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Update: Julian Assange, courtesy of his own Wikileaks revealed war crimes in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. And it also presented evidence of abuse of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, many of whom were not a terrorist threat. [1]
He paid a heavy price.
His seven years residing in sanctuary in the Ecuadorian embassy followed by five years of hell in Belmarsh maximum security prison came to a close when he signed a plea deal on June 24 of this year. He agreed “to plead guilty to ONE felony related to the disclosure of national security information in exchange for his release from Belmarsh Prison in the United Kingdom.” [2]
The plea was decided in the District Court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory in the Pacific. [3]
As detailed by Professor Michel Chossudovsky on June 25, a letter sent by the U.S. Department of Justice to the District Court Judge on the 24th reads as an instruction to the Judge prior to the Court procedure on June 26. Such a procedure constitutes a violation of the principle of the Court Judge being independent. It constitutes a criminalization of Justice. [4]
Furthermore, it constitutes a means of creating a legal precedent whereby both mainstream and independent journalists can be prosecuted for writing/broadcasting information that had been disclosed to them about the wrongdoing of the U.S. government. [5]
The mainstream media who supported Assange earlier turned their back on him during the time of the RussiaGate allegation in early 2017 when Donald Trump’s election was helped by the leak of hacked Democratic Party emails. Assange was identified (falsely) as “Putin’s Stooge” and abandoned by the journalistic establishment. [6]
Was this all part of an effort to provide legitimacy to some information that protected U.S, foreign policy why concealing crimes of the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence?
Michael Welch, Global Research, Updated on July 5, 2024
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Journalism in the Crosshairs: The Julian Assange Case
Global Research News Hour
November 5, 2021
“Reality is an aspect of property. It must be seized. And investigative journalism is the noble art of seizing reality back from the powerful.”
― Julian Assange – The Unauthorised Autobiography
LISTEN TO THE SHOW
Click to download the audio (MP3 format)
A series of crimes and misdemeanors were conducted during the Iraq and Afghan wars by members of the United States military were revealed to the general public. Official documents and video footage showed that it happened. It was indisputable. [7][8]
In the face of this evidence, U.S. officials sprang into action, but not so much to get to the bottom of these horrendous outrages. To date, of the people responsible for gunning down to death 18 civilians during the 2007 Collateral Murder incident revealed in April 2010, not a single one has been held responsible. No, the object of the U.S. government’s fury was the man who founded the non-profit organization that published it. His name is Julian Assange. [9]
Assange has been dogged by the American government for 11 years. He has been dodging an allegation of sexual assault in Sweden which was eventually withdrawn. He declared political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy and stayed there for seven years. He was targeted by an indictment manufactured with the assistance of accusations from former Wikileaks volunteer Sigurdur Thordarson who finally admitted he lied earlier this year. He had been dealing with the CIA spying on him, his lawyers thanks to the Spanish security firm ‘protecting’ his Ecuador abode.
Now he is struggling with a prison sentence at Belmarsh Prison, described by a local group Prison Phone as “Britain’s toughest prison.” He has spent two and a half years there, and may be facing many more. He has been through an extradition hearing in the fall of last year, and just recently faced an appeal of the bloc of extradition.
All this because he published the information of a whistle-blower. Something we would expect any journalistic media organization to do.
The only difference is that the ease with which entire documents can be uploaded constitutes a major threat to government’s ability to conceal information. Something that won’t be tolerated in the era when so much is being concealed in the new era of waging a Global War on Terrorism.
This week’s episode of the Global Research News Hour is entitled Journalism in the Cross-Hairs: The Julian Assange Case. It explores the unique characteristics of both Julian Assange the man and Wikileaks the technology in nailing the U.S. military (criminal) apparatus in a weak spot. Over the course of 60 minutes, we will be joined by several individuals who have devoted significant attention to his cause and to the quest for his release.
Stella Moris is a South African lawyer who met Julian Assange when she joined the legal team. She eventually became his partner and fiancée and had two sons with him.
John Shipton if the father of Julian Assange, and has traveled abroad to promote his son’s release.
John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He blew the whistle on the CIA’s use of torture and ended up serving 23 months in prison.
Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and has been a correspondent for the Boston Globe, The Sunday Times of London, and the Wall Street Journal among other publications.
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research. He has written a scholarly paper on Wikileaks and ran for the Wikileaks Party alongside Assange during the 2013 Australian Senate elections.
Megan Sherman is an English musician, poet and activist deeply inspired by John Lennon. She has a bachelors degree in Modern History and Politics. Julian Assange profoundly influenced her in a good way. She is also a contributor to Global Research.
John Pilger is a world-renowned journalist and filmmaker. The author of several books and maker of over 60 documentaries (the latest being The Coming War on China and The Dirty War on the NHS), Pilger has won dozens of prestigious awards and has been honored by several universities.
(Global Research News Hour Episode 331)
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The Global Research News Hour airs every Friday at 1pm CT on CKUW 95.9FM out of the University of Winnipeg. The programme is also podcast at globalresearch.ca .
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Notes:
- https://www.globalresearch.ca/julian-assange-free-war-crimes-exposed/5861643
- https://www.globalresearch.ca/wiki-gate-julian-assange-was-framed-by-the-people-who-supported-him/5660128?utm_campaign=magnet&utm_source=article_page&utm_medium=related_articles
- ibid
- ibid
- ibid
- ibid
- Anorak News (October 23, 2010), ‘Julian Assange’s Wikileaks Press Conference: Full Text Of Speech On Iraq Civilian Dead‘
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/25/afghanistan-war-logs-military-leaks
- Yost, Pete (November 29, 2010). “Holder says WikiLeaks under criminal investigation”. Boston Globe. Associated Press.
