+ Reply to Thread
Page 10 of 31 FirstFirst 1 10 20 31 LastLast
Results 181 to 200 of 612

Thread: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

  1. Link to Post #181
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th March 2010
    Language
    English
    Posts
    22,208
    Thanks
    47,680
    Thanked 116,087 times in 20,639 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    WikiLeaks Editor: US Is Saying First Amendment Doesn’t Apply To Foreigners In Assange Case
    JANUARY 23, 2020 by CAITLIN JOHNSTONE


    "WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson gave a brief statement to the press after the latest court hearing for Julian Assange’s extradition case in London today, saying the Trump administration is arguing that the First Amendment of the US Constitution doesn’t provide press freedom protection to foreign nationals like Assange.

    “We have now learned from submissions and affidavits presented by the United States to this court that they do not consider foreign nationals to have a First Amendment protection,” Hrafnsson said.

    “Now let that sink in for a second,” Hrafnsson continued. “At the same time that the US government is chasing journalists all over the world, they claim they have extra-territorial reach, they have decided that all foreign journalists which include many of you here, have no protection under the First Amendment of the United States. So that goes to show the gravity of this case. This is not about Julian Assange, it’s about press freedom.”

    Hrafnsson’s very newsworthy claim has as of this writing received no mainstream news media coverage at all. The video above is from independent reporter Gordon Dimmack.

    This prosecutorial strategy would be very much in alignment with remarks made in 2017 by then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo. https://www.csis.org/analysis/discus...or-mike-pompeo

    “Julian Assange has no First Amendment freedoms. He’s sitting in an embassy in London. He’s not a U.S. citizen,” Pompeo told the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    That, like nearly every sound which emits from Pompeo’s amorphous face, was a lie. The First Amendment is not a set of special free speech privileges that the US government magnanimously bestows upon a few select individuals, it’s a limitation placed upon the US government’s ability to restrict rights that all persons everywhere are assumed to have.

    This is like a sex offender who’s barred from living within 500 yards of a school claiming that the school he moved in next to is exempt because it’s full of immigrants who therefore aren’t protected by his restriction. It’s a restriction placed on the government, not a right that is given to certain people.

    Attorney and Future of Freedom Foundation president Jacob Hornberger explained after Pompeo’s remarks: https://www.fff.org/2017/04/27/cia-d...rst-amendment/ “As Jefferson points out, everyone, not just American citizens, is endowed with these natural, God-given rights, including life, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness. That includes people who are citizens of other countries. Citizenship has nothing to do rights that are vested in everyone by nature and God. At the risk of belaboring the obvious, that includes Julian Assange.”

    The Empire’s War On Oppositional Journalism Continues To Escalate
    Quote "Journalist Glenn Greenwald has been charged by the Bolsonaro government in Brazil with the same prosecutorial angle used by the US to target WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange." #FreeAssangehttps://t.co/jaWaaB0p3a

    — Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ (@caitoz) January 22, 2020
    Journalist Glenn Greenwald, who is himself now being legally persecuted by the same empire as Assange under an indictment which Hrafnsson in the aforementioned statement called “almost a carbon copy of the indictment against Julian Assange”, also denounced Pompeo’s 2017 remarks. https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/t...e-5dc6bf3b1331

    “The notion that WikiLeaks has no free press rights because Assange is a foreigner is both wrong and dangerous,” Greenwald wrote at the time. “When I worked at the Guardian, my editors were all non-Americans. Would it therefore have been constitutionally permissible for the U.S. Government to shut down that paper and imprison its editors on the ground that they enjoy no constitutional protections? Obviously not.”

    Greenwald, who is a former litigation attorney, referenced a Salon article he’d written in 2010 skillfully outlining why Senator Susan Collins’ attempts to spin constitutional rights as inapplicable to foreigners would be outlandish, insane, illegal and unconstitutional to put into practice. https://www.salon.com/control/2010/02/01/collins_5/

    “To see how false this notion is that the Constitution only applies to U.S. citizens, one need do nothing more than read the Bill of Rights,” Greenwald argued in 2010. “It says nothing about ‘citizens.’ To the contrary, many of the provisions are simply restrictions on what the Government is permitted to do (‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion . . . or abridging the freedom of speech’; ‘No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner’). And where rights are expressly vested, they are pointedly not vested in ‘citizens,’ but rather in ‘persons’ or ‘the accused’ (‘No person shall . . . . be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law’; ‘In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed . . . . and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense’).”

    “The U.S. Supreme Court, in 2008, issued a highly publicized opinion, in Boumediene v. Bush, which, by itself, makes clear how false is the claim that the Constitution applies only to Americans,” Greenwald wrote. “The Boumediene Court held that it was unconstitutional for the Military Commissions Act to deny habeas corpus rights to Guantanamo detainees, none of whom was an American citizen (indeed, the detainees were all foreign nationals outside of the U.S.). If the Constitution applied only to U.S. citizens, that decision would obviously be impossible.”

    “The principle that the Constitution applies not only to Americans, but also to foreigners, was hardly invented by the Court in 2008,” Greenwald added. “To the contrary, the Supreme Court — all the way back in 1886 — explicitly held this to be the case, when, in Yick Wo v. Hopkins, it overturned the criminal conviction of a Chinese citizen living in California on the ground that the law in question violated his Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process and equal protection. In so doing, the Court explicitly rejected what Susan Collins and many others claim about the Constitution.”

    These “and many others” Greenwald referred to would now include both Mike Pompeo and the Department of Justice prosecutors who are attempting to extradite and imprison Assange for publishing information exposing US war crimes.

    Quote Kristinn Hrafnsson editor in chief of WikiLeaks: “We learned today from the prosecution that the US does not consider foreign nationals to be protected under the 1st Amendment” #DontExtraditeAssange #FreeJulianAssange pic.twitter.com/9tNb6bCF0s

    — Juan Passarelli (@jlpassarelli) January 23, 2020
    So let’s be clear here: the Trump administration isn’t just working to establish a legal precedent which will demolish press freedoms around the world, it’s also working to change how the US Constitution operates on a very fundamental level.

    Does now seem like a good time to fight against this to you? Because it sure as hell seems like that time to me.

    Hrafnsson also said in this same statement that Assange’s extradition trial is going to be split into two separate dates, the first on February 24 for one week and then reconvening again for three weeks starting May 18. If you care about freedom of virtually any sort, I highly recommend paying very, very close attention." https://www.canberratimes.com.au/sto...tion/?cs=14232
    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

  2. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to onawah For This Post:

    Arcturian108 (23rd January 2020), Bill Ryan (9th February 2020), Franny (9th February 2020), Kryztian (24th January 2020), Tintin (25th January 2020)

  3. Link to Post #182
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th March 2010
    Language
    English
    Posts
    22,208
    Thanks
    47,680
    Thanked 116,087 times in 20,639 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Sanders co-chair: Greenwald charges could cause 'chilling effect on journalism across the world'
    BY ZACK BUDRYK - 01/21/20
    https://thehill.com/policy/technolog...ling-effect-on

    "Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a co-chairman for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) presidential campaign, spoke out Tuesday against charges by the Brazilian government against American journalist Glenn Greenwald, saying the country illustrated the need for Espionage Act reform in the U.S.

    “Prosecuting reporters for doing their work will have chilling effect on journalism across the world,” Khanna tweeted Tuesday. “I'm crafting legislation to protect journalists from being prosecuted over their published work.”
    Quote Rep. Ro Khanna

    @RepRoKhanna
    Prosecuting reporters for doing their work will have chilling effect on journalism across the world.

    I'm crafting legislation to protect journalists from being prosecuted over their published work. https://twitter.com/jaketapper/statu...61479684780032

    Jake Tapper

    @jaketapper
    Important context for arrest of ⁦@ggreenwald⁩ — Brazilian President Bolsonaro has been threatening Greenwald for a long time because of his aggressive and excellent journalism https://cpj.org/2019/07/brazilian-pr...-greenwald.php

    1,481
    12:46 PM - Jan 21, 2020
    Twitter Ads info and privacy
    443 people are talking about this
    Khanna wrote he is currently developing legislation to amend the law, which was the basis for federal charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to ensure it cannot be used to indict journalists.

    "The Trump administration charging Assange opened up a chilling effect on journalism," Khanna told CBS News.

    "If you are the recipient of information that is sensitive and you haven't been involved in assisting the collection of information, but you're just receiving that information from a source and publishing it for journalistic purposes — then you can't be prosecuted.”


    Khanna said that he hopes to work with Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.), a co-founder of the House Freedom Caucus who was later removed from it after leaving the Republican Party, as well as conservative members he believes may be similarly concerned about the potential for government overreach.

    The eventual bill, he said, “will be a major protection for journalists' ability to work on these critical issues.”

    Greenwald, who lives in Brazil, has been accused by prosecutors of cyber crimes in relation to his publication of private phone conversations involving high-level Brazilian officials. He has denied all charges and called them “an obvious attempt to attack a free press” in retaliation for his reporting on President Jair Bolsonaro's government."
    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

  4. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to onawah For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (9th February 2020), Franny (9th February 2020), Kryztian (24th January 2020), Pam (24th January 2020), Tintin (25th January 2020)

  5. Link to Post #183
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th March 2010
    Language
    English
    Posts
    22,208
    Thanks
    47,680
    Thanked 116,087 times in 20,639 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Belmarsh Prison Inmates Prove More Ethical Than Entire Western Empire
    by CAITLIN JOHNSTONE
    JANUARY 25, 2020
    https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/01...estern-empire/



    "In some refreshingly good news about Julian Assange, WikiLeaks is reporting that its founder has finally been moved out of solitary confinement to a different wing in Belmarsh Prison where he can have normal social interactions with 40 other inmates.

    This fantastic news lifts a huge weight from the chests of those of us who’ve been protesting Assange’s cruel and unusual treatment at the hands of an international alliance of governments bent on making a draconian public example of a journalist whose publications exposed US war crimes. Solitary confinement is a form of torture, and a UN Special Rapporteur has confirmed that Assange shows clear symptoms that he is a victim of psychological torture caused by his persecution from coordinated efforts by Washington, London, Stockholm, Canberra and Quito.

    So what caused this shift in Assange’s treatment? Did the powerful empire-like alliance loosely centralized around the United States suddenly come to its senses and realize that torturing journalists for telling the truth is the sort of tyrannical abuse that it accuses other governments of perpetrating? Did officials in the British government bow to public pressure from the pro-Assange demonstrations which have been taking place in London month after month and have some faint flickerings of conscience? Did Belmarsh Prison authorities come to their senses after more than a hundred doctors warned that their cruelty was killing the award-winning publisher?

    Why no. As it turns out, Assange was in fact rescued from the cruelty of this globe-sprawling empire by the concerted protests of high-security prison inmates.

    Quote Prisoners' revolt and pressure from legal team and campaigners forces Belmarsh to move Assange out of solitary. WikiLeaks statement: pic.twitter.com/9Af9y3zC93

    — Don't Extradite Assange (@DEAcampaign) January 24, 2020
    “In a dramatic climbdown, authorities at Belmarsh Prison have moved Julian Assange from solitary confinement in the medical wing and relocated him to an area with other inmates,” said WikiLeaks Ambassador Joseph Farrell in a statement today. “The move is a huge victory for Assange’s legal team and for campaigners who have been insisting for weeks that the prison authorities must end the punitive treatment of Assange.”

    “But the decision to relocate Assange is also a massive victory of prisoners in Belmarsh,” Farrell added. “A group of inmates have petitioned the prison governor on three occasions, insisting that the treatment of Assange was unjust and unfair. After meetings between prisoners, lawyers and the Belmarsh authorities, Assange was moved to a different prison wing — albeit one with only 40 inmates.”

    Belmarsh is a notoriously harsh maximum-security prison full of violent offenders and prisoners convicted under anti-terrorism laws, one of many reasons that Assange supporters have so vigorously opposed his confinement there. What does it tell you about the society you are living in that this population has a superior moral compass to the people who are actually running things?

    For years I’ve been arguing with Democratic Party-aligned liberals on one side saying that Assange is a Russian agent who deserves to be tortured, and a bunch of Trump-aligned right wingers on the other side saying their president is extraditing Assange for the good of the world. These are the two mainstream views on Assange within the western empire today. And a group of Belmarsh prisoners just proved themselves infinitely more ethical than any of them. They have a better sense of right and wrong than those running the empire, and they have a better sense of right and wrong than the propagandized apologists for that empire.

    Quote UN Special Rapporteur on torture: “In 20 years..I have never seen a group of democratic States ganging up to deliberately isolate, demonise and abuse a single individual for such a long time and with so little regard for human dignity and the rule of law”https://t.co/UMGegjYrBS

    — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) May 31, 2019
    Not that this should surprise us; the US-centralized empire is spectacularly evil, and this this group of Belmarsh prisoners had a unique vantage point on Assange’s plight. The prisoners demonstrated their moral superiority to the mainstream public not because prison inmates are on average inherently better people than those on the outside, but because they were confronted with the reality of Assange’s situation instead of mainlining mass media propaganda about Assange. They were dealing with reality rather than narrative, so they addressed that reality. And they did so admirably.

    The smear campaign that has been conducted against Assange by the political/media class has distorted public perception of his plight so severely that there are far more people seeing his case through a distorted understanding than there are people who actually understand what’s happening to him. We saw this illustrated very clearly when the aforementioned UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, admitted frankly that before going to investigate Assange’s case for himself he’d been propagandized by this same smear campaign as well.

    “When I was first approached by his defense team seeking protection from my mandate in December last year, I was reluctant to do so, because, me too, I had been affected by this prejudice that I had absorbed through all these public narratives spread in the media over the years,” Melzer told Democracy Now in an interview last year. “And only when I scratched the surface a little bit, I saw how little foundation there was to back this up and how much fabrication and manipulation there is in this case. So I encourage everybody to really look below the surface in this case.”

    Inmates of Belmarsh prison had a superior understanding of Assange’s plight because they wouldn’t have been affected by these narratives. They would simply have seen what’s right in front of them, with their own eyes: a nonviolent prisoner being caged in solitary confinement 23 hours a day for no discernible reason.

    You couldn’t ask for a clearer example of the difference between fact and narrative than this. Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. Whoever can see beyond narrative can see the truth. We must all strive for this."
    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

  6. The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to onawah For This Post:

    Arcturian108 (12th February 2020), Bill Ryan (9th February 2020), fifi (26th January 2020), Franny (9th February 2020), Pam (25th January 2020), Tintin (25th January 2020)

  7. Link to Post #184
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th March 2010
    Language
    English
    Posts
    22,208
    Thanks
    47,680
    Thanked 116,087 times in 20,639 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Wikileaks Editor in Chief Kristinn Hrafnsson on Julian Assange
    Feb 4, 2020
    acTVism Munich
    40.9K subscribers
    https://goo.gl/aMkRjb

    "In this speech recorded on the 4th of February 2020 in London, Editor-in-Chief of Wikileaks Kristinn Hrafnsson addresses the case of Julian Assange . Hrafnsson's speech starts with his recent experience with Assange when he visited him recently in Belmarsh prison. Hrafnsson then examines the accusation of the U.S. government that asserts that Assange is a hacker and not a journalist. Thereafter he examines the most significant revelations of Wikileaks when Assange led the organisation, the threat that his extradition to the United States poses to press freedom and concludes by surfacing the importance of collective action.

    Kristinn Hrafnsson - editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks since 2018 and an Icelandic investigative journalist. He was named Icelandic journalist of the year three times, in 2004, 2007 and 2010 by Iceland’s National Union of Journalists; the only journalist ever to receive this award thrice.

    To read this interview: https://bit.ly/2Uy9BlJ"
    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

  8. The Following 4 Users Say Thank You to onawah For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (9th February 2020), ByTheNorthernSea (9th February 2020), Franny (9th February 2020), Tintin (9th February 2020)

  9. Link to Post #185
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th March 2010
    Language
    English
    Posts
    22,208
    Thanks
    47,680
    Thanked 116,087 times in 20,639 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    German cross-party appeal for release of Julian Assange launches in Berlin
    Streamed live on Feb 6, 2020
    Ruptly
    996K subscribers
    "A cross-party initiative to demand the release of Julian Assange is taking place in Berlin on Thursday, February 6.

    The initiative will include the former Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) chairman Sigmar Gabriel, former German Interior Minister Gerhart Baum (Free Democratic Party; FDP), former German Justice Minister Herta Daubler-Gmelin (SPD), Left Party Bundestag member Sevim Dagdelen, the writer Navid Kermani, and the journalist Günter Wallraff, who are all calling for Assange‘s release as numerous experts consider his state of health to be serious.

    Assange is being held in London’s Belmarsh prison prior to his US extradition hearing that will begin in February.

    If convicted, Assange faces a prison term of up to 175 years."



    (Let's hope that other countries will follow suit. Perhaps if enough do, the UK and US will not find it so easy to ignore.)
    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

  10. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to onawah For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (9th February 2020), Franny (9th February 2020), Philippe (9th February 2020), Tintin (9th February 2020), wegge (9th February 2020)

  11. Link to Post #186
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th March 2010
    Language
    English
    Posts
    22,208
    Thanks
    47,680
    Thanked 116,087 times in 20,639 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Julian Assange Free the Truth: UN Rapporteur Nils Melzer Abuse of International Law
    Feb 3, 2020
    EF Press
    433 subscribers
    UK Justice Condemned. Rogue State Unleashes Terror on Asylum Seeking Journalist.
    Nils Melzer (@NilsMelzer): https://twitter.com/NilsMelzer?s=09
    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

  12. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to onawah For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (9th February 2020), Franny (9th February 2020), Tintin (9th February 2020)

  13. Link to Post #187
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th March 2010
    Language
    English
    Posts
    22,208
    Thanks
    47,680
    Thanked 116,087 times in 20,639 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Assange's father John Shipton & Wikileaks Chief Editor Kristinn Hrafnsson on how you can support
    Feb 10, 2020
    acTVism Munich
    41K subscribers
    ✔ More videos coming on this topic. Subscribe here: https://goo.gl/aMkRjb

    In this video we interview Julian Assange's father John Shipton and Chief Editor of Wikileaks Kristinn Hrafnsson about the case of Julian Assange and how individuals can support him and protect press freedom.

    Both interviews were recorded on the 4th of February 2020 at the Royal National Hotel in London after the public rally for Julian Assange that was organized by the “Don’t Extradite Assange Campaign.”

    Here is a full list of acTVism videos on this topic:
    ► John McDonnell & John Rees:
    https://youtu.be/QpWyTCB1FdM
    ► Interview with Nils Melzer:
    https://youtu.be/f9KRxF9oVxQ
    ►Tariq Ali's speech:
    https://youtu.be/h_KPqLHAGuE
    ► Jennifer Robinson's speech:
    https://youtu.be/gfBHcxK5HkQ
    ► Nils Melzer's speech:
    https://youtu.be/FQrlJOk2YMo
    ► Don't Extradite Assange Report:
    https://youtu.be/AqEz3y4cn0Y
    ► Kristinn Hrafnsson's speech:
    https://youtu.be/KeFPSQVqwPI
    ► Julian Assange Case: Abby Martin, Snowden, Chomsky, Jill Stein, Varoufakis, Horvat & Richter Respond: https://youtu.be/39IUOeQvaOw
    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

  14. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to onawah For This Post:

    Innocent Warrior (28th February 2020), raregem (12th February 2020), Tintin (12th February 2020)

  15. Link to Post #188
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th March 2010
    Language
    English
    Posts
    22,208
    Thanks
    47,680
    Thanked 116,087 times in 20,639 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Nils Melzer UN Special Rapporteur on Torture: Assange "has been tortured & continues to be tortured"
    Feb 11, 2020
    TheWikiLeaksChannel
    79.2K subscribers

    Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture spoke at the Don't Extradite Assange Ralley in London and said that Julian Assange "has been tortured & continues to be tortured"
    Last edited by onawah; 12th February 2020 at 02:12.
    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

  16. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to onawah For This Post:

    Franny (12th February 2020), Mike (12th February 2020), raregem (12th February 2020), Tintin (12th February 2020), wnlight (12th February 2020)

  17. Link to Post #189
    United States Avalon Member Dennis Leahy's Avatar
    Join Date
    14th January 2011
    Location
    North Carolina
    Language
    English
    Age
    69
    Posts
    6,741
    Thanks
    47,010
    Thanked 48,583 times in 5,817 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    I call for a boycott of England (note I didn't say "UK" - the vassal states in the UK are not responsible) until Julian Assange is released and all charges dropped.


    The boycott of Israel over the genocide of Palestinians is one of the major topics that faceboog scrubs from itself, at the order of Israel, so yes, national boycotts do have an effect.


  18. The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to Dennis Leahy For This Post:

    Franny (12th February 2020), Mike (12th February 2020), onawah (12th February 2020), raregem (12th February 2020), Tintin (12th February 2020), wnlight (12th February 2020)

  19. Link to Post #190
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th March 2010
    Language
    English
    Posts
    22,208
    Thanks
    47,680
    Thanked 116,087 times in 20,639 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Labour MP Richard Burgon @ Don't Extradite Assange Rally in London
    Feb 11, 2020
    TheWikiLeaksChannel
    79.1K subscribers

    "If journalism is really going to speak truth to power, then they need to expose what the powerful do in all or our names."
    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

  20. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to onawah For This Post:

    raregem (12th February 2020), Tintin (12th February 2020), wnlight (12th February 2020)

  21. Link to Post #191
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th March 2010
    Language
    English
    Posts
    22,208
    Thanks
    47,680
    Thanked 116,087 times in 20,639 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    What Is Happening to Assange Will Happen to the Rest of Us--Chris Hedges
    Truth Dig
    FEB 10, 2020
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...y-Epstein.html


    "David Morales, the indicted owner of the Spanish private security firm Undercover Global, is being investigated by Spain’s high court for allegedly providing the CIA with audio and video recordings of the meetings WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had with his attorneys and other visitors when the publisher was in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The security firm also reportedly photographed the passports of all of Assange’s visitors. It is accused of taking visitors’ phones, which were not permitted in the embassy, and opening them, presumably in an effort to intercept calls. It reportedly stole data from laptops, electronic tablets and USB sticks, all required to be left at the embassy reception area. It allegedly compiled detailed reports on all of Assange’s meetings and conversations with visitors. The firm even is said to have planned to steal the diaper of a baby — brought to visit Assange — to perform a DNA test to establish whether the infant was a secret son of Assange. UC Global, apparently at the behest of the CIA, also allegedly spied on Ecuadorian diplomats who worked in the Londonembassy.

    The probe by the court, the Audiencia Nacional, into the activities of UC Global, along with leaked videos, statements, documents and reports published by the Spanish newspaper El País as well as the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, offers a window into the new global security state. Here the rule of law is irrelevant. Here privacy and attorney-client privilege do not exist. Here people live under 24-hour-a-day surveillance. Here all who attempt to expose the crimes of tyrannical power will be hunted down, kidnapped, imprisoned and broken. This global security state is a terrifying melding of the corporate and the public. And what it has done to Assange it will soon do to the rest of us.

    The publication of classified documents is not yet a crime in the United States. If Assange is extradited and convicted, it will become one. Assange is not an American citizen. WikiLeaks, which he founded, is not a U.S.-based publication. The extradition of Assange would mean the end of journalistic investigations into the inner workings of power. It would cement into place a terrifying global, corporate tyranny under which borders, nationality andlaw mean nothing. Once such a legal precedent is set, any publication that publishes classified material, from The New York Times to an alternative website, will be prosecuted and silenced."
    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

  22. The Following 8 Users Say Thank You to onawah For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (24th February 2020), Dennis Leahy (15th February 2020), Franny (15th February 2020), Ivanhoe (20th February 2020), Kryztian (13th February 2020), Pam (23rd February 2020), Philippe (16th February 2020), Tintin (14th February 2020)

  23. Link to Post #192
    Avalon Member Kryztian's Avatar
    Join Date
    16th September 2012
    Posts
    3,487
    Thanks
    23,704
    Thanked 29,413 times in 3,425 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture says:

    «A murderous system is being created before our very eyes»

    The interview is published in English here in the Swiss publication "Media Lens"
    https://www.republik.ch/2020/01/31/n...julian-assange

    A few quotes

    Quote ‘I speak fluent Swedish and was thus able to read all of the original documents. I could hardly believe my eyes: According to the testimony of the woman in question, a rape had never even taken place at all. And not only that: The woman’s testimony was later changed by the Stockholm police without her involvement in order to somehow make it sound like a possible rape. I have all the documents in my possession, the emails, the text messages.’
    Quote A woman walks into a police station. She doesn’t want to file a complaint but wants to demand an HIV test. The police then decide that this could be a case of rape and a matter for public prosecutors. The woman refuses to go along with that version of events and then goes home and writes a friend that it wasn’t her intention, but the police want to «get their hands on» Assange. Two hours later, the case is in the newspaper. As we know today, public prosecutors leaked it to the press – and they did so without even inviting Assange to make a statement. And the second woman, who had allegedly been raped according to the Aug. 20 headline, was only questioned on Aug. 21.
    Quote The lawyers say that during the nearly seven years in which Assange lived in the Ecuadorian Embassy, they made over 30 offers to arrange for Assange to visit Sweden – in exchange for a guarantee that he would not be extradited to the U.S. The Swedes declined to provide such a guarantee by arguing that the U.S. had not made a formal request for extradition.
    Quote He will not receive a trial consistent with the rule of law. That’s another reason why his extradition shouldn’t be allowed. Assange will receive a trial-by-jury in Alexandria, Virginia – the notorious «Espionage Court» where the U.S. tries all national security cases. The choice of location is not by coincidence, because the jury members must be chosen in proportion to the local population, and 85 percent of Alexandria residents work in the national security community – at the CIA, the NSA, the Defense Department and the State Department. When people are tried for harming national security in front of a jury like that, the verdict is clear from the very beginning. The cases are always tried in front of the same judge behind closed doors and on the strength of classified evidence. Nobody has ever been acquitted there in a case like that. The result being that most defendants reach a settlement, in which they admit to partial guilt so as to receive a milder sentence.
    Quote There is only a single explanation for everything – for the refusal to grant diplomatic assurances, for the refusal to question him in London: They wanted to apprehend him so they could extradite him to the U.S. The number of breaches of law that accumulated in Sweden within just a few weeks during the preliminary criminal investigation is simply grotesque.
    Quote That it is a prearranged affair. A show trial is to be used to make an example of Julian Assange. The point is to intimidate other journalists. Intimidation, by the way, is one of the primary purposes for the use of torture around the world. The message to all of us is: This is what will happen to you if you emulate the Wikileaks model. It is a model that is so dangerous because it is so simple: People who obtain sensitive information from their governments or companies transfer that information to Wikileaks, but the whistleblower remains anonymous. The reaction shows how great the threat is perceived to be: Four democratic countries joined forces – the U.S., Ecuador, Sweden and the UK – to leverage their power to portray one man as a monster so that he could later be burned at the stake without any outcry. The case is a huge scandal and represents the failure of Western rule of law. If Julian Assange is convicted, it will be a death sentence for freedom of the press.
    Quote If investigative journalism is classified as espionage and can be incriminated around the world, then censorship and tyranny will follow. A murderous system is being created before our very eyes. War crimes and torture are not being prosecuted. YouTube videos are circulating in which American soldiers brag about driving Iraqi women to suicide with systematic rape. Nobody is investigating it. At the same time, a person who exposes such things is being threatened with 175 years in prison.
    Quote We give countries power and delegate it to governments – but in return, they must be held accountable for how they exercise that power. If we don’t demand that they be held accountable, we will lose our rights sooner or later. Humans are not democratic by their nature. Power corrupts if it is not monitored. Corruption is the result if we do not insist that power be monitored.
    Last edited by Kryztian; 15th February 2020 at 19:16.

  24. The Following 11 Users Say Thank You to Kryztian For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (29th February 2020), Chester (16th February 2020), Dennis Leahy (17th February 2020), Franny (18th February 2020), Ivanhoe (17th February 2020), Kamikaze (17th February 2020), mountain_jim (18th February 2020), onawah (15th February 2020), Philippe (15th February 2020), Stephanie (18th February 2020), Tintin (18th February 2020)

  25. Link to Post #193
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th March 2010
    Language
    English
    Posts
    22,208
    Thanks
    47,680
    Thanked 116,087 times in 20,639 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Intellectual Tariq Ali speaks out on Assange's case & U.S. wars
    Feb 7, 2020
    acTVism Munich
    41.3K subscribers
    ✔ More videos coming on this topic. Subscribe here: https://goo.gl/aMkRjb

    "In this speech given on the 4th of February 2020 in a public rally for Julian Assange at the Royal National Hotel in London, author, writer, filmmaker and public intellectual Tariq Ali speaks about the case of Julian Assange. Furthermore he contextualises Assange’s case by focusing on U.S. wars and points out the double standards observed when it comes to the application of international law. Ali closes the speech by surfacing the importance of collective action around the case of Julian Assange.

    To read the transcript of this video: https://bit.ly/2OLuZQE "
    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

  26. The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to onawah For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (24th February 2020), Dennis Leahy (15th February 2020), Franny (15th February 2020), Pam (20th February 2020), Philippe (16th February 2020), Tintin (15th February 2020)

  27. Link to Post #194
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th March 2010
    Language
    English
    Posts
    22,208
    Thanks
    47,680
    Thanked 116,087 times in 20,639 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Julian Assange - Public Rally Event with Wikileaks, Nils Melzer, Tariq Ali and more
    acTVism Munich
    2/12/20

    "In this video we publish the complete public rally event for Julian Assange that took place on the 4th of February 2020 at the Royal National Hotel in London. This event was organised by the "Don't Extradite Assange Campaign". Speakers in the video include by order:
    ► Tom Dawson: Executive Member of the National Union of Journalists of Britain & Ireland
    ► Kristinn Hrafnsonn: WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief
    ► Jennifer Robinson: Human Rights Lawyer & Barrister in Assange's Legal Team
    ► Richard Burgon: British MP for the Labour Party
    ► Nils Melzer: UN Special Rapporteur on Torture
    ► John McDonnell: British MP for the Labour Party
    ► John Rees: Activist, Academic & Writer
    ► Tariq Ali: Public Intellectual, Author & Filmmaker
    ► Moderated by Deepa Govindarajan Driver: University Lecturer & Trade Unionist

    List of interviews that we undertook after the event:
    ► Interview with Assange's Father:
    https://youtu.be/roiyDkNbOkc
    ► Interview with Nils Melzer:
    https://youtu.be/f9KRxF9oVxQ
    ► Report of Event:
    https://youtu.be/AqEz3y4cn0Y
    ► Abby Martin, Snowden, Chomsky, Jill Stein, Varoufakis, Horvat & Richter Respond:
    https://youtu.be/39IUOeQvaOw

    Our interview with Edward Snowden: https://youtu.be/kTyvLpNpa9E "

    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

  28. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to onawah For This Post:

    Ba-ba-Ra (15th February 2020), Bill Ryan (24th February 2020), Franny (15th February 2020), Pam (23rd February 2020), Tintin (15th February 2020)

  29. Link to Post #195
    United States Avalon Member Dennis Leahy's Avatar
    Join Date
    14th January 2011
    Location
    North Carolina
    Language
    English
    Age
    69
    Posts
    6,741
    Thanks
    47,010
    Thanked 48,583 times in 5,817 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Quote Posted by onawah (here)
    Intellectual Tariq Ali speaks out on Assange's case & U.S. wars
    Feb 7, 2020
    acTVism Munich
    41.3K subscribers
    ✔ More videos coming on this topic. Subscribe here: https://goo.gl/aMkRjb

    "In this speech given on the 4th of February 2020 in a public rally for Julian Assange at the Royal National Hotel in London, author, writer, filmmaker and public intellectual Tariq Ali speaks about the case of Julian Assange. Furthermore he contextualises Assange’s case by focusing on U.S. wars and points out the double standards observed when it comes to the application of international law. Ali closes the speech by surfacing the importance of collective action around the case of Julian Assange.

    To read the transcript of this video: https://bit.ly/2OLuZQE "
    [you tube]h_KPqLHAGuE[/you tube]
    Brilliant truth teller.


  30. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to Dennis Leahy For This Post:

    Ba-ba-Ra (15th February 2020), Bill Ryan (24th February 2020), Franny (15th February 2020), onawah (15th February 2020), Tintin (15th February 2020)

  31. Link to Post #196
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th March 2010
    Language
    English
    Posts
    22,208
    Thanks
    47,680
    Thanked 116,087 times in 20,639 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    MPs ramp up Assange freedom campaign
    Feb 12, 2020
    Sky News Australia
    197K subscribers

    "Two federal MPs are taking their fight to free Julian Assange to the United Kingdom.

    Independent Andrew Wilkie and Liberal George Christensen will jet to London at their own expense to visit the Wikileaks founder at Belmarsh Prison.

    The 'Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Group' co-chairs will also meet British parliamentarians and officials to discuss the matter.

    The 48-year-old is due to face an extradition trial later this month over US charges including 17 counts of spying and one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.

    Independent MP Andrew Wilkie told Sky News on Thursday "we want to check on Julian Assange's welfare and health and the circumstances of his incarceration".

    "I personally want to assure Mr Assange that there are a lot of people very concerned at the injustice he face," he said.

    Mr Wilkie said the Australian government was doing very little to help Mr Assange, and "I think a lot of people are very disappointed".

    "At the end of the day, Julian Assange is an Australian citizen and you'd think the Australian government would be very concerned," he said."

    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

  32. The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to onawah For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (24th February 2020), Dennis Leahy (17th February 2020), Franny (17th February 2020), Pam (23rd February 2020), Tintin (20th February 2020)

  33. Link to Post #197
    United States Avalon Member onawah's Avatar
    Join Date
    28th March 2010
    Language
    English
    Posts
    22,208
    Thanks
    47,680
    Thanked 116,087 times in 20,639 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    Max Blumenthal on the imperial NGOs that ignore Julian Assange - and the billionaires behind them
    Feb 16, 2020
    The Grayzone

    "The Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal speaks about the witch hunt against WikiLeaks publisher and political prisoner Julian Assange, and how billionaire-funded "human rights" and "press freedom" non-profit organizations have refused to support him.

    This talk was hosted by the Courage Foundation in New York City on February 15, 2020. "

    ||| The Grayzone |||

    Find more reporting at https://thegrayzone.com
    Each breath a gift...
    _____________

  34. The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to onawah For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (24th February 2020), Dennis Leahy (17th February 2020), earthdreamer (21st February 2020), Franny (18th February 2020), Pam (23rd February 2020), Tintin (20th February 2020)

  35. Link to Post #198
    Avalon Member Kryztian's Avatar
    Join Date
    16th September 2012
    Posts
    3,487
    Thanks
    23,704
    Thanked 29,413 times in 3,425 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    WikiLeaks Twitter account suspiciously locked just days before Assange extradition hearing

    Twitter has locked the account of WikiLeaks.

    The publisher's editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson has taken to Twitter to demand answers after their official account was suspiciously locked just days away from the extradition hearing of its founder Julian Assange.

    Hrafnsson exclaimed that the @wikileaks Twitter account had been locked “shortly before Assange extradition hearing” and for seemingly no apparent reason.

    Rest of the story is here.
    https://reclaimthenet.org/wikileaks-twitter-locked/

  36. The Following 8 Users Say Thank You to Kryztian For This Post:

    Agape (17th February 2020), Bill Ryan (29th February 2020), Dennis Leahy (17th February 2020), Mike (17th February 2020), mountain_jim (18th February 2020), onawah (17th February 2020), Stephanie (18th February 2020), Tintin (18th February 2020)

  37. Link to Post #199
    Avalon Member Andre's Avatar
    Join Date
    9th July 2010
    Location
    Byron Bay Area
    Language
    English
    Posts
    473
    Thanks
    343
    Thanked 2,518 times in 441 posts

    Default Re: Julian Assange arrested after Ecuador tears up asylum deal

    Quote Posted by onawah (here)
    I think it's a good idea to keep the points in mind that Miles Mathis makes about ex-CIA operatives ( if there is such a thing, considering the saying "once CIA, always CIA"), when reading anything by R.D. Steele, including post #244, above. SEE: http://mileswmathis.com/chem2.pdf
    I read Mile's PDF (the one linked in this thread) and it sounded plausible until he got to chemtrails where he asserts categorically, that the entire program is being executed in order to dump industrial toxic waste in the atmosphere simply to get rid of it. Yet, he gives no explanation whatsoever as to what industries use barium and strontium in such massive amounts that they would need to include it in their dumping. The reason? There aren't any, at least not on the scale that would warrant including these chemicals in the spray mix. And the other ingredient, aluminium as industrial waste is a no-brainer, but even there he doesn't specifically discuss the industries when this is the foundation of his argument.

    So, I'm left asking myself, why assert chemtrails are all about industrial waste and not go into the industries at fault? Is it poor research or misinformation? And, are we are expected to believe his "colleagues" are always guilty of the later, and not poor research, while he is simply guilty of poor research. I wonder.
    Last edited by Andre; 17th February 2020 at 23:24.
    Our destiny is in our hands. Let us visualise a world of truth, freedom and equality.

  38. The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Andre For This Post:

    Bill Ryan (29th February 2020), Dennis Leahy (8th March 2020), onawah (8th March 2020)

  39. Link to Post #200
    Avalon Retired Member
    Join Date
    16th September 2019
    Posts
    154
    Thanks
    72
    Thanked 584 times in 124 posts

    Default Re: Current Wikileaks and Assange News & Releases

    It looks like Australia might finally intervene in the situation with Julian Assange. It’s interesting to note that George Christensen is one of our most conservative politicians here in Australia and the Liberal Party has been absolutely against any intervention on behalf of Julian. A, so excited to hear this news.

    From the article attached: “Christensen described Assange as "disorientated", "dehumanised" and "depersonalised" and urged British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to step in to prevent a hearing next week that could pave the way for the Wikileaks figure to be sent to the United States to face serious charges.
    Both MPs said they had no cause to disagree with an assessment by the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, Nils Melzer, that Assange had been the victim of psychological torture. The UK has defended its handling of the case and the conditions of his imprisonment.
    "I walk out of Belmarsh in absolutely no doubt that he has become a political prisoner in this country and that the US is determined to extradite him to get even," Wilkie said.
    "There was no espionage. There was no hacking. It was just a person doing the right thing and publishing important information in the public interest and frankly it is an international scandal that he is locked up in there in those conditions as a political prisoner."
    "There's information that I now know, that will be known next week, that will probably make people sit up straight and worry about this a hell of a lot.
    "I think that now is a time that the government that I'm part of needs to be standing up and saying to both the UK and the US: 'enough is enough, leave our bloke alone and let him come home'."

    https://apple.news/A7BDKL-eTQxKDbcoFYpxurw

    I wonder what the new information could be?

  40. The Following 12 Users Say Thank You to Justjane For This Post:

    Arcturian108 (24th February 2020), Bill Ryan (24th February 2020), ByTheNorthernSea (19th February 2020), Dennis Leahy (19th February 2020), earthdreamer (21st February 2020), Franny (24th February 2020), Ivanhoe (20th February 2020), Kryztian (23rd February 2020), onawah (19th February 2020), Pam (20th February 2020), Philippe (19th February 2020), Tintin (20th February 2020)

+ Reply to Thread
Page 10 of 31 FirstFirst 1 10 20 31 LastLast

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts