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Thread: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

  1. Link to Post #461
    UK Moderator/Librarian/Administrator Tintin's Avatar
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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Some slightly more upbeat news from the last few days is that Julian Assange and Stella Moris have been granted permission to marry, albeit that will take place in HMP Belmarsh.



    Source tweet
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  3. Link to Post #462
    United States Avalon Member Dennis Leahy's Avatar
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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Edward Snowden on Julian Assange's imprisonment:
    "Most People Don't Even Realize What's Coming" | Edward Snowden (2021)
    Nov 24, 2021



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  5. Link to Post #463
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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    From Defend WikiLeaks published yesterday, December 1st:

    Assange Briefing Note 1 December 2021

    On 4 January 2021, a UK judge ruled that extraditing Julian Assange to the United States would be “oppressive,” would amount to a death sentence, and must be stopped.

    Two days before leaving office the Trump Administration appealed this decision, and appeal arguments were heard by the UK’s High Court on 27-28 October 2021. The High Court is due to rule on the U.S. appeal imminently. See Julian Assange’s full response to the U.S. appeal effort here. [NB: this link doesn't work - Tintin

    The U.S. purports to give “assurances” about the treatment Assange would face in a U.S. prison, in its attempt to overturn the district judge’s opinion. These “assurances” specifically allow the U.S. to inflict torture on Julian Assange, explicitly asserting that the U.S. government can still impose the very conditions that the magistrate found would kill him. Amnesty International has described these so-called assurances as “inherently unreliable” and has said that Assange “must be released immediately.”

    The U.S. prosecution is entirely related to documents Assange published in 2010 revealing war crimes and major human rights abuses. Assange faces a 175-year sentence if extradited.

    The decision to prosecute Assange has been universally condemned by all major free speech, human rights and media organizations as an unprecedented threat to the public’s right to know.

    The ACLU and 24 other groups recently reiterated their opposition to Assange’s prosecution as a “grave threat to journalists and freedom of the press,” which the government should “drop immediately,” following the extraordinary revelation that the CIA deployed a multipronged informational and operational operation against WikiLeaks which included plans to assassinate or kidnap Assange. Discussions over kidnapping or killing Assange occurred “at the highest levels” of the U.S. administration.

    Assange is being held as an unconvicted remand inmate at the high-security Belmarsh prison, where he has been since April 2019. Prior to this he spent seven years in effective detention in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy, having been granted political asylum. Julian Assange has been in one form of detention since 2010. Julian has a fiancée, Stella Moris, with whom he has two young children.

    Reporters Without Borders and the UK National Union of Journalists say: “Our government must ensure the UK is a safe place for journalists and publishers to work. Whilst Julian Assange remains in prison facing extradition, it is not.”

    The U.S. government’s ‘star witness’ against Assange on which the CFAA charge relies and which are repeatedly referenced throughout the lower court’s judgement, has recanted his testimony and admitted that he lied about his allegations against Assange.
    “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” - Thoreau

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  7. Link to Post #464
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    Default High Court decision “Grave miscarriage of justice,” says Julian Assange’s fiancée

    The UK court, on UN International Human Rights Day, of all days, upholds the US request to extradite Julian Assange.

    High Court decision “Grave miscarriage of justice,” says Julian Assange’s fiancée

    Source: DefendWikiLeaks

    A UK court has overturned an earlier decision blocking the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States where he is accused of publishing true information revealing crimes committed by the US government in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, Iraq, and Afghanistan, and details of CIA torture and rendition. Julian Assange was not given permission to attend the appeal hearing in person.

    The prosecution against Julian Assange is an existential threat to press freedom worldwide. Leading civil liberties groups, including Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, ACLU, and Human Rights Watch have called the charges against Julian Assange a “threat to press freedom around the globe.” Journalist unions, including the National Union of Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists, have said that “media freedom is suffering lasting damage by the continued prosecution of Julian Assange.” He faces a 175-year prison sentence.

    Responding to the decision of the High Court to overturn the lower court’s earlier ruling to block the extradition of Mr. Assange, Stella Moris, Julian Assange’s fiancee, said: “We will appeal this decision at the earliest possible moment.”

    Moris described the High Court’s ruling as “dangerous and misguided” and a “grave miscarriage of justice.” “How can if be fair, how can it be right, how can it be possible, to extradite Julian to the very country which plotted to kill him?” she said.

    On September 26, CIA plans to assassinate Julian Assange were uncovered in a bombshell report. The detailed investigation revealed that discussions of assassinating Julian Assange in London had occurred “at the highest levels” of the CIA and Trump White House, and that kill “sketches” and “options” had been drawn up on orders of Mike Pompeo, then CIA director. The investigation revealed that plans to kidnap and rendition Assange were far advanced and the CIA’s operations prompted a political decision to produce charges against him.

    Editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, Kristinn Hrafnsson said, “Julian’s life is once more under grave threat, and so is the right of journalists to publish material that governments and corporations find inconvenient. This is about the right of a free press to publish without being threatened by a bullying superpower.”

    Amnesty International says the so-called ‘assurances’ upon which the US government relies “leave Mr. Assange at risk of ill-treatment,” are “inherently unreliable,” and “should be rejected,” adding that they are “discredited by their admission that they reserved the right to reverse those guarantees.” Amnesty concluded the charges against Assange are “politically motivated” and must be dropped.

    Julian Assange and Stella Moris are engaged to be married and have two children, who are British and live in London.

    Stella Moris will be giving a statement outside court following the decision; updates via @wikileaks

    -------------------------

    Extracts from Stella Moris' emotional statement outside the court:

    Mr Assange's fiancee hits out at High Court's decision

    Source: Sky News

    Speaking outside the High Court, a visibly emotional Ms Moris said:
    "Today, it's been almost a year since I stood outside court with our victory of the blocking of the extraction.
    For the past two and a half years, Julian has remained in Belmarsh Prison and in fact, he has been detained since 7 December 2010 in one form or another. For how long can this go on?

    "Today is International Human Rights Day. What a shame. How cynical. To have this decision on this day, to have one of the foremost publishers of the past 50 years in a UK prison accused of publishing the truth about war crimes and CIA kill teams. Julian exposed the crimes of CIA tortures and CIA killers, and now we know those CIA killers were planning to kill him too.
    "How can these courts approve an extradition request under these conditions? How can they accept an extradition to the country that plotted to kill Julian? This goes to the fundamentals of press freedom and democracy."

    Ms Moris added her finance represents what it "means to live in a free society" and accused the UK of imprisoning journalists "on behalf of a foreign power, which is taking an abusive, vindictive prosecution against a journalist".


    -------------------

    Other sources:

    Stella Moris Twitter account

    LIVE YouTube broadcast from Ruptly (at the time of writing this up Stella can be heard at around -42:00 or so, but obviously that will shift)

    “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” - Thoreau

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  9. Link to Post #465
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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    via email from Glenn (free subscriber level - bold mine)

    Quote Julian Assange Loses Appeal: British High Court Accepts U.S. Request to Extradite Him for Trial

    Press freedom groups have warned Assange's prosecution is a grave threat. The Biden DOJ ignored them, and today won a major victory toward permanently silencing the pioneering transparency activist.

    In a London courtroom on Friday morning, Julian Assange suffered a devastating blow to his quest for freedom. A two-judge appellate panel of the United Kingdom's High Court ruled that the U.S.'s request to extradite Assange to the U.S. to stand trial on espionage charges is legally valid.

    As a result, that extradition request will now be sent to British Home Secretary Prita Patel, who technically must approve all extradition requests but, given the U.K. Government's long-time subservience to the U.S. security state, is all but certain to rubber-stamp it. Assange's representatives, including his fiancee Stella Morris, have vowed to appeal the ruling, but today's victory for the U.S. means that Assange's freedom, if it ever comes, is further away than ever: not months but years even under the best of circumstances.

    In endorsing the U.S. extradition request, the High Court overturned a lower court's ruling from January which had concluded that the conditions of U.S. prison — particularly for those accused of national security crimes — are so harsh and oppressive that there is a high likelihood that Assange would commit suicide. In January's ruling, Judge Vanessa Baraitser rejected all of Assange's arguments that the U.S. was seeking to punish him not for crimes but for political offenses. But in rejecting the extradition request, she cited the numerous attestations from Assange's doctors that his physical and mental health had deteriorated greatly after seven years of confinement in the small Ecuadorian Embassy where he had obtained asylum, followed by his indefinite incarceration in the U.K.

    In response to that January victory for Assange, the Biden DOJ appealed the ruling and convinced Judge Baraitser to deny Assange bail and ordered him imprisoned pending appeal. The U.S. then offered multiple assurances that Assange would be treated "humanely" in U.S. prison once he was extradited and convicted. They guaranteed that he would not be held in the most repressive "supermax” prison in Florence, Colorado — whose conditions are so repressive that it has been condemned and declared illegal by numerous human rights groups around the world — nor, vowed U.S. prosecutors, would he be subjected to the most extreme regimen of restrictions and isolation called Special Administrative Measures ("SAMs”) unless subsequent behavior by Assange justified it. American prosecutors also agreed that they would consent to any request from Assange that, once convicted, he could serve his prison term in his home country of Australia rather than the U.S. Those guarantees, ruled the High Court this morning, rendered the U.S. extradition request legal under British law.

    What makes the High Court's faith in these guarantees from the U.S. Government particularly striking is that it comes less than two months after Yahoo News reported that the CIA and other U.S. security state agencies hate Assange so much that they plotted to kidnap or even assassinate him during the time he had asylum protection from Ecuador. Despite all that, Lord Justice Timothy Holroyde announced today that “the court is satisfied that these assurances” will serve to protect Assange's physical and mental health.

    The effective detention by the U.S. and British governments of Assange is just months shy of a full decade. Ecuador granted Assange asylum in August 2012 on the ground that his human rights were imperiled by U.S. attempts to imprison him for his journalism. For the next seven years, Assange remained in that embassy — which is really a tiny apartment in central London — with no outdoor space other than a tiny balcony, which he typically feared using due to the possibility of assassination. Ecuador withdrew its asylum in 2019 after its sovereignty-protective president Rafael Correa was succeeded in office by the meek and submissive Lenin Moreno. Trump officials led by then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Ambassador Richard Grenell persuaded and coerced the new Ecuadorian president to withdraw Assange's asylum protection, clearing the way for London police to enter the building and arrest him on April 11, 2019. Ever since, Assange has been imprisoned in the high-security Belmarsh prison, described in the BBC in 2004 as “Britain's Guantanamo Bay.” He has thus spent close to seven years inside the embassy and two years and eight months inside Belmarsh: just five months shy of a decade with no freedom.

    The British government justified Assange's 2019 arrest by pointing to pending charges of “bail-jumping": meaning that he sought and obtained legal asylum from Ecuador in 2012 rather than attend a scheduled hearing in a British court over whether he should be extradited to Sweden to be questioned about claims of sexual assault made by two Swedish women. Swedish prosecutors closed that investigation in 2017, citing the time that had elapsed. But once he was arrested, Assange was sentenced by a British judge on the bail-jumping charges to 50 months in prison, close to the maximum punishment allowed by law (one year). With the Swedish case closed, Assange was set to finally be free after he served that 50-month jail term.

    Knowing Assange's release was finally imminent, the U.S. Government quickly acted to ensure he remained in prison indefinitely. In May 2019, it unveiled an 18-count felony indictment against him for espionage charges, based on the role he played in WikiLeaks’ 2010 publication of the Iraq and Afghanistan War Logs and diplomatic cables, which revealed multiple war crimes by the U.S. and U.K. as well as rampant corruption by numerous U.S. allies throughout the world. Even though major newspapers around the world published the same documents in partnership with WikiLeaks — including The New York Times, The Guardian, El Pais and others — the DOJ claimed that Assange went further than those newspapers by encouraging WikiLeaks’ source, Chelsea Manning, to obtain more documents and by trying to help her evade detection: something all journalists have not only the right but the duty to their sources to do.

    Because the acts of Assange that serve as the basis of the U.S. indictment are acts in which investigative journalists routinely engage with their sources, press freedom and civil liberties groups throughout the West vehemently condemned the Assange indictment as one of the gravest threats to press freedoms in years. In February, following Assange's victory in court, “a coalition of civil liberties and human rights groups urged the Biden administration to drop efforts to extradite” Assange, as The New York Times put it.

    That coalition — which includes the ACLU, Amnesty International, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and the Committee to Protect Journalists — warned that the Biden DOJ's ongoing attempt to extradite and prosecute Assange is “a grave threat to press freedom,” adding that “much of the conduct described in the indictment is conduct that journalists engage in routinely — and that they must engage in in order to do the work the public needs them to do.” Kenneth Roth, Director of Human Rights Watch, told The New York Times that “most of the charges against Assange concern activities that are no different from those used by investigative journalists around the world every day.” Shortly after the indictment was issued, I explained in a Washington Post op-ed why the theory on which the indictment was based “would make journalism a felony” (and indeed, just eight months after I wrote that op-ed warning of the dangers to all journalists, the Brazilian government copied the U.S. indictment of Assange and the theories it embraced in its unsuccessful effort to prosecute me for the reporting I did that exposed corruption by senior Brazilian security officials and prosecutors). “Brazil’s Attack on Greenwald Mirrors the US case against Assange,” was the headline used by the Columbia Journalism Review to condemn the charges against me as a blatant retaliatory act against my reporting.

    But the Biden administration — led by officials who, during the Trump years, flamboyantly trumpeted the vital importance of press freedoms — ignored those pleas from this coalition of groups and instead aggressively pressed ahead with the prosecution of Assange. The Obama DOJ had spent years trying to concoct charges against Assange using a Grand Jury investigation, but ultimately concluded back in 2013 that prosecuting him would pose too great a threat to press freedom. But the Biden administration appears to have no such qualms, and The New York Times made clear exactly why they are so eager to see Assange in prison:

    Democrats like the new Biden team are no fan of Mr. Assange, whose publication in 2016 of Democratic emails stolen by Russia aided Donald J. Trump’s narrow victory over Hillary Clinton.

    In other words, the Biden administration is eager to see Assange punished and silenced for life not out of any national security concerns but instead due to a thirst for vengeance over the role he played in publishing documents during the 2016 election that reflected poorly on Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee.
    Those documents published by WikiLeaks revealed widespread corruption at the DNC, specifically revealing how they cheated in order to help Clinton stave off a surprisingly robust primary challenge from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). WikiLeaks’ reporting led to the resignation of the top five DNC officials, including its then-Chair, Rep. Debbie Wassserman Schultz (D-FL). Democratic luminaries such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Al Gore's 2000 campaign chair Donna Brazile both said, in the wake of WikiLeak's reporting, that the DNC cheated to help Clinton.

    Press freedom groups expressed indignation this morning over the U.K.'s ruling approving Assange's extradition. Rebecca Vincent, Director of International Campaigns and UK Bureau Director for the international press freedom group Reporters Without Borders, said: “This is an utterly shameful development that has alarming implications not only for Assange’s mental health, but also for journalism and press freedom around the world.” The organizational statement issued this morning from Reporters Without Borders went further:

    We condemn today’s decision, which will prove historic for all the wrong reasons. We fully believe that Julian Assange has been targeted for his contributions to journalism, and we defend this case because of its dangerous implications for the future of journalism and press freedom around the world. It is time to put a stop to this more than decade-long persecution once and for all. It is time to free Assange.

    The Freedom of the Press Foundation (on whose Board I sit) issued a statement this morning which described the ruling as “an alarming setback for press freedom in the United States and around the world.” The group's Executive Director, Trevor Timm, said that “these proceedings, and today's ruling, are a black mark on the history of press freedom,” adding: "That United States prosecutors continued to push for this outcome is a betrayal of the journalistic principles the Biden administration has taken credit for celebrating.”

    It is difficult at this point to avoid the conclusion that Julian Assange is not only imprisoned for the crime of journalism which exposed serious crimes and lies by the west's most powerful security state agencies, but he is also a classic political prisoner. When the Obama DOJ was first pursuing the possibility of prosecution, media outlets and liberal advocacy groups were vocal in their opposition. One thing and only one thing has changed since then: in the interim, Assange published documents that were incriminating of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, and Democrats, as part of their long list of villains who they blamed for Clinton's defeat (essentially everyone in the world except Clinton and the Democratic Party itself), viewed WikiLeaks' reporting as a major factor in Trump's victory.

    That is why they and their liberal allies in corporate media harbor so
    much bloodlust to see Assange imprisoned. Julian Assange is a pioneer of modern journalism, a visionary who was the first to see that a major vulnerability of corrupt power centers in the digital age was mass data leaks that could expose their misconduct. Based on that prescient recognition, he created a technological and journalistic system to enable noble sources to safely blow the whistle on corrupt institutions by protecting their anonymity: a system now copied and implemented by major news organizations around the world.

    Assange, over the last fifteen years, has broken more major stories and done more consequential journalism than all the corporate journalists who hate him combined. He is not being imprisoned despite his pioneering journalism and dissent from the hegemony of the U.S. security state. He is imprisoned precisely because of that. The accumulated hostility toward Assange from employees of media corporations who hate him due to professional jealousy and the belief that he undermined the Democratic Party, and from the U.S. security state apparatus which hates him for exposing its crimes and refusing to bow to its dictates, has created a climate where the Biden administration and their British servants feel perfectly comfortable imprisoning arguably the most consequential journalist of his generation even as they continue to lecture the rest of the world about the importance of press freedoms and democratic values.

    No matter the outcome of further proceedings in this case, today's ruling means that the U.S. has succeeded in ensuring that Assange remains imprisoned, hidden and silenced into the foreseeable future. If they have not yet permanently broken him, they are undoubtedly close to doing so. His own physicians and family members have warned of this repeatedly. Citizens of the U.S. and subjects of the British Crown are inculcated from birth to believe that we are blessed to live under a benevolent and freedom-protecting government, and that tyranny only resides in enemy states. Today's judicial approval by the U.K. High Court of the U.S.'s attack on core press freedom demonstrates yet again the fundamental lie at the heart of this mythology.


    Glenn Greenwald
    Dec 10

    Last edited by mountain_jim; 10th December 2021 at 20:40.
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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    a big wikileaks dump . . .

    . . . . apparently, but I think I've seen some of it before. Maybe the missing gaps are there this time, like the Podesta emails around the time he and his brother were in Portugal (when Madeleine McCann vanished)

    THE DUMP
    ..................................................my first language is TYPO..............................................

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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    If I were under his skin I would just pull the plug, it is torture what they are doing with him and I am against torture of any sort.
    --
    A chaos to the sense, a Kosmos to the reason.

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    UK Moderator/Librarian/Administrator Tintin's Avatar
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    Default USA v Julian Assange | Summary and Judgment

    From: Judiciary Office

    Judiciary Office landing page for reports: https://www.judiciary.uk/judgments/u...ian-assange-2/

    Case No: CO/150/2021

    In the High Court of Justice
    Queen’s Bench Division
    Administrative Court
    Royal Courts of Justice

    10 December 2021

    Before The Lord Burnett of Maldon, Lord Chief Justice of England And Wales
    and Lord Justice Holroyde

    Between The Government of the United States of America – Appellant
    and Julian Paul Assange – Respondent

    Last edited by Tintin; 11th December 2021 at 15:28.
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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    The Assange Case Is The US Defending Its Right To Lie: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
    DECEMBER 11, 2021
    by CAITLIN JOHNSTONE
    https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/12...rative-matrix/

    "The Assange case is the most powerful government in the world defending its right to lie to you.

    Q: What’s the difference between how the US deals with journalists it hates and how Saudi Arabia deals with journalists it hates?

    A: Speed.

    The US is currently building a network of long-range missile systems on a chain of islands near China’s coast for the explicit purpose of threatening China. You can tell who is the aggressor in US-China tensions by asking yourself what would happen if this situation was reversed.

    Per Washington’s own logic it would be perfectly reasonable, and indeed responsible, for China to set up military arsenals along both US coastlines to “contain” it and “deter” attacks on Latin American nations, as the US has an extensive history of launching such attacks and will surely try to again. But we all know what the US response to such behavior would be.

    It’s a bit annoying living in a world that’s ruled by a dying empire whose increasing desperation to retain control could lead it to initiate a dangerous military confrontation with a major power at any time.

    The rise of China crashing into the Washington doctrine that US unipolar hegemony must be preserved at all cost is an unstoppable-force-meets-immovable-object situation that could very easily end in nuclear armageddon.

    If the preservation of US unipolar hegemony requires continually escalating military brinkmanship against nuclear-armed Russia and China as well as powerful forces like Iran, then the claim that US unipolar hegemony makes the world a more peaceful place is plainly false.

    You currently have a much higher chance of dying as a result of a nuclear war instigated by your government or its allies than as a result of someone else refusing to take a Covid vaccine. You hear about the latter threat but not the former because the mass media exist to protect imperialist agendas from scrutiny.

    You know you’re getting scammed when your government ends a long and expensive war and then the military budget goes up.

    There is no sector of US government policy more significant and consequential than the command of the most powerful military force ever assembled. There is also no sector of US government policy with less oversight, accountability, or press scrutiny.

    Besides a brief window after 9/11 the US has never really been able to sell the narrative that governments it wants to ramp up aggressions against are about to attack its easily-defended shores. So instead it does ridiculous things like claiming those governments are about to invade Ukraine and Taiwan.

    The US empire never attacks, it only “defends”. All its aggressions are always about “defending” freedom and democracy, “defending” human rights, “defending” nations that can’t defend themselves, etc. Often it even “defends” preemptively, before the attacker has done anything. Sometimes the attacker is the last to find out that they were planning an attack.

    Ever since getting our eviction notice I’ve struggled to be creative because my mind is so focused on the daunting task of finding a nice yet affordable place for my family to live, and it really makes me feel for everyone for whom housing security is a chronic creativity drain. All to pay for the privilege of living on the ****ing planet we were ****ing born on.

    I mean, think about how much creativity and innovation our species is missing out on because our dopey, primitive societal models force people to spend so much brainpower just figuring out how to stay fed and housed. That brainpower could have gone toward improving our world.

    Really I’m just a mother. I’m just a mum who wants a healthy planet and a healthy society for her kids, and I advocate the things I believe will facilitate that. You can add whatever -ists and -isms you want on top of that, but my true ideology is motherhood.

    Right now being smart and informed is a detriment to happiness because things are ****ty and the more you understand the harder it is to be happy. Once we create a healthy world this will reverse; the more you understand about the world the more uplifted and optimistic you’ll be."
    Each breath a gift...
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    Default Re: High Court decision “Grave miscarriage of justice,” says Julian Assange’s fiancée

    Quote Posted by Tintin (here)

    LIVE YouTube broadcast from Ruptly (at the time of writing this up Stella can be heard at around -42:00 or so, but obviously that will shift)

    UPDATE: Full live recording now making its way to the Avalon Library but for those of you who'd like to listen to Craig Murray and Stella Moris, diving in at around the 2:23:00 mark is where to pick those up.
    “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” - Thoreau

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    Default Julian suffered a stroke on October 27th 2021

    From Stella Moris posted today I think.

    Wow, we know his health is fragile, but this?



    Source: Stella Moris
    https://twitter.com/StellaMoris1/sta...96539115708416
    “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” - Thoreau

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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases


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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    The Assange Case Explained Simply
    DECEMBER 16, 2021
    by CAITLIN JOHNSTONE
    https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/12...lained-simply/

    "One of the most common reasons I hear from people on their reluctance to wade into the Assange debate is that they don’t understand it. It looks like a complicated issue to them, so they leave it to the experts.

    In reality, the complexity of this case is a complete illusion. It’s very, very simple. It only looks complicated because many years of media distortion have made it appear so.

    The US government is trying to extradite a journalist and prosecute him under the Espionage Act for exposing its war crimes, with the long-term goal of normalizing this practice.

    That’s it. That’s the whole entire thing. So simple you can sum it up in a single sentence. In a single breath. The most powerful government on earth setting a legal precedent which would allow it to extradite any journalist anywhere in the world for exposing its malfeasance would unquestionably have a massive chilling effect on journalism everywhere in precisely the area where press scrutiny is most sorely needed. It’s not any more complex or nuanced than that.

    The Assange issue is simple. What makes it seem complicated is the lies people have been fed by the media class whose job is to manipulate the public into consenting to the agendas of the US power alliance and its war machine.



    Quote Caitlin Johnstone Hourglass with flowing sand
    @caitoz
    Debunking All The Assange Smears

    Here it is, the comprehensive debunking of the 27 most common smears against Julian Assange. This is an ongoing project, so if there's anything missing or inaccurate just let me know. #FreeAssange #ProtectJulian
    caityjohnstone.medium.com
    Debunking All The Assange Smears

    Have you ever noticed how whenever someone inconveniences the dominant western power structure, the entire political/media class rapidly…
    7:56 PM · Apr 19, 2019·Twitter Web Client
    https://twitter.com/caitoz/status/11...ined-simply%2F

    Do you see how that works? Do you see how what’s actually happening with the Assange case is extremely simple and easy to understand, but all the narratives justifying his persecution make it necessary to engage in a bunch of complicated counter-arguments? This obfuscation didn’t happen by accident, which is why I refuted as many such distortions as possible in this long article written after Assange’s imprisonment.

    The most powerful government in the world trying to lock up a foreign journalist for telling the truth about it is as insanely tyrannical an abuse as you could possibly come up with. It’s as obvious as it gets. The Assange case is so simple and so common sense it should be one of the most mainstream, normie positions anyone could possibly have, right up there with believing racism is bad and child molesters should be stopped. It’s only because imperial spinmeisters muddy the waters with lies and distortions that this isn’t happening.

    Everyone should oppose the agenda to normalize the imprisonment of journalists who embarrass the US empire. This shouldn’t be a job left to fringe bloggers, podcasters and YouTubers, it should be happening in every sector of society, across the entire political spectrum. The fact that a very large sector of the population fails to see this as a priority issue shows you just how brainwashed the empire’s propaganda engine has made us."
    Last edited by onawah; 16th December 2021 at 04:53.
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    UK Avalon Founder Bill Ryan's Avatar
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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    From Zero Hedge, yesterday.
    Russia Compares West's Treatment of Assange To Cannibalism

    Russian officials are comparing the West's treatment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to cannibalism, saying Washington and London's purpose in this instance is the "annihilation of an individual".

    Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described in her latest press briefing that covered commentary on the Assange extradition trial that "The actions taken by our Western partners over the past few years smack of cannibalism."

    The comparison suggested that the West is 'eating its own' who stand for justice, all while Western nations claim to champions of justice and equal rights. "This is no longer about double standards or about trampling the principles and ideals [the West claims to champion]," the Kremlin official added.



    The statement explained, "All this is not about some double standards or defiance of lofty principles and ideals. It’s about the annihilation of an individual, revenge for his stance, for his courage and for the fact that he deemed it necessary, apparently aware of the potential risks, to share with the world some crucial information that shed light on the lies and deceit committed by a number of states."

    The Kremlin's lashing out came amid new revelations that Assange suffered a "mini-stroke" while confined at Belmarsh prison in London, and amid continuing reports of his extremely frail health, which his Fiancée Stella Moris has explained is taking a heavy toll mentally. She described days ago that the prior stroke was likely due to the extreme stress of the ongoing US extradition attempts.

    Zakharova addressed this in her Wednesday statement: "Everybody can see that this man is being annihilated. He looks like two different people. Everybody can see his current condition, not to mention the campaign of victimization the champions of democracy have organized against him," she added.

    https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status...32414799015944

    Most recently, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales sided with the US in upholding the Justice Department's prior appeal filed to keep the extradition proceedings alive.

    Pundits and supporters of WikiLeaks have pointed out that short of a quick extradition to the US - a scenario yet to materialize in Washington's favor - the DOJ's strategy and that of its Western intelligence allies is likely to ensure Assange waste's away in confinement while drawing out the legal process and endless appeals as long as possible.

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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    https://rumble.com/vqvoyn-joe-scarbo...r-assange.html

    Quote The Real Disinformation Agents: Watch as NBC Tells 4 Lies in a Two-Minute Clip
    Glenn Greenwald Published December 16, 2021 30,885
    from Glenn's email

    Quote As mentioned in yesterday’s newsletter, we produced an hour-long segment dissecting the battery of lies spewed by Joe Scarborough and Claire McCaskill in a two-minute NBC report on the prosecution of Julian Assange. We realize that not every subscriber wants or has the time to watch an hour-long segment, so as always, we’ve produced a full transcript of the video for those who prefer to read the report.

    Glenn Greenwald: Hi, everyone, this is Glenn Greenwald, and I am excited about our new episode of System Update here on our home at Rumble, and I say I'm excited because I feel what we're about to do is quite important. What I want to do is show you how readily and casually and aggressively and clearly corporate media outlets disseminate outright lies.
    And I wanted to use a two minute clip from Morning Joe involving the host of that show, Joe Scarborough, and the former two-term Democratic senator from Missouri, Claire McCaskill, and break down this clip to show you
    why it is that I so often say that fake news and disinformation comes not from people on Facebook or teenagers on 4chan or whatever else is blamed for the dissemination of fake news and disinformation. ...

    Subscribe to Glenn Greenwald to read the rest.
    Become a paying subscriber of Glenn Greenwald to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content.



    Source: https://www.rumble.com/video/vo9iuh/
    Last edited by mountain_jim; 17th December 2021 at 15:21.
    I don't believe anything, but I have many suspicions. - Robert Anton Wilson

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    (avatar image: Brocken spectre, a wonderful phenomenon of nature I have experienced and a symbol for my aspirations.)

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    Default Stella Moris statement on Julian Assange’s Supreme Court appeal

    Source: AssangeDefense

    Stella Moris statement on Julian Assange’s Supreme Court appeal

    December 23, 2021 — This morning at 11:05 Julian Assange filed an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court the High Court’s ruling that he can be extradited to the US on three grounds.

    The High Court’s ruling in USA v Assange raises three points of law of general public importance that have an impact on the procedural and human rights safeguards of a wide range of other types of cases.

    On December 10th, the High Court upheld the Magistrates’ Court’s assessment, based on the evidence before her, that there was a real risk that, should Julian Assange be extradited to the United States, he would be subjected to near total isolation, including under the regimes of SAMs (Special Administrative Measures) and/or ADX, (administrative maximum prison) and that such isolation would cause his mental condition to deteriorate to such a degree that there was a high risk of suicide. These findings led the lower court to block the extradition under s. 91 of the Extradition Act, which bans “oppressive” extraditions.

    However, the High Court overturned the lower court’s decision to block the extradition, based solely on the fact that after the US lost the extradition case on January 4th 2021, the US State Department sent a letter to the UK Foreign Office containing conditional assurances in relation to Julian Assange’s placement under SAMs and ADX. The assurances letter explicitly states in points one and four that “the United States retains the power” to “impose SAMs” on Mr. Assange and to “designate Mr. Assange to ADX” should he say or do anything since January 4, 2021 that would cause the US government to determine, in its subjective assessment, that Julian Assange should be placed under SAMs conditions and/or in ADX Florence. These conditional assurances alone were considered sufficient by the High Court to overturn the lower court’s decision.

    Under English law, in order for the application to have a chance to be considered by the Supreme Court, first the same High Court judges who ordered Julian Assange’s extradition must certify that at least one of the Supreme Court appeal grounds is a point of law of general public importance (s.114 of the 2003 Extradition Act).

    Julian Assange’s application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court is therefore currently under consideration by the High Court judges. It is not known how long it will take for the decision to come down, but it is not expected before the third week of January.

    For background, see Julian Assange’s filing opposing the US extradition in the High Court.

    — Stella Moris
    “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” - Thoreau

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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    WATCH: Assange Protest at Justice Dept. LIVE
    January 21, 2022
    https://consortiumnews.com/2022/01/2...YGos6lz2NiLp-8
    https://youtu.be/Q7qLCnqsDv4

    "Speakers: Brian Becker, Max Blumenthal, Randy Credico, Leo Flores, Eleanor Goldfield, John Kiriakou, Marianne Williamson and Ann Wilcox.

    On Monday at 10:45 GMT the High Court in London will announce its decision on whether it will permit Assange to appeal to the U.K. Supreme Court on its ruling to allow his extradition. The High Court’s decision is a formality however, as Assange can apply directly to the Supreme Court to appeal if the High Court does not grant permission.

    The Supreme Court’s website says: “An application for permission to appeal must be made first to the Court of Appeal. If that Court refuses permission, an application may be made to The Supreme Court. An application is made by filing an application for permission to appeal.”
    **************************

    LIVE: Free Assange Protest at the DOJ in DC - January 2022
    70 views Streamed live 1/21/22
    ProPeace Report
    146 subscribers

    "Livestreaming from the Department of Justice building in Washington D.C. as Free Assange activists gather to put pressure on the Biden Administration to drop all charges against Julian Assange for his award-winning investigative journalism about the Iraq War. International free press organizations warn that charges against Assange for his journalistic activities risk setting a dangerous precedent for investigative journalists around the world.

    Expected speakers include Former CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou and 2020 Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson.

    If you're interested in getting involved: https://assangedefense.org/ "

    Each breath a gift...
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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    ....Ruptly is live outside a London court on Monday, January 24, as an appeal request is reviewed in the case of Julian Assange.

    The hearing comes following the lower court ruling that the Wikileaks co-founder could be extradited to the US, where he faces multiple charges. The High Court is expected to decide whether the appeal could be submitted to the Supreme Court, which is the last court of appeal in the UK.

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    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    High Court Allows Assange to Appeal to Supreme Court
    January 24, 2022
    By Joe Lauria
    Special to Consortium News
    https://consortiumnews.com/2022/01/2...8A_OZHh4fSu4vA

    "The High Court in London has allowed Julian Assange leave to appeal its own ruling to the U.K. Supreme Court. The High Court ruled in December that Assange can be extradited to the U.S., overturning the district court’s decision.

    The High Court of England and Wales on Monday in essence allowed Julian Assange, the imprisoned WikiLeaks publisher, the right to appeal at the U.K. Supreme Court last month’s High Court judgement permitting Assange’s extradition to the United States.

    The High Court technically refused to allow an appeal to the Supreme Court, but left it up to that court to determine for itself whether it will grant permission to consider one legal issue.

    “We certify a single point of law … in what circumstances can an appellate court receive assurances from a requesting state which were not before the court of first instance in extradition proceedings,” the High Court said in an appearance that lasted less than a minute. That refers to whether the United States was legally permitted to provide assurances to the High Court after it had failed to do so during the district court’s hearing of Assange’s extradition case in September 2020.

    On Dec. 10, the High Court ruled that Assange’s extradition could go ahead, vacating the district court’s decision that Assange was too suicidal and U.S. prisons too harsh to send him there. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled in January 2021 that under section 91 of the U.S.-U.K. extradition treaty it would be oppressive to do so.

    The High Court did not disagree with the substance of that ruling. However it accepted U.S. “assurances” that it would not put Assange under the harshest incarceration regime, namely Special Administrative Measures (SAMS), and that he would receive adequate physical and mental health care. On the basis of those assurances alone the High Court overturned Baraitser’s ruling, clearing the way for extradition.

    Assange’s lawyers argued before the High Court in December that the court should not have accepted the assurances because they were made after the district judge had ruled not to extradite.

    But the High Court in December rejected the defense’s argument. “The court rejected various criticism argued on Mr. Assange’s behalf …that the assurances …were not sufficient,” said Lord Justice Timothy Holroyde.

    Siding with the United States, which argued that the assurances could come at any point in the legal process, he read:

    “For the reasons given in the judgment which is today handed down, the court allowed the appeal on the grounds that .. a. the DJ [District Judge], having decided that the threshold for discharge under section 91 of the Extradition Act 2003 was met, ought to have notified the USA of her provisional view, to afford it the opportunity to offer assurances to the court; and b. the USA has now provided the United Kingdom with a package of assurances which respond to the DJ’s specific findings.”

    “In our view, a court hearing an extradition case, whether at first instance or on appeal, has the power to receive and consider assurances whenever they are offered by a requesting state,” the High Court judgment said.

    It said further:

    “An offer of assurances in an extradition case is a solemn matter, requiring careful consideration by the requesting state of its willingness to give specific undertakings to another state. It would not be appropriate to require that to be done on a contingent or hypothetical basis; and we doubt the practicability of such an approach. We do not accept that the USA refrained for tactical reasons from offering assurances at an earlier stage, or acted in bad faith in choosing only to offer them at the appeal stage.”

    The High Court also tried to justify why the U.S. waited until after the extradition hearing in September 2020 to make its assurances. “We observe that the decision that all closing submissions should be made in writing, in a case in which the arguments had ranged far and wide over many days of hearing, may well have contributed to the difficulty faced by the USA in offering suitable assurances any earlier than it did,” the court said.

    Had the defense known about the assurances during the extradition hearing in district court it could have argued with evidence from previous cases about their unreliability. But they were never given that chance.

    It will now be up to the Supreme Court, if it accepts the appeal, to decide whether the U.S. could have legally made its assurances after Baraitser had decided in Assange’s favor. Assange has 14 days to apply to the Supreme Court to hear his case.

    Even if the High Court had completely denied Assange’s right to appeal to the Supreme Court, he would still have been free to apply to the highest court directly for the right to appeal. The court’s website says: “An application for permission to appeal must be made first to the Court of Appeal. If that Court refuses permission, an application may be made to The Supreme Court. An application is made by filing an application for permission to appeal.”

    If the Supreme Court takes the case its decision could set a precedent on the matter of whether government assurances must be filed with the court of first instance before its judgement is made. The Supreme Court would not be deciding on whether the U.S. assurances are believable but at what point in the legal process they should have been made.

    The court would essentially be deciding whether a state can shift the goalposts after it had lost a case.

    Assange is wanted in the United States on one charge of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion and 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act for possessing and publishing defense information that revealed prima facie evidence of U.S. war crimes and corruption.

    Speaking outside the Royal Courts of Justice after the High Court’s decision on Monday, Stella Moris, Assange’s fiancee and lawyer, said, “What happened in court today is precisely what we wanted to happen. The High Court certified that we had raised a point of law of general public importance and that the Supreme Court has good grounds to hear this appeal. … Make no mistake, we won today in court.” "
    Quote WikiLeaks
    @wikileaks
    Julian Assange fiancee Stella Moris speaking outside court after todays victory: "Today we won - but Julian continues to suffer - Julian must be freed"

    @SkyNews
    #FreeAssangeNOW
    @stellamoris1
    3:55 AM · Jan 24, 2022·Twitter Web App
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    Default Your Man in the Public Gallery: Assange Hearing Day Oh God It Never Ends

    I for one am very glad to see Craig Murray active again.

    Your Man in the Public Gallery: Assange Hearing Day Oh God It Never Ends

    Source: Craig Murray

    t feels like a recurring nightmare. On the sadly misnamed sleeper train once again, down to London and a dash to the Royal Courts of Justice to hear yet another judgement intoned. Julian not in court again and not in good health; Stella battling on but fighting to keep her health as well; Gareth Peirce her calm and unstoppable self; my friends from Wikileaks marshaling legal and media resources and remaining determinedly resolute and cheerful.

    The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Ian Duncan Burnett, is just the sort of chap you would want to play the role in a comic opera production. Burly, with a broad open face crowned with full white hair, he exudes solidity, bonhommie and natural command. You expect him to deliver his judgement and then stroll over the Strand to Simpson’s for a few thick slices of roast sirloin and a bumper of claret. I don’t mean that as a criticism; I like nothing better myself.

    The Lord Chief Justice doesn’t just get his own office; he does not just get the best scarlet silly costume you can imagine; he gets his very own court. What a court it is; acres of polished wood, larger than some theatres; galleried and storeyed, walls at every level lined all round with thousands upon thousands of exquisitely bound law books, locked behind glass doors which I strongly suspect are only ever opened to add another book destined to spend its natural life in there unvisited, with no possibility of parole.

    The Lord Chief Justice gets a very high bench, so you all have to look right up to him; a construction made of several tons of mahogany, which looks like it should be draped with potted palms, have moustachioed waiters in tight white jackets popping in and out of its various stairways and entrances carrying silver trays, and house a string quartet in the corner. Rumour has it that there is in fact a string quartet in a corner, which has been trying to leave since 1852.

    The Lord Chief Justice suddenly materialises from his own entrance behind his bench, already high above us, so he doesn’t have to mount the mahogany and risk tripping over his scarlet velvet drapery. I like to imagine he was raised up to the requisite level behind the scenes by a contraption of ropes and pulleys operated by hairy matelots. Next to him, but discreetly a little lower, was Lord Justice Holroyde, who delivered the judgement now appealed against, and today looked even more smug and oleaginous in the reflected glow of his big mate.

    The appearance lasted two minutes. Burnett told us that the Court certified, as being a matter of general public interest, the question of whether “Diplomatic Assurances” not submitted in the substantive hearing, could be submitted at the appeal stage. It did not so certify the other points raised; it refused leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.

    You can ignore the last phrase; it is customary that the High Court refuses leave to appeal; with the certification of public interest, Julian can now appeal direct to the Supreme Court which will decide whether or not to take the case. The refusal of leave by the High Court is purely a show of deference to the Supreme Court, which decides itself what it will take. The lawyers put this as “the Supreme Court dines a la carte”.

    Now some of the appeal points which the High Court refused to certify as arguable and of general public interest, were important. One point was that the diplomatic assurances by the United States promised not to engage in certain illegal practices amounting to torture, but made that assurance conditional on Assange’s future behaviour.

    Now, legally prohibited treatment of prisoners does not become lawful if the prisoner does something wrong. That ought to have been a slam-dunk argument, even without the fact that the decision on Assange’s future behaviour would be made by precisely the same authorities who plotted to kidnap or murder him.

    All of which was not certified as an arguable point of law of general public interest.

    What is certified and going forward is the simple question of whether the diplomatic assurances were received too late. Rather peculiarly, the High Court judgement of Burnett and Holroyde, against which Julian was seeking leave to appeal, blamed extradition magistrate Vanessa Baraitser for not having asked the United States for diplomatic assurances at the earlier stage.

    The doctrine that a judge should suggest to counsel for one party, helpful points to strengthen their case against the other party, is an entirely new one in English law. The United States could have submitted their diplomatic note at any stage, but chose not to do so, in order to see if they could get away with making no commitment as to Assange’s treatment. They only submitted a diplomatic note after they lost the original case. It was not for Baraitser to ask them to do it earlier and the suggestion is a ludicrous bit of special pleading by Burnett.

    This is more than just a procedural point. If the assurances had been submitted to the magistrate’s court, their value could have been objected to by Assange’s defence. The self-canceling conditionalities within the assurances themselves could have been explored, and the United States’ long record of breaking such assurances could have been discussed.

    By introducing them only at the appeal stage, the United States had evaded all scrutiny of their validity.

    That was confirmed by today’s judgement. Questions of the viability of assurances that, inter alia, make torture a future option, were ruled not to be arguable appeal points.

    So the certified point, whether assurances can be submitted at the appeals stage, is not really just about timing and deadlines, it is about whether there should be scrutiny of the assurances or not.

    However it does not look like a substantial point. It looks like just a technical point on timing and deadlines. This is very important, because it may be the screen behind which the British Establishment is sidling slowly towards the exit. Was Lord Burnett looking to get out of this case by one of the curtained doors at his back?

    If any of the other points had been certified, there would have been detailed discussion in court of the United States’ penchant for torture, its dreadful prison conditions, and its long record of bad faith (it is an accepted point of law in the United States that domestic authorities are not bound by any assurance, commitment or even treaty given to foreign governments). For the Supreme Court to refuse Assange’s extradition on any of those grounds would be an official accusation against the United States’ integrity, and thus diplomatically difficult.

    But the Supreme Court can refuse extradition on the one point now certified by the High Court, and it can be presented as nothing to do with anything bad about the USA and its governance, purely a technical matter of a missed deadline. Apologies all round, never mind old chap, and let’s get to the claret at Simpson’s.

    Can there really be an end in sight for Julian? Is the British Establishment quietly sidling to the exit?
    “If a man does not keep pace with [fall into line with] his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” - Thoreau

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