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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black",sans-serif;color:black">I already have. Fab.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black",sans-serif;color:black">Francis A. Boyle<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black",sans-serif;color:black">Law Building<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black",sans-serif;color:black">Champaign, IL 61820 USA<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black",sans-serif;color:black">217-333-7954 (phone)<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><b><i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black",sans-serif;color:black">217-244-1478 (fax)<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="text-align:left"><b><i><u><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial Black",sans-serif;color:black">(personal comments only)<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="margin-left:.5in;text-align:left"><b>From:</b> David Johnson <davidjohnson1451@comcast.net>
<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, May 23, 2019 12:43 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> peace-discuss@lists.chambana.net; karenaram@hotmail.com; Boyle, Francis A <fboyle@illinois.edu><br>
<b>Subject:</b> Amnesty International declares Julian Assange "not a prisoner of conscience"<o:p></o:p></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Francis,<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">You should write an article detailing how Amnesty International has become a tool of UK and US foreign policy.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:24.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Amnesty International declares Julian Assange “not a prisoner of conscience”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="margin-left:.5in;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">May 23, 2019<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="margin-left:.5in;text-align:left"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Another important dispatch from The Greanville Post. Be sure to share it widely.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<a href="https://www.greanvillepost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Authornames1LauraTiernan.jpg"><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="250" height="50" style="width:2.6041in;height:.5208in" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D51165.36AAA5E0" alt="https://www.greanvillepost.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Authornames1LauraTiernan.jpg"></span></b></a><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="margin-left:.5in;text-align:left"><a href="https://www.greanvillepost.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Julian-assange.jpg"><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;text-decoration:none"><img border="0" width="620" height="387" style="width:6.4583in;height:4.0347in" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D51165.36AAA5E0" alt="https://www.greanvillepost.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Julian-assange.jpg"></span></a><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif">Assange: By judicial harassment, technical blockages, banking boycotts, and extra-legal procedures, the Empire has substantively reduced Wikileaks’ ability to conduct business. But now they
need to set an example.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:red">LIBERAL BETRAYALS DEPT.—</span></b><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:berthold-regular">WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a multi-award-winning investigative journalist and publisher, is locked up in HM Prison Belmarsh in London in solitary confinement. US extradition proceedings have
begun. If extradited, he will face charges under the Espionage Act for publishing information that exposed US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:berthold-regular">The charges being prepared by the US Department of Justice carry the death penalty.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:berthold-regular">Chelsea Manning, who courageously blew the whistle on US atrocities by giving information to WikiLeaks, endured seven years of torture in a military prison and was jailed again last week for refusing
to testify against Assange.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:berthold-regular">But according to Amnesty International (AI), neither Assange nor Manning are “prisoners of conscience” and their defence is not being actively pursued by the human rights charity.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">In a letter to the Julian Assange Defence Committee (JADC) on May 17, Amnesty International UK declared, “Julian Assange’s case is a case we’re monitoring closely but not actively working on. Amnesty International
does not consider Julian Assange to be a Prisoner of Conscience.”</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:black">Amnesty International’s abject behaviour is emblematic of liberalism’s cowardly and stealthy colaboration with the global imperialist system. The betrayal of Assange, and free speech (as seen among
Democrats) is hardly news to those who understand the nature of liberalism and its thick web of goody-two-shoes organisations pretending to stand in opposition to state criminality. Assange and the Syrian war are a litmus test separating real from phony progressives.—Ed.</span></b><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">AI’s curtly worded letter followed an urgent appeal by Maxine Walker on behalf of the JADC. Her letter drew attention to multiple human rights violations against Assange. “We cannot state strongly enough that
Julian Assange is in great peril”, she wrote.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">Walker cited AI’s April 11 statement that “Assange should not be extradited or subjected to any other transfer to the USA, where there are concerns that he would face a real risk of serious human rights violations
due to his work with Wikileaks.”</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">Since then, Walker challenged, “no further statements appear to have been made by you… His name appears not to have been mentioned in your material for World Press Freedom Day, an extraordinary omission given
his current situation and that Julian Assange was awarded the 2009 Amnesty International UK Media Award for New Media.”</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">Her letter continued: “The UK government has ignored, indeed poured scorn, on the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention 2015 ruling that ‘the deprivation of liberty of Mr. Assange is arbitrary and in contravention
of articles 9 and 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’.”</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">The UN Working Group, Walker pointed out, had described Assange’s imprisonment in Belmarsh as having “furthered the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Mr. Assange.” They judged his 50-week sentence in a supermax
prison had “contravene[d] the principles of necessity and proportionality envisaged by the human rights standards.”</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">Walker’s letter concluded, “It is urgent that organisations concerned with human rights should become more vocal and active on this case. One statement is not adequate to deal with the threats to Julian Assange
and the wider implications for free speech, freedom of information and the protection of journalists.”</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">AI’s two-paragraph reply was received by Walker three days later. It linked to a statement by AI’s Deputy Director for Research for Europe, Massimo Moratti, published on May 13, supporting Sweden’s reopening
of “preliminary investigations” into fabricated “rape” allegations against Assange. Headlined, “Julian Assange rape allegations must be treated with utmost seriousness,” Moretti declared, “It is vital that the allegations against Julian Assange are properly
investigated in a way that respects the rights of both the complainant and the person under investigation.”</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">This is a travesty.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">For nearly nine years, bogus “rape” and “sexual molestation” allegations against Assange have been wielded by Sweden and Britain to smear the WikiLeaks founder and secure his extradition to the US. Assange was
always willing to travel to Sweden to answer the allegations against him, but Swedish authorities refused to guarantee against his onward extradition under fast-track “temporary surrender” arrangements in place with the US. It was the threat of US extradition
which forced Assange to seek political asylum in Ecuador.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">Assange has already been questioned by Swedish police and prosecutors—in August 2010 in Stockholm and at Ecuador’s embassy in London in November 2016. On both occasions, the preliminary investigation was closed
with not a single charge laid. Under Swedish law, Assange can be charged <i>prior</i> to an extradition request. Yet even now, Sweden has submitted no charges and is seeking a European Arrest Warrant for blatantly political objectives.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">AI deliberately conceals the political context of Assange and Manning’s incarceration: international geopolitics, illegal wars of occupation, regime change, assassination threats by US politicians against Assange—none
of this exists. Having pointed to Sweden, AI simply states that it does not regard the world’s most persecuted journalist a Prisoner of Conscience. It believes he, “should not be extradited to the USA, where he faces a real risk of serious human rights violations…
due to his work with Wikileaks.” It’s just that they are not “actively” pursuing the case.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">AI seizes on the Swedish allegations as a pretext to wash its hands of Assange, but what of Manning? The
<i>World Socialist Web Site</i> contacted AI on Tuesday to ask why it had also refused to list Manning as a Prisoner of Conscience. AI’s UK press officer contacted their US office before explaining via email that “detention for not testifying before a grand
jury is not itself illegal.” And neither is chopping off heads in Saudi Arabia, which has not prevented AI from actively campaigning on that issue.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">AI hastened to tell the WSWS that “we understand Chelsea’s motivations for declining [to testify] when she has already testified at length on these issues,” adding that the “excessive sentencing and cruel treatment
of her previous incarceration served as a stark reminder of the lengths that those in power will go to in order to keep others from speaking out.”</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">Yet they have not posted a single statement on Manning since 2017.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">AI defines a Prisoner of Conscience as “someone who has not used or advocated violence but is imprisoned because of who they are (sexual orientation, ethnic, national or social origin, language, birth, colour,
sex or economic status) or what they believe (religious, political or other conscientiously held beliefs).”</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">Assange and Manning have been thrown in prison because of their “conscientiously held beliefs” that all people have the right to know about war crimes, state corruption, mass surveillance and antidemocratic intrigues
by the world’s most powerful states. “I can either go to jail or betray my principles,” Manning has explained. “I would rather starve to death than change my opinion.”</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:gothamblack">If Assange and Manning are not prisoners of conscience, then who is?</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">AI told the WSWS they do not maintain an international list of POC designates. But a partial list published on Wikipedia shows the majority come from Russia, Iran, China, the former Soviet republics and Saudi
Arabia. Just one POC is listed in the United States, none from Britain and none from France where journalists are presently being threatened with jail for exposing French military involvement in the ongoing war in Yemen that has claimed over 100,000 lives.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">On its website, AI states, “We protect people, defending their right to freedom, to truth, and to dignity. We do this by investigating and exposing abuses where they happen.” The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (UDHR) “remains fundamental to Amnesty’s work.” “It provides the bedrock of most of our campaigning, and it helps us to hold authorities to account when rights are abused.”</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">When it comes to Assange and Manning, AI holds no authority to account, remains silent in the face of outrageous human rights violations and helps to magnify the government-media smear machine. Virtually all
of the UDHR’s thirty articles have been breached by the US, UK, Australia, Sweden and Ecuador in their treatment of Assange and Manning.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">The most egregious violations of Assange’s rights relate to the following principles: Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person; Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture
or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; Article 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile; Article 10: Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal,
in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him; Article 14: Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution; Article 15: No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality
nor denied the right to change his nationality; Article 17: No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property; Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and
to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">Written in 1948, the preamble to the UDHR states that “it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should
be protected by the rule of law.” Emerging from the blood and filth of fascism and a World War that claimed 60 million lives, the imperialist powers erected an international framework of economic, political and legal mechanisms to guard against a new descent
into war, social upheaval and revolution.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">If the framers of the UDHR sought insurance against recourse to “rebellion”, this aim was shared by those who established Amnesty International. Its founder, barrister Peter Benenson, wrote in 1960, “The important
thing is to mobilise public opinion quickly and widely, before a government is caught up in the vicious spiral caused by its own repression and is faced with impending civil war.” It was also important to choose POCs carefully: “The technique of publicising
the personal stories of a number of prisoners of contrasting politics is a new one. It has been adopted to avoid the fate of previous amnesty campaigns, which so often have become more concerned with publicising the political views of the imprisoned than with
humanitarian purposes.”</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">The unstated premise—clear in AI’s silence on Manning and Chelsea—is that the “political views” of these two prisoners should not be publicised and the institutions of western capitalist “democracy” must be defended,
especially from any popular and revolutionary threat from below. Eight years ago, Amnesty International hailed WikiLeaks and the
<i>Guardian</i> for their role in publishing documents that played a “catalytic role” in sparking the 2011 Arab Spring, especially in Tunisia. Today, the
<i>Guardian</i> is the Witchfinder General, gruesomely smearing Assange as a Russian stooge and “rapist”, while AI has thrown Assange and Manning to the wolves.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">A political chasm has opened. In Britain, all of the establishment parties—Labour, Liberal Democrats, Greens, Scottish National Party—along with the pseudo-left Socialist Workers Party and Socialist Party are
ranged against Assange, with a host of NGOs and human rights groups in tow. The Swedish allegations merely serve as a convenient pretext for their naked defence of imperialism. Sweden is the “Pontius Pilate option” for those like Dianne Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn,
who declared to the media on April 13 that “there can be no hiding place from those kind of accusations” and that Assange should be sent to Sweden if an extradition request is received.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">Lest anyone doubt the role of Sweden’s re-re-revived “preliminary investigations”, consider the words of Heather Barr, Acting Co-Director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch UK, who issued a
statement on April 16 that should be entered onto a rollcall of shame: “When WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange was arrested in London last week so he could face charges in the US, it raised deep concerns around media freedom. Amid these concerns, however,
let’s remember that Assange is also accused of rape.”</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">Barr’s statement effectively overrode HRW’s earlier condemnation of Assange’s arrest at the Ecuadorian embassy, endorsing his lengthy incarceration in Belmarsh Prison (“UK, Deciding Assange’s Fate, Should Give
Sweden Time to Evaluate Rape Case”) while making false and defamatory statements against Assange. Barr makes repeated reference to rape “charges” against Assange—charges that have never existed!</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">The political line-up on Assange confirms the central contention of the Socialist Equality Party and the
<i>World Socialist Web Site</i>: Assange and Manning’s freedom rests on the independent political mobilisation of the working class. It is to the great mass of working people, youth and all genuine defenders of democratic rights that the fight to free Assange
and Manning must be taken.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin">***</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:red">Appendix: An exchange of letters</span></b><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">The following is an exchange of letters between the Julian Assange Defence Committee’s Maxine Walker and Amnesty International UK.</span></i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">Julian Assange Defence Committee</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">14 May 2019</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">Dear Amnesty International UK</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">I am writing to you on behalf of the Julian Assange Defence Committee, which was set up to oppose his extradition to the USA and to galvanise opposition to it.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">We cannot state strongly enough that Julian Assange is in great peril. Indeed you may have seen the interview with WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson following his and Pamela Anderson’s
recent visit to Belmarsh in which Mr Hrafnsson states, ‘It is a question of life and death, that’s how serious it is.’</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">We are aware that you made a statement after his arrest in April in which you said:</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">“Amnesty International believes that Julian Assange should not be extradited or subjected to any other transfer to the USA, where there are concerns that he would face a real risk of serious
human rights violations due to his work with Wikileaks.”</span></i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;background:#FDFDFE">
<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">You recognised in this statement the potential violations of his human rights should such an extradition take place including the ultimate violation, that of his right to life.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">However, we also note that no further statements appear to have been made by you since then. His name appears not to have been mentioned in your material for World Press Freedom Day, an extraordinary
omission given his current situation and that Julian Assange was awarded the 2009 Amnesty International UK Media Award for New Media. Julian Assange has won many such awards in recognition of WikiLeaks’ pivotal role in exposing US and UK war crimes and violations
of human rights that have taken place in those wars including torture, murder and inflicting large numbers of civilian casualties.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">The UK government has ignored, indeed poured scorn, on the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention 2015 ruling that
<i>“the deprivation of liberty of Mr. Assange is arbitrary and in contravention of articles 9 and 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’.
</i>After Julian Assange’s arrest in April, the Working Group also stated, <i>‘</i> The Working Group regrets that the Government has not complied with its Opinion and has now furthered the arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Mr. Assange.’ It expresses concern
that Mr. Assange has been detained since 11 April 2019 in Belmarsh prison, a high-security prison, as if he were convicted for a serious criminal offence.
<i>“This treatment appears to contravene the principles of necessity and proportionality envisaged by the human rights standards.”</i></span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">It is urgent that organisations concerned with human rights should become more vocal and active on this case. One statement is not adequate to deal with the threats to Julian Assange and the wider
implications for free speech, freedom of information and the protection of journalists. We would ask you: to prioritise this case in your publicity and campaigns; to lobby MPs who should be raising concerns about this case and his prison conditions (and are
not doing so); to encourage your supporters to write to him in prison.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">We look forward to hearing from you.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">Best wishes</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><br>
</span><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">Maxine Walker</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:red">NOTICE THAT THE AI RATS DO NOT EVEN HAVE THE COURAGE OR DECENCY TO SIGN A LETTER. THE SEND AN ANONYMOUS IMPERSONAL REPLY.</span></b><b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">Dear Maxine,</span></b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">Thank you for your email regarding Julian Assange.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;background:#FDFDFE">
<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">Our latest statement, following the re-opening of the Swedish Prosecution Authority’s investigation into a rape allegation against Julian Assange, can be found here;
<a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/05/julian-assange-rape-allegations-must-be-treated-with-utmost-seriousness/%22%20%5Ct%20%22_blank">
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/05/julian-assange-rape-allegations-must-be-treated-with-utmost-seriousness/</a></span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;background:#FDFDFE">
<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">Julian Assange’s case is a case we’re monitoring closely but not actively working on. Amnesty International does not consider Julian Assange to be a Prisoner of Conscience. AI does, however, continue
to believe that he should not be extradited to the USA, where he faces a real risk of serious human rights violations, including in relation to the likely conditions of his detention, due to his work with Wikileaks.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">We hope this explains our position.</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">Kind regards,</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;background:#FDFDFE">
<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">Supporter Communications Team</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;background:#FDFDFE">
<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">Amnesty International UK,</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;background:#FDFDFE">
<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">The Human Rights Action Centre,</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="left" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;margin-left:.5in;text-align:left;background:#FDFDFE">
<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">17-25 New Inn Yard,</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">London,</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:cabin;color:#333333">EC2A 3EA</span><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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