[Peace-discuss] Stella Assange: "America has sunk to Soviet standards", related videos

Fri Jun 16 23:39:11 UTC 2023

Stella Assange: America has sunk to Soviet standards
By Stella Assange

Journalists across the world are looking to the west to uphold press freedom and 
release Julian Assange, his wife writes.

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/ideas/law/human-rights/61784/stella-assange-america-has-sunk-to-soviet-standards

> My husband, Julian Assange, is now in his fifth year of imprisonment without
> conviction in HMP Belmarsh. The documentary film Ithaka: The Fight to Free
> Assange, broadcast recently on ITV, follows Julian’s father, John, and me during
> the first two years of Julian’s incarceration and extradition hearings.
> 
> There are glimpses of Julian in the film; he can be heard singing a lullaby over
> the phone at one point. Our youngest, who recently turned four, was just weeks old
> when Julian was arrested. Ithaka follows our family as we attempt to free Julian
> during the pandemic. At first I found it difficult to watch because we look so
> vulnerable. But Ithaka has since become a source of optimism for me.
> 
> In cases involving political prisoners, injustice is often allowed to continue for
> the simple reason that it is the path of least resistance: to end it would be to
> acknowledge fallibility, and consequently reduce public confidence in the criminal
> justice system. Or, as Lord Denning more crudely expressed in 1988 (I paraphrase):
> “We wouldn’t have all these campaigns to get the Birmingham Six released if they’d
> been hanged. They’d have been forgotten, and the whole community would have been
> satisfied.”
> 
> The reason for my optimism is the fact that Julian, though still buried in the
> bowels of Belmarsh, and facing a 175-year sentence if extradited to the US, is all
> but forgotten. The system that has enabled his imprisonment, on the other hand, is
> under mounting challenge.
> 
> The 2022 Booker Prize-winning author Shehan Karunatilaka recently remarked:
> “Julian Assange, divisive figure that he may be—he is a hero to many writers in
> South Asia because freedom of speech is not something we take for granted…
> Journalism has been criminalised in our parts of the world and so we are looking
> to the west to see how this case is prosecuted and how it ends up.” magazine block
> image
> 
> There is little doubt that Karunatilaka’s description is representative of the
> prism through which most of the world views the case against my husband. And that
> concern does not just exist outside the west.
> 
> At Unesco’s World Press Freedom Day event this year, held at the UN in New York,
> the secretary general of Amnesty International, Agnès Callamard, said: “It is not
> just what is happening in Iran or in Russia that should worry us, it is also what
> is happening here. Who is imprisoning Julian Assange? Sadly, the playbook of
> autocracy, the playbook of control over conscience, or control over speech, has
> been well learned by our so-called democratic leaders.” The president of the
> Committee to Protect Journalists, Jodie Ginsberg, noted that the US case against
> Julian “if brought to fruition could effectively criminalise journalism anywhere,
> for journalists everywhere”.
> 
> Injustice is often allowed to continue for the simple reason that it is the path
> of least resistance
> 
> Russia’s trumped-up “espionage” charges against Wall Street Journal reporter Evan
> Gershkovich for his newsgathering activities mirror those brought against Julian
> for his newsgathering and publishing. The last US reporter to be prosecuted by
> Russia for “espionage” was Nicholas Daniloff in 1986. The playbook did not
> originate in America, but America has sunk to Soviet standards and revived it. It
> won’t stop there. That is why the Assange case is the greatest threat to press
> freedom worldwide.
> 
> Julian’s US accusers use “espionage” as shorthand for “journalism”. They do not
> allege that Julian was acting on behalf of—or colluding with—any foreign power.
> The WikiLeaks publications expose the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in
> Iraq and Afghanistan; document evidence of torture and assassination squads; and
> reveal at least one potential war crime involving the slaughter of Reuters
> employees in Baghdad. The facts of the case are well-known and uncontested: the
> source, Chelsea Manning, was a US army whistleblower who acted on her conscience.
> She was sentenced to 35 years. The sentence was commuted by Barack Obama on his
> last day in office.
> 
> Julian acted for the public’s benefit, and he is accused—of conspiracy to publish,
> and of receiving, obtaining, possessing and communicating “national defence”
> information—under a statute from 1917. The classification system was only invented
> 35 years after that law was written. There is no US “Official Secrets Act”.
> “National defence” information is whatever the US government says it is.
> 
> ♦♦♦
> 
> The mood in Julian’s home country has changed decisively since he was first
> arrested. An overwhelming majority of Australians—one online poll by the
> broadcaster ABC showed 89 per cent—want Julian to be freed. The prime minister,
> Anthony Albanese, has been joined by the leader of the opposition in saying that
> “enough is enough”. Public opinion in this critical part of the anglosphere cannot
> be ignored.
> 
> So back to Karunatilaka’s point: journalists all over the world are looking to the
> west to see whether press freedom is vindicated in this case and Julian is
> released. It is more than public confidence in the UK justice system that hangs in
> the balance.

Recommended related videos include a recent excellent Naomi Brockwell explainer, an 
update on Assange's situation from The Duran & The Socialist Program, and copies of 
"Ithaka: The Fight to Free Assange":

Assange: The Truth They've Been Hiding from You
Naomi Brockwell
This video was recommended by Stella Assange this past week.
https://rumble.com/v2t3f64-assange-the-truth-theyve-been-hiding-from-you.html

The Duran: Assange, one step closer to US extradition
https://rumble.com/v2ul4ll-assange-one-step-closer-to-us-extradition.html

The Socialist Program: Why Biden Wants Assange in Jail: Case at the Tipping Point
https://youtube.com/watch?v=joAMokiAllk

Consortium News' channel where you can find in-depth interviews with many people 
connected to Assange's case
https://youtube.com/channel/UCDZuNFwJ4BIRV_Z5IxFXVrA/videos

Ithaka: The Fight to Free Assange
https://rumble.com/v2k5jmq-ithaka-part-1-of-2-a-fight-to-free-julian-assange.html
https://rumble.com/v2k5k8w-ithaka-part-2-of-2-the-extradition-hearing.html

Ithaka: The Fight to Free Assange
https://rumble.com/v2dyupk-ithaka.-julian-assange-part-1-a-fight-to-free-assange..html
https://rumble.com/v2dzn7w-ithaka-part-2-julian-assange..html