I have just started a Linked In group, Free Julian Assange. I would like to invite you to join it. I have a sense of mission to ignite a global mass movement to secure his release, and to stop all efforts of the U.S. to extradiate and prosecute him.
I would like to see Wikileaks recognized as a legitimate news organization.
Max Blumenthal was just arrested. No real journalist will be allowed to publish for long with Julian Assange imprisoned. This is THE freedom of the press issue of our times.
Please feel free to share this article.
The Fate of Julian Assange
How do
you break a global news outlet that governments can’t control? You make sure
that the founder of Wikileaks, the first exo-governmental Internet-based world
news outlet, is imprisoned and extradited, if possible, for a day in court with
enough charges to keep him imprisoned and inoperative for the rest of his life.
Julian
Assange created a new form of getting the truth out by publishing unedited
leaked material that allow readers to form their own conclusions. His business
was presenting facts, facts, and nothing but the facts, no matter how
uncomfortable the facts make those culpable of crimes. The U.S. is prosecuting
Julian Assange, instead of taking responsibility for war crimes in Iraq and
Afghanistan that Wikileaks revealed for the world to see. And the U.S.
government that controls the corporate media just won’t stand for such freedom
of the press.
Wikileaks revolutionized news
To
understand the nature of Wikileaks and the vendetta against Julian Assange,
it’s important to understand how Wikileaks revolutionized the news. In an
article published in The Atlantic July 25, 2010, Wikileaks May Have Just Changed
the Media Too, author
Alexis C. Madrigal observes, “In the new asymmetrical journalism, it's not
clear who is on what side or what the rules of engagement actually are. But the
reason Wikileaks may have just changed the media is that we found out that it
doesn't really matter. Their data is good, and that's what counts.”
He then
quotes NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen, who calls WikiLeaks the first "stateless news organization".
In media history up to now, the press is free to report on what the powerful
wish to keep secret because the laws of a given nation protect it," Rosen
writes. "But Wikileaks is able to report on what the powerful wish to keep
secret because the logic of the Internet permits it. This is new." 1
Politically-motivated
persecution of Julian Assange
Trumped
up rape charges (which were never actually filed) for sexual assault in Sweden
have been used to thwart Julian Assange. Knowing that his arrest in the U.K.
was a political ploy to neutralize him, he took refuge in the Ecuador Embassy
to escape extradition to the U.S., as Sweden would most certainly have
extradited him to the U.S., a daring, bold, and unusual move to evade extradition
to the U.S. In a recent decision by an
Uppsala Court, it was decided that Sweden will not extradite him from England
after all, which gives him a little room to breathe in Belmarsh Prison. 2
Extradition
for political reasons
Extradition
is a practice that should be given close scrutiny, especially when it is driven
by political reasons. In an article published in the Canary May 25, 2019, Julian Assange prosecution should
be dropped, says specialist extradition lawyer, Tom
Coburg writes, “Under UK extradition arrangements, selective prosecution
of this kind equates to political prosecution. And that is grounds for the
extradition to be denied.” 3
Seven
years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London Great
Britain spent over 10 million pounds on surveillance of Julian Assange, as
reported in the BBC in 2015. 4 When he was forcibly removed from the
Ecuadorian Embassy to Belmarsh Prison in 2019, the amount Great Britain had
spent on his surveillance in sum was
closer to 24 million pounds. 5
This
year, after seven years of Assange’s involuntary interment at the Ecuadorian
Embassy, disregarding legalities, Ecuador broke its promise of asylum, and
turned over Assange to be charged by the British justice system for escaping
bond. It’s a double cross of such magnitude that history books will no doubt
recant it for generations to come.
Julian
Assange in Belmarsh Prison
Once
the British took Assange into custody, he was forthwith taken to trial, without
any time to prepare his case. Although that is the usual procedure for a
prisoner to be allowed time to prepare his case, it would have been far too
generous for the British, who were in a vindictive mood. The presiding judge in
a London court, in blatant retaliation, punished Assange with a 50-week sentence
for jumping bail (not a major crime) in Belmarsh Prison, a high security prison
in London. Julian Assange never asked the Brits to spend all that money to pin
him down, and he should not bear the burden of further imprisonment and
punishment at Belmarsh Prison.
Freedom
of the press
Julian
Assange is the canary in the coal mine for freedom of the press. If he goes
free, we can all breathe a sigh of relief that journalists will not be treated
as criminals for publishing the truth. The U.S. wants to extradite Julian
Assange for charges of espionage. If it succeeds, no journalist in the world
could write a story criticizing the U.S. for the conduct of its military or in
its international relations, without facing extradition for espionage. That’s
the precedent that the U.S. wants to set. Never mind about freedom of the
press, let alone protecting whistleblowers.
Don't
forget that the attempt to imprison Julian Assange for the rest of his life in
a U.S. prison is an attack on the free press. In an article by Ed Pilkington
published in The Guardian April 12, 2019, Julian Assange's charges are
a direct assault on press freedom, experts warn: parts of the indictment go
head-to-head with basic journalistic activities protected by the First
Amendent, academics say, two press freedom advocacy groups were mentioned,
defending Julian Assange: The Committee to Protect
Journalists said the wording of the charges
contained “broad legal arguments about journalists soliciting information or
interacting with sources that could have chilling consequences for
investigative reporting and the publication of information of public
interest”. Freedom of the Press Foundation said:
“Whether or not you like Assange, the charge against him is a serious press
freedom threat and should be vigorously protested by all those who care about
the first amendment.” 6
First
Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects freedom of the press
In
today’s world, where the U.S. wages war with impunity, and has pretty much
muzzled the mainstream media, who would have thought that the U.S. actually has
a history of constitutional protections of freedom of the press? But we do. The
First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects freedom of speech and freedom
of the press. The United States government would no longer be following the
principles of its own Constitution if it were to prosecute Julian Assange for
information published on Wikileaks.
In a
recent court decision in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of
New York, Judge John Koeltl ruled against the Democratic National Caucus in
their suit against the Russian Federation. Judge Koeltl decided that
"second-level participants" (such as Julian Assange) had not aided
Russia in carrying out the hacks, and were thus shielded by the First Amendment
for their role in sharing information that had been illegally obtained.
The
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," Koeltl wrote in an 81-page opinion, issued
late Thursday. 7
Global war on journalism
If you're going to prosecute Julian Assange, why not take down all
of the publications that published facts from Wikileaks too? John Pilger,
in an
article The Global
War on Assange published on Consortium News June 4, 2018, listed media
organizations who collaborated with Wikileaks to co-publish the Aghanistan and
Iraq War Logs in 2010: Der Spiegel in Germany, the New York Times, the Guardian
and Espresso. Co-publishers of the Iraq material were Al Jazeera, Le Monde,
the
Bureau
of Investigative Journalism in London, Channel 4’s “Dispatches” in
London, the Iraq Body Count project in the U.K., RUV (Iceland), SVT
(Sweden). Pilger calls the attack on Assange a global war on journalism.
He further points out that “The
WikiLeaks disclosures, if not
co-published, were picked up by newspapers and journals and investigative programs
on television all over the world. That makes all the journalists involved, all
the producers, all the presenters, all of them complicit.” 8
UN Special Rapporteur Nils Melzer
claims Assange is a victim of psychological torture
The United Nations Nils Melzer Special Rapporteur on torture and
other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or Punishment, authorized by the
Human Rights Council of the United Nations to investigate claims of torture,
has found that
Assange has been a victim of
psychological torture and abuse by the governments of the
United Kingdom, Sweden, Ecuador, and the United States. He also stated that the
U.S. indictments against him are a criminalization of investigative journalism.
9
Nils Melzer wrote an article in June 26, 2019, Demasking the Torture of Julian
Assange. He debunks all of the smears against Assange, and
exposes how he has been systematically slandered as a rapist, hacker, Russian
spy who interfered with U.S. elections, an espionage master whose unredacted
disclosures caused people’s deaths, and as a selfish narcissist. 10
Nils Melzer also tweeted, “Only accountability prevents the
corruption of power.”
If Assange is extradited to the U.S., it will set a dangerous
precedent that telling the truth is a crime. The U.S. government will have
succeeded in censorship of those who reveal uncomfortable facts. The rich and
powerful will continue to wield power without being held accountable.
Article 19 argues that persecution of Julian Assange and Wikileaks violates his right to freedom of speech
Article 19 is a global organization that “works for a world
where all people everywhere can freely express themselves and actively engage
in public life without fear of discrimination.” They “promote media freedom,
increase access to information, protect journalists and human rights defenders,
fight the shrinking of civic space, and place human rights at the heart
of developing digital spaces.”
In an editorial article on their website, www.article19.org,
posted March 28, 2019, US: Actions against Assange and
Manning set a dangerous precedent, the
Article 19 team stated, “We believe these are efforts to criminalize
whistleblowing and the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression, and will
potentially create a chilling effect for the media and whistle-blowers at a
global level. The US government must respect the right to freedom of expression
in both cases, and ensure that anyone can publish information about serious
human rights violations without fear of reprisal and prosecution.” 11
Persecution of Julian Assange for publishing through Wikileaks is
a blatant violation of his right to freedom of speech, guaranteed by Article 19
of the Universal Declaration of Rights. Article 19: Everyone has the right to
freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinion
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers. 12
U.S. legal charges against Assange
The United States was a signatory to the Universal Declaration of
Rights in 1949,but never ratified it. However, Assange is not a U.S. citizen.
In prosecuting Assange, the United States is attempting to establish a
precedent for prosecuting journalists anywhere in the world who criticize its
conduct. 13
U.S. legal charges against Julian Assange are spurious; the first
legal action against him, Conspiracy to Commit Computer
Intrusion, filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria
Division March 6, 2018, was based on a lot of maybes of his having helped
Chelsea Manning gain access to Defense Department documents in 2010, with no
solid proof that he had helped her gain access to a password, and the U.S. had
weak arguments. 14 Subsequently, Assange has been charged with charged with 17 counts of violating the US Espionage Act,
with a cumulative sentence of 175 years in prison. 15 A federal grand jury
indicted Assange on charges of espionage in 2018. According to the extradition
agreement that the U.K. has with the U.S., extradition is not allowed for
political reasons.
Julian Assange should be released and all charges against him
dropped; he should go free immediately. Then we could breathe a collective sigh
of relief.
NOTES
ARIEL KY is
a retired ESL teacher with a journalism degree from San Diego State University,
who is now devoting herself full-time to writing. Presently living in Mexico,
Ms. Ky is a U.S. citizen who was born in Lansing, Michigan; she has led a
nomadic life, teaching English in China, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Andorra,
and Saudi Arabia. She has published political articles and comments on EarthRainbowNetwork,
Dandelion Salad, and Open Salon. Presently Ariel has a blog on Word
Press, https://paradigmshiftandpoliticsexpedioblog.blogspot.com/ and
is working on a book of short stories, “Feminist Fables”. A life-long
feminist, Ms. Ky was also part of a book team at the Los Angeles Feminist
Women’s Health Center that wrote, “A New View of a Woman’s Body”.
