Very clear and helpful, in my opinion. Charles Debunking Common Myths About Julian Assange - by Richard Medhurst - Richard Medhurst’s Newsletter (substack.com)
Debunking Common Myths About Julian Assange Julian Assange turns 50 as he sits in London's Belmarsh prison, threatened with up to 175 years in a US jail for publishing evidence of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. | | Richard Medhurst | 2 hr ago | 1 | 1 | | | Australian journalist and founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange turned 50 years old on July 3rd. Born in He’s spending his 50th birthday in the Belmarsh prison, a category A men’s prison on the outskirts of London. It’s notorious for housing some of Britain’s worst criminals including members of Al Qaeda and has been dubbed Britain‘s Guantanamo Bay. So why is a journalist and a publisher in a maximum-security prison?There are many misconceptions about Julian Assange’s case. I’m Richard Medhurst and I covered his extradition hearing in London, so I’ll clear up some of these myths. -The first is that Julian Assange is in jail because of the 2016 elections. This is completely false. The United States is charging Julian Assange over leaked documents about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The indictment has nothing to do with the 2016 elections. The United States is charging him with 17 counts under the Espionage Act and 1 count under the Conspiracy to Commit Computer Intrusion. In total, he’s facing 175 years in prison in an indictment that seeks to effectively criminalize national security journalism.-People say that Assange committed treason. This is not only false but ridiculous. Julian Assange is an Australian citizen, not American. He did not publish anything or carry out any work inside the United States. Julian Assange doesn’t owe the United States allegiance, nor did he break some sort of non-disclosure agreement. The fact that the United States is trying to extradite an Australian man all the way from the United Kingdom to face 175 years in jail, should scare anyone. What would you say if China or Russia were trying to extradite an American journalist to face jail time for something they published in another country?Julian Assange’s Passport, asylum documentation and International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) ID card -Another myth is that Julian Assange is not a journalist and therefore he has no right to publish any documents. This is patently false. First of all, Julian Assange is definitely a journalist, he’s accredited by the International Federation of Journalists and has done more journalistic work than most of his critics put together. And more importantly, the first amendment in the United States doesn’t care if you’re a journalist or a teacher or a plumber. Everyone has the right to freedom of speech, whether they’re a journalist or otherwise.-People also think what Assange did is unprecedented. It’s not. The New York Times published the Pentagon Papers, classified documents given to them by whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg. Many people have and do this all the time. Asking sources to be careful or asking them for classified information is a standard journalistic practice. Out of the 18 charges against him, there is one hacking charge in the indictment. This is meant to portray Julian Assange as something other than a journalist, to smear him and to criminalize anyone soliciting sensitive information or undertaking national security journalism. This charge has been completely debunked in court by several expert witnesses.Executive summary from the report of DoD Information Review Task Force (2013, headed by Brigadier General Robert Carr) -Another myth you often hear is that the documents WikiLeaks published harmed the United States’ national security. This is a complete fabrication. The United States admits this themselves. The Pentagon setup an entire review board called the Information Review Task Force headed by Brigadier General Robert Carr in 2013 to ascertain whether this was true, and found that no one had ever been harmed as a result of WikiLeaks’ publications. This is the US government saying this.People think that if Assange has nothing to hide he should just “face the music” and that he would receive a fair trial. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Julian Assange is already guaranteed not to receive a fair trial because the United States spied on him while he was in the Ecuadorian Embassy. When he was forcibly removed from the embassy by London police, his personal belongings were handed over not to the British police, but directly to the Americans. This violates his right to due process under the US constitution and European Convention on Human Rights.-UC Global, a Spanish firm that was contracted to do security for the Ecuadorian embassy in London, also spied on Julian Assange by installing cameras throughout the embassy as well as secret microphones. They even spied on his conversations with his lawyer and had a plot in mind to kidnap and kill him. The testimony of several former employees corroborating this was presented in court, as the head of the firm, David Morales, is on trial in Spain. This is a gross breach of the fundamental right to due process. In any other circumstances, a judge would throw this case out immediately. Just as they did in Ellsberg case when the US government broke into his psychiatrists’ office.Also more recently, one of the key witnesses in the indictment against him, a convicted criminal from Iceland nicknamed ‘Siggi the hacker’, recently revealed that he completely fabricated his testimony against Assange in exchange for a deal from the US.-A myth you often hear is that Assange evaded justice. This is simply incorrect. Assange was given political asylum by Ecuador in 2012. That is his right under international law. The whole point of political asylum is precisely because that someone is being persecuted by the law. Just because it’s the law, doesn’t mean it’s fair. Most of what the Nazis did was technically lawful, does that mean that what they did was fair? Of course not. Assange’s asylum was withdrawn after the pro-American president Moreno was elected. In exchange for expelling Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy, Ecuador received a $4.2 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. By the way, the company that does security for Moreno daughter, UC Global, is the same company that did security for the Ecuadorian embassy in London and was contracted by American intelligence to spy on Assange and all his visitors, such as dismantling the phone of Italian Journalist Stefania Maurizi without her knowledge, or taking photographs of visitors passports and documents behind their backs.Stefania Maurizi @SMaurizi22.This is what happened to one of my phones inside the Ecuadorean Embassy: Spies( allegedly UC Global) unscrewed my phones and access my devices September 30th 202031 Retweets46 Likes-In January 2020, the judge overseeing the extradition, Judge Baraitser, ruled in favor of Assange and denied his extradition to the US. She did this solely on health grounds, citing Assange’s deteriorating mental and physical health, and the high risk of suicide that an extradition to the US would pose, given the inhumane conditions that he would be placed in. However, at the same time, she agreed with all of the political charges. So, while the result may be good for Assange, it’s not good for journalists when a British judge is siding with and agreeing with the US prosecution that standard journalistic practices are tantamount to espionage and hacking.US President Joe Biden decided to appeal the decision, and is seeking to extradite Assange, continuing Trump’s work of attacking the press and criminalizing journalism. This is incredible when people think that Julian Assange worked with Trump or something. Trump is the one who unsealed the indictment against him and Biden is now pursuing the extradition by appealing it.This is not just about the nature of the case, which is bad enough, but simply the number of illegalities, the sheer amount of things that the British, American and Swedish governments have done to violate Julian Assange’s rights and right to due process is absolutely staggering. His rights have been violated under British common law, under US law, under the European Convention on Human Rights, the convention against torture – there is no way you can look at this case and not find extraordinary foul play.Julian would almost certainly be put in administrative segregation, which is basically solitary confinement, and receive an unfair trial at the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, where the people on the jury either work or have family and friends who work in the intelligence community and are certain to convict him and find him guilty out of spite. Julian would then be sent to a prison such as ADX Colorado and placed in some of the most inhumane conditions for the rest of his life.-The reason Assange is currently in jail and facing 175 years in a US prison, the reason he is currently locked up in Belmarsh is because he published evidence of war crimes. I covered his entire extradition hearing in September which took place at the Old Bailey in London. Dozens of expert witnesses testified on Assange’s behalf, including Noam Chomsky, Andy Worthington, and countless other historians, journalists, doctors, writers and lawyers. They were all unequivocal. What is happening to Assange is unprecedented. It is an attack on the press and press freedoms. It is why all major human rights groups and journalistic organizations worldwide oppose and have condemned his extradition to the United States.-Julian Assange is the victim of a political witch hunt. The solicitation, gathering and publishing of classified materials is something that journalists do all the time. These are standard journalistic practices. By threatening Julian Assange, the US is threatening journalists everywhere. No matter what nationality they have, where they come from, who they work for or where they are residing. WikiLeaks published evidence of extraordinary crimes by the United States and their allies, including the murder of Iraqi civilians and journalists in the Collateral Murder video, evidence of kidnapping, rendition and torture, and much more. The Iraq War Logs, the Afghan War Diaries, Guantanamo Bay files and State Department Cables make up some of the most important journalistic works in modern history. Their publication helped torture victims of the CIA obtain compensation and the disclosure of more than 15,000 Iraqi casualties, previously unknown. 15.000, that is more than 4 times the number of victims of 9/11. These publications gave people a real glimpse into what really happened on the ground, and the reality that goes unreported in mainstream media. He exposed to the world the true face of US imperialism. Asssange showed that the wars the United States is fighting under the name of democracy and freedom are failures, and vehicles of suffering and death. And that is why he is facing 175 years in a US federal super max: for telling the truth. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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