Friday 29th of November 2024
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the sordid, operational details of the anglo/saxon empire....

 

At every stage of its proceedings against Julian Assange, the US Imperium has shown little by way of tempering its vengeful impulses.  The WikiLeaks publisher, in uncovering the sordid, operational details of a global military power, would always have to pay.  Given the 18 charges he faces, 17 fashioned from that most repressive of instruments, the US Espionage Act of 1917, any sentence is bound to be hefty.  Were he to be extradited from the United Kingdom to the US, Assange will disappear into a carceral, life-ending dystopia.

 

BY Dr. Binoy Kampmark

 

In this saga of relentless mugging and persecution, the country that has featured regularly in commentary, yet done the least, is Australia.  Assange may well be an Australian national, but this has generally counted for naught.  Successive governments have tended to cower before the bullying disposition of Washington’s power. With the signing of the AUKUS pact and the inexorable surrender of Canberra’s military and diplomatic functions to Washington, any exertion of independent counsel and fair advice will be treated with sneering qualification.

The Albanese government has claimed, at various stages, to be pursuing the matter with its US counterparts with firm insistence.  Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has even publicly expressed his frustration at the lack of progress in finding a “diplomatic solution” to Assange’s plight.  But such frustrations have been tempered by an acceptance that legal processes must first run their course.

The substance of any such diplomatic solution remains vague.  But on August 14, the Sydney Morning Herald, citing US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy as its chief source, reported that a “resolution” to Assange’s plight might be in the offing.  “There is a way to resolve it,” the ambassador told the paper.  This could involve a reduction of any charges in favour of a guilty plea, with the details sketched out by the US Department of Justice.  In making her remarks, Kennedy clarified that this was more a matter for the DOJ than the State Department or any other department.  “So it’s not really a diplomatic issue, but I think there absolutely could be a resolution.”

In May, Kennedy met members of the Parliamentary Friends of Julian Assange Group to hear their concerns.  The previous month, 48 Australian MPs and Senators, including 13 from the governing Labor Party, wrote an open letter to the US Attorney General, Merrick Garland, warning that the prosecution “would set a dangerous precedent for all global citizens, journalists, publishers, media organizations and the freedom of the press.  It would also be needlessly damaging for the US as a world leader on freedom of expression and the rule of law.”

In a discussion with The Intercept, Gabriel Shipton, Assange’s brother, had his own analysis of the latest developments. “The [Biden] administration appears to be searching for an off-ramp ahead of [Albanese’s] first state visit to DC in October.”  In the event one wasn’t found, “we could see a repeat of a very public rebuff delivered by [US Secretary of State] Tony Blinken to the Australian Foreign Minister two weeks ago in Brisbane.”

That rebuff was particularly brutal, taking place on the occasion of the AUSMIN talks between the foreign and defence ministers of both Australia and the United States.  On that occasion, Foreign Minister Penny Wong remarked that Australia had made its position clear to their US counterparts “that Mr Assange’s case has dragged for too long, and our desire it be brought to a conclusion, and we’ve said that publicly and you would anticipate that that reflects also the positive we articulate in private.”

In his response, Secretary of State Blinken claimed to “understand” such views and admitted that the matter had been raised with himself and various offices of the US.  With such polite formalities acknowledged, Blinken proceeded to tell “our friends” what, exactly, Washington wished to do.  Assange had been “charged with very serious criminal conduct in the United States in connection with his alleged role in one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of our country.  The actions that he has alleged to have committed risked very serious harm to our national security, to the benefit of our adversaries, and put named sources at grave risk – grave risk – of physical harm, and grave risk of detention.”

Such an assessment, lazily assumed, repeatedly rebutted, and persistently disproved, went unchallenged by all the parties present, including the Australian ministers.  Nor did any members of the press deem it appropriate to challenge the account.  The unstated assumption here is that Assange is already guilty for absurd charges, a man condemned.

At this stage, such deals are the stuff of manipulation and fantasy.  The espionage charges have been drafted to inflate, rather than diminish any sentence.  Suggestions that the DOJ will somehow go soft must be treated with abundant scepticism.  The pursuit of Assange is laced by sentiments of revenge, intended to both inflict harm upon the publisher while deterring those wishing to publish US national security information.  As the Australian international law academic Don Rothwell observes, the plea deal may well take into account the four years spent in UK captivity, but is unlikely to either feature a complete scrapping of the charges, or exempt Assange from travelling to the US to admit his guilt.  “It’s not possible to strike a plea deal outside the relevant jurisdiction except in the most exceptional circumstances.”

Should any plea deal be successfully reached and implemented, thereby making Assange admit guilt, the terms of his return to Australia, assuming he survives any stint on US soil, will be onerous.  In effect, the US would merely be changing the prison warden while adjusting the terms of observation.  In place of British prison wardens will be Australian overseers unlikely to ever take kindly to the publication of national security information.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.  He currently lectures at RMIT University.  Email: bkampmark@gmail.com

 

https://southfront.org/assange-be-wary-the-dangers-of-a-us-plea-deal/

 

SEE ALSO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJRyMaJItdc

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ium0adJxqw8&t=496s

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW................

free speech.....

CNN — 

Dozens of news organizations on Sunday condemned a police raid on a Kansas newspaper and its publisher’s home, sending a letter to the local police department’s chief urging him to immediately return all seized materials.

The four-page letter, sent by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody, was signed by 34 news and press freedom organizations, including CNN, The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and others.

“Newsroom searches and seizures are among the most intrusive actions law enforcement can take with respect to the free press, and the most potentially suppressive of free speech by the press and the public,” the letter said.

The Marion County Record’s co-owner and publisher, Eric Meyer, believes Friday’s raid was prompted by a story published Wednesday about a local business owner. Authorities countered they are investigating what they called “identity theft” and “unlawful acts concerning computers,” according to a search warrant.

“Based on public reporting, the search warrant that has been published online, and your public statements to the press, there appears to be no justification for the breadth and intrusiveness of the search —particularly when other investigative steps may have been available — and we are concerned that it may have violated federal law strictly limiting federal, state, and local law enforcement’s ability to conduct newsroom searches,” the letter said. 

Computers, cell phones, and other materials were seized during the raid at the Marion County Record, Meyer confirmed to CNN. The search warrant identified a list of items law enforcement officials were allowed to seize, including “documents and records pertaining to Kari Newell,” the business owner who was the subject of the story, Meyer said.

Newell told CNN the Marion County Record unlawfully used her credentials to get information that was available only to law enforcement, private investigators and insurance agencies.

Chief Cody was not able to provide details on Friday’s raid, saying it remains an ongoing criminal investigation – but offered a justification.

“I believe when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated,” Cody told CNN in a statement. “I appreciate all the assistance from all the state and local investigators along with the entire judicial process thus far.”

But the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press said the police department should give back the items to the paper and its reporters.

“We urge you to immediately return the seized material to the Record, to purge any records that may already have been accessed, and to initiate a full independent and transparent review of your department’s actions.”

– CNN’s Sarah Moon contributed to this report

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/13/media/marion-county-record-letter/index.html

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW.............

 

cultural devolution.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYjte2drRnU

Globalism Effects on U.S. & Europe w/Alastair Crooke fmr Brit ambassador

 

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW.............

 

make a deal....

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Paul Whelan by phone on Wednesday, Whelan’s brother David has confirmed. Russia convicted the former US Marine of espionage in 2020 and sentenced him to 16 years behind bars. Washington considers him “wrongfully detained” and is trying to negotiate his release.

“I was aware that the call took place. I do not know anything, except that Paul apparently had a frank conversation with Secretary of State Blinken,” David Whelan told RIA Novosti, adding that Blinken is “a very kind person” to take time out of his busy schedule for a call to his imprisoned brother.

The State Department has yet to issue any official statements about the call. According to CNN, which cited a source familiar with the call, Blinken told Whelan to “keep the faith” and that the US is “doing everything we can to bring you home as soon as possible.”

Whelan was arrested in December 2018, after he accepted a flash drive from an undercover officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). His defense attorney insisted that Whelan had thought the drive contained photos from an event he attended with a Russian friend and argued that he was a victim of entrapment. Prosecutors said Whelan was after highly classified information about active-duty members of the FSB. He was found guilty in June 2020.

https://www.rt.com/news/581380-blinken-calls-whelan-espionage/

 

MAKE A DEAL:

ASSANGE'S FREEDOM FOR WHELAN'S FREEDOM, WITHOUT THE WESTERN MEDIA SAYING THAT ASSANGE WAS EVER A RUSSIAN ASSET. THE ONLY WAY TO PRESENT THIS IS ON A HUMANITARIAN LEVEL AND HELP THE USA SHOW THEY HAVEN'T A VINDICTIVE HEART, NOR AN OUNCE OF BAD WILL AND ARE GENEROUS..... KEEP ON DREAMING...

 

READ FROM TOP

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW..............

bring him home....

Nine former Attorneys-General, both State and Federal, have voiced their concern about the treatment of Australian citizen, journalist and publisher Julian Assange saying that enough is enough and his on-going detention must come to an end.

Former Victorian State Attorney-General Rob Hulls has joined with former Tasmanian Premier and Attorney-General Lara Giddings, another former Tasmanian Attorney-General Judy Jackson, former Queensland Attorney-General Rod Welford, former ACT Attorney General Bernard Collaery, former NSW Attorney General Bob Debus, former South Australian Attorneys-General Peter Duncan and Chris Sumner as well as former Federal Attorney-General Michael Duffy to call for an end to the inhumane, indefinite detention of an Australian citizen.

“Australian journalists have been rightly lauded in recent times for their work in exposing, in graphic detail, allegations of war crimes committed by Australian troops in Afghanistan,” Mr Hulls, who was Victorian AG from 1999 to 2010, said.

“By contrast, Julian Assange has been detained in London’s notorious Belmarsh prison for over four years because the U.S wants to extradite him to face charges which relate to the publication of details of US war crimes in both Afghanistan and Iraq,” he said.

Lara Giddings, who was Premier of Tasmania from January 2011 until March 2014 as well as being Attorney-General in that State from 2008 to 2011 also voiced her concerns about the treatment of Assange. “Regardless of what views people might have of Julian Assange, this man has had his freedom taken away from him for over eleven years. His on-going detention cannot be justified regardless of the rights or wrongs of his WikiLeaks exposé. He does not deserve to be left to the mercy of the United States legal system, where, if found guilty, he may well die in jail,” Ms Giddings said.

Tasmania’s first female Attorney-General Judy Jackson, who held the role from 2002 until 2006, also expressed disquiet about the plight of Assange.

“His treatment, as opposed to Australian journalists, is deeply troubling, given that in both cases the right of the public to know about war crimes, wherever and whenever they are committed, is crucial,” she said.

Former Queensland Attorney- General Rod Welford said that the indefinite jailing of Assange was unjust and had to be brought to an end.

“The on-going incarceration of Julian Assange is cruel and degrading in the extreme and amounts to the persecution of someone for exposing some inconvenient truths.” he said. Welford was Queensland AG and Minister for Justice from 2001 until 2005.

Former ACT Attorney-General Bernard Collaery, who was famously hounded for allegedly conspiring to communicate secret information about Australia’s involvement in the bugging of Timor-Leste’s Cabinet office, said that the pursuit of Assange has to stop. “The zealotry with which I was wrongfully pursued is being applied to Julian Assange. Powerful countries will do whatever they can to hide uncomfortable truths, and they don’t care about the collateral human damage,” he said. Collaery held the AG’s post in the ACT from 1989 until 1991.

Former South Australian Attorneys-General Peter Duncan and Chris Sumner believe that Julian Assange has become a political football to the detriment of justice and his health. “It is hard to fathom why this man has been in solitary confinement for so long while his fate seems to be part of a political game,” Mr Sumner, who was AG in South Australia in 1979 and from 1982 to 1993 and that States longest serving Attorney-General, said. “It is time to bring this saga to an end” said Peter Duncan, SA’s AG from 1975 to 1979.

Former NSW Attorney- General Bob Debus said that it was imperative that Australia upholds the human rights of Assange. “This Australian citizen is being detained in the harshest conditions and the toll on his mental and physical health must be enormous. We can’t stand by and do nothing,” he said. Mr Debus was NSW AG from 2000 to 2007 and was also Federal Home Affairs Minister from 2007 to 2009.

Former Federal Attorney-General in the Hawke and Keating Governments from 1990 to 1993 Michael Duffy, said the continuing detention of Julian Assange sets a dangerous precedent. “The United States is applying extra-territorial reach by seeking to charge a non-US citizen with crimes not committed in the US. This could potentially put at risk anyone in who publishes information that the US government deems to be classified for security reasons,” he said.

The former Attorneys-General have written to the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and the Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus expressing their concerns and seeking a renewed focus on getting Julian Assange released from Belmarsh Prison and returned to Australia.

 

Dear Prime Minister,

We write to you as former Attorneys-General and Ministers for Justice about the on-going plight of Australian citizen Julian Assange.

We believe that it is incumbent upon us, as former chief law officers and ministers with responsibility for the justice system within our various jurisdictions, to urge you and your Government to renew your endeavours to ensure our closest ally, the United States, ends its pursuit of Mr Assange so he can be released from Belmarsh prison and returned home to Australia. Whatever one’s view of his actions, he has not been a free man for eleven years and has arguably more than served his time, if he ever even had a case to answer.

As you would be aware, Australian journalists in recent times have been rightly lauded for their work in exposing allegations of war crimes committed by Australian troops in Afghanistan. In stark contrast, Julian Assange has been detained for over four years in London’s Belmarsh prison, on top of his effective imprisonment in the Embassy of Ecuador in London for seven years, because the US wants to extradite him to face charges which relate to the publication of details of US war crimes in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

We believe that the treatment of Julian Assange, as opposed to Australian journalists, is deeply troubling given that in both cases the right of the public to know about war crimes, whenever and wherever they are committed, is crucial.

In Australia we, quite rightly, condemn countries such as China, which seek to prosecute individuals who are not living in that country for exposing breaches of human rights or corruption. Despite this, the United States is applying extra-territorial reach by charging Assange, who is not a US citizen and did not commit alleged crimes in the US, under its Espionage Act. We believe that this sets a very dangerous precedent and has the potential to put at risk anyone, anywhere in the world, who publishes information that the US unilaterally deems to be classified for security reasons. This action should be of real concern to the Government because of its impact on journalists and whistle-blowers.

In relation to the on-going incarceration of Mr Assange, we say enough is enough and we look to you and your government to do all you can to satisfactorily resolve this matter quickly. As you have rightly said, both as Opposition leader and Prime minister, the Assange case must be brought to an end.

We have forwarded a copy of this correspondence to the Federal Attorney-General, the Honourable Mark Dreyfus KC.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

ETC....

 

https://johnmenadue.com/former-attorneys-general-say-enough-is-enough-in-relation-to-julian-assange/

 

SEE ALSO:

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW................. enough is enough — bring him home......