Posted on 12/19/2022 1:20:50 PM PST by Red Badger
President Joe Biden is pressing ahead with a controversial criminal case against Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. Assange has been languishing for close to four years in the UK’s harsh Belmarsh Prison while appealing extradition to the United States, where he faces espionage and computer intrusion charges that could land him in a maximum security prison for 175 years. Meanwhile, the U.S case against Assange is facing mounting criticism at home as a threat to press freedom. In a twist this month that could have far-reaching implications for the case, two people are asking the Justice Department to indict them as well. John Young, who runs a WikiLeaks-like website, Cryptome.org, and legendary Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg are demanding they be indicted for publishing and/or retaining the same documents for which Assange is being charged.
In 1971, Dan Ellsberg gave the Pentagon Papers, the secret history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, to several newspapers, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. The resulting stories sent shockwaves through the nation, further eroding public support for the war. President Richard Nixon was furious and orchestrated a criminal campaign to destroy Ellsberg and to block further publication of the papers. Nixon failed in both efforts, and the case against Ellsberg was thrown out of court.
Today, Ellsberg, sharp and alert at 91, sees stark parallels in the case against Julian Assange which, he says, invalidate the government’s case.
“Assange, like me, was illegally surveilled. In his case, even his lawyers’ and his doctors’ discussions were surveilled,” Ellsberg said. “Discussions were made of kidnapping and killing him or poisoning, just as a dozen CIA assets were brought up from Miami on May 3, 1973, by President Nixon with orders to ‘incapacitate Daniel Ellsberg totally.'”
John Young’s website, Cryptome.org, actually published the same set of “Cablegate” documents days earlier than WikiLeaks, and the material is still available on the site. “I’m unclear why, if they’re charging him, why they’ve never charged someone like us,” Young, 86, said. “All of us who are doing similar kind of work to serve the public rather than the government should do more than just protest. We’ve got to raise more hell and take more legal action and publish more, as our obligation as citizens … The national security people are completely out of control.”
James Goodale, the First Amendment attorney who as the general counsel for The New York Times fought and won against the Nixon administration over the Pentagon Papers, agrees. In a recent piece, Goodale wrote, “Since Cryptome published the leaks before Assange did, Assange should have no liability for such publication.”
Shortly after the Justice Department’s indictment against Assange was unsealed in 2019, Goodale said, “If the government succeeds with the trial against Assange, if any, that will mean that it’s criminalized the newsgathering process.”
Major newspapers that leaked documents have belatedly appealed to drop the charges:
“Twelve years ago, on Nov. 28, 2010, our five international media outlets — The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, El País and Der Spiegel — published a series of revelations in cooperation with WikiLeaks that made the headlines around the globe,” the letter read. “‘Cablegate’, a set of 251,000 confidential cables from the U.S. State Department disclosed corruption, diplomatic scandals and spy affairs on an international scale … We come together now to express our grave concerns about the continued prosecution of Julian Assange for obtaining and publishing classified materials.”
Dan Ellsberg responded, “I am very happy that The Times, El País, Le Monde, The Guardian and Der Spiegel have all finally realized, the foreign ones, that they can be extradited just like Julian. … They finally realized what I’ve been telling them for 50 years, literally, since my trial, without success.”
As the legal battle drags on, Assange’s health declines. He suffered a mini-stroke in prison in October 2021, and later contracted COVID-19.
Biden should drop the charges against Assange. As the five newspapers noted, “Publishing is not a crime.”
Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!” She is the co-author, with Denis Moynihan and David Goodman, of “Democracy Now!: 20 Years Covering the Movements Changing America.”
They won’t drop the charges until he is brought back to the US so he can commit suicide in his cell
Good point- But first they have to tar and feather him for all the public to witness and then they’ll “Epstein” him.
For once, I kind of agree with Amy Goodman.
Assange helped expose the depth and breadth of the deep state. For his efforts, both Trump and Biden refused to pardon him.
I haven’t seen Amy Goodman for many years. I used to love hating her columns.
I think you mean “so he can commit Arkancide in his cell.”
Trump should have pardoned him but apparently was talked out of doing so by deep stater Pompeo. I don’t see how the US even has jurisdiction over this, Assange is Australian and hasn’t ever even been in the US. This would be like a European country demanding the extradition of an American citizen for violating their hate speech laws, even if that American has never stepped foot in their countries or violated any American law. Prosecution of Assange is just so very wrong on numerous levels.
While the FBI has a laptop and more from Seth Rich PROVING the info from Assange was not from his efforts hacking government computers. Assange, as much as Trumps battles, are the proof of government being TOTALLY corrupted.
You are correct. I first thought Julian Assange was worthy of prosecution as I was ignorant of the law. For example, if a woman lay nude on a beach in Iran, they have some nice beaches, she would be arrested, tortured and worse and probably executed. If the same woman lay nude on a nudist beach in the USA or Europe does this give Iran the legal right to arrest and prosecute? Assange did not steal information by illegal acts. The information was given to him by those who did steal it. On a regular basis the New York Times publishes stolen information and it is legal, as it should be.
I do not approve of everything Julian Assange has done. What he has done in exposing perfidy and evil in European and USA governments is good, very good. He deserves to walk as a free man. He is not free because he is a danger to the Deep State of the USA and Western Europe. I am surprised he lives.
Assange is a hero; I fear he will die a martyr. I hope I am wrong.
Bttt to everything you said. Free Assange!
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