DISCUSS: Assange Extradition Hearing
Julian Assange’s extradition hearing is underway as of this morning, at Woolwich Crown Court. It will be his first public appearance since last May.
However fair, impartial, or even real this legal process is, there’s no question of its importance in terms of the idea of free speech. Even if you don’t buy the Assange narrative is genuine – and we get a lot of comments and tweets from people who think that way – the narrative is still that he’s on trial for simply publishing documents the US would rather he didn’t. Which is totally unacceptable.
Assange’s father reported that the WikiLeaks founder was being harassed the day before his trial began:
Breaking: QC for the US at Julian #Assange extradition hearing says documents from Wikileaks were found at the home of Osama Bin Laden when it was raided by American troops.
— James Doleman (@jamesdoleman) February 24, 2020
Early signs are that the QC’s arguing for the Assange to be “sent back” to America, have no interest in being either honest or especially subtle.
Breaking: QC for the US at Julian #Assange extradition hearing says documents from Wikileaks were found at the home of Osama Bin Laden when it was raided by American troops.
— James Doleman (@jamesdoleman) February 24, 2020
…or, indeed, that they even know exactly how Assange is meant to have broken the law:
James Lewis QC states Assange knew publishing documents to the internet would be so damaging to security and intel services in United States and damaging to armed forces, as well as US interests.
— Kevin Gosztola (@kgosztola) February 24, 2020
NOTE: “Damaging US interests” is not a crime. Yet.
The media are gearing up to cover it, with a possible slight change in attitude at The Guardian (a development that bears watching), although the subject is conspicuous by its absence on the BBC Homepage.
As always, discuss below.
Following discussion among the editors, it update detailing the court proceedings thus far has been split into a separate article.
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Excellent reporting from Kevin Gosztola on Day 2
“Julian Assange Extradition Hearing – Day 2 Recap”
Kevin’s twitter feed is the go-to for live updates from the courtroom.
So Chelsea plays quite an important role in this hearing. I feel bad. I so should have pushed harder for the truth of her being an intelligence asset and Collateral Murder being fake. What a sad charade. It doesn’t matter what group people allege to be in – those seeking the truth or those just wanting to get along – certain truths will always be treated with hostility, evidenced in my comment below receiving 8 downvotes, an accusatory comment and a single upvote, but not a soul chiming in, just the truth out there all on its lonesome, completely unsupported. Nowhere is there any argument for Chelsea not being an intelligence asset or for the veracity of Collateral Murder. No there’s never any argument for those two claims … because, of course, there isn’t any argument to be made in that direction. The perps are good that way, we can… Read more »
LOL. No matter what pre-emptive measures, I knew I’d get at least one inarticulate, moronically hostile downvote. Perhaps though with any luck it was just part of a controlled opposition campaign to wear me down or something. Not holding my breath for anyone chiming in with the taboo truth that Chelsea is an intelligence asset and Collateral Murder is fake. Not holding my breath for that. To be a truthseeker you cannot respect taboos, respecting taboos is the antithesis of truthseeking … and, of course, that’s what the power elite rely on. They rely so very much on the power of taboo and they know they can count 100% on respect of taboos whether among the masses or among those who claim to be critics of power. There are the very, very powerful taboos around death which keep people fearfully mute but then there are other taboos created simply from… Read more »
Admin
I urge you to publish Craig Murrays first day report on Off-G.
He has given permission for it’s reprint. There is no excuse for not reporting the first days farce in the ‘Westminster Court’ not being held at Westminster Court.
British Justice:
What does being ‘stripped’ imply?
I never thought, and wrote, that Assange would never be charged with anything by the Swedes because the allegations and case against him was so incredibly weak and really, close to non-existant. I think the same applies to this latest extradition hearing. I’d be stunned if, in the end the UK courts decide to extradite him to the US because the whole thing is so transparently political in nature and, therefore he cannot be extradited. That Donald Trump is in power makes it even less likely. The Supreme Court won’t allow it to happen. What’s extraordinary how little interest the UK media is showing in this trial, even though what’s happening directly affects them and the sanctions could easily be applied to them next; something the prosecution has already alluded to. It’s almost like we already live in a kind of police state where to tell the truth about the… Read more »
They don’t care that it’s political.
What’s going to happen is that they’ll ignore the political aspect whilst ruling that mere possession of classified material is an extraditable offence irrespective of how that material was acquired or for what purpose.
In other words journalism is illegal.
Yes, we are living in a police state. Look out of your window, the whole country is riddled from top to bottom with wireless security/military surveillance and communication hardware, it is now a militarized zone and they haven’t even installed 5G yet. We are living in horrible times and the UK is a major part of the disease. All this wireless stuff is your enemy. This industry is where the military and public-corporate worlds converge
Prepare to be stunned. This is really existing ‘Rule of Law’ in the West in action.
Mossange! he will be fine it’s a controlled opposition
You can tell by his state of health that he is not controlled opposition no matter what nonsense he says about 9/11. Equally, you can tell by her state of health that Chelsea Manning is.
Meanwhile the mainstream media seem far more interested in the trial of an American film mogul in an American court. Funny that.
Yes he’ll more than likely end up with a heart aattck and end up in Israel with the rest of his ‘dead’ mates
Knowing that her judgement will receive a lot of legal scrutiny… worldwide, tends to concentrate the mind. The Judge doesn’t want to ‘fuck up’ the case too obviously because her legal reputation is on the line too. If she finds in favour of the Americans, which may not happen; the case will be appealed to a higher court and then if the first ruling isn’t overturned, upwards to the UK Supreme Court which will examine the legal principles involved in minute detail. Then we’re off to the European Court of Human Rights! But will it come to that? This whole thing will drag on for years and years and the longer it lasts the harder it will be to hand Assange over to the Americans and the real nature of the case will be harder and harder to ignore. Also the higher up the legal system one goes the better… Read more »
Not if Assange has a ‘heart attack’, it won’t. Something like the Milosevic Method.
There is NOTHING (as in utter blank, rien, nada, zilch, zero, sifr) on today’s Graun website about the Assange hearing. So it is clearly of no importance to them. Kit-Catte are going to have a field day with next week’s Groaniad roundup.
Craig Murray has a long account of yesterday’s proceedings on his blog.
On the contrary, this is of very great importance to the Graun. Their twisting and distortion of the truth is an appalling stain on their entire history, and that’s exactly why they want complete silence about it. It’s an embarrassment to them, and silencing it is probably a full-time job.
Lady Arbuthnot:
And the lady herebelow believes your lady represents a ‘fair and robust British justice system’.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/06/julie-bishop-coalition-should-lead-world-on-climate-despite-missteps-on-bushfires#img-1
Various Austfailian regimes, particularly Coal-ition ones, have sabotaged efforts at COP meetings for decades. For Bishop to propose that the current rabble of hard Right, denialist, genocidaires should ‘lead the world’ is, superficially, extraordinarily ludicrous in a crudely preposterous way, but also makes one suspect that one of Bishop’s botox injections might have penetrated her reptilian ‘brain’.
Like an alien species, some malevolent arthropod or other.
Lady Annunakthnot.
What I find very sad is that so many documents leaked to Wikileaks will be frauds, not in that their source is not genuine but they were fabricated at their source so they are real in a sense but sham, eg, Collateral Murder. https://occamsrazorterrorevents.weebly.com/wikileaks-controlled-opposition.html I was prompted to look up Dr David Kelly’s death which skeptics believe was caused by murder. I wondered. Could his death really have been neither suicide or murder but one of those oh-so-many “disappearances”. Is there some island where all the disappearees go to – another Epstein island that isn’t on the map? Seriously, folks, all you have to do is look up Wikipedia. That is all you have to do. When you get to ludicrousness or something that makes you laugh heartily you know it’s fake. When I got to a certain point in Kelly’s page I laughed heartily. If anyone cares to read… Read more »
“…so many documents leaked to Wikileaks will be frauds, not in that their source is not genuine but they were fabricated at their source so they are real in a sense but sham, eg, Collateral Murder.”
Did you type that with your fingers that are shorter on one hand than on the other or with your fingers that are longer on the other hand than on one?
David Kelly, living on an island somewhere while family and professional networks play along with the charade – is that what are saying?
Perhaps you didn’t know that just 3 hours after David Kelly’s death had been reported Tony Blair was instructing his former flatmate Lord Falconer to set up a Public Inquiry (conducted by Lord Hutton) rather than a coroners inquest – even though the grinning assassin was en route to Japan at the time, and could not been aware of the full circumstances leading up to the discovery of Kelly’s lifeless body.
Miles Goslett has investigated this episode in some detail and seems fairly certain that whatever it was that happened to David Kelly it wasn’t suicide, and while he doesn’t actually say it I doubt if he subscribes to the secret island theory either.
Harry, I know zero but I do understanding the coding in Wikipedia. You seem to discount the possibility that everything is staged and that these seemingly upstanding figures may all be in it together. The finger pointing, the choice of Public Inquiry rather than coroner’s inquest – whatever, all staged, just like the 9/11 Commission. Did you read the Wikipedia article? Please read it and get back to me then. What you need to really take on board is that they control all narratives. They don’t just control the mass-directed narrative, they control ALL narratives. We need to let go of the narratives, of anything they tell us and look closely at the evidence ourselves. The thing is they always slip out the clues, they’re good that way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kelly_(weapons_expert) What they constantly do is report Event A while suggesting to the skeptics that actually it was Event B that happened.… Read more »
Masterly understatement.
They don’t just control the mass-directed narrative, they control ALL narratives.
It seems highly likely that they control YOUR narrative, anyway.
Have pity, milosevic-they are inside her head!
Just to add in the case of Jeffrey Epstein people are wise to the fact tbat it’s not Event A for the masses (suicide) nor Event B for the skeptics (murder) but Event C (whisked off somewhere) so not unreasonable to think that the same doesn’t also happen in other cases.
Did some further research and all else I’ve found sounds like nonsense. Of course, what they told us about JFK’s assassination was nonsense too, eg, the alleged assassin’s choice of weapon being a relic of Mussolini’s WWII forces, a Carcano, and JFK really was killed so maybe despite the complete and utter nonsense they tell us about Kelly’s alleged suicide they really did kill him but it would seem odd to me – to give the game away so very obviously: pruning knife, tablets although he suffered dysphagia (fear of swallowing) and unlikely bleeding to death through severance of the ulnar artery, and his means of trying to suicide – both pills and knife. And surely, his wife, the rest of his family, friends and colleagues would not just stand by like that. Then again the Kennedys did … and they stood by a second and third time. Such a… Read more »
They never found Bin Laden at his alleged “home” since he died in late 2001. But lets accept the myth that this was true. They also found books by various other authors at his alleged other hide out in Tora Bora as well. What they didn’t find was any plan to carry out 9/11, but I digress.
Including those by various journalists from various mainstream news publications such as the WaPo, NYT and horrors!!! The Guardian!!!
Shouldn’t those scribes that wrote those books be “returned” to the US as well?
By the way as far as know Julian has never set foot on US soil so how can he returned? Unless the USG presumptuously and arrogantly considers they own everything and everyone on the planet.
… Found at the house of OBL … haahhh! Haahhh! Haaa! What a total load of horse-manure. Who writes this crap?
Firstly, OBL was a figment of the CIA imagination, i.e. the boogey-man (Mark Osmand, or Osmond)) created for the sheeple or any other dills gullible enough to believe the crap from the architects of evil. Secondly, which home, the alleged cave-dwelling, or the fictitious digs in Pakistan?
Osama bin Laden’s name as a CIA agent was Tim Osman.
You’re spot on. Tah! My memory’s getting a wee bit addled with trying to keep up with the sheer volume of dung shoveled out by the ‘Security Industrial Complex.’ and their minions.
I relented again, for the 2nd day in a row, and watched the SBS News coverage (here in Aussie) of the extradition hearing, and yep, they made sure to mention the Osama Bin Laden bollocks.
This is the sort of guff the slightly lefty bourgie types lap up with relish – the sort who fully believe the White Helmets are civil defence heroes; who believe the sun shines out of Obama’s rectum.
Those sorts… the comfortable middle class. The same type who fervently believe Assange is a rapist, yet completely ignore the millions of dead and displaced human beings in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya and Palestine and the horrors perpetrated on those countries, and tightly close their eyes to the sickening consequences of imperialism.
Yet screech…. ‘Rapist, rapist, you’re defending a rapist’ whenever the name Julian Assange is mentioned.
It’s almost too surreal….
Its worth dwelling on the selective outrage of what I am going to refer to as ‘the standard Guardian reader’ because this outrage tells us two things. First and foremost it exposes utter indifference to horrific crimes committed in order to secure markets for economic predators – the main reason for this is that Iraqis, Syrians, Afghanis, Libyans, or Palestinians do not belong to PC groups that invoke the kind of authentic rage Guardian journalists (and their conditioned followers) exhibit should any individual step over certain lines that have been drawn for them. When directly challenged about it they tend to reluctantly admit that, yes it was probably wrong for Tony Blair to buddy up with Bush in order to lay waste to the Middle East, but OMG, did you see what someone said on Twitter about ……. select from menu of oppressed groups the Guardian obsesses about, which strangely… Read more »
Four words Harry: Hammer. Nail. Head. Bang.
Oh, and groupthink is rampant in Australia as well.
Nearly everyone I know is a Guardian reader, and it’s pointless trying to get them to wake up and sniff the coffee.
God knows I’ve tried many times.
You can’t wake people up that Don’t want to be woken up.
Appreciate your reply…
It’s easier to kid people ,than to convince therm they’re being kidded.
You can’t wake people up that Don’t want to be woken up.
Appreciate the quote Milosevic…
Gezzah, feel free to download this photo I took on Saturday’s march, and show it to anyone who calls Julian a rapist:
https://twitter.com/tambonsi/status/1231506480219795457
Thanks for this Tony. From the coverage on the news here, looked to be a lot of people in the march in London. Keep up the fight…
For many of the man-hating Nordic feminazis, sex with a man, under any circumstances, is ‘rape’. In a perverted way it reduces the true horror and suffering of real sexual assaults. The one-issue fanatics are destroying the magnificent edifice of ‘Western Civilization’ by reducing its to a series of one-dimensional pantomimes.
Apparently the Taliban Rebels used to call Bin Laden ” Posh Boy” but because he came mainly armed with cash they tolerated him.
The Taliban rebels whatever else you may think of them are tough nuts and a Saudi posh boy who would cry at chipping his nails would make them laugh.
A bit like Boris Johnson mopping up.
Hilarious!
How does James Lewis QC live with the sick irony that he is slandering Assange in court with unverifiable hearsay (documents at OBL’s place) that is based on an apparent international state crime – extrajudicial murder on foreign soil!
OBL’s death was a crime, pure and simple, no arrest, no evidence, no court proceedings in absentia, and the body disposed of in such a way that we ordinary folks can never have confidence it was actually OBL!
Oh come on, OBL, was long dead before he “died”. What a complete and utter joke.
I repeat my generally ignored or derided 2 cents worth. Chelsea Manning is an intelligence asset and Collateral Murder is a faked video created for the purposes of infiltration of Assange and Wikileaks. Two pieces of evidence but there’s more: — No one could look more perky than Chelsea in her oh-so-friendly interview on MSM with Juju Chang, ABC’s Nightline anchor and member of the Council on Foreign Relations, after her alleged 7 year incarceration. Today Chelsea looks stunning, nothing like the very sad state we see Julian in. — The audio track of Collateral Murder shows signs of being genuine snippets of audio stitched together over faked footage with lots of dust to hide the staged death and injury. Dust works magic in psyops, it really does. https://occamsrazorterrorevents.weebly.com/wikileaks-controlled-opposition.html Julian’s legal team show signs of being infiltrators. Jennifer Robinson is the niece of Peter Lawler, career diplomat and Cooperator of… Read more »
Nice try Petra – but no need to expend such effort – we already know whose side you are on
Do elaborate, please. I’m a born sucker and have fallen for some of the oblique perspectives viewed courtesy of Petra’s prism …
To show what a sucker I am, I once thought that Malcolm Turnbull had noble principles …
Thank you for your enquiry – If you want an elaboration of my position here, then scroll down and read Rhys Jagger’s excellent piece – sums it all up very well
Pretty much all the comments here nail it.
This extradition hearing is a complete travesty.
Expose the truth about mass murder and war crimes and the murder of journalists, not to mention the destruction of entire countries…. and face up to a 175 years sentence in an American Gulag.
Merely for exposing the truth of Western imperialism and rank barbarism.
How are the people of Fallujah doing? Or in Yemen. Or Syria. And I note yet another child (8 yrs old) in occupied Palestine shot in the head the other day.
Until much much larger numbers of people stand up and say No… Ya Basta, nothing will change.
Fallujah makes me think-Assange is being lynched for revealing war crimes while Molan, the ‘hero’ of the last Fallujah assault and multiple war crimes and easily, in my opinion, the most sinister figure in our politics, sits in the Senate, adored by every extreme Rightwing goon in the country.
Molan, and all those who fawn at his feet, including the presstitutes, represent the perfect example of the ethical and moral bankruptcy rampant in this country.
‘Fifty’ incidents of ‘alleged’ war-crimes by Austfailian troops in Afghanistan being investigated. The fanatic, ‘Christian’ fundamentalist, Sinophobe Hastie was in Afghanistan, was he not? As an SAS killer, and involved in some highly dubious ‘operations’ in the War for Western Values against Terror. I see from his semi-hagiographic Wikipedia entry that he also either an anthropogenic climate destabilisation denialist, or someone who doesn’t appear concerned-perhaps he expects to be ‘Raptured’ like ‘Smoko’ Morrison.
Here are some crimes the US has committed, repeatedly: 1. Leaving vast amounts of depleted uranium and Agent Orange over foreign lands, in wars not pursued due to clear and present danger to US territory. Are we saying that all the deaths caused by that are as nothing but uploading a few memos and exposing Halitosis Hall, DC division, as being a criminally corrupt organisation is likely to incite nuclear war? 2. Overthrowing governments all over the world for the prime aim of looting the economies of those nations for TNC gain. Are we saying that gangsterism is the new ‘normal’? I know it has been normal for US State Department, but to the billions of people who do have a conscience, it is the absolute opposite of normal. 3. Committing mass murder at home on 9/11 to ‘justify’ mass murder overseas: Since when was killing your own residents acceptable… Read more »
From what you have written Rhys, it appears to me that the fires of justice are continually being doused by the hegemon and that it is up to all of us to keep blowing with all our might on the dying embers – but the embers are still glowing – we must persevere in the face of all this evil – thank you for your informed and enlightened commentary – Petra will hate it !
Julian Assange doesn’t exist.
There’s nothing on him in the MSM.
He must be a figment of your imagination.
Very reminiscent of Harold Pinter’s last speech.
”It didn’t happen, it doesn’t matter, and even when it was happening it wasn’t happening.”
This is how the MSM works. Anything that puts the oligarchy in a negative light is simply disappeared. This is either a totalitarian mindset, or a schizophrenic one, or maybe both.
Assange is making the Drainstream news, in Australia at least.
I’ve seen reports on the ABC news site and even in Murdoch’s Herald Scum.
Maybe some editors are getting nervous because of the implications for them.
Relented on my boycott of the MSM (mainstream presstitutes propaganda) yesterday and today, and reports on Channel 9, ABC and SBS on the London protests yesterday and today outside the Court House, with brief interviews of some of the protestors including Roger Waters and Vivienne Westwood, and John Shipton a couple times also.
I don’t know whether Ch 7 or 10 covered it, as this was about all I could stomach myself.
But, yeah, coverage is gaining some traction, tho still needs a lot lot more people to kick up a ruckus about this grotesque injustice.
Caitlin Johnstone spoke at the rally on Sunday, was excellent, and transcript of her speech on her blog site.
Have a good evening FD…
Are you doing a “Petra Liverani”?
This is not justice
One way of keeping up maybe to check in on this feed throughout the week:
https://twitter.com/jamesdoleman
Why is Consortium News so precious about this – constantly removing comments of note over weeks now?
Nothing on Sky or BBC as far as I’m aware – although confess I hate this pair and try not to watch
You mean to tell me that Osama Bin Laden actually had an internet connection? 😀
Seamus: Don’t forget according to similar sources Bin laden was hiding in various caves directing his fiendish terrorists by mobile phone. How you manage that 400 miles away from a mobile phone mast ?( if Afghanistan only has a few of them away from Kabul) and even manage to have the audacity to pull off 9/11 from the very same cave(s). Perhaps Murdoch or Beardy Branson supply the Afghani peasantry secretly with fast speed Broadband connection – or all this crap isn’t true? Unless Sir Trevor Bailey had invented the wind up mobile phone and internet connection but told no -one? Bin Laden couldn’t have had Wikileaks documents as he wasn’t there. He was already dead and maybe his death occurred in the US or Saudi Arabia? Oh – I forgot that one too – Bin Laden was on dialysis treatment later in life so apart from the mobile phone… Read more »
No-Assange hand-delivered them to his old friend.
‘Damaging US interests’, and, more to the point in post-Corbyn UK, Israeli interests, is a de facto crime, punishable by rendition, torture, disappearances, drone-missile obliteration, murderous sanctions, bio-warfare, Kidon death-squads etc. The sorry, sad, farce of the UK class-based ‘Common Law’ being used as a means to inflict punishment is just a side-show, a ghastly farce of open, undisguised, bias and hatred.
Lady Arbuthnot, who is married to senior Tory Lord Arbuthnot, approved a probationary 15-month licence for Uber to operate in the capital in June. However, after the Observer highlighted her husband’s work for a strategy firm that has advised one of Uber’s largest investors, a spokesman for the judiciary confirmed that Arbuthnot would not hear Uber-related cases in the future. “The chief magistrate had been due to hear a licensing appeal by Uber in Brighton at a date yet to be fixed,” the spokesman said.
“However, as soon as this link was pointed out to her, she assigned the case to a fellow judge. It is essential that judges not only are, but are seen to be, absolutely impartial.” The spokesman said it was the first time that such a connection had been brought to the chief magistrate’s attention.
Another connection a few months back:
https://williambowles.info/2019/11/16/julian-assanges-judge-and-her-husbands-links-to-the-british-military-establishment-exposed-by-wikileaks/
Corrupt and arrogant-is that not the very definition of the ruling UK oligarchy?
I cannot understand why the world isn’t up in arms about this miscarriage of justice.
If not the world at the very least journalists and media outle, because if this goes the way the US intends it, our freedoms as we know them, information and speech will be forever changed.
The fact that most of the presstitutes of the MSM have either eagerly joined in, as with the repulsive feminazi maenads at the Guardian, or simply ‘crossed to the other side’, to protect their career prospects, shows, yet again, what nassty vermin they truly are.
If it was a prominent football player, the country would be up in arms. ‘
Not much to say, really. Assange isn’t so much being reailroaded as “high speed rail with fully integrated urban transit systemed”. The lesson here is that when it comes to the nebulous notion of ‘national security’ then the mask comes off, all those platitudes about ‘freedom’ become meaningless verbiage. Since ‘national security’ increasingly means ‘security for national leaders’ then….well, everyone can see where this is going.
Miracles can still happen. We can hope — and work towards — the best.
It shows PRECISELY what the mythical ‘Rule of Law’ in the West really amounts to.
Well it seems if my posts are having trouble landing today!
I wonder if drawing attention to STARMER’s role in Assanges incarceration as Labour members vote is setting of alarms.
Not a single msm ‘journo’ asked him about it or mentioned Roger Waters speech.
Maybe Off-G should publish that in full as a update on this article?
Craig Murray has on his site and it is on point.
Starmer is Polly Wants a Cracker Toynbee’s pick-say no more.
And Paul Mason’s.
Agreed. The Craig Murray website has by far the most detailed and comprehensive account of the extradition hearings you’ll find anywhere. It’s staggering that such as a travesty of justice in its most outrageous form can take place at Belmarsh Magistrates Court in the
United Kingdom, and yet fails to garner the attention of the media. Yest hardly surprising as there only 16 – yes, sixteen – seats available to the public.
Your Man in the Public Gallery – Assange Hearing Day 1 is a must read, as I’m sure Day 2 will be as well.
It is not ‘staggering’-it is entirely as expected. Assange WILL be railroaded to send a message to all others who mess with The Empire.
“Well it seems if my posts are having trouble landing today!”
What does that mean? Did you post a BTL that mentioned a “tiny” courtroom?
The real arguments for debate should surround the killing and wanton destruction that the US war machine brought to Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan .. and elsewhere!
The real arguments should be about the vast US operations of interfering with life on every inch on this planet.
‘Full Spectrum Evil’.
Of course the Groan and Beeb ain’t giving the oxygen of publicity to the greates threat to journalism and freedom of speech since Murdoch landed upon our shore.
Not a single comment on the absurd politics live page has survived and its astro turfing continued attack on Corbyn! Lol. As they try and finesse Starmer and Nandy into chickencoup3 – the rise again of the shits sorry, siths.
Starmer is responsible for Assanges illegal detention.
He has not been asked a single question on it today in the msm interviews – a conspiracy of silence.
The Labour voters should have this at the top of their list as they cast votes for the next leader.
It seems that anyone, whether they are an Australian, an Outer Mongolian, or an Eskimo who has never set foot in America, has a duty of loyalty to the United Snakes, or else they are guilty of “treason.”
If I embraced ‘conspiracy theories’ I’d be tempted to conclude that the US side doesn’t really want to extradite Assange for various reasons, and that’s why their opening arguments are so transparently… ‘political’ in nature! ‘Damaging US interests’ is primarily a political ‘crime’ and there is no ‘law’ against this, especially for foreigners. The lawyer working for the Americans seems to think that he can argue that Assange is guilty of ‘treason’ when he’s not even an American citizen; which is bizarre. He then appears to think that the Americans have some kind of ‘claim’ on Assange which is why they want him to ‘return’ to the US and face ‘justice.’
I think it’ll be interesting to see what happens when the Americans ask the judge to allow them to present secret evidence from anonymous witnesses. Will the judge accept this US demand?
It works in the USA when the victim is a Palestinian American and the secret witness an Israeli security thug. Result-decades in SuperMax.
Not only has this Assange Affair revealed that British journalism is mere husk surrounding a rotting corpse; it also has the potential to reveal that British justice isn’t really ‘independent’ as well, if the courts bow down to American pressure, in what looks like the biggest political trial of the century. Essentially, Assange and Wikileaks represented a political opposition to aspects of US foreign policy intertwined with journalism as the chosen stage where one could challengea and confront US policy. The very reason Assange was so successful was precisely because ‘normal’ journalism, ‘trusted’ journalism, had become far too close and ’embedded’ with the state and after 9/11 left a huge gap in the marketplace of information… call it censorship or propaganda if you will; and Wikileaks stepped into the gap or chasm and published the information the rest were too ‘patriotic’ to go near. Assange’s role is fascinating because he’s… Read more »
https://www.unz.com/pcockburn/with-wikileaks-julian-assange-did-what-all-journalists-should-do/
I think this puts the Guardian’s role in the right perspective! The case being presented by the Americans looks rather weak and desparate. Their fundamental problem is that it’s so obviously a Political affair, but they have to argue the opposite is true, which means they have to clutch at legal straws and baseless assertions. Somehow, when this, this… ‘thing’ reaches the Supreme Court on appeal, I doubt the Americans will be allowed to get away with this and Assange won’t be handed over to them.
A lot depends on the judge. Many of them are just Establishment toadies, but there are some who jealously guard their independence and try to apply the law impartially. Assange got one of the first type in his bail case.
The whole prosecution edifice is based devious and deceiving byzantine arguments that have no connection with reality.
It looks like the Guardian who prides itself on begging for money to support cutting-edge journalism has only managed to use a jobbing journo to report on the press freedom case of the century [this one and the last]. https://www.theguardian.com/profile/benquinn As you will see from the link, Ben has a to report on many aspects of the news in between making tea. Clearly a priority for the liberal press paper of choice is the case of Julian Assange. As we understand that Julian has been fitted up by the British state as well as his indigenous kinsmen and sheilas down in the antipodean prison colonies the media has decided that its owners priorities are paramount. So we see the lie to the Guardian’s claim of financial independence. Or press freedom. To the sheer embarrassment of the US of A and its attendant agencies, exposing them to the reality checking that… Read more »
Viner hasn’t ‘failed’. She has been such a success I expect that MI6 will promote her.
What’s to discuss? Assange should not be in jail right now. He served his (ridiculous) sentence for jumping bail when accused of a nonexistent crime in Sweden and has broken no further law in Britain. Like Manning, also in jail having committed no crime, he’s being tortured to death for revealing the truth.
FREE ASSANGE! FREE MANNING! FREE SNOWDEN!
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-02-21-revealed-chief-magistrate-in-assange-case-received-financial-benefits-from-secretive-partner-organisations-of-uk-foreign-office/
It can further be revealed that Lady Emma Arbuthnot was appointed Chief Magistrate in Westminster on the advice of a Conservative government minister with whom she had attended a secretive meeting organised by one of these Foreign Office partner organisations two years before.
More: http://williambowles.info/2019/11/16/julian-assanges-judge-and-her-husbands-links-to-the-british-military-establishment-exposed-by-wikileaks/
http://williambowles.info/2019/11/16/arbuthnot-out-as-assanges-judge-says-wikileaks-lawyer-jen-robinson/
http://williambowles.info/2020/02/12/assange-extradition-blatant-judicial-double-standards/
Could Admin delete the links above please. Here’s the original links:
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-11-14-julian-assanges-judge-and-her-husbands-links-to-the-british-military-establishment-exposed-by-wikileaks/
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/11/16/arbuthnot-out-as-assanges-judge-says-wikileaks-lawyer-jen-robinson/
https://off-guardian.org/2020/02/12/assange-extradition-blatant-judicial-double-standards/