Entirely unexpectedly, I have been down in London this last three days outside and around the Ecuadorean Embassy, following WikiLeaks’ announcement that their sources indicate Julian might be expelled within hours or days. Plainly Julian’s position within the Embassy has deteriorated fundamentally, to the extent he is now treated openly as a closely guarded prisoner. I still have not myself been granted permission to visit him and he is now very isolated.
Nothing has happened so far this weekend, though I stated from the start that if the police were going to move in. the most likely time would be 4am on Monday morning. There is a thought that the massive media presence occasioned by Wikileaks’ announcement may have succeeded in deterring President Moreno from the expulsion. Let us hope that will prove the case.
I am very exhausted, having been more or less on 24 hour watch for three days. It was also somewhat difficult to tell Nadira her birthday celebration had shifted without notice from a restaurant in Edinburgh to a wet pavement in London. But I was very pleased to have a very fruitful in depth conversation with Kristin Hrafnsson, editor in chief of Wikileaks. Our thoughts ran along these lines, and as this does not involve secrets but rather media handling, I see no harm in sharing these thoughts with you.
When Julian does leave the Embassy, whatever the circumstances in which he does that, it will be for a day or two the largest media story in the world and undoubtedly will lead all the news bulletins across every major country. The odds are that he will be leaving and facing a fight against extradition to the United States, on charges arising from the Chelsea Manning releases which revealed a huge amount about US war crimes and other illegal acts.
It will be very important to try to focus a hostile media on why it is Julian is actually wanted for extradition. Not for the non-existent collusion with Russia to assist Trump, which is an entirely fake narrative. Not for meetings with Manafort which never happened. Not for the allegations in Sweden which fell apart immediately they were subject to rational scrutiny. And not for any nonsense about whether he hacked the communications in the Embassy or cleaned up the cat litter.
This is not going to be an easy task because pretty well all of the Western media is going to want to focus on these false anti-Assange narratives, and they will be determined to give as little attention as possible to the fact he is a publisher facing trial for publishing leaked state documents which revealed state wrongdoing. It is a classic and fundamental issue of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Drawing together a team that can get this message across in such MSM windows as are afforded, as well as through social media, is an important task. The team needs to be in readiness and to be backed by a suitable support infrastructure that can be dusted off and sprung into action. The public framing of Julian’s position will undoubtedly impact on the final outcome; that is why the MSM have put in such a consistent effort to demonise one of the most interesting figures and original thinkers of our time.
If the balloon really had gone up this weekend, we would have been woefully unprepared to deal with the task of explaining the true story. If nothing else, this weekend’s alarm has been very helpful in concentrating minds on the size of the task.
Treading old ground here, but as I understand it, there is a live warrant for his arrest for violating bail conditions regarding a matter that has been dropped.
Some say with doubtful sincerity he can just leave the Embassy and not face extradition, but clearly he must fear it to have remained cooped up in the Embassy for so long, which amounts to self-imposed torture, far surpassing any punishment for a bail conviction for a case that’s been dropped.
However if his fears are irrational this could be a sign of mental illness and worthy of medical assistance and protection under a host of legislation. Hence a compassionate Government would act to remove those fears and the suffering by publicly announcing in some guaranteed way that he wont be extradited in the public and his interest, particularly in view of diplomatic embarrassment and police costs over the years.
The failure to do so shows either his fears are genuine or its evidence of a wicked government that professes to be civilised but clearly isn’t interested in really promoting care in the community and supporting people with mental illness.
“Hence a compassionate Government would act to remove those fears and the suffering by publicly announcing in some guaranteed way that he wont be extradited in the public and his interest, particularly in view of diplomatic embarrassment and police costs over the years.”
Does the UK govt have the prerogative powers to do that, or is it up to the judiciary, say if the US make an application.
The Government can end any legal action in the public interest.
Cassandra Fairbanks –
I just confronted the undercover police here tonight for the third time. How much is this covert operation costing tax payers??? #ProtectJulian @wikileaks @DefendAssange
1:21
97.1K views
8:07pm
8th April 2019
https://twitter.com/CassandraRules/status/1115451040919445505
Cheers for the Cassandra link Sharp Ears.. Well done Her.
Are you grouse beating to stave off starvation in a third world country? Or what problem are you facing that is greater than the threat of life in jail for relaying facts?
Defend Wikileaks/Assange blog saying that Assanges expulsion from the embassy could be moved to days, or even weeks instead of hours.
“Some supporters think that the threat against Assange has been won. Don’t be fooled. @WikiLeaks sources said “hours to *days*”. Following public outrage, UN interventions & legal filings, we’ve moved to days (or weeks). Ecuador, which lacks credibility, only states “not imminent.”
https://defend.wikileaks.org/2018/07/23/liveblog-julian-assange-in-jeopardy/#1-mar-19
Just heard Billy Barr state that the Mueller report will be released to Congress and the Public next week. I know this isn’t directly relevant, but I can’t escape the feeling that some pieces are being slotted into place before whatever happens with Assange, happens.
It very probably is directly relevant. Mueller is a main part of the backdrop to ongoing matters relating to Assange.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Arron Banks gets his collar felt within the next few days too.
N_ I also think it’s a reasonable possibility, but I’d been kindly asked to stay on topic, and I was kindly trying to respect that in return. We’ll see.
In the interest of wholeness, you make a valid point.
Perspective of an Observer editorial.
Or maybe that of Marx.
Mick Hume, formerly of Marxism Today, gives the libertarian Left’s view on press freedom in Tuesday’s Daily Mail, which is completely opposite of the Zionist/Left take on the matter.
I the public of the U.K. would be outraged by their government extraditing Julian Assange into the hands of the Americans, Friday would be a good day to bury bad news.
I don’t exactly see the govt. shaking in it’s pants. Perhaps you overestimate the support for Assange as is plainly visible on the pavement. His hearing by a court is a matter of time, sooner or later. Having breached his bail conditions once, such a process may well be more painful than usual.
It’s CPS standard procedure to drop bail-breach charges if the originating charge has been dropped (as it has in this case). An honest poster would be discussing the possible reasons why the CPS is going against it’s own procedure in this case and this case only. Yet, here you are, completely ignoring this glaring malpractice. And, instead, suggesting that a charge which was supposed to be dropped has become a serious one!!! Talk about disingenuous!
It’s not Observer’s fault that the UK applies the law selectively. In July 2018, Glen Greenwald said that Assange might face a contempt of court charge:
– Beyond that minor charge, British prosecutors could argue that Assange’s evading of legal process in the U.K. was so protracted, intentional, and malicious that it rose beyond mere “failure to surrender” to “contempt of court,” which carries a prison term of up to two years. Just on those charges alone, then, Assange faces a high risk of detention for another year or even longer in a British prison.
Lots of other info in that article:
https://theintercept.com/2018/07/21/ecuador-will-imminently-withdraw-asylum-for-julian-assange-and-hand-him-over-to-the-uk-what-comes-next/
Are you able to provide me with a list of convictions, on this basis, of people who have been ‘on the run’ for a considerable time? Be aware that this is not a particularly uncommon situation.
The British “justice” system is competition for Silly Putty: it is anything its Masters want it to be. They themselves are never subject to it, their subjects on the other hand will be prosecuted for any and all parking violations. Some are just too big to fail (likeTony Blair). No codified constitution is sooo handy for some.
First time I can agree with Josef Goebbels:
The essential English leadership secret does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. The English follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.
Clark, thanks for highlighting that. I would consider it appropriate for the CPS to deal with matters on a case-by-case basis, even when there may be “standard procedures” alluded to by Tony.
Of course, every case is proceeded with on it’s own merits. I was asking if there is any precedent set for what is happening with Julian Assange? The level of surveillance on it’s own is extraordinary for the offence of bail-jumping.
Tony, i was referring to the inevitable fact of JA facing an extradition hearing in court. If it weren’t for the fact that he skipped bail earlier, he may have been able to deal with this while under bail. Now that would seem to be unlikely.
As a legal-eagle, perhaps you can answer my earlier question: Does HMG have the prerogative to turn down a request from the US for extradition? Or, is this something only the judiciary decide.
if it does, it won’t exercise it. a good poodle would never go against its master.
On your first point, he would have been quickly extradited to Sweden, and then on to the USA.
On your second point, it would take a very independent-minded judge to go against the wishes of the government on this matter, whatever they may be.
“It’s CPS standard procedure to drop bail-breach charges if the originating charge has been dropped”
I would have thought so too. But I haven’t found it in black and white. Have you got a link to CPS guidance to that effect? They’ve put a lot of their stuff online, just as HMRC have.
Well, I got that badly wrong.
Seems the witching hour is possibly delayed by six months to 31/10/2019
Hopefully Julian can stay safe in the embassy for a few more months.
Pour encourager les autres
They already have Julian in a closed prison where he’s on permanent exhibition – everyday, let that be a lesson to you/us all. Craven UK.
Is that Daniel Ellsberg sitting there at the pavement by the Embassy (see Ruptly’s live feed)?
I am still waiting. Maybe Craig knows?
About an hour (estimate) after he (Craig) was there, a gentleman with the same features as Ellsberg sat down with the other most loyal and visible Assange supporter.
Thank you, “bj” ( 🙂 ) for mentioning Daniel Ellsberg. A couple of days ago I suggested that one should have confidence in the US courts and justice system in the event that Assange got extradited to the US and put on trial. I was laughed at for making that suggestion. Some useful idiot sniffed to the effect that the US justice system and courts were crap. Might I be allowed to cite Daniel Ellsberg as proving that that view is garbage?After all, Daniel Ellsberg was acquitted, if memory serves……
The case was thrown out because Ellsberg’s rights were violated when the FBI illegally wiretapped him.
Whatever. The point is, “bj” ( 🙂 ) that US justice functioned, whereas the imbecile to whom I was referring claimed that it never did.
Charles – Here’s the problem.
Assange is Australian.
The Espionage Act 1917 relates to US Citizens.
It appears to be based on colluding ( that’s a nice all encompassing word – ask Donald ) with a ‘ Foreign Enemy ‘
Chelsea Manning is a US Citizen and supposedly has First Amendment rights.
Julian Assange is not a US Citizen and ( I’m assuming ) therefore he has no First Amendment rights.
Unlike Chelsea – how does he defend himself from the US Laws that apply to Chelsea but not Julian?
He can hardly have betrayed his country by colluding with a foreign power – he has collude with an American Citizen – he’s not American.
As far as I know being an American is not a ‘ foreiner ‘
This is sophistry at its finest.
No wonder Bolton and Pompeo are running the show.
A Walrus and and Whale.
This from WRAL News –
Ecuador reminds Assange embassy stay can’t be permanent
Posted 15 minutes ago
It continues – ‘He said that if Assange were to appear before the British justice system he’d be guaranteed a fair trial and right to a defense.’ referring to Foreign Minister Jose Valencia. WRAL is a North Carolina outfit, owned by Capitol Broadcasting Inc.!
https://www.wral.com/ecuador-reminds-assange-embassy-stay-cant-be-permanent/18315917/
Mr Valencia knows nothing.
A fair trial for what? A trial for skipping bail which takes place after the originating charge has been dropped, when the CPS has a policy of not pursuing charges in such circumstances? A trial for what
Julian Assange does not have a case to answer if our judicial system would stop bending it’s own procedures.
For contrast, you only have to look at, for example, the case of Darren Oxley, the Sheffield nightclub bouncer and major drug dealer (ie: a real criminal), who was actually assisted in his bail-skipping by the Yorkshire police, who got him back his passport and allowed him to abscond to Thailand, where he has since established himself as one of that locality’s biggest gangsters.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1112149/Julian-Assange-news-wikileaks-email-criminal-case-Ecuador-Embassy-London-latest-update
Julian Assange embroiled in ‘new wholly UNEXPECTED criminal case’ says WikiLeaks email. More at 11am
some others have noticed this story
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/771171/julian-assange-wikileaks-ecuadorian-embassy-london-spying-donald-trump-cameras-recording
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-assange/julian-assange-being-spied-on-in-ecuadorean-embassy-wikileaks-says-idUSKCN1RM17L
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/extensive-spying-operation-discovered-against-julian-assange-wikileaks-reveals-20190410-p51d07.html
https://www.engadget.com/2019/04/10/wikileaks-claims-ecuadorian-embassy-is-spying-on-assange/? (lots of redirects)
I did a lot of searching on their news & breaking news etc …. and our dear Auntie, https://www.bbc.com/news, has not heard anything at all about Julian – hardly any staff there I guess?
One wit on twitter suggested that Julian was being spied on by Trumpton, to be evicted by Ecuador, purely in order to make space for Theresa May
The Guardian Editorial yesterday concerned Julian. Ms Viner’s opinion presumably.
The Guardian view on Julian Assange: it would be wrong to extradite him
The WikiLeaks founder has been in Ecuador’s embassy in London since 2012. Clear judgment will be required if he now leaves his self-imposed retreat
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/09/the-guardian-view-on-julian-assange-it-would-be-wrong-to-extradite-him
Tue 9 Apr 2019
The Graun paints Obama as easy on whistle blowers vs Trump harsh on them. Truth is that any Deep state hates all whistle blowers as they expose their amoral and illegal machinations to stay in power and money. The US Cabal also tried to manipulate elected government leaders: Obama the “poor” and naive was easy but rich and seasoned Trump was harder.
If Assange can wait out the Mueller report publication and dissection he (and Trump) might get more breathing room to get these monkeys of their backs.
Wikileaks was just the messenger and the message was: our club in Washington D.C. organizes your next US president, not you citizens with your “votes”
It’s interesting how the concept of the “Deep State” has become so mainstream – e.g. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/04/09/deep-state-never-going-allow-no-deal-brexit-happen/ (no need to read it 😉 )
I’m sure only a couple of years ago, you’d be labelled as conspiracy nut
If the Sweeds no longer request Julian Assange to be extradited from England to Sweden, what is the U.K. justification for have a continual police stationing outside his window?
Surely we should assume in our harsh economic circumstance, police expenditure is under scrutiny?
The UK doesn’t need justification – they just need to follow their orders from Washington.
yeah like a “request” from one’s boss. good poodle, now roll over and you’ll get a treat.
Me Lai massacre 50 years ago. Did we put the media or whistleblower in jail for telling that story. Show the horrible video that Chelsey released of helicopter guns mowing down the Iraqi civilians including Roeters camera man
You make a very good comparison between the media during and after the US war against Vietnam (1965-73) and the media during and after the US war against Iraq (2003-11).
William Calley, the guy who commanded the My Lai massacre, never served a single day behind bars. But nor as far as I know did any big whistleblower. Philip Agee had to flee to Cuba, though. I wouldn’t have fancied his chances for staying at liberty if he’d remained in the US.
Interestingly it was army general and politician Alexander Haig, a war criminal in Vietnam no less, who played a key role in the whole Woodward and Bernstein Watergate charade of 1972-74. Only a naive person would believe that the Washington Post and Katharine Graham were fighting for “freedom”, of the press or otherwise. The idea of “free speech” is mostly sh*t. Anybody who hasn’t realised so in this epoch of Faecesbook and Twatter should give themselves a whop around the head with a big stick in the hop that they might acquire some sense. (Well, OK, I am not trying to put Thomas Spence in the same category as Carl Bernstein.)
The Vietnam war effectively stopped being talked about in the US and pro-US media on September 2001, when the second Bush president declared that the US was “at war”, without adding “again”. Very few other than me noticed. (If someone can find a source where another left wing person does notice, I would be interested to read it.)
Conscription was of course a major difference between the two US war efforts. Another difference is that there was far more of a genuinely rebellious attitude towards capitalist power among young people in the 1960s than there was 40 years later.
Mmm, the media. Back in the day newspapers featured story writers like Charles Dickens who made things up and told the truth but that was a long time ago. It’s really just advertising.
https://artplusmarketing.com/how-true-advertising-can-save-journalism-from-drowning-in-a-sea-of-content-241f42bd1e0a
The rebellion today takes the form of un-liking someone.
Btw. the significance of the Iraq war 2003 was the press going ’embedded’.
The clue is nearly in the name.
@ bj April 10, 2019 at 12:20
And if they are not ’embedded’ or at least ‘on-side’, they run the extremely likely chance of being ‘taken out’, like the attempt on Giuliana Sgrena, and the False Flag with the ‘beheading’ of Daniel Pearl, who found out too much about who was really involved in 9/11. US military personnel who were on the brink of whistleblowing also shared the same fate.
More conspiracy theories! Ho hum……whatever grabs you, I suppose.
Telecoms contracter Nick Berg around the same time. His computer was used to buy one of the hi-jackers plane tickets and not long after he was beheaded in Iraq.
@ N_ April 10, 2019 at 11:11
Watergate ‘worked’ because the whole thing was a set-up to get rid of Nixon, and replace him with Gerald Ford (another ogre).
Remember ‘Deep Throat’? And how easy it was for a major newspaper to print the story?
‘Watergate Scandal’: https://www.history.com/topics/1970s/watergate
‘…Six weeks later, after Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as president, he pardoned Nixon for any crimes he had committed while in office….’.
Pardon a tangent, but since you mention Carl Bernstein:
After the anticlimactic release of the much-anticipated but vacuous Mueller Report prompted eminently justifiable criticism of the complicit mass-media, Bernstein appeared on US TV praising– yes, I wrote “praising”– the US mass-media’s overall reporting on the Russian “collusion” propaganda campaign.
To be clear, Bernstein doesn’t consider it a propaganda campaign, at least not publicly. He opines that, in general, the (corporate) mass-media coverage was in the highest tradition of journalism as a “watchdog” guarding against government excess; he not only exonerates, but praises the propaganda-apparatchiks who faithfully churned out the propagandistic innuendo and factoids as muckrakers.
Quick question: is there a bench warrant out, issued in the English jurisdiction, for Julian Assange’s arrest?
A G William Barr has reportedly assembled a team to investigate the Mueller investigation. “I am reviewing the conduct of the investigation ….. that was conducted during the summer of 2016.”
Perhaps an extradition request for Joseph Mifsud will be forthcoming?
Shades of Monty Python. 🙂
A message to all of you out there who voted to leave the EU, have had your pension embezzled by the State, have seen your disability aid reduced, or are still waiting for an operation to give you back a life worth living:
Parliament isn’t interested in you
http://tinyurl.com/y4ue4tbl
Julian Assange is just another in ‘their’ way
Bob
I voted to quit the EU to deliver Cameron ‘ s exit from power. Not a single Tory left in the tank capable of delivering a rescue operation by carpet bombing the Muslims.
Gavin couldn’t swat a fly perched on his own nose
My rights are totally insignificant compared to that achievement. Rien. Rien de rien.
Je ne rrregrrret rien!
It rather looks like presently there is a serious Moreno-Assange/wikileaks personal spat and that all gloves are off–it is turning into War. Doesn’t bode well for Assange. Expect legal charges in Ecuador, Assange’s “host” country. No wonder it is a matter of the roof over Assange’s head. Is Ecuador’s strategy is to wear him down? Very unpleasant indeed.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-assange/ecuador-reserves-the-right-to-investigate-assange-foreign-minister-idUSKCN1RK22U
In any case, Assange is fighting back.
How ?
Thus :
YouTube – LIVE: Wikileaks editor-in-chief holds presser on new criminal case involving Julian Assange
The whole idea that Wikileaks did that is preposterous.
I think you’d do good (as others here might) to listen to this, which has some excellent information by Jose Rivera:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ83W5zIdhA
President Moreno must be between a rock and a hard place: help Assange and lose CIA support or evict Assange and get many independent (+Latin) spotlights on his affairs. Next election in 2021, with Trump possibly firmer in the saddle of the Anglo Bull.
Latest from WikiLeaks:
WikiLeaks says Julian Assange is being spied on in Ecuadorean embassy
APRIL 10, 2019 / 11:36 AM / UPDATED 38 MINUTES AGO
LONDON (Reuters) – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been the subject of a sophisticated spying operation in the Ecuadorean embassy where he has been holed up since 2012, the group said on Wednesday.
/..
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-ecuador-assange/julian-assange-being-spied-on-in-ecuadorean-embassy-wikileaks-says-idUKKCN1RM17J
Yes. Spying on privacy is the new Chanel no 5 tool for politicos to break down objectors.
My CIA jassous friend told me he was much higher than me when I told him he was a liar
Spying , whether rotten camembert flavour or FYM, is still a lot stinkier than cat faeces.
Much more information is here, please read:
https://www.rt.com/news/456098-assange-spying-extradition-wikileaks/
Note how Reuters is full of boilerplate and short on details.
And that’s supposed to be a Press Agency!
Thanks bj.
It just occurred to me how ironic it is — the scarcity of `news’ in this Reuters release, given the fact that the murder of two of Reuters’ journalists, made public to the world by Manning i.c. Wikileaks, set all this off.
Sydney Morning Herald has the best report sofar
WikiLeaks has discovered an extensive “spying operation” against Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorian embassy, gathering data that was used in an extortion attempt, WikiLeaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson has revealed.
The resulting trove of audio, video, photographs and even copies of private legal documents and a medical report turned up in Spain, where a group threatened to start publishing them if WikiLeaks did not pay them three million euros.
But WikiLeaks tipped off Spanish police who are investigating.
“Extortion is a very serious matter but of much greater concern to me is this material gathering and spying on Julian Assange by the [Ecuador] government and the officials who work on his behalf in the embassy against an individual who was granted asylum and full protection,” Hrafnsson said.
“That is in my opinion not only illegal but extremely unethical.”
Assange’s lawyer Jennifer Robinson said it was a severe breach of lawyer-client privilege and undermined his legal team’s ability to properly defend their client.
At a press conference in London, Hrafnsson showed copies of the photos, videos and documents recovered from the alleged extortionists.
They included a copy of a lawyer’s notes, images from a medical examination and video and photos taken inside embassy rooms showing Assange in various meetings, including with Hrafnsson.
@ David April 10, 2019 at 12:55
I’m sure the Spanish police will go out of their way to trace the blackmailers!
Like they did with the CIA jerks who raided the North Korean Embassy (at least they did say some were known CIA merchants).
The Ecuadorians can do what they like in their own embassy. If Assange feels uncomfortable, there is an easy solution open to him.
Here’s the press conference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8b7PgTiwec
Again – now online:-
How I see it – http://blog.effectivelearning.net/julian-assange-revisited/
Well said Mr Barnett.
Yet Blair goes free. Next week he appears in London at the Global Humanitarian Forum, along with his wife!
To paraphrase John Locke – ‘Where the law ends, tyranny begins.’
O.K. just post it there.
No problem.
@ Sharp Ears April 10, 2019 at 14:12
Looks like it is at the Shard (London Bridge). Hopefully there’ll be a Demo.
Excellent pedigree, not, for the new PR to Harry and Meghan.
They also have, in their freshly hired communications secretary, Sara Latham, a professional with pedigree in the political and the corporate worlds on both sides of the pond. Her former clients include both Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Tony Blair’.
“Where the law ends, tyranny begins”
In which case it’s a good job that the law on jumping bail will be applied. Starting with his arrest when he finally leaves his self-imposed gaol.
Sure – few will argue with that. What people don’t like is the selective application of law – which unless you are just trying to be annoying – seems to be what you are promoting. The strong do what they want……… in your perfect world.
If you are against the selective application of the law then you would be in favour of anyone caught with a couple of grams of cannabis to be arrested and then hauled into court, sentenced and have a criminal record. But that is not in fact how the police act.
Mr Julian Assange has brought this on himself – firstly by fleeing into the embassy and, subsequently, by not emerging say after the Swedes dropped whatever they were after him for. Thereby he turned himself into a high profile case which more or less obliges the authorities to maintain the charge against him. If they didn’t, the shout would immediately go out – probably also from Assange’s leftie supporters, duplicitous and double-thinked-minded as they are – that the well-connected and well-known can escape from the law whereas lesser mortals cannot.
Charles, do you agree with the authorities spending more than thirteen million pounds of our money on surveilling a bail-jumper? Should they be spending this type of money on every bail-jumper in the country? Just bail-jumpers whose originating charges have been dropped? Just bail-jumpers whose originating charges still stand? Just bail-jumpers who the USA wants to extradite for causing the US government huge embarrassment and shame? Just Julian Assange?
A rerun of the Y2K hysteria? That one was also foreseen years in advance.
Nothing can be put past this evil tory government, they secretly have special ops laser guiding incoming bombs in Yemen, JUST LIKE IN LIBYA, with no parliamentary approval whatsoever. Gove is your typical pimple on the satans arse and the rest are no better, if corbyn thinks he can deal with such on Brexit he is making a big mistake. Assange can only be saved by a labour government in power, unfortunately the hodges concerns about his pro-Palestinian leanings take priority over our real British concerns.
Mr. Patriot,
” Assange can only be saved by a labour government in power”
Hope you are right on that one.
One thing to keep in mind, is that Mrs.Theresa May, has either been Home Secretary or Prime Minister for all the time that Julian Assange has been under threat, yet Brexit is happening at 23.00 hours on Friday, she may well be gone in the next few days, with a different government installed, these are a dangerous few days for Julian.
@ michael norton April 10, 2019 at 17:01
May ought to be up there with Bliar, spouting at the ‘Global Humanitarian Forum’. She might yet pull in a Nobel Peace Prize.
She’d probably get it (JA nominated too).
A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that’s just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from wits who believe it’s a joke. (Søren Kierkegaard)
It’s a clown’s world. (Honk, Honk 😉 )
Here in the US, successful politicians– at least on the federal level, which is to say in the US Congress and the imperial Oval Office Throne– are all self-serving mountebanks and charlatans.
So I have a sort of nostalgic regard for Corbyn, who seems like an authentic public servant; as a distant spectator, I root for him.
But I’m increasingly skeptical of the prospect that a PM Corbyn would swiftly and decisively set the Assange affair to rights. I can easily imagine Corbyn declining to take the required immediate decisive action: more or less insisting upon freeing Assange first (with appropriate guarantees of safe-conduct, etc.) and worrying about the (geo)political consequences later.
Instead, I fear that Corbyn’s spokespersons and “inside politics” pundits will take the position that Corbyn is sympathetic to Assange and his intolerable plight, but must wait until a propitious time to act. There will be other priorities, including the usual institutional dodges, e.g. Corbyn must first “consolidate his power” within the party, wait for the tsunami-scale ripple effects of Labour returning to power to settle down, and so forth.
Or perhaps Corbyn will be hamstrung by the reality that in Western governments, the state-security apparatus holds the real power. I hope my pessimism proves unfounded!
Read May’s weasel words on supplying bombs for use on Yemen and the BAE involvement when she replied to this question today:
Gill Furniss (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)
Q7. The Prime Minister will be aware of the Channel 4 “Dispatches” investigation aired last week into the extent of the involvement of both BAE and British military personnel in the tragic war in Yemen. In the programme, it was claimed that BAE carries out 95% of the preparations for Typhoon bombing raids, including the one that killed 40 schoolchildren in August 2018. Will the Government act now to review arms export licences to Saudi Arabia and British complicity in these bombings? [910336]
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2019-04-10/debates/E7405DB7-16D9-4240-9EC2-81C933062E84/Engagements
Approx half way through.
Yes but you need to remember that for all the UK supplies the weapons and almost delivers them on Saudi Arabia’s behalf we have an aid program.
That is: we help to blow the Yemenis up and we provide the plasters.
The BBC correspondent John Pinar was told this many moons ago.
He never questioned it.
Quite so.
Afshin Rattansi – Going Underground –
‘Next we speak to Hussain Albukhaiti from Sanaa where he discusses the bombing of Al Raei school in Yemen by the US and UK-backed Saudi-led coalition, UK and US arms sales to the Saudis and the damaging impact this bombing will have on the surviving Yemeni schoolchildren. ‘
https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/456104-sinn-fein-brexit-yemen/
The UK and US have already successfully connived to shut Assange down by ensuring he is now shut off from the world in the embassy. This has been successful not only in stopping Assange personally but in making others self-censor with ‘Chilling Effect’
It seems unlikely that any incoming Labour Government would actually change it’s attitude toward Assange although, allegedly, this entire matter is due to Assange failing to appear at court and is therefore a matter for that court.
The only ‘benefit’ Assange has been able to glean from his time in the embassy is time to build a structure to help his case when he is, eventually, forced out. And I am sure that he will be forced out. Either he will be told to leave or, inevitably, he will have to leave due to medical treatment should his stay be protracted. All the embassy need do is ensure medical staff are not brought in to see him but that he is required to leave to obtain treatment. I’m NOT saying that he will be in any way harmed to ensure this, but what I am saying is that should his stay become SO protracted as to mean he becomes old and infirm, he WILL need more involved medical care than say, a prescription obtained via a telephone appointment or a call out from a GP. This is a LONG way off, but I’m sure Assange didn’t expect to be at the embassy seven years on, so it’s NOT unreasonable to think that this COULD go on for years to come. Given the sentence that Manning faced he would be better placed being trapped in the embassy rather than a US jail.
I think the ONLY hope for Assange is for any incoming US President to decide that they would not seek his extradition. Manning was released so it’s not ENTIRELY a forlorn hope although not being a US citizen means that there would likely be no benefit to a President to do this.
What this saga has done, for those who have actually paid attention, is to show the complete lack of an kind of journalistic integrity in the British Print Press or Television News. They knowingly promulgate false information which is simply propaganda for HMG on behalf of their US ‘allies’
At the heart of it is a man who’s life has been ruined by exposing the US for war-crimes, he should be a national hero…
Gary
I don’t know what the legal word for self-defence is but if a visitor to my house has a known history of violence, am I not entitled to ask them to leave before they knock me out? The British state has form. There can never be any question about Assange’s right to self-defence by seeking asylum from a third party. It is totally disingenuous of you to imply that Assange’s self defence against the hostility of the British State is somehow illegal. It is his absolute right.
The only time I ever came near to the Law was over my first wife’s adultery. We had been married in a church and this formed a legal contract between man and wife. So the Christian community by itself decided that marriage in a church imposes no legal or moral obligations on those who enter into a contract in its name.
If one state cancels its legal obligations to its own citizens at the behest of another state , or because of popular opinion, does that not then dissolve the citizen’s expectation to be treated fairly by his own state, rather than by the interests of another state or populist opinion?
All that is needed in the Assange case is for the current Nasty party government to affirm that it will never abandon its own citizens in favour of another state or popular opinion. Unfortunately it cannot do that because it is poodle slave to the US and Israel, and its current policy for three long years has been to follow yob racism.
“If one state cancels its legal obligations to its own citizens at the behest of another state , or because of popular opinion, does that not then dissolve the citizen’s expectation to be treated fairly by his own state, rather than by the interests of another state or populist opinion?”
Very well put — thank you.
Seconded bj
Going back to Imperial times is what the Sociopaths want..Just walk in And Take, And now look at the weaponry they have.
P.s the guy did look a bit like Daniel Ellsberg..Hard to tell from across the street RT feed. He came with a wee bag, then sat a while with our lone 24/7 hero.. I had a look at Daniel’s Pages, seems he hasn’t been updating..As you say, Maybe Craig Knows.
I took some screenshots.
Craig /must/ know more I’d say — he was there maybe 30min. or an hour earlier.
What is yob racism?
May ‘s brexit
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QFq38d3Q9qY&feature=youtu.be
Must watch…Wiki editor and lawyer press conference USA used Ecuador embassy to completely spy on Assange and all his meetings… photos.. video…recording…. all this got out to a group of criminal extorsioners in Spain who wanted millions of dollars from the team or they would release the info to the public. Terrible.
I guess he should have picked another embassy to hide out in…
The Ecuadorian embassy videos all visits with Julian Assange, so Assange took a studio light into the interview area to defeat the camera. The ambassador wrote to Assange that such behaviour would not be tolerated again.
This prompted Luke Harding to write on Twitter:
– “I jizzed in my pants reading this ? Have you read my book on Russian Collusion? It’s a NYT best seller!”
https://mobile.twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1116043494123024388/photo/1
Just how weak the press is these days, was evident at the Wikileaks press conference today.
Instead of taking the opportunity and polish up their own id’s & ego’s, reporters might have asked – oh, for instance: on the photo’s that the extortionists showed you, were any of them to your knowledge taken from concealed camera’s?
Or — you forgot to blot out the face of one of these extortionists — why?
Instead of all that, I did hear one of those reporters snidely cutting into the Wikileaks fellow: “we are here to ask the questions, not you!”.
Yeah, sure.
Ecuador’s president will receive a dossier of alleged or invented breaches of the ‘protocol’ it created a few months ago this evening from Ecuador’s Foreign Minister. Then, tomorrow the Foreign Minister will present the dossier to Congress, as part its staging effort. If it works, the government’s minority party will whip its MPs to vote on an expulsion resolution. They will be joined by the US aligned right wing parties including CREO. Once endorsed by Congress, Moreno will have the domestic political cover he needs tomorrow.
https://mobile.twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1116071521775169540
And like I said the other day, Moreno will visit Trump in Washington DC on the 16th.
Or, like Bolsanaro last month, he might nip into the CIA on his way.
Does it directly pertain to the discussion? No. Is it relevant, I believe very much so, as it highlights some of the inconsistencies of the US position. A backdrop to this particular part of the play. It’s also relevant to some of Craig’s other posts, eg re Venezuela. But whatever 😉
What you forgot to mention is that Jack Shepherd was convicted of manslaughter in his absence, whereas the charges which required Julian Assange to have bail conditions were dropped a while ago.
Sure, but why is that relevant for anything?
For completeness, Jack Shepherd got 6 months for the absconding charge, after the discount for the guilty plea.
Tony, Martinned didn’t forget to mention the conviction. It was deliberate–he is a two-bit fake of a wannabe lawyer who loves to throw one-liner childish remarks around.
BREAKING NEWS: Julian Assange arrested, 10:40am BBC and RTE.
Here is president Moreno explaining his decision to invite the police in to come and arrest him: https://twitter.com/Lenin/status/1116271659512684544
It’s just happened he’s been arrested