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Julian Assange

Daniel Ellsberg’s Day In Court For Julian Assange

June 24, 2023 Craig Murray, Consortium News. , , ,
The massive obituaries to Daniel Ellsberg last weekend in both The New York Times and Washington Post were proof of the status he held in the United States. Only presidents get an obituary that size. His name was not nearly so widely known in the U.K. I first met Dan on 3 May 2006 when we were giving a joint presentation at Berkeley. The large hall was full to overflowing and to my surprise there were young students queuing outside and striving to listen on stairways through open doors. The large majority of the audience were not born when Dan leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971.

Biden Would Need His Pound Of Flesh From Assange

June 23, 2023 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. , , , , , ,
Following the decision by High Court Judge Sir Jonathan Swift this month to reject Assange’s application to appeal his ordered extradition to the United States to stand trial on espionage charges, Assange’s legal team filed a new application to the High Court last week.  The decision on this application could come any day. If it is refused, Assange will have run out of legal options in Britain, and could only be saved by the intervention of the European court. There is also still a chance of a plea deal in which President Joe Biden would need to exact punishment of Assange to cover his political posterior.

The Imminent Extradition Of Julian Assange And The Death Of Journalism

June 20, 2023 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. , , ,
High Court Judge Jonathan Swift — who previously worked for a variety of British government agencies as a barrister and said his favorite clients are “security and intelligence agencies” — rejected two applications by Julian Assange’s lawyers to appeal his extradition last week. The extradition order was signed last June by Home Secretary Priti Patel. Julian’s legal team have filed a final application for appeal, the last option available in the British courts. If accepted, the case could proceed to a public hearing in front of two new High Court judges. If rejected, Julian could be immediately extradited to the United States where he will stand trial for 18 counts of violating the Espionage Act, charges that could see him receive a 175-year sentence, as early as this week.

Judge Worked For Same British Government Departments That Pursued Assange

June 19, 2023 Mark Curtis, Consortium News. , , ,
Jonathan Swift, the High Court judge who has rejected Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition to the U.S., has a long history of working for the government departments that are now persecuting the WikiLeaks founder. Swift, who ruled against Assange on June 6, was formerly the government’s favourite barrister. He worked as ‘First Treasury Counsel’ – the government’s top lawyer – from 2006 to 2014, a position in which he advised and represented the government in major litigation. Swift acted for the Defence and Home Secretaries in at least nine cases, Declassified has found. He also acted for the Cabinet Office, Justice Secretary and the Treasury, during his time as First Treasury Counsel.

Jonathan Swift’s Lilliputian Reasoning

June 12, 2023 Tareq Haddad, Consortium News. , , ,
Four years into Julian Assange’s imprisonment at H.M.P. Belmarsh and four years since plain-clothed officers from London’s Metropolitan Police Service dragged the WikiLeaks journalist and publisher out of Ecuador’s London embassy, taking him from Kensington to a maximum-security prison, a British judge last week rejected two separate applications made by Assange’s lawyers to appeal his extradition to the United States — striking down all submitted grounds. In making his judgements, Justice Jonathan Swift, formerly a lawyer for the British government [whose favourite clients he says were the intelligence services], also struck down the call from Assange’s lawyers to discuss new facts that have arisen in the case — concluding pithily: “The application to rely on fresh evidence is refused.”

High Court Denies Assange Right To Appeal

June 9, 2023 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. , , ,
The single judge on the court, Sir Jonathan Swift, issued the 3-page decision on Tuesday.  It is not yet publicly available on the High Court’s website.   In December, Assange appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. The court could issue an emergency injunction to stop Assange’s extradition until it examines the case.     Assange initially won the case against extradition in the lower court based on his health and conditions of U.S. prisons. This was overturned by the High Court after the court accepted U.S. written assurances that Assange would not be mistreated in U.S. prisons.  

The CIA Suit And New Proof It Spied On Assange

June 7, 2023 Consortium News. , , ,
The plaintiffs, all U.S. citizens who visited Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, claim in their lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency and former Director Mike Pompeo that their devices were surveilled at the embassy while seeing Assange. The C.I.A. has filed a motion to dismiss the case, but new evidence has emerged in a Spanish court case that provides further proof that the Spanish security company UC Global was contracted by the C.I.A. to spy on Assange 24/7 and on his visitors, including on privileged conversations with his lawyers. New files were discovered by Assange’s lawyers in Madrid that give direct evidence that UC Global was working for the C.I.A.

Report: FBI Reopens Assange Investigation

June 1, 2023 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. , , ,
Three years after indicting him on espionage and computer intrusion charges, the Federal Bureau of Investigation appears to be still seeking more evidence against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. The Sydney Morning Herald has reported in its Thursday edition that the F.B.I. last week sought an interview in London with Andrew O’Hagan, who worked as a ghostwriter on Assange’s autobiography in 2011. The London Metropolitan Police’s counterterrorism command sent the letter to O’Hagan, which said: “The FBI would like to discuss your experiences with Assange/WikiLeaks …” O’Hagan told the Herald: “I would not give a witness statement against a fellow journalist being pursued for telling the truth. 

Biden Missing, But Assange Sydney Rally Goes On

May 25, 2023 Consortium News. , , , ,
Joe Biden was due in Sydney Wednesday where he’s facing increased pressure to let Julian Assange go. Biden cancelled the trip but a rally in Hyde Park sent him the message anyway.   Stella Assange, Scott Ludlum, John Shipton, Gabriel Shipton, David McBride and Stephen Kenny addressed the rally Wednesday morning. Stella Assange, on her first trip to Australia, vowed that she would return with a liberated Julian Assange and their children to his home country.

Australian MPS Meet US Envoy Caroline Kennedy On Assange

May 9, 2023 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. , , ,
A cross party delegation of Australian legislators met on Tuesday morning in Canberra with Caroline Kennedy, the U.S. ambassador, to discuss the continued U.S. prosecution of imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. U.S. President Joe Biden is due in Australia in two weeks as the pressure continues to mount on him from presidents, parliaments, the public and human rights and press freedom groups to free Assange. The Sydney Morning Herald quoted Senator Andrew Wilkie, who took part in the meeting with Kennedy, as saying: “This is an intensely important time with the US President about to visit. It would be very unhelpful if he comes to Australia and this issue is still unresolved, it will hang over us all in an uncomfortable way.” “The US and Australia have a very important and close relationship, and it’s time to demonstrate that,” Wilkie said.

Monopolies, Prosecution Of Assange Drive Drop In US Press Freedom Rank

May 9, 2023 Mark Taylor-Canfield, Truthout. , , , , , ,
CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin interrupted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a Washington Post-sponsored World Press Freedom Day event on May 3, taking the stage where a Post journalist was interviewing Blinken. Benjamin demanded that the U.S. and United Kingdom free imprisoned WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. A group of men in suits, presumably Secret Service agents, immediately charged onto the stage and forcibly removed Benjamin and another activist who joined her. Blinken, however, failed to address either Assange’s persecution or the U.S.’s continued decline in press freedom after the disruption.

Albanese ‘Frustrated’ With US Over Assange

May 5, 2023 Joe Lauria, Consortium News. , , ,
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he has unequivocally stated his position to the United States that a diplomatic resolution of the case of Julian Assange must be made. In his clearest statement yet about the fate of the imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher, Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in an interview in London that he has told the U.S. Justice Department that Assange’s case must come to an end. “I continue to say in private what I said publicly as Labor leader and what I’ve said as Prime Minister, that enough is enough,” Albanese  told the ABC. “This needs to be brought to a conclusion.”

Julian Assange And World Press Freedom Day

May 4, 2023 Chris Hedges, Scheer Post. , , ,
The detention and persecution of Julian Assange eviscerates all pretense of the rule of law and the rights of a free press. The illegalities, embraced by the Ecuadorian, British, Swedish and U.S. governments are ominous. They presage a world where the internal workings, abuses, corruption, lies and crimes, especially war crimes, carried out by corporate states and the global ruling elite, will be masked from the public. They presage a world where those with the courage and integrity to expose the misuse of power will be hunted down, tortured, subjected to sham trials and given lifetime prison terms in solitary confinement.

Biden Slams Arrest Of US Journalist In Russia But Pursues Assange

May 2, 2023 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. , , , , ,
May 3, 2023, will mark the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, which the United Nations established to remind governments about the need to respect their commitment to freedom of the press. But as the Biden administration proclaims the centrality of press freedom globally, its hypocrisy in pursuing journalist and publisher Julian Assange is stunning. The Biden administration recently expressed outrage that Russia arrested journalist Evan Gershkovich of The Wall Street Journal, a United States citizen based in Moscow, for practicing journalism. Gershkovich is now incarcerated in Russia, facing espionage charges that could garner him 20 years in prison.

First Amendment Authorized Assange’s Possession Of Classified Data

April 21, 2023 Bruce Afran, Consortium News. , , , ,
Last week marked four years of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange being held at Britain’s Belmarsh Prison while he awaits the outcome of his fight to block extradition to the United States. While the U.S. government is also charging Assange with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion,  the core of its case is that Assange violated the 1917 Espionage Act by “possessing” and releasing “defense” material that caused “injury” to the United States or gave “advantage” to other nations, a boundless and limitless standard that can turn virtually any journalist or blogger into a criminal defendant. No other direction, definition or limitation appears in this law that is now being applied to Assange.
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