by the US Postal Service simply for criticizing the pro-war labor leader Samuel Gompers.

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Your Man in the Public Gallery – Assange Hearing Day 1, by Craig Murray

Posted on February 26, 2020 | Leave a comment

The story of the Assange extradition hearing from Craig Murray, who has actually been at the hearing. From Murray at craigmurray.org.uk:

Woolwich Crown Court is designed to impose the power of the state. Normal courts in this country are public buildings, deliberately placed by our ancestors right in the centre of towns, almost always just up a few steps from a main street. The major purpose of their positioning and of their architecture was to facilitate public access in the belief that it is vital that justice can be seen by the public.

Woolwich Crown Court, which hosts Belmarsh Magistrates Court, is built on totally the opposite principle. It is designed with no other purpose than to exclude the public. Attached to a prison on a windswept marsh far from any normal social centre, an island accessible only through navigating a maze of dual carriageways, the entire location and architecture of the building is predicated on preventing public access. It is surrounded by a continuation of the same extremely heavy duty steel paling barrier that surrounds the prison. It is the most extraordinary thing, a courthouse which is a part of the prison system itself, a place where you are already considered guilty and in jail on arrival. Woolwich Crown Court is nothing but the physical negation of the presumption of innocence, the very incarnation of injustice in unyielding steel, concrete and armoured glass. It has precisely the same relationship to the administration of justice as Guantanamo Bay or the Lubyanka. It is in truth just the sentencing wing of Belmarsh prison.

When enquiring about facilities for the public to attend the hearing, an Assange activist was told by a member of court staff that we should realise that Woolwich is a “counter-terrorism court”. That is true de facto, but in truth a “counter-terrorism court” is an institution unknown to the UK constitution. Indeed, if a single day at Woolwich Crown Court does not convince you the existence of liberal democracy is now a lie, then your mind must be very closed indeed.

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