Julian Assange: The UK Signs a Death Warrant for a Man and Independent Media
Julian Assange: The UK Signs a Death Warrant for a Man and Independent Media
The UK Signs a Death Warrant to a Man and Independent Media
[Image: a frame from Collateral Murder by Wikileaks just before the USA’s Apache helicopter’s canon begins murdering two journalists and other civilians. All images in this article are taken from videos included in sources.]
Publication date: 2022-06-18
Update 2022-06-19: I had missed an excellent article by Glenn Greenwald on the topic. It has been added to sources and worked into the article. Links to the two articles by Joe Lauria are added.
Update 2022-06-20: Two more timely articles are added to Sources, and those just published “late to the party” have been included in a Later Sources section.
Signing a Death Warrant
UK's Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has put her name to the extradition order for Julian Assange.
The Westminster Magistrate's court denied the extradition on medical grounds. During the High Court’s proceedings which overturned the lower court's ruling, Mr. Assange suffered a mini-stroke.
A man, a father, a lover, a brother, a son, Julian Assange, has received more journalism awards than this author knew existed. His news organisation Wikileaks has an infallible record on publishing true information. For this the USA has sentenced the publisher to death in prison. Truth is illegal.
Knowledge is Illegal
The day after the death warrant was signed this author surveyed news reporting in the three primary countries involved in this abuse, the USA, the UK and Australia. The survey included the New York Times, the Washington Post, the BBC, the Telegraph, the Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne's The Age, and Australia's national broadcaster, the ABC. Of these 7 corporations employing tens of thousands of journalists how many would publish an article which covered this event, which must be the most significant in journalism for the day? Does this case not set a precedent for the USA to prosecute journalists anywhere? The depressing answers are two and yes. The bottom of WaPo's home page hosts a relevant article. Close to the top of the ABC's news page is theirs. Neither speaks of the death of journalism being set by this precedent. Truth is suppressed.
The ABC article deserves acknowledgment. To the author, and editor, well done. To the rest, every single editor should resign. You are the gatekeepers. Don't tell me that articles were not written, tell me that you have created a culture in which your journalists learn that they should not write certain types of articles. Editors be damned! Banning a topic which exposes the gravest attack on media freedom since the 1970s shows us who you are and who you serve. You banish truth.
[Image: eggs in a nest, from Caitlin Johnstone’s birthday present to Julian Assange.]
Your author is aghast to see so few articles in the alternative "new" media. A failure of tiredness by Counter Punch, Mint Press News, Anti-War, The Grayzone, Global Research and The Unz Review. Two independent news publishers stand out, Consortium News and Scheer Post, though they publish and republish the same article by Joe Lauria. The voice is from independent journalists or commentators, rather than organisations: Caitlin Johnstone, Alex Christoforou, Glenn Greenwald, Kevin Gosztola and Richard Medhurst. This little publication joins the picket. Truth matters.
Bravery
The Julian Assange saga is so horrid that a UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Niels Melzer, had to write an entire book to outline the decade long constant and systemic torture. Every element of influence and power has been employed to attack Mr. Assange and Wikileaks: abuses of law, finance, media, and military intelligence to name a few. But, truth will out.
In Caitlin's article, with the repeated refrain "Because Assange stood his ground and fought them", she raises her fist into the air and proclaims that Julian's resistance in itself continues to shine the light of truth into dark corners of power. One of Mr. Assange's prizes is the Sam Adams Award from Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. The prize is a candle fitting to be placed in dark corners.
Rage against the dying of the light!
Richard Medhurst has been covering the constant abuse of Mr. Assange for years. He was in the court, or more precisely an adjacent room in the building, during the Magistrate hearings. He needs no "preparation" for his livestream. He has personal experience of Mr. Assange’s legal abuse. Richard is intimately aware of every element of the saga. He observed the truth.
[Image: a frame from Richard Medhurst’s livestream covering the Britain’s political approval of death by incarceration.]
The tiny handful of journalists who were in Baraitser's Magistrate court included Medhurst and Lauria. They also followed the High Court proceedings via remote video access. The High Court’s ruling overturned the Magistrate's decision based on flimsy "assurances". Lauria and Medhurst are surely tired, but they have not closed their eyes. An inspiration seems to burn within these witnesses to the crimes committed against Assange.
Another independent journalist, Glenn Greenwald, has wrapped his outrage in searing prose. He, like Caitlin Johnstone, highlights the hypocrisy of the UK and USA governments declaring themselves defenders of press freedom while they are killing an award winning journalist and publisher.
acTVism Munich has been following Julian's torture from the beginning. When the mother of Julian's children, and wife, Stella Assange, called a press conference to responding to Patel's approval of the death warrant, acTVism Munich were there with camera to view the room and presenters, with a microphone already positioned. acTVism make no comment, they record and publish. The "paper of record", the "Gray Lady", has no article, but acTVism Munich is there taking and publishing a record of response to this travesty.
Jennifer Robinson, Mr. Assange's legal counsel for more than a decade, sits beside Stella Assange.
[Image: a frame from the acTVism Munich video. Jennifer in red sits beside Stella, centre.]
Jennifer Robinson’s words sear the ears of the silent media:
This decision is a grave threat to freedom of speech, not just for Julian but for every journalist, editor and media worker in this country. He faces 175 years in prison for publishing information for which he's won journalism awards the world over and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
This should shock and concern everyone: every citizen, every journalist, every editor, every media organisation.
Update
Firstly, two honorable men deserve an apology from me. Of course Kevin Gosztola would publish a timely article on this debacle. He, like Lauria and Medhurst has covered the abuse of Assange from the early days, including following the numerous sessions in varying British courts. Additionally, I should have expected comment from Ed Snowden. You may have forgotten that it was Julian Assange who sent Sarah Harrison to assist Snowden in departing Hong Kong, but Ed has not.
Secondly, a collection of "late to the party" articles have been published in various alternative news sites on Sunday (one) or Monday (many). They are included in the Later Sources section below.
Sources
Ordered by date of publication, excepting Collateral Murder.
UK APPROVES ASSANGE EXTRADITION, Richard Medhurst, his channel at Rumble, 2022-06-17
BREAKING: UK approves extradition of Julian Assange, acTVism Munich, their channel at Rumble, 2022-06-17
'Another Dark Day': UK Government Approves Assange's Extradition To United States, Kevin Gosztola, The Dissenter, 2022-06-17
The UK's Decision to Extradite Assange Shows Why The US/UK's Freedom Lectures Are a Farce, Glenn Greenwald, his newsletter, 2022-06-17
Home Secretary Signs Assange Extradition Order, Joe Lauria (Editor-in-Chief of), Consortium News, 2022-06-17
Stella Assange: ‘We Are Going to Fight This’, Joe Lauria, Consortium News, 2022-06-17
'Hard to Believe': Snowden Slams Degradation of Human Rights in UK's Decision to Extradite Assange, Tim Korso, Sputnik News, 2022-06-17
Julian Assange will fight his extradition to the US, and Australia has precedent to help, Shiloh Payne, ABC, first published 12:00 AET Sat 2022-06-18
Assange Is Doing His Most Important Work Yet, Caitlin Johnstone, her newsletter, 2022-06-18
Julian Assange Extradition A Frontal Attack On Freedom Of The Press, Jimmy Dore and Misty Winston, The Jimmy Dore Show, 2022-06-18
Putin quotes Mark Twain, SPIEF. UK Patel extradites Assange. Pelosi blames Iraq War. Update 2, Alex Christoforou, his channel at Rumble, 2022-06-18
WikiLeaks: Collateral Murder (Iraq, 2007), People Over Politics, youtube channel, 2012-08-08
Later Sources
Free Assange? Yes, But That’s Not Nearly Enough., Thomas Knapp, Anti-War, 2022-06-20
Predictable Monstrosities: Priti Patel Approves Assange’s Extradition, Binoy Kampmark, Counter Punch, 2022-06-20
Julian Assange and the Albanese Government – Enough is enough!, Greg Barns, Pearls and Irritations, 2022-06-20
The British Government Has Flushed Honor, Paul Craig Roberts, The Unz Review, 2022-06-19
Culture
The Wizard (For Julian), Caitlin Johnstone, her newsletter, 2021-07-02. The publication date is Julian Assange’s birthday.
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Thank you "trouble making fake news" for spreading lies to MSM's "truth", the HLS thought police will soon be calling on you.