Assange Day-X: A Post Day 1 Discussion
Peering into the abyss
Published: 2024-02-22
Assange's legal team had their chance to present to the judges the case for why the court should grant Assange this final UK appeal. The next day will be the US' arguments to the contrary.
Nobody has any idea about how long the judges will deliberate to issue their ruling, though some indication could be gained from the court proceedings. It was clear that these two judges are unfamiliar with many aspects of the case. One could level a charge of unpreparedness at them, though I feel this would be unhelpful and unproductive.
Oral arguments exist such that the barristers of either team can draw the judges' attention to specific areas which are fully described in the written submissions. It will be these written submissions which, theoretically, guide the judges deliberations.
A Discussion
This point, and its correspondent that the mission is to achieve the granting, or not, of an appeal, not to conduct an appeal, was provided by Mohammed Elmaazi. It was his organisation, Truth Defence, which provided the technical support (camera's, sound etc.) for the recording of a discussion between a collection of well informed individuals who gathered after the day's court proceedings. Please see Sources for articles written by persons at this event and the recording itself.
The attendees of this informal discussion are all experts in the ongoing persecution of Julian Assange, from the outset. Below is a description of each of the participants, in order from left to right around the horseshoe arrangement of the group seen in the video.
Participants
Fidel Narvaez [Ecuadorian] is a former consul of the Embassy in London in which Assange stayed while under the protection of Political Asylum granted by Ecuador. He has probably spent the most time with Julian Assange, of those in the room, after Craig Murray. He also has first hand experience of the surveillance applied by the Embassy's security contractor, UC Global, at the hands of the CIA through a connection via US gambling magnate Sheldon Adelson, as documented by Max Blumenthal. The ongoing court case in Spain against UC Global has, since the British Magistrate Baraitser's initial judgment against extradition, provided ample documentary evidence establishing this surveillance which destroyed Assange's lawyer-client privacy and that the CIA plotted to murder (by poison) or kidnap Assange.
Craig Murray [Scottish], the CIA torture program whistleblowing, Wikileaks associate, Scottish nationalist-independence advocate and former UK diplomat should be familiar to readers of this newsletter. He recently experienced a sequence of thefts of identity documents and other important items "including of phone, wallet, money and passport" at the hands of we-all-know-who, MI-$((6-1)), with the purpose of intimidation and probably to make it very difficult for him to once again cover an Assange trial from the court room. These efforts fell short of overcoming Mr. Murray's determination.
Three participants are seated on the couch.
Cathy Vogan [Australian] is a journalist for Consortium News and the producer of their CN Live! shows, possessing the skills for audio/visual production and streaming. She has been involved, like Consortium News, with the Assange defence since its earliest of phases.
Taylor Hudak [USA-Hungarian] is a journalist and anchor, who like all of the rest, has been involved in this case from the outset. She has worked for numerous organisations, including acTVism Munich where she hosted an interview program. She compares the discussion. I am glad to see her natural hair colour, rather than the died blonde variety which she used to sport. She has always had a calm, strength. This seems to exude more clearly in this softer setting and with her in a more natural state.
Chris Hedges [USA] is a Pulitzer prize winning, former NYT Middle East bureau chief, war correspondent, author, teacher and Presbyterian Minister who should also be familiar to readers.
Emmy Butlin [UK] is the longest serving organizer and street activist for Julian Assange. She has lead protests, day after, day after, day after day outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in Knightsbridge since he was first granted asylum and trapped there because the UK charged him with a bail violation for being there. [Don't even get me started] Emmy is astounding. She deeply understands the persecution on display while compassion flows through her. Woe betide anyone who underestimates her.
In the last chair sits Joe Lauria [USA], Editor-in-Chief of Consortium News, for the first half of the discussion. He is later replaced by Mohamed Elmaazi, Lauria's equivalent for Truth Defence, which records the event.
Elmaazi [UK], just like all of the rest, has been involved in communicating to the public the outrage of Assange's persecution from its earliest phases.
Elements of the US' deep-state have been killing the messenger, Assange, via lawfare for almost 15 years because the message, truth, is a threat to them. Anytime some US political leader says 'democracy' or 'freedom of the press', we say "Julian Assange".
An Anecdote
In order to encourage you to listen to the discussion among these knowledgeable individuals, below is presented an anecdote which was raised during the wide ranging discussion.
Emmy relates [00:35:00] how on the BBC that morning she heard coverage stating that "Julian Assange was wanted by the US for leaking classified information". She informs the group that she has used the official BBC mechanism to report this false reporting. Assange is charged with 1 count under the CFAA (Computer Fraud and Abuse Act) and 17 under the Espionage act. He did not 'leak'. He obtained and published.
Joe Lauria follows up and soon gets to the heart of the 'leak' false narrative, to which Murray also comments. Luke Harding, "of MI-6" (Murray), a journalist for The Guardian published a book on Wikileaks which included as the title for one of its chapters the passphrase to the encrypted archive which contained the State Department cables. Soon thereafter, John Young's Cryptome published the entire decrypted archive, releasing its contents to the world. It was after this that, the cat being out of the bag, Wikileaks then published the archive in decrypted form.
John Young has publicly called for the US Justice Department to charge him with whatever they want over this. They have done nothing. This proves that this is not an important matter to the US, and yet, as Emmy points out, this is the false narrative which the BBC are still running on the morning of the current appeal application.
This is a tiny window into the deception and lies with have suffused the cases against Assange since their inception.
or support this work via Buy Me A Coffee or Patreon.
Sources
Your Man on Assange's Final Appeal, Craig Murray, Consortium News, 2024-02-21
Julian Assange’s Day in Court, Chris Hedges, Consortium News, 2024-02-21
Reporter's Roundtable on Assange Hearing Day 1, Consortium News, 2024-02-20
in which is re-published the video below. Hats off to CN for publishing the names of the audio/video production staff.
‘The American friends’: New court files expose Sheldon Adelson’s security team in US spy operation against Julian Assange, Max Blumenthal, The Grayzone, 2020-04-14
WikiLeaks published unredacted cables after password was disclosed in book, Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly, 2020-09-22
Cryptome Founder Asks to be Indicted With Assange, Joe Lauria, ScheerPost (republished from Consortium News), 2022-11-30
12/2/22 John Young on Cryptome, Wikileaks and the Persecution of Julian Assange, Horton interviews Young, The Scott Horton Show, 2022-12-09
UK High Court Finally Hears Assange's Request For An Appeal, Mohamed Elmaazi, The Dissenter (Kevin Gosztola's publication), 2024-02-20
Assange Appeal Hearing Plagued By Media Access Issues, Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter, 2024-02-21
Truth Defence: LIVE - On the Julian Assange extradition hearing, Elmazri and guests, Truth Defence, 2024-02-20
Culture
Nas - N.Y. State of Mind (Official Audio), from the 1994 debut album Illmatic, uploaded 2017-05-19
Copyleft: CC0
