Arrest info and how else to get involved here

See the full WikiLeaks Legal Defence fund website here

Continuous coverage of legal, political, and other developments; get in touch to add an event or item

Background: Julian Assange’s situation in the embassy Julian Assange’s status in the Ecuadorian embassy has been in jeopardy over the past months, particularly since Ecuador’s Lenin Moreno came to power, with Ecuador and the UK believed to be engaged in negotiations to bring his stay to an end. In a recent interview, Moreno said, “Let’s not forget the conditions of his asylum prevent him from speaking about politics or intervening in the politics of other countries. That’s why we cut his communication.” Isolated without internet access since March, Julian Assange has been arbitrarily detained by the UK in the Ecuadorian Embassy for more than six years. The UN has condemned his detention; leading intellectuals, academics, and artists around the world have called for an end to his isolation; and the UK refuses to guarantee safety from extradition should he step outside the embassy. Due to the seriousness of the current situation, Courage will be live blogging daily updates on the situation at the Ecuadorian embassy and support actions planned worldwide. The website Justice4Assange has published a template to encourage NGOs to take a stand for Assange.

12 September 2019

Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson on the “terrifying precedent” his case sets

Fashion designer Vivienne Westwood visits Assange

World famous fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood visited Julian Assange in Britain’s Belmarsh Prison yesterday. She gave impassioned comments afterwards condemning the persecution of the WikiLeaks founder and calling for his freedom.

…

Westwood reported that Assange had “lost weight” since she saw him last and that he was being held in conditions of virtual solitary confinement. “The state he’s in, it’s a wonder,” she said, adding: “I don’t know how I would cope.”

…

The fashion designer stated that Assange is “an innocent man” who has been “persecuted for nine years for telling the truth.”

…

Westwood declared: “He must not be extradited.” She warned that if dispatched to the US, “this man faces 175 years in jail, believe it or not. That’s totally out of proportion. It’s the kind of thing that a nation that has gone crazy would charge somebody with, for telling the truth.”

Imagine how he feels in there, Vivienne Westwood says. #Assange is in such a terrible place. This man is being tortured. The UN,has affirmed this shouldnt be happening. It’s the misrule of law. That’s whats going on. pic.twitter.com/fjZCDNVWwV — Flick Ruby (@FlickRubicon) September 10, 2019

Julian #Assange must not be extradited to the US. He is an Australian publisher being persecuted for telling the truth, for providing information in the public interest that others also publishee. Can you have a fair trial against unfair charges, Vivienne asks? pic.twitter.com/UHm0yjHOXi — Flick Ruby (@FlickRubicon) September 10, 2019

Yes, @wikileaks and #assange have exposed major truths about climate change, the UN copenhagen talks, the crimes of fossil fuel profiteers distortion of climate science. Movements need to be armed with the truth to stand up to the climate criminals #Dontextraditeassange pic.twitter.com/gSrddCdbtE — Flick Ruby (@FlickRubicon) September 10, 2019

Jimmy Dore | Pamela Anderson Defends Julian Assange On The View

10 September 2019

2020 US Presidential candidates on the Assange prosecution

The New York Times asked each 2020 US presidential candidate whether the charges against Julian Assange are constitutional and whether they would continue to prosecute him for publishing — most support a free press and several oppose use of the Espionage Act.

6 September 2019

Pamela Anderson defended Julian Assange on The View

Pamela Anderson has zero patience for John McCain’s daughter pic.twitter.com/Z4LA8eZ90J — jordan (@JordanUhl) September 6, 2019

4 September 2019

Roger Waters sings ‘Wish You Were Here’ for Julian Assange

VIDEO: Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters performs ‘Wish You Were Here’ outside the UK Home Office in support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange @Ruptly pic.twitter.com/4fHFZsKCyY — Barnaby Nerberka (@barnabynerberka) September 2, 2019

3 September 2019

Imprisoned Activist Jeremy Hammond Called Against His Will to Testify Before Federal Grand Jury in the EDVA

Likely called to testify against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks

“It’s with great sadness and anger we announce that Jeremy Hammond is being brought to the Eastern District of Virginia in an effort to compel him to testify before a grand jury. Given the secrecy of grand jury proceedings, we don’t know the nature or scope of the grand jury’s investigation. However, our assumption is that this is the same grand jury that Chelsea Manning is currently being incarcerated for refusing to testify before.”

2 September 2019

Julian Assange wins Compassion in Care’s 2019 Gavin MacFadyen Award for Whistleblowers

For the past months I have continually seen UK people waving placards with the word “Democracy.” If Democracy does not champion free speech and a free press, then it is a reprehensible imitation. It is the duty of every genuine journalist to stand up and expose the immoral punishment of Julian Assange. We are giving this year’s award to a man who has the courage to publish the truth and has sacrificed so much as a result. We, as whistle-blowers, by virtue of our experience, have a very long list of villains but a very scant list of champions and you have been voted number one champion of truth. Thank you Julian Assange for everything you have done to expose the facts, no greater service can be given to the public and we are sorry your sacrifice has yet to be recognised by the public whose interest you serve.

26 August 2019

New site and video: The Assange Files

The Assange Files is a new initiative of filmmaker Mike Rubbo and other Australian journalists and media workers:

WE are a group of journalists, media workers and private citizens who believe that the outstanding US indictment of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is not only a threat to his personal survival but to the future of journalism. Since the Trump administration has declared its intention to extradite Julian for violating the US Espionage Act, journalists and media outlets around the world realize that this is an attack on free speech everywhere.

…

This website is devoted to informing the public about what is happening to Julian, the facts behind the personal and professional attacks on him, and what we can do to help him. Included are answers to questions that many people have about Julian and Wikileaks based on reporting in the mainstream media; links to articles by prize-winning journalists, former intelligence analysts and others; and our open letter to the MEAA with over 200 signatures. Wikileaks is the pioneer of a new era of journalism and Julian Assange is one of the great truth tellers of our time. The US attempt to prosecute him under the Espionage Act is part of a global war on journalism and we must do whatever possible to come to his aid.

The group has produced a short video, ‘Julian Assange: The Making of a Villain,” an excellent takedown of the opening of ABC 4 Corners’ programme on Assange, which trivialised the impact of Collateral Murder.

It’s time to act: They are killing Julian Assange slowly

Full transcript of independent journalist Stefania Maurizi’s speech at Courage’s event in Bergen, Global Threats to Press Freedom

If the US authorities succeed in crushing Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks staff, the consequences for freedom of the press will be devastating: the Assange case will have a domino effect. I want to see Julian Assange and his team free and safe because I want to live in a society where journalists and their sources can expose the highest levels of power without having to flee to Russia or ending their lives in prison. That is what freedom of the press is.

See video of Stefania’s speech and the rest of the event here.

23 August 2019

VIDEO: We Are Millions event

Last night in Bergen, Norway, Courage held an event for Julian Assange — Global Threats to Press Freedom, a discussion on Assange’s persecution and what it means for the freedom of the press around the world.

Go directly to:

Full video:

22 August 2019

Streaming live: Global Threats to Press Freedom

21 August 2019

Pamela Anderson writes to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, urging him to call for the US to drop its extradition request for Julian Assange

“I hope you will reflect deeply on the ideas that were conveyed by the many experts you invited to speak at this conference. Journalists being hacked apart with saws in embassies, and publishers being forcibly dragged out of embassies to face 175 years in jail for publishing, cannot become the new normal. One of the most celebrated speakers on media freedom at the conference was barrister Amal Clooney, who said, “the indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has alarmed journalists at newspapers around the world, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Guardian because, as the editor of the Washington Post has put it, the indictment… ‘criminalises common practices in journalism that have long served the public interest’. … With so many of the Five Eyes involved in this case, as part of your efforts to defend and extend the democratic freedom of the press and expression, I ask that you will use your good offices to call for this case to be immediately closed. The US Government must drop its extradition request, in order that the UK may let him return home.”

Breaking the silence on Assange: More than 40 peace activists from Germany have shared a #FreeAssange support video

20 August 2019

Julian Assange’s father warns WikiLeaks’ publisher’s health is “declining rapidly” in Belmarsh Prison

Shipton revealed that Assange had received a visit from his brother Gabriel several days earlier. “Julian is emaciated and not in tip-top order or health,” Shipton said. “He is suffering anxiety. He is still in fighting spirits, but his well-being is declining rapidly.” Shipton said there was a danger that “we will lose Julian” if action is not taken to end his incarceration. His warning followed a statement by world-renowned investigative journalist John Pilger on Twitter earlier this month, who wrote: “Do not forget Julian Assange. Or you will lose him. I saw him in Belmarsh prison and his health has deteriorated…” Assange’s father outlined the draconian conditions in Belmarsh Prison, where Assange has been held since he was dragged from Ecuador’s London embassy by British police on April 11.

19 August 2019

Upcoming Event in Norway: Global Threats to Press Freedom

22.August | 7pm | MediaCity Bergen The Courage Foundation, supported by Norwegian PEN and Fritt Ord, announces “Global Threats to Press Freedom”, a discussion at MediaCity Bergen on the arrest of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange and attacks on the freedom of the press around the world. The event follows a three-week installation of WeAreMillions, a photo campaign in support of Assange, which artists exhibited in Bergen. The discussion, hosted by artist Gitte Sætre and moderated by Jan Landro, will feature: Stefania Maurizi , independent journalist who worked on WikiLeaks releases and on the Snowden files with Glenn Greenwald

, independent journalist who worked on WikiLeaks releases and on the Snowden files with Glenn Greenwald Eirin Eikefjord , BT journalist

, BT journalist Mads Andenas , UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention

, UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Gisle Selnes , professor

, professor Rune Ottosen, Norwegian PEN WeAreMillions event page Facebook event page

16 August 2019

New letter from Assange

Ariyana Love has posted photos of a letter she received from Julian Assange from HMP Belmarsh. It reads:

“Thanks Ms. Love. It is people like you, great and small, fighting to save my life that keeps me going. We can win this! Don’t let the bastards sacrifice freedom of speech, European democracy and my life on the altar of Brexit.”

“It is people like you, great and small, fighting to save my life that keeps me going. We can win this!” #FreeAssangeNOW #LetterstoJulian pic.twitter.com/YStjUKz6hr — Ariyana Love (@mideastrising) August 15, 2019

Ecuador responds to UN Torture chief on Assange

#SRTorture investigation of #Assange case: After internal processing delays, here is the direct link to the official response by the Government of Ecuador of 26 July 2019 (in Spanish) to my official letter of 28 May 2019: https://t.co/pli50ReKez Still waiting for UK response. — Nils Melzer (@NilsMelzer) August 15, 2019

See the letter, in Spanish, here (PDF)

14 August 2019

The Prosecution of Julian Assange Affects Us All The prosecution of Assange, if it were ever successful, would threaten the ability of journalists to receive information and publish information that the government deemed classified all around the world. Assange’s plight is tied to the future of press freedom. But what is at stake is a much larger issue that concerns all of us. Why ought the public engage in his fight against extradition? To answer this question, we have to examine why WikiLeaks matters.

13 August 2019

Australia Assange Campaign and WikiLeaks made a submission to the Australian Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS), holding hearings today in Sydney, tomorrow in Canberra

Our key recommendations are: 1. Urgent intervention in relation to the case of Mr Julian Assange. 2. The Australian government substantially strengthen Public Interest Disclosures Act and other legislation protecting whistleblowers, journalists and media organisations that publish material in the public interest; specifically, evidence of war crimes, corruption and human rights violations. 3. National security legislation must amended to decriminalise regular journalistic activity (35P of the ASIO Act, Division 4C of the Telecommunications Interception and Access Inquiry into the impact of the exercise of law enforcement and intelligence powers on the freedom of the press Submission 7 3 Act; Criminal Code Act, Part 5.2: Espionage and related offences; Part 5.6: Secrecy of information, section 119.7: Foreign incursions and recruitment; s 80.2C : Advocating terrorism; Crimes Act: s15HK and s15HL: Controlled operations, unauthorised disclosure of information. 4. Applications for, and the circumstances of the execution of warrants must be contestable and independently monitored; Crimes Act s. 3ZZH Delayed notification search warrants, unauthorised disclosure of information 5. Classification of documents and the FOI system overhauled 6. A federal bill of rights be enacted by parliament in order to protect freedom of speech in Australia. 7. Hearings and submissions made to this inquiry are public and accessible.

10 August 2019

Jennifer Robinson, a leading member of Assange’s legal team, speaks with the WSWS

WSWS: You have previously said that if the media had spoken out when the Obama administration was developing its case against Assange and WikiLeaks then the current situation may not have happened. Could you speak about this? JR: It’s disappointing that there was not a stronger pushback on Obama’s decision to open a grand jury and continue it in relationship to WikiLeaks for so long. It is only now, in the hands of the Trump Administration, that many people understand just how dangerous that is. The UN Rapporteur on Torture [Nils Melzer] said in his report on Julian Assange that not only has he been vilified by states but the media’s participation in his vilification has significantly undermined Assange’s position, and he [Melzer] is right. I wonder if there had been more support from the media, and human rights groups had pushed back harder, whether this indictment would have been politically feasible. WSWS: The WSWS has called for establishment of a Global Defence Committee to free Assange and Chelsea Manning and we have been organising rallies, protests, meetings internationally on university campuses and workplaces. Can you comment on this, and is Julian aware of the growing support for his freedom internationally? JR: He obviously has no access to the internet and he can’t see what is happening, and has very little access to the media, but yes, I and others always show him pictures of what is happening around the world and the support. It really does make a difference—Julian is heartened by it. The solidarity campaign is not just important in buoying his spirits inside prison but critical in ensuring that he is protected in the long-term for WikiLeaks’s work. Even though WikiLeaks is protected by the First Amendment, it will take a very long time to return to the United States for that legal argument to be ever made. So the solidarity campaign is important in relationship to whatever happens to him in the meantime. It is crucial that there is a social movement, here in this country and around the world, to call the powers to account on what this indictment means, not just for him but for all the media.

8 August 2019

New website: WeAreMillions.org

Courage’s #WeAreMillions photo campaign for Julian Assange has its own new website at WeAreMillions.org — check out the new site and upload your photo today!

Statement from #WeAreMillions artists on the exhibit’s reinstatement

“We at SAKén (Spontaneous Art Collective) are delighted and relieved that the #WeAreMillions exhibition in Media City is being reinstalled. We thank you for the massive support and strong reactions that have come, both from journalists and others. We take it as a signal that freedom of the press really means a lot to many. Our hope is that this will take us one step further in a necessary debate on press freedom and Assange, as it is a theme that seems to awaken strong opinions and feelings among more and more people. We have positive expectations for ENTRA, about a good continuation: we see the need for further debate around both press freedom and Julian Assange, and hope Media City can cover this with an event on August 22.”

Former Consul to Ecuador in UK: 40 Rebuttals to CNN’s Bias on Assange

Fidel Navráez writes, “CNN did not learn the lesson from the Manafort hoax”:

Having worked as a diplomat at the Ecuadorian embassy in London for six out of the seven years that Julian Assange lived there as a political refugee, unlike others, I am privy to what actually happened there. I am alarmed by CNN’s [15 July 2019] story, alleging Assange turned the Ecuadorian embassy in London into a command post for election meddling. The story contains several substantive shortcomings and too many factual errors. I warned CNN about them when I was approached during their “investigation,” but none of my points were included in the article. It is clear that CNN was not looking for balance in their publication, choosing instead to make assertions without showing actual proof, and to use props such as irrelevant CCTV images, a sensationalist collage and a miniature image of unreadable documents to make it seem as though the story was based on evidence. CNN’s story is based on the wrong premise that publishing information about an election—in this case the 2016 US presidential election—constitutes interference. Nobody refutes the authenticity of the material and nobody claims that the information was not in the public interest.

He then provides point by point rebuttals to 40 of CNN’s false, misleading or biased claims in a recent report on Julian Assange:

CNN’s attempts to shape the narrative on the subject of WikiLeaks and Assange are not new. On March 28th 2019, the TV program Conclusiones, on CNN Español, claimed — without evidence — that Julian Assange had published the famous INA Papers leak, exposing the corruption of President Lenin Moreno and his family. The fact that WikiLeaks never published a single document or image of Lenin Moreno or his family did not matter to CNN. The intentions of the show were transparent from the pitched questions made by the reporters: “How long will Julian Assange remain at the Ecuadorian embassy in London?” “Aren’t you going to kick him out?” “What has Julian Assange brought to Lenin Moreno’s government but headaches?” This baseless accusation was used two weeks later by the Ecuadorian government as one of the reasons to justify Assange’s expulsion from the embassy in violation of international law.

This most recent smear job equally begs the question. Any informed reader is left to wonder why CNN is paving public opinion against Julian Assange as he prepares to defend himself from continued political persecution by the US. I would like to put forth 40 rebuttals to CNN’s article.

Read the full rebuttals here.

7 August 2019

We Are Millions exhibit to be reinstated

Entra turns: Artist invited back with Assange exhibition

The disputed exhibition “We Are Millions” was removed this weekend from the restaurant in Media City Bergen (MCB) . The exhibition was in support of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, but it was taken down when there were “some reactions”. Now, AFK and “We Are Millions” are invited back to the open common rooms on the first floor of the MCB. Based on media reactions and direct inquiries, Compass and Entra have now reconsidered the case. The artist AFK is therefore invited back to show the current exhibition here at Media City Bergen, which he has confirmed that he will do, says Julie Aasheim, operations manager of Compass Group and manager of Entra Bergen, Sturla Hjelmervik.

6 August 2019

Artists, free speech orgs condemn censorship of Assange artwork

Norsk PEN: The censorship nobody will take responsibility for

AFK was told by Entra, who owns the building, to remove the exhibition with a deadline of August 2, two weeks before the agreed time. AFK did not want to comply, but offered those who wanted to remove the exhibition space on the exhibition wall to explain why. It is worth noting that AFK has always sought dialogue with its critics. The purpose of the exhibition is precisely to create debate about the terms of press freedom today.

Norwegian Visual Artists: “Censorship of the exhibition “We Are Millions” is an attack on freedom of expression”

We agree with Norwegian PEN in this matter; the exhibition should be set up again in accordance with the agreement with the artist, those who wanted the exhibition removed should state their reasons, and those who have removed the exhibition must explain why. Removing a work of art without justification is censorship.

4 August 2019

Courage’s #WeAreMillions artwork for Julian Assange censored in Norway

The exhibit, which artists put up in Bergen, was taken down under pressure from unnamed tenants of Media City.

Rune Ottosen, of the Norwegian branch of free expression group PEN, condemned the action:

It is in its nature to create debate, and in the midst of many media companies must be an ideal city to do so, he says. It is reminiscent of censorship, when one in the middle of an agreed period asks for the art to be taken down, he says.

3 August 2019

DNC Lawsuit Against WikiLeaks Dismissed in Major Victory for Free Press

In a historic win for WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange a federal judge in New York dismissed a lawsuit by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) over WikiLeaks’ publication of DNC documents in 2016. The case sets an important precedent for freedom of the press. In the 81-page ruling, District Judge John Koeltl emphasized the “newsworthiness” of WikiLeaks’ publishing activities, describing them as “plainly of the type entitled to the strongest protection that the First Amendment offers.” Judge Koeltl importantly emphasized, “Journalists are allowed to request documents that have been stolen and to publish those documents.” The Judge also observed that such journalistic collaboration with sources is “common journalistic practice.” That principle is important for investigative journalists who often receive information from whistleblowers.

Media silent on dismissal of DNC suit against Julian Assange

The decision, by Judge John Koeltl of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, rejected the smears that Assange “colluded” with Russia. It upheld his status as a journalist and publisher and dismissed claims that WikiLeaks’ 2016 publication of leaked emails from the DNC was “illegal.” Despite the significance of the ruling, and its clear newsworthiness, it has been subjected to an almost complete blackout by the entire media in the US and internationally.

31 July 2019

WikiLeaks’ publication of more than 10 million documents has shed much-needed light on every corner of corporate and governmental secrecy. Within these files are scores of revelations about the ways in which the world’s most influential governments and corporations have put profit and power above environmental protections, undermining climate agreements, protecting their interests, and covering up environmental abuses.

These disclosures, uncovering what the most powerful have wanted to keep secret, have given fuel to environmental activists working to force these countries and companies to stick to climate agreements, curb emissions, and slow the devastating effects of global warming. In this new brief, we recount some of the most important environmental revelations and the environmental organisations who have used WikiLeaks’ releases in their work.

30 July 2019

The DNC’s lawsuit against WikiLeaks has been dismissed, with the judge noting that the publication of the DNC emails “is plainly of the type entitled to the strongest protection that the First Amendment offers.”

Read the full ruling here.

29 July 2019

UN Rapporteur on Torture’s Letters to UK, Ecuador, US and Sweden

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer visited Julian Assange at HMP Belmarsh on 9 May 2019, and has written letters to the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Ecuador and Sweden to express that he is “gravely concerned” about Assange’s treatment and to urge the latter three governments to ensure Assange is not extradited to the United States. Melzer, who also detailed his findings about Assange’s current health and conditions, was assisted in his assessment by medical forensic expert Prof. Duarte Vieira Nuno and psychiatrist Dr. Pau Perez-Sales. Melzer found that the cumulative effects of Assange’s treatment by the governments’ collective persecution “clearly amount to psychological torture.” Above all, most concerning is the threat of extradition to the United States, where both Assange’s human rights and the media’s freedom to conduct investigative journalism are at serious risk. Melzer writes, “I am gravely concerned that US authorities intend to make an ‘example’ of him, in order to punish him personally, but also to deter others who may be tempted to engage in similar activities as Wikileaks or Mr. Assange.” PDF

26 July 2019

Bergen artists exhibit #WeAreMillions portraits for Julian Assange

The Courage Foundation announced #WeAreMillions, a massive photo campaign to show global support for WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange as he fights extradition to the United States. The campaign is launched online , but will now be launched internationally as a public exhibition.#WeAreMillions opened in Bergen today, and will be presented from there on all continents, in cities and at festivals all over the world. On Friday morning, activists started to install the exhibition at Lille Lungegårdsvannet in Bergen city center. Later in the day, Bergen Media City and Nøsteboden are on tour.

Vi er millioner: #FreeAssange

I juni kunngjorde The Courage Foundation – #WeAreMillions – en massiv fotokampanje for å vise global støtte til WikiLeaks-redaktør Julian Assange, mens han kjemper mot utlevering til USA. Kampanjen er lansert på nettet, men vil nå bli lansert internasjonalt som en offentlig utstilling. #WeAreMillions åpnet i Bergen i dag, og vil derfra bli presentert på alle kontinenter, i byer og på festivaler over hele verden. Fredag formiddag startet aktivister å montere utstillingen ved Lille Lungegårdsvannet i Bergen sentrum. Senere på dagen står Bergen Media City og Nøsteboden for tur.

See Norwegian TV coverage of the exhibition here

25 July 2019

New Courage Brief: Russiagate Smears Against WikiLeaks

Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have been the subject of numerous false, unfounded smears of connection to the Russian government, particularly in relation to WikiLeaks’ 2016 publication of DNC emails. In this brief we recount some of the most pervasive claims and correct the record. Loading .... /



WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could face life in prison

Assange lawyer Jen Robinson spoke to Radio National about the case Listen to the interview here

Chelsea Manning’s lawyer refutes conspiracy allegation against Julian Assange

Whistleblower Chelsea Manning’s lawyer Nancy Hollander this week unequivocally rebutted accusations that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange enticed or collaborated with Manning to obtain the thousands of secret documents that WikiLeaks published in 2010, revealing the war crimes and other abuses committed by the US and its allies around the world. Interviewed for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Four Corners” program, Hollander emphasised that Manning, then a 21-year-old US military intelligence private, had initiated the contact with WikiLeaks after no corporate media outlet would even return her calls about the damning information she had obtained.

23 July 2019

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson speaks to Sputnik about Julian Assange, whistleblowing and press freedoms

Sputnik: The heavy-handed approach that is being taken against Julian Assange is often labelled as an attempt to dissuade future whistleblowing. What can be done to ensure that potential future whistle-blowers are protected? Kristinn Hrafnsson: To protect whistle-blowers, we need to create a genuine law. The whistle-blowing laws that have been passed in many countries usually have the opposite effect. It’s not protecting the whistle-blower, they are outlining that you should go to certain platforms before you actually go to the media. You should talk to your boss, and then, you know, go up the steps. However, if you don’t stick completely to the process, then you’re open game. They will go after you. But in saying that, there is an understanding, and there’s an appreciation. People do appreciate what Edward Snowden did, apart from the American authorities of course. I mean, it was extremely important information that he brought us. We got involved in WikiLeaks with Edward Snowden because the media betrayed him. The Guardian journalist and the other American journalist working on the base of his material just left him in Hong Kong after they were, had been fed with the information. So he was just sitting there, a sitting duck waiting to be arrested or extradited. So we stepped in, and we’re actually helping him get into Latin America. His passport was revoked, and he was stranded in Moscow. And now, of course, being a condemned for seeking asylum in Russia, when actually the State Department in the US was responsible for him ending up there. So, to answer the question concisely, supporting of whistle-blowers in general, and at the same time, laws can be changed, and awareness of the importance of whistle-blowers can be raised on all platforms to ensure that this important work is carried out.

22 July 2019

Julian Assange: A Wanted Man

ARTE’s 37-minute film about Julian Assange

19 July 2019

UN Special Rapporteur Nils Melzer: Julian Assange has no chance to get a fair trial in the US

Consortium News interviewed UN torture expert Nils Melzer, who has called for the end to the “collective persecution” of Assange after visiting him in prison and examining his case in depth. Melzer discusses the media’s role in perpetuating US/UK misinformation about Assange, his determination that Assange has been psychologically tortured, and his view that Assange has “no chance” at a fair trial if he is sent to the United States.

Workers, peasants and youth in Ecuador began a five-day strike Monday against the draconian policies of the Lenín Moreno administration, which is seeking to strengthen its ties to Washington and its military-intelligence apparatus. The strike constitutes the first major industrial action in the world demanding the freedom of Julian Assange. The demand is presented in the framework of growing opposition to the attacks against social and democratic rights associated with the Moreno administration’s totally servile policy toward US imperialism.

Courage has published a new briefing on the ways in which unions and fair trade movements have made use of WikiLeaks’ publication of secret trade deals:

From 2013 to 2016, WikiLeaks made public portions of three major trade agreements — the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), the Trade in Service Agreement (TiSA) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) — which had been drafted and negotiated in secret, without proper democratic oversight. The publications contain multiple draft chapters and negotiating positions of participating countries. The revelations provided insight into concrete provisions of the agreements, which then fueled social justice and fair trade movements, civil rights organisations and trade unions in opposition to the agreements. The TPP and TTIP have since been stalled, while TiSA remains classified. The trade documents, included in WikiLeaks’ searchable archive, are of continued use to unions, civil society organisations, researchers and policy analysts, as they make public the negotiations that the powerful would otherwise keep shielded from scrutiny. Read the full brief here or download the PDF version. Loading .... /



16 July 2019

The Assange precedent: Journalists in Britain threatened with Official Secrets Act

London’s Metropolitan Police threatened journalists with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act last Friday in an unprecedented attack on media freedom. Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu announced that Counter Terrorism Command would investigate alleged breaches of the Official Secrets Act over publication of leaked diplomatic telegrams written by Sir Kim Darroch.

…

Speaking on Friday, Executive Director of the Society of Editors Ian Murray condemned the Met’s invocation of the Act against journalists, “Frankly it is the kind of approach we would expect from totalitarian regimes where the media are expected to be little more than a tame arm of the government.” The Met’s dictatorial edicts show the Assange precedent in action. The decision of the US government, with the backing of outgoing Prime Minister Theresa May and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, to prosecute the WikiLeaks founder under the Espionage Act for publishing leaked government documents has opened the floodgates. Passed in 1917, the Espionage Act was heavily modelled on the original UK Official Secrets Act of 1889 that was updated just three years prior to the outbreak of World War I.

15 July 2019

EL PAÍS: Spanish security company spied on Julian Assange’s meetings with lawyers

Julian Assange was spied on 24 hours a day during the time that he spent at the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he took refuge for seven years. Documents, video and audio material that EL PAÍS has had access to show that a Spanish private defense and security firm named Undercover Global S. L., which was tasked with protecting the diplomatic building between 2012 and 2018, instructed its men to collect all possible information about the cyberactivist, particularly regarding his lawyers and collaborators. Several video cameras, which were equipped with audio recording capability between December 2017 and March 2018, recorded dozens of meetings between the WikiLeaks founder and his attorneys and visitors. At these meetings, Assange’s legal defense strategy was discussed.

…

The security employees at the embassy had a daily job to do: to monitor Assange’s every move, record his conversations, and take note of his moods. The company’s drive to uncover their target’s most intimate secrets led the team to carry out a handwriting examination behind his back, which resulted in a six-page report. Company employees also took a feces sample from a baby’s diaper to check whether Assange and one of his most faithful collaborators were the child’s parents. This intelligence work had nothing to do with protection duties. The security team for the Spanish company, which is based in Puerto Real (Cádiz), would write up a confidential report each day and send it to the company chief, David Morales, a former member of the military who trained with the special ops unit of the Marine Infantry, the marine corps of the Spanish Navy.

…

The interest in monitoring Assange’s meetings with his lawyers did not end when the Lenín Moreno administration canceled the contract with UC Global and hired Ecuadorian company Promsecurity to take its place. Video cameras continued to record all meetings, and at least on one occasion, either embassy personnel or the new security team photographed a folder brought in by the lawyer Aitor Martínez during a meeting break. These photographs, as well as dozens of video and audio recordings, were recently used in an extortion attempt against Assange by several individuals based in Alicante, Spain. The courts are investigating the case, and two of the alleged extortionists were arrested.

To attack WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, CNN twists embassy surveillance records that were first covered by Spanish newspaper EL PAÍS

Reporters for EL PAÍS found the spying on Assange’s legal defense meetings to be most significant. They were stunned by the fact that Assange felt he had to hold meetings in the women’s bathroom if he wanted to ensure privacy. And they took note of U.C. Global’s “feverish, obsessive vigilance” toward “the guest,” which became more intense after Lenin Moreno was elected president of Ecuador in May 2017. That is not how CNN viewed the same cache of information compiled by the private security company and eventually used to allegedly extort Assange. Although EL PAÍS makes no mention of meddling in the 2016 presidential election in its coverage, CNN approached the material like analysts at the CIA. They voraciously consumed logs hoping the documents would confirm Assange collaborated with Russian intelligence assets to release emails from John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.

…

CNN was unable to find concrete proof, and the words “potentially” and “possibility” do heavy lifting for the media organization. “New documents obtained exclusively by CNN reveal that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange received in-person deliveries, potentially of hacked materials related to the 2016 US election, during a series of suspicious meetings at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London,” the CNN report reads. It adds, “The documents build on the possibility, raised by special counsel Robert Mueller in his report on Russian meddling, that couriers brought hacked files to Assange at the embassy.” Yet, there is little to no evidence in the report to substantiate the conspiracy theory that CNN reporters want the public to believe.

12 July 2019

UN Torture Rapporteur Nils Melzer interviews on Assange

The Media Is Complicit in Julian Assange’s Torture

Podcast

“Basically, I didn’t take [the request to examine Assange] seriously,” Melzer tells Truthdig Editor in Chief Robert Scheer on the latest installment of Scheer’s podcast, “Scheer Intelligence.” “It took a second attempt to kind of shake me a little bit and say, [I] need to look at this. Once I opened the book and started looking at the actual evidence and facts for all these nametags that are being circulated in the press, I was shocked to see that there was very little substance that actually supported these qualifications.”

United Nations: demasking the Torture of Julian Assange. Rico Brouwer and Nils Melzer

10 July 2019

Selling Out Julian Assange | An Interview with Txema Guijarro

“By granting asylum to Julian Assange in 2012, Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa made clear his country would no longer bow to US diktats. The decision this spring to allow Assange’s arrest shows how far Ecuador’s challenge to empire has faded.”

Video: Torture against Julian Assange

The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture visited Assange in detention and gave an alarming report on his state of health. The 48-year-old reported massive anxiety disorders and had lost weight dramatically.

Amal Clooney speaks out about Julian Assange’s arrest

At the UK’s Defend Media Freedom conference, Special Envoy for Media Freedom Amal Clooney speaks about threats faced by journalists around the world, including Julian Assange.

8 July 2019

UN torture expert Nils Melzer: As You Celebrate Your Freedom, Remember Julian Assange

Whether we like it or not, Julian Assange is a dissident. He despises secrecy and cannot be tamed, bought or otherwise controlled. He has flooded the world with compromising disclosures, including evidence for war crimes, aggression and abuse, without ever resorting to violence or fake news. He has initiated a paradigm shift in public awareness and dried up safe havens of governmental impunity. And like everyone who endangers the perks of the powerful, he has been made to pay the price.

…

But how do you break a political dissident, a promoter of truth and transparency? Well, first you attack his reputation and credibility, and destroy his human dignity. You maintain a constant trickle of poisonous rumors, first half-truths and then increasingly bold lies. You keep him suspected of rape without trial, of hacking and spying, and of smearing feces on Embassy walls. You portray him as an ungrateful narcissist with a cat and a skateboard, whose only aim is self-glorifying exceptionalism. By making him unlikeable in the eyes of the world, you ensure no one will feel any empathy, so once his voice is muzzled and his isolation complete, he can be burned at the stake with impunity. Most importantly, having degraded him to a clown for the entertainment of all, you will have diverted attention from his spotlight on your own crimes. Next, you make sure that any attempt of his to expose your lies comes at the cost of extradition to a hanging judge in a land bent to see his head on a stick, where torturers enjoy impunity. You then pressure his country of refuge into submission – military and economic leverage never fail – and you turn his protectors into enemies, and his daily existence into attritive hell. The method is deliberate, concerted, and sustained, and employs isolation, hostility, and shame. Whether you call it “bullying,” “mobbing,” or “persecution” – in essence it is all the same.

…

Let us not be fooled, extraditing Assange was never about hacking, rape, espionage or narcissism. It is about drowning his radical challenge to government secrecy, which holds the power to change world affairs forever, inspired by the truths and principles proclaimed in the 1776 Declaration. That is why the powerful persecute Assange with ferocity, while proven war criminals are allowed to walk free.

Free Speech Activist Forced To Court Over Assange/Manning Posters

A free Julian Assange activist is facing a misdemeanor charge for hanging signs on public utility poles in support of the WikiLeaks founder. Andrew Smith, 28, of Elyria was cited on Saturday afternoon June 29 for hanging signs reading “Free Julian Assange,” “Free Speech Free Press” and others with similar messages. As Smith was stapling a free Julian sign to a utility pole in front of a convenient store, a police officer driving by slowed down and shouted at Smith to stop what he was doing.

…

After several minutes sitting in the police vehicle, Smith was issued a citation for violating Oberlin City Ordinance 503.02 Advertising on Public Property.

Smith appeared in Oberlin Municipal Court in Ohio on 5 July, when a hearing was scheduled for 18 August 2019.

6 Pulitzer Prize Winners Explain Why Julian Assange’s Case Threatens Free Press

CPS faces legal ruling over refusal to disclose emails with US on WikiLeaks and Assange extradition

Stefania Maurizi, an Italian investigative journalist who writes for La Repubblica, has been fighting a four-year battle with the CPS to release correspondence between the UK, Sweden, Ecuador and the US on the investigation into WikiLeaks and its founder.

…

The current case began in 2015, when Maurizi filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for all the correspondence relating to Assange between the CPS and the US State Department and US Department of Justice, the CPS and the Swedish Prosecution Authority, and the CPS and the Ecuadorian Embassy. The CPS and the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) refused the request in August 2015. Maurizi appealed to the First-tier Tribunal (FTT), which dismissed her appeal in December 2017. Lawyers for Maurizi argued in the Upper Tribunal yesterday (1 July 2019) that the FTT made significant errors in law in refusing to order the CPS to confirm the existence of the correspondence under the Freedom of Information Act. Maurizi told Computer Weekly that the correspondence between the CPS and US prosecutors could shed light on any collaboration between the US and UK after the US began investigations into Assange following WikiLeaks’ publication of secret files, including the Afgan and Iraq war logs, in 2010. “The US-UK correspondence is absolutely crucial. If my lawyers and I win the case, we might be able to finally establish whether the US had discussed charges and extradition with the UK authorities from the very beginning,” she said. The case is expected to have significant implications for journalists and, if Maurizi is successful, will make it easier to establish what information prosecutors hold in extradition cases.

Today’s #WeAreMillions photo for Julian Assange

Newly elected Greek MP, cofounder of transnational movement DiEM25, and former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis

3 July 2019

Julian Assange turns 48 today

Assange’s father John Shipton marks Julian’s birthday in Melbourne

Julian Assange’s father has celebrated his son’s 48th birthday in Melbourne, saying his son is determined to fight for his freedom. John Shipton joined a crowd of supporters at Melbourne’s Federation Square on Wednesday to record a video message singing Happy Birthday to the Wikileaks founder. Mr Shipton lamented that he’d prefer to celebrate with his son in person. “It’s very distressing and one can’t think too much about it without becoming overwrought, so it’s best to attend to practical matters, to assure that Julian can come home and we can have a cup of coffee together at Fed Square,” Mr Shipton said.

…

“His health has stabilised and his spirit is extremely strong, and (he is) determined to fight for his freedom and for freedom of press to inform us of what our governments are doing,” Mr Shipton said. Melbourne is one of 60 cities participating in the global celebrations held across seven continents in honour of Assange’s birthday. Australian barrister Greg Barns, who is campaigning to bring Assange home, called on Australians to remember the importance of free speech. “Those calling for greater support for freedom of the press need to be putting it also in the context of Julian Assange, who is an Australian and suffering as a result of an attack on the free press,” Mr Barns said.

#Candles4Assange Dusk US Embassy NZ;

Wellington kicked off action in >60 cities holding birthday vigils for Julian Assange

POURING with rain HARD! GREAT live feed/speeches @ #Candles4Assange FB group #FreeAssangeNZ join us and share/link hashtag to yr footage to include in vid pic.twitter.com/TCzSfoiTEQ — Candles4Assange (@Candles4Assange) July 3, 2019

Assange’s lack of freedom is our lack of freedom, his persecution is ours. His freedom must be our freedom. https://t.co/Y947mVC5a5 — Tim Canova (@Tim_Canova) July 2, 2019

|̶ ̶ ̶ ̶|appy Birthday Julian Assange. Thank you for your sacrifice and your service. In my view and that of the Green Party of the United States, you are indeed a hero and must be set free immediately. #FreeJulianAssange pic.twitter.com/Cpb7DzaDMA — Manchik for Congress (@Joe_Manchik) July 3, 2019

‘A journalist should not pay such a price for exposing war crimes and torture’@SMaurizi on what the UN Rapporteur on torture @NilsMelzer called ‘progressively severe forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’ against #JulianAssange #WikiLeaks pic.twitter.com/bODrbQy7fe — sebastian pacher (@sebpacher) July 2, 2019

Today’s #WeAreMillions photo for Julian Assange:

“Imagine it: Years from now people will say: Oh, if only I had known what we were losing when they abused this decent and courageous man! I would have done something! But now, what can I do, since these days I don’t dare express what I know and think! Regret is too often the fruit of silence” – Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist.

2 July 2019

Tomorrow is Julian Assange’s 48th birthday

#Candles4Assange Global B’day Vigil 3 July 2019:

STOP the WAR on JOURNALISM!

Protect the Whistleblowers | Prosecute the War Criminals

🇳🇿🇭🇲🇫🇮🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇦🇷🇪🇪🇫🇷🇻🇺🇮🇹🇰🇪🇧🇪🇩🇪🇪🇨

🇬🇧🇺🇸🇮🇱🇰🇷🇸🇮🇱🇺🇦🇲🇲🇽🇱🇾🇵🇹🇪🇸🇨🇦

(59 cities)

🌍Must.

🌎Have.

🌏Seven.

🌐Continents.

🗺: https://t.co/kV6Xx7aRMU pic.twitter.com/dW4WWvgpjv — Candles4Assange (@Candles4Assange) July 1, 2019



Italian journalist takes four-year FOI battle for Assange extradition files to UK tribunal

Stefania Maurizi, who works for Italian newspaper La Repubblica, said she wanted to “defend the right of the press to access the documents on the Assange case” in a message on Twitter ahead of the hearing. The case relates to a Freedom of Information request made by Maurizi in September 2015 to the UK Crown Prosecution Service asking for all of its correspondence with the Swedish Prosecution Authority, which sought to extradite Assange over a rape allegation in 2012.

…

They said the question of whether a tribunal court should consider the facts as they were at the time of the original FOI decision or at the present time was an “important” issue and one that “has been troubling the Upper Tribunal for some time”.

They added in a briefing note that this would have wider implications beyond the Assange case because it would mean journalists can “rely on any factual changes” when the appeal to the FTT. “This would make the FOIA regime much more user-friendly for journalists and other requesters,” they went on.

“As things presently stand, even though an appeal to the FTT is a full appeal with witness evidence, the FTT routinely consider a ‘historic’ public interest when deciding whether to release information.”

…

A judgment in the case is expected by the end of the week. If Maurizi wins the appeal, the case will be heard again by the FTT. If she loses, she plans to continue the case to the Court of Appeal and, if needed, the Supreme Court and ultimately the European Court of Human Rights.

27 June 2019

UN torture expert: ‘Demasking the Torture of Julian Assange’

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer, who last month detailed and condemned the “collective persecution” that led to Julian Assange’s “psychological torture,” has written a piece explaining how he came to understand Assange’s situation after being “blinded by propaganda.”

Melzner goes through several of the top smears against Assange point by point and explains how he was initially misled by mainstream media accounts into believing misinformation about him.

Like most of the public, I had been subconsciously poisoned by the relentless smear campaign, which had been disseminated over the years. So it took a second knock on my door to get my reluctant attention. But once I looked into the facts of this case, what I found filled me with repulsion and disbelief.

Melzner shows how Assange has been painted as a rapist, a hacker, a Russian spy, a narcissist, and how a look at the actual events is was eye-opening.

In the end it finally dawned on me that I had been blinded by propaganda, and that Assange had been systematically slandered to divert attention from the crimes he exposed. Once he had been dehumanized through isolation, ridicule and shame, just like the witches we used to burn at the stake, it was easy to deprive him of his most fundamental rights without provoking public outrage worldwide. And thus, a legal precedent is being set, through the backdoor of our own complacency, which in the future can and will be applied just as well to disclosures by The Guardian, the New York Times and ABC News. Very well, you may say, but what does slander have to do with torture? Well, this is a slippery slope. What may look like mere «mudslinging» in public debate, quickly becomes “mobbing” when used against the defenseless, and even “persecution” once the State is involved. Now just add purposefulness and severe suffering, and what you get is full-fledged psychological torture.

Read the full piece, which Melzner says was offered to but not accepted for publication by the Guardian, The Times, the Financial Times, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian, the Canberra Times, the Telegraph, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Thomson Reuters Foundation, and Newsweek, here.

1st-6th July 2019 – Upcoming London events in support of Julian #Assange and #WikiLeaks

Upcoming events include:

a court hearing for Stefania Maurizi’s Freedom Of Information litigation

a panel discussion on Assange

a vigil for Julian’s birthday (July 3rd)

a demonstration in Trafalgar Square

Join the Sydney rally this Saturday demanding freedom for Julian Assange!

The Socialist Equality Party (Australia) has called a rally this Saturday, 12 p.m. at Sydney’s Martin Place Amphitheatre, in defence of Julian Assange. The demonstration will demand that the Australian government take immediate action to prevent the WikiLeaks founder’s extradition to the United States, where he faces life imprisonment or the death penalty, and secure his complete freedom. It will call for the immediate release of the courageous whistleblower Chelsea Manning, who has been jailed by the Trump administration for over a month because of her principled refusal to give perjured testimony against Assange. All workers, students, young people and defenders of civil liberties should join the Sydney rally and promote it as widely as possible.

26 June 2019

The Espionage Act and a Growing Threat to Press Freedom

Jameel Jaffer, in The New Yorker:

The problem with [the US government’s] increasing reliance on the Espionage Act to sanction insiders who reveal secrets to the press is that the act collapses all of the distinctions that should matter in those cases. It draws no distinction between insiders who share information with foreign intelligence services and those who share it with the media, or between those who intend to harm the United States and those who intend to inform the public about the abuse of government power. The act doesn’t admit of the possibility of secrets that are illegitimate, or widely known, or no longer sensitive, instead treating all disclosures of “information relating to the national defense” as subject, at least in theory, to the harshest penalties. The act is blind to the possibility that the public’s interest in learning of government incompetence, corruption, or criminality might outweigh the government’s interest in protecting a given secret. It is blind to the difference between whistle-blowers and spies. The government’s now-routine use of the Espionage Act against journalists’ sources suggests that it, too, has lost sight of these distinctions.

…

Safeguarding the public’s right to know requires protecting not just journalists and publishers but sources as well. In recent years, some press-freedom advocates have urged the courts to afford government insiders charged under the Espionage Act an opportunity to argue that the public’s interest in learning the information they disclosed outweighed the government’s interest in protecting it. In an era in which the President has trouble differentiating journalists from “enemies of the people,” it may be up to the courts, and the people themselves, to insist on differentiating whistle-blowers from spies.

A War on Press Freedoms in the Name of National Security

Ted Galen Carpenter, for the CATO Institute:

Successfully prosecuting Assange and WikiLeaks for espionage would be a devastating threat to a free and independent press in the United States. We must not allow the government to decide who is or is not a “legitimate” journalist. Yet that is exactly Washington’s ploy in the Assange case. If federal prosecutors prevail with that argument and eventually convict him of espionage, the implicit protections that the Pentagon Papers ruling has afforded the press will be severely diluted. Only legacy publications friendly to the national security bureaucracy could then count on government restraint—and as Trump’s outburst against the New York Timesfor its Russia cyberwar article demonstrates, even that expectation could become quite fragile. Obstreperous online outlets and their writers would routinely find themselves under threat of criminal prosecution if they dared publish a negative story based on classified information. At a minimum, there would be a pronounced chilling effect on (already insufficient) foreign policy dissent in the media.

Julian Assange’s situation, what UN experts said from 2012 to the present

WISE Up Action recounts UN special procedures’ statements on Assange over the last 7 years:

This journey through time shows how UN repeatedly called for Julian Assange to be freed. However the US Government seems not to want a fair fight on this matter. As qualified opinions explained so many times, US are aware that in case they play a honest battle, they will loose, since, as highlighted by attorney Bill Simpich they know very well that “revealing war crimes is not a crime”.

27 June, Geneva: The Arbitrary Detention and Torture of Julian Assange

Side Event at the UN Human Rights Council, featuring:

Nils Melzer

UN Special Rapporteur on Torture; Human Rights Chair, Geneva Academy; Professor of International Law, University of Glasgow Mads Andenaes

Professor of International Law; Chair, Rapporteur, UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention 2009-2013; Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law, 1999-2006 Christophe Peschoux

Section Chief, Special Procedures Branch, OHCHR Micol Savia

Permanent Representative of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers to UNOG Kristinn Hrafnsson

Investigative journalist; Editor-in-Chief, WikiLeaks Jennifer Robinson

Barrister, Doughty St Chambers

25 June 2019

Courage announces We Are Millions, a massive photo campaign to demonstrate global support for WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange as he fights extradition to the United States, where he would face unprecedented prosecution. We Are Millions features supporters holding signs to express simply and clearly why they are standing up for Julian Assange, whom the US seeks to punish for publishing hundreds of thousands of diplomatic cables and military documents in 2010. Those releases exposed war crimes, uncounted civilian casualties and rampant corruption and abuse. The Trump Administration has brought 17 counts of Espionage against Assange, the first ever such charges for a journalist, threatening a lifetime in prison. Filmmakers Ken Loach and Oliver Stone, economist Yanis Varoufakis, theatre director Angela Richter, philosopher Slavoj Žižek, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges are among hundreds who have already taken a stand for Assange. Ken Loach explained why he was joining the campaign: “Politicians and the courts, who knowingly put Julian Assange in mortal danger by sending him to the USA, will be excoriated for not defending the freedom of the press. The unprincipled hacks, from the far right to the fake lefts, who join in his abuse, are revealed as dishonourable cowards, a disgrace to their profession.” See the supporters who have added their photos, and upload yours today!

Julian Assange receives 4th Annual DANNY Award for Journalism

Julian Assange has been granted the 2019 Danny Schechter Global Vision Award for Journalism & Activism by not-for-profit educational foundation The Global Center. As a press release announcing the award explains, The DANNY is “awarded annually to an individual who best emulates Schechter’s practice of combining excellent journalism with social advocacy and activism.” The DANNY Award announcement warns, ”The Assange case represents a threat not only to freedom of expression but also to the heart of American democracy itself.”

24 June 2019

Ecuadorian justice accepts writ of habeas corpus in favor of Ola Bini

On the evening of Thursday, June 20th, the Ecuadorian court accepted the writ of habeas corpus granting the release of renowned Swedish free software and privacy advocate Ola Bini, detained since April 11th, 2019 in Quito. After hearing the news, Ola Bini responded: “I would like to thank the people of Ecuador. I want to thank everyone in the world. I want to thank my team, –everyone, for believing in me. Today, we have proven my innocence for the first time and we will continue to prove my innocence. I want to thank the judges for showing what we’ve been saying the whole time; that this process has been illegal and that I was illegally detained. And, — I want to say my heartfelt thanks, for all the support and love from my parents, and my family, and everyone out there. Thank you, everyone!”. You can watch the full video of the statement here.

Ola Bini discussed the news with Democracy Now!

“May Curious Eyes Never Run Dry”

Felicity Ruby and Scott Ludlam on the courage of Julian Assange

In June 2019, the Australian Federal Police came through the doors of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst’s home, and then the ABC’s offices in Sydney, sending a chill across Australia’s media establishment. Suddenly, the reality of a state crackdown on national-security journalism has come home; the raids were linked directly with stories about Australian Signals Directorate spying powers and allegations of war crimes committed by Australian personnel in Afghanistan. The parallels are too strong to ignore: this is precisely the kind of publishing that has cost Assange a decade of his life and may cost him a great deal more. Throughout the last nine years, while arbitrarily detained, maligned and defamed, Assange has sounded warning after warning after warning on the threats to freedom of the press through public appearances by video, by submissions to Australian parliamentary inquiries, and through publishing information in the public interest, even when doing so severely disadvantaged his legal situation. Still, somehow, believing that courage is contagious, Assange awaits his fate in Belmarsh prison, his well-being in the hands of others. ‘I am defenceless and am counting on you and others of good character to save my life’, he wrote in a letter to journalist Gordon Dimmack in May 2019. ‘Truth ultimately is all we have.’

Tapes of Spaniards’ attempt to extort Julian Assange: “This material is worth €3m”

“EL PAÍS has accessed recordings that police made of the group who tried to sell the WikiLeaks founder sensitive personal material from his stay at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London”

Thanks to assistance from the police, there is recorded evidence of a meeting at Madrid’s Reina Victoria Hotel in which a Spanish reporter named José Martín Santos and two computer experts attempted to sell WikiLeaks sensitive material in connection with an alleged case of spying against Julian Assange while he was living at the Ecuadorean embassy in London. In the recorded conversation, to which EL PAÍS has had access, the alleged extortionists said that there were microphones at the embassy, and that all recorded material involving the WikiLeaks founder was being handed over to the ambassador for review. Martín and one of his associates in Alicante offered WikiLeaks the opportunity to spy on their spies, for a price. Two of the three alleged extortionists have since been arrested and are now being investigated by the courts.

20 June 2019

New book: In Defense of Julian Assange

Tariq Ali and Margaret Kunstler have edited a new compilation of essays in defense of Julian Assange, including the Courage Foundation on the ‘Assange Precedent’. Proceeds from the book will go to Courage to support Assange’s defense.

It is critical now to build support for Assange and prevent his delivery into the hands of the Trump administration. That is the urgent purpose of this book. A wide range of distinguished contributors, many of them in original pieces, here set out the story of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, the importance of their work, and the dangers for us all in the persecution they face. In Defense of Julian Assange is a vivid, vital intervention into one of the most important political issues of our day. Contributors: Pamela Anderson, Julian Assange, Renata Avila, Katrin Axelsson, Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Sally Burch, Noam Chomsky, Patrick Cockburn, Naomi Colvin, The Courage Foundation, Mark Curtis, Daniel Ellsberg, Teresa Forcades i Vila, Charles Glass, Kevin Gosztola, Serge Halimi, Nozomi Hayase, Chris Hedges, Srećko Horvat, Caitlin Johnstone, Margaret Kimberley, Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, Lisa Longstaff, Alan MacLeod, Chelsea Manning, Stefania Maurizi, Craig Murray, Fidel Narváez, John C. O’Day, John Pilger, Jesselyn Radack, Michael Ratner, Angela Richter, Geoffrey Robertson, Jen Robinson, Matt Taibbi, Natalia Viana, Ai Weiwei, Vivienne Westwood and Slavoj Žižek.

Tech journalists troubled by Assange computer intrusion charge

“The thing the CFAA and Espionage Act have in common is criminalizing regular processes of journalism,” Quinn Norton told CPJ.

…

“Part of my tremendous worry about this indictment is that federal prosecutors are going to parse conversation between sources and journalists closely, looking for narrow violations of the law,” said Ryan Tate, the technology editor at The Intercept.

…

In the Assange indictment, Norton sees the government doubling down, she told CPJ this month. “CFAA charges represent a way to harass journalists away from covering a lot of potential stories,” she said. The charge against Assange, she said, is “sending a message” to technology reporters. “It’s like installing censors in our heads.”

The Shaving Kit – Manufacturing The Julian Assange Witch-Hunt

Media Lens expands on UN torture expert Nils Melzner’s example of the mainstream media’s character assassination against Assange — in this instance, using his long beard at the time of his arrest to paint him as a ‘weirdo’, despite the fact that Ecuador had revoked his shaving kit 3 months previously:

As we noted in a media alert last week, the groundwork for the persecution of Assange has been laid by a demonising state-corporate propaganda campaign. Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture, who is also Professor of International Law at the University of Glasgow, has turned the accepted ‘mainstream’ view of Assange completely on its head: ‘First of all, we have to realize that we have all been deliberately misled about Mr Assange. The predominant image of the shady “hacker”, “sex offender” and selfish “narcissist” has been carefully constructed, disseminated and recycled in order to divert attention from the extremely powerful truths he exposed, including serious crimes and corruption on the part of multiple governments and corporations. ‘By making Mr Assange “unlikeable” and ridiculous in public opinion, an environment was created in which no one would feel empathy with him, very similar to the historic witch-hunts, or to modern situations of mobbing at the workplace or in school.’ (Our emphasis) …

As discussed, Nils Melzer argues that Assange has become ‘”unlikeable” and ridiculous in public opinion’, not because of who he is, but because of a state-sponsored propaganda campaign – the journalists listed above are either complicit or dupes. This media charade was exposed with great clarity by Melzer’s revelation on Twitter: ‘How public humiliation works: On 11 April, Julian Assange was mocked for his beard throughout the world. During my visit, he explained to us that his shaving kit had been deliberately taken away three months earlier.’ It had simply never occurred to the great herd of journalists – which understood that Assange was someone to be smeared, mocked and abused – that his appearance might have something to do with Ecuador’s brutal treatment cutting off his communications, his visitors and even his medical care. Fidel Narvaez, former consul at the Ecuadorian embassy from the first day Assange arrived, on 19 June 2012, until 15 July 2018, said the Ecuadorian regime under president Lenin Moreno had tried to make life ‘unbearable’ for Assange.

Audio: Philip Adams’ Late Night Live: The Assange indictment: will the US be able to extradite Julian Assange?

Interview: Geoffrey Robertson QC discusses the US indictment and extradition claim against his client, Julian Assange.

19 June 2019

MEPs urge Commission to halt Assange extradition to US

A cross-group of MEPs are calling on the European Commission to intervene and stop the extradition of Julian Assange from the UK to the US. The letter, signed by 37 MEPs – including 32 from the Left – deplores the US request to prosecute the founder of Wikileaks, and it underlines the importance of the right to information as a fundamental pillar of our democracy. MEPs shared the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer’s grave concerns that the extradition would put Assange at risk of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It also urges Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans to uphold Assange’s human rights under international and EU laws, with particular reference to the new legislation that provides whistleblowers protection inside the EU. You can read the letter here.

US Green Party’s Peace Action Committee Statement on the Mistreatment and Imprisonment of Julian Assange

The assault on Julian Assange is nothing less than an attack on the truth and a threat to global security. A world in which the US government secretly pursues hostile actions, unchecked by any independent oversight, is a danger to all mankind. Julian Assange has served the interests of the people of the world by truthfully revealing activities that undermine peace and security. The Peace Action Committee of the Green Party of the United States calls upon the US Justice Department to drop all charges against Julian Assange, and we call upon the UK government to release Assange from prison.

Audio: Assange Indictments Rely on Contrived Narrative: interview with Kevin Gosztola

18 June 2019

DOJ tells Chelsea Manning it is investigating others in addition to Assange

In a motion opposing Chelsea Manning’s request to reconsider the punitive sanctions imposed on her for refusing to testify to a WikiLeaks grand jury, the US Department of Justice justified continuing to imprison Manning on the basis that her testifmony is needed for prosecutions beyond that of Assange:

As the government’s ex parte submissions reflect, Manning’s testimony remains relevant and essential to an ongoing investigation into charges or targets that are not included in the superseding indictment.

Govt response in opposition to Chelsea Manning request to reconsider sanctions (PDF)

John Pilger: Extradition Process a ‘Very Long Uphill Road’ for Assange

“[Assange] didn’t have an opportunity to defend himself. And that’s the first major issue here. He doesn’t even have a computer. He doesn’t have access to documents. He’s kept, a lot of the time, isolated”

Julian Assange Indictment “Criminalizes the News Gathering Process,” Says Pentagon Papers Lawyer

Chance of Assange getting fair trial in US ‘effectively nil,’ warns Lauri Love

“You worry daily the rest of your life will be spent in a country that doesn’t want to treat you as a human & wants to lock you up in a small box” Lauri Love, who successfully fought extradition to the US, talks about Julian Assange’s full extradition hearing being postponed. pic.twitter.com/qFR3xyIARh — RT UK (@RTUKnews) June 17, 2019

Chris Hedges: The Coming Show Trial of Julian Assange

The publication of classified documents is not a crime in the United States, but if Assange is extradited and convicted it will become one. Assange is not an American citizen. WikiLeaks, which he founded and publishes, is not a U.S.-based publication. The message the U.S. government is sending is clear: No matter who or where you are, if you expose the inner workings of empire you will be hunted down, kidnapped and brought to the United States to be tried as a spy. The extradition and trial of Assange will mean the end of public investigations by the press into the crimes of the ruling elites. It will cement into place a frightening corporate tyranny. Publications such as The New York Times and The Guardian, which devoted pages to the WikiLeaks revelations and later amplified and legitimized Washington’s carefully orchestrated character assassination of Assange, are no less panicked. This is the gravest assault on press freedom in my lifetime.

…

Commenting in 2018 when Assange’s lawyers requested that the warrant for his arrest be dropped, [Judge Emma] Arbuthnot said, “I accept that Mr. Assange had expressed fears of being returned to the United States from a very early stage in the Swedish extradition proceedings but, absent any evidence from Mr. Assange on oath, I do not find that Mr. Assange’s fears were reasonable,” This statement by the judge captures the Alice-in-Wonderland quality of the judicial persecution of Assange. She dismisses as unreasonable Assange’s fears that if he voluntarily left the Ecuadorian Embassy he would be arrested by British police and extradited to the United States because he did not appear in court to express them. And yet, she is now presiding over his extradition trial. This circular logic is not the only disturbing aspect of Judge Arbuthnot’s overseeing of the Assange case. She is married to James Arbuthnot, who sits in the House of Lords, is a British Conservative Party politician, was the minister of state at the Ministry of Defense and for nine years was the chairman of the Defense Select Committee in the House of Commons, a committee that oversees the operation of the Ministry of Defense and the armed forces. Arbuthnot, who was reprimanded while a member of Parliament for diverting public funds to maintain his two homes, is a director at SC Strategy, established by John Scarlett, the former head of the British foreign intelligence service MI6. The politician also is on the advisory board of Thales UK, a huge arms manufacturer whose corrupt business practices, which included massive bribes to heads of state in exchange for arms contracts, were exposed when some of its internal documents were published by WikiLeaks.

Hedges recently spoke to UN torture expert Nils Melzner about his assessment of Assange’s persecution

17 June 2019

Kristinn Hrafnsson of WikiLeaks speaks to Chris Hedges about Julian Assange

﻿

Chelsea Manning given deadline to testify or face daily fines

U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, ordered that “if Chelsea Manning does not purge herself of contempt within 30 days of this Order, she shall incur a conditional fine of $500 per day until such time as she purges herself of contempt.” The fines will double next month to $1,000 per day under the judge’s order. Manning’s lawyers filed a motion late last month asking the court to reconsider the sanctions, calling them definitionally punitive rather than coercive. The government disagreed in a filing of its own Friday but proposed that Manning provide evidence of her financial records to see whether a hearing should be held for the court to asses her ability to pay. A ruling from the judge has not yet been docketed.

Protests can save Assange from extradition

(Swedish, machine-translated)

Britain’s Interior Minister Sajid Javid has admittedly signed the decision which means that the only thing that stands in the way of being released to the United States is some nervous British judges who will certainly feel a strong lobbying campaign from the United States. Pressure has played a role throughout this remarkable and semi-improvised court case and they will do so in the future as well.

But it also means that protests can make a difference.

The International Federation of Journalists has passed a motion calling on the UK and Australian governments “to resist the application to extradite Assange to the United States” (PDF)

The recent indictments filed by the US Government against Julian Assange pose a threat to journalists and journalism around the world. The indictments clearly seek to prosecute Assange for the receipt and the publication of vital information in the public interest, clearly at odds with previous decisions of the US Supreme Court to protect First Amendment rights. The congress supports the call of our affiliates for the governments of the United Kingdom and Australia to resist the application to extradite Assange to the United States.

The Association of German Journalists calls on the British authorities to release whistleblower Julian Assange immediately.

(German, machine-translated)

The Federal Foreign Minister must assert his influence and campaign for Assange’s release. In no case should the Whistleblower be delivered to the USA. … Finally, it is also important to implement United Nations international standards for the protection of whistleblowers

Two protesters arrested at Melbourne rally in defence of Assange

The arrests are a serious attack on democratic rights aimed at intimidating supporters of WikiLeaks and preventing broader layers of the population from joining the campaign to demand Assange’s freedom. The police action should be opposed by all defenders of democratic rights. The charges against Grech must be immediately withdrawn.

14 June 2019

Julian Assange’s extradition hearing recap

At Julian Assange’s extradition hearing today at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London, which Assange attended via videolink from HMP Belmarsh, the full substantive proceedings were scheduled for five days in February 2020. Assange will also have a hearing in October this year. As law commentator Joshua Rosenberg reports, Assange’s lawyers say he is ‘resident in health care; at Belmarsh prison. He has no access to a computer and court documents have to be sent to him by post. Assange speaks to deny that he is charged with computer hacking. CPS lawyer refers to count 18 on the indictment: conspiracy to commit computer intrusion. He is told he will be back in court in October. Assange hearing ends. His lawyers say he will be appealing against his sentence for the bail offence.

Article 19 released a statement today opposing Assange’s extradition:

Executive Director of ARTICLE 19, Thomas Hughes said: “If extradited to the US, Julian Assange would be prosecuted and potentially imprisoned for exposing human rights violations committed by the US Government and military. It would be the first time that the Espionage Act has been used in the United States to prosecute a journalist for publishing information that was truthful and in the public interest. The UK should not be complicit in this assault on press freedom, which would set a dangerous precedent for investigative journalists and whistleblowers in the UK, US and beyond.”

PEN International and English PEN released a statement yesterday, upon UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid certifying the US extradition order:

Update – 13 June 2019 In light of the UK home secretary’s worrying decision to sign a US extradition order for Julian Assange, PEN International and English PEN said: ‘PEN International and English PEN are disappointed by Sajid Javid’s decision to sign a request for Julian Assange to be extradited to the United States, particularly as he could face the risk of serious human rights violations. It took Javid only two months to rule on this request, in sharp contrast to other extradition cases where the Home Office took several years examining the case, before signing the order. Once again, we urge the judicial authorities in the UK not to extradite Assange to the US, as the charges are far-reaching and set a dangerous precedent that could affect the legitimate work of journalists and publishers everywhere.’

MEAA and other journalist unions put forth a motion opposing Assange’s indictment and extradition:

A motion from @withMEAA and other journalists unions regarding the extradition and prosecution of Julian Assange has been passed at #IFJTunis. Thanks to our @IFJGlobal colleagues for their support. pic.twitter.com/EbDb1HLFGG — Karen Percy (@PercyKaren) June 14, 2019



Prosecutors Threw the Book at Julian Assange. Here’s How That Could Backfire

Regardless of what happens next, the indictment should be perceived as an ominous threat to newsgathering and journalism, Jaffer said. “The U.S.’s indictment of Assange should be understood as an assault on press freedom, because the theory of the indictment is that routine practices of investigative journalism are criminal,” he said. “Cultivating sources, communicating with sources confidentially, protecting sources’ identities, and publishing government secrets—this is what good national security journalists do every day.”

…

“Trump’s DOJ is acting more aggressively, but it is building off of a blueprint set out by the Obama Administration, including dusting off old cases that were left to die on the vine and bringing new ones using and expanding legal precedents set during the Obama Administration,” says Jesselyn Radack, a national security and human rights attorney who specializes in representing whistleblowers. She now represents Daniel Everette Hale, a 31-year old former Air Force intelligence analyst, who was charged in May for violating the Espionage Act. “The Trump Administration wants quell information that it does not want the public to know, especially information that exposes government fraud, waste, abuse of power and illegality, i.e. classic whistleblowing disclosures that have exposed this countries darkest atrocities: war crimes, torture, and secret domestic surveillance.” The U.S. government’s aggressive prosecution of leaks and efforts to control information are already having a chilling effect on journalists and government whistle-blowers. Many journalistic sources, including those of TIME, have shifted to encrypted means of communication or don’t engage at all as a result of the Assange indictment.

12 June 2019

Academics, human rights activists, lawyers: Free Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning now

More than 50 US, UK, Australian & Canadian academics, human rights activists and lawyers have signed an open letter calling on the US and UK governments to immediately release Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning from prison.

The letter, organised by Newcastle University Professor Iain Munro and published in the Independent, reads in full:

Assange and Manning must be released Over the past decade, Julian Assange and WikiLeaks have revealed human rights abuses and a string of instances of corporate, government and intelligence agency corruption. As scholars and citizens concerned with the protection of whistleblowers and a free press, with the ability to hold government to account for such abuses we call for the immediate release of Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning from prison. We reiterate the concerns of the United Nations special rapporteurs regarding the ongoing mistreatment of Mr Assange and Ms Manning by the US and UK authorities, and affirm the statement of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that “the right of Mr Assange to personal liberty should be restored”.

Assange’s father John Shipton visits Julian in Belmarsh prison: audio

Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei: the UK must stop Assange’s extradition to the US

Chris Hedges: The Thought Police Are Coming

[Julian Assange’s] arrest eviscerates all pretense of the rule of law and the rights of a free press. The illegalities carried by the Ecuadorian, British and U.S. governments in the seizure of Julian two months ago from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London are ominous. They presage a world where the internal workings, abuses, corruption, lies and crimes, especially war crimes, carried out by the global ruling elite will be masked from the public. They presage a world where those with the courage and integrity to expose the misuse of power, no matter what their nationality, will be hunted down around the globe and seized, tortured, subjected to sham trials and given lifetime prison terms. They presage an Orwellian dystopia where journalism is outlawed and replaced with propaganda, trivia, entertainment and indoctrination to make us hate those demonized by the state as our enemies.

…

We must build popular movements to force the British government to halt the extradition and judicial lynching of Julian. We must build popular movements to force the Australian government to intervene on behalf of Julian. We must build popular movements to reclaim democracy and the rule of law. If Julian is extradited and tried, it will create a legal precedent that will terminate the ability of the press, which Donald Trump has attacked as “the enemy of the people,” to hold power accountable. The crimes of war and finance, the persecution of dissidents, minorities and immigrants, the pillaging of the ecosystem and the ruthless impoverishment of working men and women to swell the profits of corporations and consolidate the global oligarchs’ total grip on power will no longer be part of public debate. First Julian. Then us.

ABC raids a wake-up call to journalists who left Assange swinging

Those who deny Assange’s journalism are denying him a major part of his defence. The First Amendment free speech provisions of the US Constitution provide protections for publishers and journalists who would otherwise be subject to prosecution under the US Espionage Act (1917). By arguing that Assange is not a journalist – though he is a fully paid-up member of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance – journalists are giving ammunition to the US administration to prosecute Assange for espionage, a crime that carries a possible life sentence. And if the prosecutors can prove that Assange acted deliberately to damage US national security and aid a foreign power, the death sentence.

Journalists should also understand that they could be next. All those journalists who believe this is far-fetched don’t have to look any further than the federal police raid on the ABC’s Sydney headquarters to understand it is not. Journalist Andrew Fowler discusses Julian Assange: character assassination, Clinton publications, psychological warfare, Belmarsh and Nils Melzer’s report on Assange’s condition:

10 June 2019

U.S. delivers formal extradition request for Julian Assange to U.K.

The Justice Department has delivered to officials in the United Kingdom a formal extradition request for Julian Assange, making further U.S. charges against the WikiLeaks founder unlikely. A U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter said the request was sent Thursday. The United States’ treaty with Britain required that the request be sent within 60 days of Assange’s April 11 arrest at the Ecuadoran Embassy in London. The same treaty bars the United States from prosecuting Assange for any alleged crimes beyond those outlined in the extradition request, unless those acts occur after his extradition. In an 18-count indictment filed last month, prosecutors charged Assange with violating the Espionage Act and conspiring to hack into a government computer.

…

A grand jury investigation of Assange has remained active in recent weeks. Former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, whose interactions with Assange form the basis of the charges against him, remains in jail for refusing to testify before the grand jury.

9 June 2019

UN Torture Expert Says Assange Is Victim of Psychological Torture

Freedom of the media and freedom of speech are fragile rights

On successive days this week the Australian Federal Police has raided the homes and workplaces of journalists, as part of a hunt for the sources of stories about a proposal to increase surveillance powers of citizens and the alleged conduct of Australian military in Afghanistan. The raids come at time when freedom of the media is a much discussed topic courtesy of the United States recently filing charges against Australian publisher and journalist Julian Assange under that country’s espionage laws

(background: Possible prosecution of journalists sends shockwaves through Australian media)

‘You don’t stand a chance’: how the press freedom argument will go for Assange

The game has changed for Assange. And the stakes got higher for everyone: his prosecution could form a precedent, for generations, for the limits on what the public can know about how the secret services and the military work.

…

[Pentagon Papers lawyer James] Goodale can see a future Assange v United States going all the way to the US Supreme Court. “I think the world should pay attention to it. It will be a defining case. [A conviction would] make it constitutional to have the equivalent of an Official Secrets Act in the US. It was always thought the First Amendment would stop [that].” Australia already has its equivalent of Britain’s Official Secrets Act, the 1914 Crimes Act, cited this week after AFP raids on the home of a News Corp journalist and the ABC’s Ultimo offices over leaked classified material. There is, however, no Australian equivalent of the US Constitution’s First Amendment protecting free speech.

Aislado, Vigilado, Expulsado: Cómo Ecuador traicionó a Julian Assange

Spanish translation of Courage’s new brief:

La expulsión de Julian Assange de la embajada de Ecuador en Londres el 11 de abril de 2019 marcó la culminación del esfuerzo de años del presidente de Ecuador Lenin Moreno para incumplir el compromiso de Ecuador de proteger al editor de Wikileaks de la persecución de Estados Unidos. Cuando Moreno asumió la presidencia el 24 de mayo de 2017 ya había empezado a minar las protecciones de Assange. Rafael Correa, quien le había otorgado asilo a Julian Assange, denominó las acciones de Moreno como “una de las más grandes traiciones de la historia de América Latina”.

PDF version

7 June 2019

NOS: US Justice is working on new charges against Julian Assange

The United States Department of Justice is preparing a new superseding indictment against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange before the extradition request deadline on June 14.

Dutch public broadcaster NOS reported that convicted fraudster and FBI informant Sigurdur Thordarson was flown to the United States last week where he was “comprehensively interrogated.”

NOS reported that on May 6th this year, FBI Special Agent Megan Brown, who leads the FBI investigation against Assange, travelled to Iceland together with prosecutor Kellen Dwyer from the Eastern District of Virginia, to re-interrogate FBI informant Thordarson with the help of Icelandic police.

Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, responded in a WikiLeaks press release:

“The Trump administration is so desperate to build its case against WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange that it is using a diagnosed sociopath, a convicted conman and sex criminal, who was exposed by the highest levels of the Icelandic government as an FBI informant and who was involved in an entrapment operation in 2011 against Julian Assange.”

More from the release:

Thordarson told NOS that the interrogations focussed on his own communications with fellow FBI-informant Hector Monsegur (aka ‘SABU’). These contacts involve an operation by the FBI that was exposed as an “entrapment” operation “against Julian Assange” by the Interior Minister of Iceland, Ögmundur Jonasson, as reported by the Daily Mail in 2013. While the case would collapse in the U.S. due to the prosecution’s reliance on testimony by Thordarson and Monsegur, who are not credible witnesses, the United States can conceal their witnesses’ identities during UK extradition proceedings in order to boost their chances of winning. This will make it impossible for Assange to challenge the credibility of the witnesses during UK extradition proceedings, which will commence on 14 June.

Furthermore,

Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor of WikiLeaks, yesterday sent a letter demanding an explanation from Icelandic Prime Minister Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Foreign Minister Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson, Justice Minister Þórdís Kolbrún Gylfadóttir, Chief of the National Police Haraldur Johannessen, and General Prosecutor Sigríður J. Friðjónsdóttir regarding the Icelandic government’s participation in what is widely recognised to be a US-led political persecution against foreign members of the press, including Icelandic citizens, for their role in exposing war crimes and other illegal activities during consecutive US administrations.

The first substantive US extradition hearing, previously planned for 12 June has now been moved to 14 June. The hearing will be in Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court.

See WikiLeaks’ full press release here.

Isolated, Surveilled, Expelled: How Ecuador Betrayed Julian Assange

The expulsion of Julian Assange from Ecuador’s embassy in London on 11 April 2019 marked the culmination of President Lenín Moreno’s years-long effort to renege on Ecuador’s commitment to protect the WikiLeaks publisher from the United States’ persecution. By the time he took office on 24 May 2017, Moreno had already begun working on undermining Assange’s protections, a process that Moreno’s predecessor Rafael Correa, who granted Assange asylum in 2012, called “one of the greatest betrayals in Latin American history.” Because Ecuador’s left-leaning citizenry is wary of overt signs of Western influence after decades of Latin American intervention, the more US-friendly President Moreno could not immediately expel Assange upon taking office without affronting those who elected him, though he was quick to call Assange an “inherited problem” and a “stone in the shoe.” Instead, Moreno gradually ratcheted up restrictions, surveillance, and threats on Julian Assange over the course of his presidential term to build a pretext for ultimately revoking asylum and inviting British police into Ecuador’s embassy.

Timeline: Major events leading up to Julian Assange’s Expulsion & Arrest

Even before he took office, Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno had already begun working on undermining Assange’s protections

6 June 2019

UN torture expert says Assange’s persecution ‘very similar to historic witch-hunts’ in exclusive interview

Speaking to The Canary, Melzer explained whom he holds chiefly responsible for this “psychological torture”, and where this treatment sits within international law:

The evidence made available to me strongly suggests that the primary responsibility for the sustained and concerted abuse inflicted on Mr Assange falls on the governments of the United Kingdom, Sweden, the United States and, more recently, also Ecuador. Accordingly, these governments would be responsible jointly for the foreseeable cumulative effect of their conduct, but also each of them separately for their respective contributions, whether through direct perpetration, instigation, consent, or acquiescence. Further, each of them has consistently failed to protect Mr Assange from serious abuse, insult and intimidation by media and other private actors within their jurisdiction.

On why Assange is being so aggressively persecuted:

The only realistic explanation for this sustained systemic failure of the judiciary is that the United States, and probably also the other involved states, are trying to make an example of Mr Assange before the eyes of the world, not as much as a punishment for whatever real or perceived harm he is alleged to have caused, but as a measure of deterrence for others who might be tempted to imitate Wikileaks and Mr Assange in the future. In these circumstances, Mr Assange has absolutely no chance to get a fair judicial proceeding in any of these jurisdictions.

On the media’s role in Assange’s persecution:

When the media find it more appropriate to spread humiliating jokes about Mr Assange’s cat, his skateboard and his faeces, than to challenge governments consistently refusing to hold their officials accountable for wars of aggression, corruption and serious international crimes, they demonstrate a deplorable lack of responsibility, decency and respect not only towards Mr Assange, but also towards their own readers, hearers and viewers, whom they are supposed to inform and empower. It is a bit like being served poisoned junk food at a restaurant – a betrayal of trust with potentially serious consequences.

On his image in the media:

First of all, we have to realize that we have all been deliberately misled about Mr Assange. The predominant image of the shady ‘hacker’, ‘sex offender’ and selfish ‘narcissist’ has been carefully constructed, disseminated and recycled in order to divert attention from the extremely powerful truths he exposed, including serious crimes and corruption on the part of multiple governments and corporations. By making Mr Assange ‘unlikeable’ and ridiculous in public opinion, an environment was created in which no one would feel empathy with him, very similar to the historic witch-hunts, or to modern situations of mobbing at the workplace or in school.[emphasis added] Once totally isolated, it would be easy to violate Mr Assange’s most fundamental rights without provoking public outrage. If the involved states get away with persecuting Mr Assange without ever prosecuting the crimes exposed by him, they will have established a dangerous precedent of impunity threatening freedom of press and opinion worldwide, and they will also have seriously undermined the accountability of government officials for crime and corruption under the rule of law. So there is much at stake here for every single one of us, and everyone should use the democratic means at their disposal to inform themselves, make their voice heard and hold their government accountable. (read the full story here)

5 June 2019

Media analysis of Julian Assange’s superseding indictment

Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, & Bruce Shapiro on the dangerous precedent set by Espionage Act charges for journalism

Kevin Gosztola on the DOJ resuscitating the theory that failed at Chelsea Manning’s trial, contriving a conspiracy between Manning & Assange

Miriam Schneir on the history of the Espionage Act, created under Woodrow Wilson in 1917

Gabe Rottman and Reporters Committee for a Free Press breaking down the specific charge

4 June 2019

Transcript (machine-translated):

Assange has done nothing but what journalists do all over the world every day, that is to say, grow sources and unearth uncomfortable facts and documents that the authori