UPDATE I have received scores of requests to republish and/or translate this article. It is absolutely free to use and reproduce and I should be delighted if everybody does; the world should know what is being done to Julian. So far, over 200,000 people have read it on this blogsite alone and it has already been reproduced on myriad other sites, some with much bigger readerships than my own. I have seen translations into German, Spanish and French and at least extracts in Catalan and Turkish. I only ask that you reproduce it complete or, if edits are made, plainly indicate them. Many thanks.
BEGINS
I was deeply shaken while witnessing yesterday’s events in Westminster Magistrates Court. Every decision was railroaded through over the scarcely heard arguments and objections of Assange’s legal team, by a magistrate who barely pretended to be listening.
Before I get on to the blatant lack of fair process, the first thing I must note was Julian’s condition. I was badly shocked by just how much weight my friend has lost, by the speed his hair has receded and by the appearance of premature and vastly accelerated ageing. He has a pronounced limp I have never seen before. Since his arrest he has lost over 15 kg in weight.
But his physical appearance was not as shocking as his mental deterioration. When asked to give his name and date of birth, he struggled visibly over several seconds to recall both. I will come to the important content of his statement at the end of proceedings in due course, but his difficulty in making it was very evident; it was a real struggle for him to articulate the words and focus his train of thought.
Until yesterday I had always been quietly sceptical of those who claimed that Julian’s treatment amounted to torture – even of Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture – and sceptical of those who suggested he may be subject to debilitating drug treatments. But having attended the trials in Uzbekistan of several victims of extreme torture, and having worked with survivors from Sierra Leone and elsewhere, I can tell you that yesterday changed my mind entirely and Julian exhibited exactly the symptoms of a torture victim brought blinking into the light, particularly in terms of disorientation, confusion, and the real struggle to assert free will through the fog of learned helplessness.
I had been even more sceptical of those who claimed, as a senior member of his legal team did to me on Sunday night, that they were worried that Julian might not live to the end of the extradition process. I now find myself not only believing it, but haunted by the thought. Everybody in that court yesterday saw that one of the greatest journalists and most important dissidents of our times is being tortured to death by the state, before our eyes. To see my friend, the most articulate man, the fastest thinker, I have ever known, reduced to that shambling and incoherent wreck, was unbearable. Yet the agents of the state, particularly the callous magistrate Vanessa Baraitser, were not just prepared but eager to be a part of this bloodsport. She actually told him that if he were incapable of following proceedings, then his lawyers could explain what had happened to him later. The question of why a man who, by the very charges against him, was acknowledged to be highly intelligent and competent, had been reduced by the state to somebody incapable of following court proceedings, gave her not a millisecond of concern.
The charge against Julian is very specific; conspiring with Chelsea Manning to publish the Iraq War logs, the Afghanistan war logs and the State Department cables. The charges are nothing to do with Sweden, nothing to do with sex, and nothing to do with the 2016 US election; a simple clarification the mainstream media appears incapable of understanding.
The purpose of yesterday’s hearing was case management; to determine the timetable for the extradition proceedings. The key points at issue were that Julian’s defence was requesting more time to prepare their evidence; and arguing that political offences were specifically excluded from the extradition treaty. There should, they argued, therefore be a preliminary hearing to determine whether the extradition treaty applied at all.
The reasons given by Assange’s defence team for more time to prepare were both compelling and startling. They had very limited access to their client in jail and had not been permitted to hand him any documents about the case until one week ago. He had also only just been given limited computer access, and all his relevant records and materials had been seized from the Ecuadorean Embassy by the US Government; he had no access to his own materials for the purpose of preparing his defence.
Furthermore, the defence argued, they were in touch with the Spanish courts about a very important and relevant legal case in Madrid which would provide vital evidence. It showed that the CIA had been directly ordering spying on Julian in the Embassy through a Spanish company, UC Global, contracted to provide security there. Crucially this included spying on privileged conversations between Assange and his lawyers discussing his defence against these extradition proceedings, which had been in train in the USA since 2010. In any normal process, that fact would in itself be sufficient to have the extradition proceedings dismissed. Incidentally I learnt on Sunday that the Spanish material produced in court, which had been commissioned by the CIA, specifically includes high resolution video coverage of Julian and I discussing various matters.
The evidence to the Spanish court also included a CIA plot to kidnap Assange, which went to the US authorities’ attitude to lawfulness in his case and the treatment he might expect in the United States. Julian’s team explained that the Spanish legal process was happening now and the evidence from it would be extremely important, but it might not be finished and thus the evidence not fully validated and available in time for the current proposed timetable for the Assange extradition hearings.
For the prosecution, James Lewis QC stated that the government strongly opposed any delay being given for the defence to prepare, and strongly opposed any separate consideration of the question of whether the charge was a political offence excluded by the extradition treaty. Baraitser took her cue from Lewis and stated categorically that the date for the extradition hearing, 25 February, could not be changed. She was open to changes in dates for submission of evidence and responses before this, and called a ten minute recess for the prosecution and defence to agree these steps.
What happened next was very instructive. There were five representatives of the US government present (initially three, and two more arrived in the course of the hearing), seated at desks behind the lawyers in court. The prosecution lawyers immediately went into huddle with the US representatives, then went outside the courtroom with them, to decide how to respond on the dates.
After the recess the defence team stated they could not, in their professional opinion, adequately prepare if the hearing date were kept to February, but within Baraitser’s instruction to do so they nevertheless outlined a proposed timetable on delivery of evidence. In responding to this, Lewis’ junior counsel scurried to the back of the court to consult the Americans again while Lewis actually told the judge he was “taking instructions from those behind”. It is important to note that as he said this, it was not the UK Attorney-General’s office who were being consulted but the US Embassy. Lewis received his American instructions and agreed that the defence might have two months to prepare their evidence (they had said they needed an absolute minimum of three) but the February hearing date may not be moved. Baraitser gave a ruling agreeing everything Lewis had said.
At this stage it was unclear why we were sitting through this farce. The US government was dictating its instructions to Lewis, who was relaying those instructions to Baraitser, who was ruling them as her legal decision. The charade might as well have been cut and the US government simply sat on the bench to control the whole process. Nobody could sit there and believe they were in any part of a genuine legal process or that Baraitser was giving a moment’s consideration to the arguments of the defence. Her facial expressions on the few occasions she looked at the defence ranged from contempt through boredom to sarcasm. When she looked at Lewis she was attentive, open and warm.
The extradition is plainly being rushed through in accordance with a Washington dictated timetable. Apart from a desire to pre-empt the Spanish court providing evidence on CIA activity in sabotaging the defence, what makes the February date so important to the USA? I would welcome any thoughts.
Baraitser dismissed the defence’s request for a separate prior hearing to consider whether the extradition treaty applied at all, without bothering to give any reason why (possibly she had not properly memorised what Lewis had been instructing her to agree with). Yet this is Article 4 of the UK/US Extradition Treaty 2007 in full:
On the face of it, what Assange is accused of is the very definition of a political offence – if this is not, then what is? It is not covered by any of the exceptions from that listed. There is every reason to consider whether this charge is excluded by the extradition treaty, and to do so before the long and very costly process of considering all the evidence should the treaty apply. But Baraitser simply dismissed the argument out of hand.
Just in case anybody was left in any doubt as to what was happening here, Lewis then stood up and suggested that the defence should not be allowed to waste the court’s time with a lot of arguments. All arguments for the substantive hearing should be given in writing in advance and a “guillotine should be applied” (his exact words) to arguments and witnesses in court, perhaps of five hours for the defence. The defence had suggested they would need more than the scheduled five days to present their case. Lewis countered that the entire hearing should be over in two days. Baraitser said this was not procedurally the correct moment to agree this but she will consider it once she had received the evidence bundles.
(SPOILER: Baraitser is going to do as Lewis instructs and cut the substantive hearing short).
Baraitser then capped it all by saying the February hearing will be held, not at the comparatively open and accessible Westminster Magistrates Court where we were, but at Belmarsh Magistrates Court, the grim high security facility used for preliminary legal processing of terrorists, attached to the maximum security prison where Assange is being held. There are only six seats for the public in even the largest court at Belmarsh, and the object is plainly to evade public scrutiny and make sure that Baraitser is not exposed in public again to a genuine account of her proceedings, like this one you are reading. I will probably be unable to get in to the substantive hearing at Belmarsh.
Plainly the authorities were disconcerted by the hundreds of good people who had turned up to support Julian. They hope that far fewer will get to the much less accessible Belmarsh. I am fairly certain (and recall I had a long career as a diplomat) that the two extra American government officials who arrived halfway through proceedings were armed security personnel, brought in because of alarm at the number of protestors around a hearing in which were present senior US officials. The move to Belmarsh may be an American initiative.
Assange’s defence team objected strenuously to the move to Belmarsh, in particular on the grounds that there are no conference rooms available there to consult their client and they have very inadequate access to him in the jail. Baraitser dismissed their objection offhand and with a very definite smirk.
Finally, Baraitser turned to Julian and ordered him to stand, and asked him if he had understood the proceedings. He replied in the negative, said that he could not think, and gave every appearance of disorientation. Then he seemed to find an inner strength, drew himself up a little, and said:
I do not understand how this process is equitable. This superpower had 10 years to prepare for this case and I can’t even access my writings. It is very difficult, where I am, to do anything. These people have unlimited resources.
The effort then seemed to become too much, his voice dropped and he became increasingly confused and incoherent. He spoke of whistleblowers and publishers being labeled enemies of the people, then spoke about his children’s DNA being stolen and of being spied on in his meetings with his psychologist. I am not suggesting at all that Julian was wrong about these points, but he could not properly frame nor articulate them. He was plainly not himself, very ill and it was just horribly painful to watch. Baraitser showed neither sympathy nor the least concern. She tartly observed that if he could not understand what had happened, his lawyers could explain it to him, and she swept out of court.
The whole experience was profoundly upsetting. It was very plain that there was no genuine process of legal consideration happening here. What we had was a naked demonstration of the power of the state, and a naked dictation of proceedings by the Americans. Julian was in a box behind bulletproof glass, and I and the thirty odd other members of the public who had squeezed in were in a different box behind more bulletproof glass. I do not know if he could see me or his other friends in the court, or if he was capable of recognising anybody. He gave no indication that he did.
In Belmarsh he is kept in complete isolation for 23 hours a day. He is permitted 45 minutes exercise. If he has to be moved, they clear the corridors before he walks down them and they lock all cell doors to ensure he has no contact with any other prisoner outside the short and strictly supervised exercise period. There is no possible justification for this inhuman regime, used on major terrorists, being imposed on a publisher who is a remand prisoner.
I have been both cataloguing and protesting for years the increasingly authoritarian powers of the UK state, but that the most gross abuse could be so open and undisguised is still a shock. The campaign of demonisation and dehumanisation against Julian, based on government and media lie after government and media lie, has led to a situation where he can be slowly killed in public sight, and arraigned on a charge of publishing the truth about government wrongdoing, while receiving no assistance from “liberal” society.
Unless Julian is released shortly he will be destroyed. If the state can do this, then who is next?
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Hellish, scary and absolutely heartbreaking, Craig. Jesus this is like a report, of a slow death, from a Nazi concentration camp. Isolation and being used, IMO, as a guinea pig for their latest “spill the beans” drugs to the point that you lose your marbles. If not that, let’s just drug you up and portray you as an unimportant, discredited imbecile who can no longer fight your own corner or a simple con artist.
That this is taking place in our own country just beggars belief. You know the great, old, democratic UK with the mother of all Parliaments. Aye right! That a highly intelligent, vibrant man is being reduced to a shambling, incoherent shadow, wreck, of his former self should have EVERY Human Rights agency banging on the Belmarsh doors and demanding that he be moved and monitored in an NHS hospital, preferably here in Scotland. ASAP.
But what’s going on with his defence team? Something not quite right there either. And the Magistrate Baraitster? Where does she fit into the scheme of things? An ignorant dupe or part of that massive British Establishment network? Promised something that she can’t refuse?
TBH I’m totally worn out with it all now. The corruption, greed, lies and deception in relation to just about every Government in the World just fills me with the feeling that we’ll never win. Never succeed in cleaning up this mess. Never have the ability now to turn things around, because it’s gone too far: Deep and wide. Leaving the EU and handing over UK sovereignty, in totality, to the US just fills me with dread now, especially with a pathological, narcissistic, lying nutter at the helm. And he’s just one of many.
Anyway thanks for remaining a true friend to Assange, Craig, and passing on your report. It’s extremely distressing but had to be said, so yes a big thank you from me once again.
Posting this although it may have been, probably has been, posted before. Maybe somebody missed it?
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/may/31/julian-assange-shows-psychological-torture-symptoms-says-un-expert
‘TBH I’m totally worn out with it all now.’
Beautifully put, Petra. Ditto from Australia.
@ Robyn October 23, 2019 at 03:39
Me, too, from UK.
Worn out, yup me too. I’m disgusted this is happening in this country which I was once under the illusion had values, morals and principles. And this –
“The corruption, greed, lies and deception in relation to just about every Government in the World just fills me with the feeling that we’ll never win. Never succeed in cleaning up this mess. Never have the ability now to turn things around, because….”
It’s been ever thus has it not, to the beginning of selectively documented history examples too numerous of brief hope only to be vanquished as the system reboots. There is something rotten pervading the human default setting, light in some, heavy in others and the heavier it is the greater it drives you to power. As a reboot just look at South Africa, two giant men pulled that country and nation from the abyss and then, their influence no longer possible – reboot – same corruption different label. Left or right, black or white, male or female, makes no odds.
I’ve come to the conclusion it is only possible to attempt to overcome this rottenness in oneself, the system will do as it will.
@ Doghouse October 23, 2019 at 11:19
Unfortunately, that’s all it was, an illusion.
Petra
Couldn’t agree more. With regard to Nils Melzer’s assessment of the UK’s treatment of JA as torture, no one should also be left in the dark about the UK Government’s arrogant and scornful response…thankfully beautifully dealt with by Melzer’s cutting riposte. Hunt’s reaction goes to show exactly what the UK Government’s views on human rights truly are.
https://twitter.com/nilsmelzer/status/1134400849097220102?lang=en
Melzer has also levelled other accusations against the UK Government regarding failure to co-operate in human rights investigations looking into torture allegations on US territory between 2001 and 2010. Full details (too detailed for me to summarise here) can be found on Nils Melzer’s recent Twitter posts.
https://twitter.com/nilsmelzer?lang=en
I am deeply worried about the obscure strategy of Julian’s so-called legal team, you’re right to ask the question.
Just one point: can we please not promote any articles by The Guardian, which profited from the revelations published by Julian but subsequently became one of his tormentors. Listening to Nils Melzer himself is more informative. Here is one of the many interviews he gave after his visits to Julian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErW1taJEPrs
It’s a very grave situation we are forced to observe here. Not only Julian’s present mental & physical frailty, but the unashamed disregard for correct legal processes.
Thank you for your report.
“what makes the February date so important? ” I think this tells you that the next UK general election might be after Feb (and that Labour might become the ‘competent authority of the Requested State’). Let’s just hope Emily Thornberry doesn’t move to Home Sec.
Good point. A British general election could destabilise the arrangements. My own thoughts were that they might want to conclude Assange’s case before the long-awaited war on Iran starts. This is just speculation on my part.
Thanks, Craig – for your deeply engaged and humanitarian/political support for my esteemed countryman Julian Assange. This dreadful Baraitser woman – we need some insight into her background – other court ca sesames – her allegiances – but clearly an unworthy member of the bench – subservient to US/CIA direction. Surely that should see her sacked? My Scottish Borders grand-mother’s mother was a Murray – social justice appears to be part of the DNA! Bravo to you.
Very ugly affair indeed.
Thanks for your article Craig and your efforts to maintain Britains adherence to law and justice.
Very ugly business.
This is absolutely chilling. I’m not surprised Edward Snowden remains in Russia. He is certainly better treated.
Is it not possible to appeal the process from a human rights or procedural point of view. Surely, the court can’t be allowed to get away with this dismissal of an Julian’s rights and the obvious collusion of the judge with the prosecution. Julian hasn’t actually done anything wrong only pointed out the disgusting behaviour of the American state nothing of which is surprising. And further hiis treatment points out to all of us the disgusting behaviour of the British state which is extremely sad. Thanks for the report Craig.
Here in Australia, probably our best known criminal is serial killer Ivan Millat (of backpacker murders infamy). Ivan’s prison conditions over the decades have been nowhere near as harsh as Julian’s.
Were there any Australian officials at Julian’s hearing? Any time a comment on his case is forced from a politician the standard response is that he is being afforded the usual consular support (which in fact has proved to be sfa).
Excellent point, or Martin Bryant, engineered by design again.
The US Department of Justice is currently investigating the origins of ‘Russiagate’. Presumably it would be to the benefit of Trump and foreign relations globally if this gigantic hoax could be exposed once and for all. It is therefore a mystery to me that investigators Barr and Durham have not questioned Julian since he and his source, if still alive, have all the facts. If the source is no longer alive, doesn’t that free Julian to name the source to the investigators – surely Julian’s life is worth more than the anonymity of a person who can no longer be harmed by the revelation. Alternatively, if the leaker is still alive, wouldn’t s/he step forward rather than abandon Julian to his fate at the hands of those he leaked against, or at least be willing to negotiate a deal? Craig has outed himself as having a role in the leaked material making its way to Wikileaks/Julian. Julian long ago indicated his willingness to talk to the US about the leak. Is there anyone with the clout to get Barr and Durham to interview Julian?
Trump is only friend of the whistleblowers when it suits him. He should be in no doubt that he is still responsible for whatever action his administration or agencies under the jurisdiction of his administration take, so passing the blame on to the latter is no excuse.
Hello Craig, I wanted to add in addition to my comment from the other day, I feel confident what Julian said as Ruptly caught up with him through the van window was, “Have a good one, have a good one”.
Thankyou Craig for this article & for being a great friend to JA.
This is absolutely deplorable. Unfortunate a dead fish rots at the head & our pathetic Australian Government buries it’s head in the sand. The world is being run by psychopaths & sociopathic peodophiles in plain sight.
Regarding February, NWO sets in I can only assume engineered and designed, it also coincides with the Aussie cash ban bill coming into order.
We’re doomed. This is disgraceful & I can only send love to that amazing man being tortured. They can take his body but they can’t take his soul.
@ Dancar Nomad Australia October 23, 2019 at 05:37
The PTB intend to do away with cash completely, and everything will be bought and sold with plastic. That enables them to know precisely all transactions, and also to wipe out all of a person’s purchasing power with a few strokes of a computer key, if they are ‘awkward’ and cause trouble by any form of resistance.
Thank you Craig for the update so disgusted to hear of his ill treatment and his demise through torturous conditions. The way the judiciary is so shows the corrupted legal system in England and yet the American woman who killed a young motorcyclist is allowed to abscond from justice citing diplomatic immunity though she was never covered by this, this shows along with armed Americans in a courtroom that UK is but a vassel state of USA and not euro
David, if any further proof were needed with regards to our subservience to the USA. I heard on yesterday’s evening news (R4), that the Police are to send Officers over to the States to interview the Sacoolas Woman, especially to witness the distress that the whole incident has caused her and her family. Have Northamptonshire Police really got Officers to spare, to send on a three day jolly over the pond ? Quite why there is no demand for her extradition is now patently obvious.
Don’t know if you’ve seen this:
https://elpais.com/internacional/2019/10/18/actualidad/1571413462_324840.html
It’s in Spanish, but it says that British courts are refusing to comply with requests (that should be honoured automatically in the European system) to have Assange questioned as a witness in the Spanish CIA spying case.
Translation:
“United Kingdom makes it difficult for a Spanish judge to interrogate Assange for espionage suffered in London”
“The magistrate defends that Spain is competent in the case and that the British attitude is unprecedented”
El País, Oct 23, 2019
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=es&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Felpais.com%2Finternacional%2F2019%2F10%2F18%2Factualidad%2F1571413462_324840.html
The report also says:
“The British position, unprecedented in this kind of requests for judicial cooperation, is interpreted in Spanish judicial media as a show of resistance to the consequences that this case could have in the process of extradition of the cyber activist to the United States. . . .
“It is an automatic judicial cooperation body and there are no causes for its refusal, except in exceptional cases. . . .
“On October 14, De la Mata responded to the British agency through a letter to which EL PAÍS had access. The holder of the Court of Instruction number 5 of the National Court shows his surprise and sends the affirmative answer that the UKCA has provided ‘in other previous cases’ in which he has requested videoconference interviews. Responses, based on article 30 of International Cooperation Against Crime, in which the only obstacle it contemplates is that the interrogation be a defendant. And he states: ‘In this case Julian Assange is a witness, not a defendant.’ . . .
“Spanish judicial sources do not hide their discomfort from the response of the Central Authority of the United Kingdom and emphasize that in the OEI that they process, the jurisdiction of the country that requests them is not questioned, nor are there impediments to the taking of a witness’s videoconference statement.”
jmg
I think it’s become evident over events of recent years that the UK regards itself as a law unto itself, and completely immune to the demands or expectations of international laws or protocols. They don’t even have the courtesy to provide good excuses. Now, which other country behaves like that??
I’ve just seen there is a good English version of the Spanish article:
Julian Assange spying: UK blocks Spanish judge from questioning Julian Assange over spying allegations | In English | EL PAÍS
https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/10/23/inenglish/1571817241_796975.html
Yes. Please note the good work here from Spain’s El País and the persistence, clarity and relative truthfulness of the Spanish judicial system in this case.
May that vicious dog-bag of a so-called “judge” die in pain and burn in Hell!
In my entire life, I have never been so angry.
Sorry, I was beside myself with rage and grief. Please delete my outburst if it is offensive.
I like the sound of ‘dog-bag’ as an insult, but what on earth does it mean?
Stay strong Craig….
Julian Assange will not be the last to suffer this fate.
The train to Auschwitz is constructed, the train lines in place, and the numbers to be transported will only increase as the masses slumber with what goes on around them.
I have to believe the editors of main stream media in Britain are either being controlled by the government or that Mr Assange’s fellow journalists are fearful of losing their jobs that they do not support his cause and, ultimately, their own freedom to write freely on subjects the nation has a right to be informed about.
I have long since stopped watching BBC news programmes so I do not know if it has reported on the conditions Mr Assange is undergoing, but (as far as I know) neither ITV news nor Channel 4 news has reported anything from the happenings since his case was brought to Court as Mr Murray has reported.
Currently Brexit is dominating news broadcasting and when it comes to other news items to be aired the nation has instead been treated to reports of the irrelevancies affecting the relationships between junior members of the royal family and a trip to the opera by the American lady who recently joined that Monarch organisation and her complaints of media intrusion into her life.
It’s an absolute disgrace and Mr Assange’s fellow journalists ought to hang their heads in shame for not making more of his case – it could be them next.
Most “journalists” (AKA rubber-stampers for the establishment) loathe Assange. They consider him complicit in Brexit/Tump and a Putin stooge.
I have read this POV time and time again both above and below the line in the MSM. It is shocking.
No, the msm “journalists” loathe Julian because he shamed them by doing what they themselves should have been doing.
Spot-on, Annie!
The psychophant propagandizing deep-state boot-lickers here in the US that call themselves “journalists” couldn’t be bothered with such a (magnificent) truth-teller as Julian, until he shined a light on their own incompetence/corruption. Damn liars all. My sincerest hopes extended in prayer are that Trump’s vocal condemnation of him was a ruse to throw the shadow government off balance until he could testify here. Anyone with half a deprogrammed brain can tell who the real criminals are.
Worse than that.
Everytime Julian Assange appears in front of them he makes them think that this is what they could have been if they had had some
guts.
Pilger has the same effect.
That’s why they hate the pair.
What I could have been if I didn’t need the job/money.
Their biggest fear now is ending up in the same boat as Julian Assange.
This is why they say very little.
Such a very sad story. But I never had any doubt that what was being done to this man qualified as torture. Arbritrary detention, psychological abuse, invasion of privacy, etc.. And the prison system in Britain is always already a form of torture, not least because inmates are not allowed access to the wider world in the form of the internet, or engage in normal human forms of interaction. It has not improved in the least since the time of Oscar Wilde. Not just for these reasons, but for many more, I’ve always found it laughable when I hear someone use the word ‘civilised’ in connection with Britain and the so-called West. ‘Civilised’ is a word that I can really only safely use when I look at the indigenous communities of the world, not when I look at nations whose wealth and power is based on raping and murdering and stealing. In this country, the police and the courts exist only to protect the rich and powerful scum floating on its surface – the very scum that have an interest in destroying human rights organisations and the various protest movements that have gained momentum. Unfortunately, for many who look up to and idolise this scum at the top (and I think it is safe to say – albeit with some sadness – that this is the majority of those who read Britain’s right-wing MSM), this scum serves as Britain’s role models, and so what you get is a nation of potential criminals, liars, cheaters. ‘If Blair can get away with it, so can I!’ In another thread, I was attacked for attributing Britain’s many present-day ills in part to a very poor education system in Britain, which is based on pacifying, disempowering, isolating, and of course, the usual indoctrination, the policing of the curriculum (i.e., through Prevent, among other programs), the squashing of any real kind of questioning or debte. I know it is just a theory, but the person who posted just chose instead to be offended by my remark, and to lash out at me, instead of saying anything sensible. I think that we can only change as a country when we start renouncing the stupid British arrogance that we all probably carry in some degree, the arrogance and air of superiority which allows men like Assange to be squashed by the state, tortured and jailed for simply wanting the world to know what is going on.
‘They Thought They Were Free, But Then It Was Too Late’
The Germans 1966-45
Milton Mayer
https://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html
“Decisions were made at the highest levels of both US and UK governments that Assange will be sacrificed in the name of the higher goal of tamping out current leaks, punishing past leakers, and discouraging future leakers, as well as improving information and technical security at NSA and other parts of the USG. Part of this project is recent. Coming arrests and trials of people who may have violated their employment agreements in sharing classified information with Wikileaks, will, even if it must use parallel reconstruction as Judge Napolitano explains, will be enough for a trial. Even kangaroo courts have their standards.”
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/10/karen-kwiatkowski/run/
amanfromMars 1 Wed 23 Oct 10:05 [1910231005] ….. asking some questions of https://www.zerohedge.com/political/physically-mentally-frail-assange-suffers-vicious-travesty-justice-latest-court
Having your cake and eating it is a no good joint criminal enterprise look
Extradition shall not be granted if the offense for which extradition is requested is a political offense. …… ergo, extradition shall be granted if the offence for which extradition is requested is not a political offence.
Inflicting grievous bodily harm [on a state collective body/United States] shall not be considered a political offense ….. unless and until extradition is requested by a manifestly harmed political body …… thus to morph into a political offence but only after indisputable manifest harm to the political body is clearly evidenced and fully accepted as fair and reasonable rather than realised to be contrived and maliciously motivated to personally and professionally intimidate parties into courses and causes of action in attack and defence which result in gratuitous punitive damage.
And that surely cannot be either acceptable or just and something which any lawful body can support and allow for peer prosecution in any court?
So WTF is the System playing at ….. other than losing all of their shit and universal credibility big time?
Italicised text can be found in Article 4 of the UK/US Extradition Treaty 2007
And what does any of that do with particular and peculiar regard to the current Harry Dunn/Anne Sacoolas scripture ….. for manslaughter is also not political offensive and extradition shall be granted?
The American media is the working tool of the CIA. Assange and Snowden are heroic figures that history will judge with truth, not malicious BS of those that did unspeakable evil when they were in AMERICAN leadership. The evil CRIMINALS are as follows : BUSH # 1-Cheney-Quayle-CLINTON-GORE-Wesley Clark-HRC- BUSH # 2–Petraeus-Kissinger-Rumsfeld-Tenet-Bremmer-Pannetta -North-Secord-Poindexter-Weinberger-Cardinal EGAN-Richard Haas-OBAMA-Biden -Holder-Scwartzkorf-Colin Powell-RICE-Rhodes-Mills-Aberdeen-Weiner-Pelosi-Nadler-Richardson-Sandy Berger-Sharpton-Brazile-Clapper- BRENNAN-Tapper-Stelter-ZUCKER-Rev.Wright-Lindsey Graham-Hoyer-Ted Turner-Cecile Richards-IGER-Northam-McCauliff-Kamala Lewinski Harris-Tom Perez-Andrew Cuomo-DeBelasio and wife-Joe Scarborough-Mika Brezynski- and many more. These listed above are treasonous traitors that deserve to be imprisoned for life. The damage and death caused by these is an abomination. I left out who were already DEAD. We are passed the tipping point but the controlled MEDIA will not bring it up. At least 10-20 million people are dead because of them and they put the USA in the toilet. FREE WILL has sponsored their sins of greed and power.
I wouldn’t put much stock in “history’s” judgement. Popular history and the MSM have most people believing that America’s nuking and chemical weaponing of civilians in the far east was justified. Even the criminals responsible for recenf destruction of Iraq and Libya have already been exonerated and rehabilitated as champions of lost decency and civility. I suspect the current liberal establishment line on Julian Assange and Snowden is one that will stick. They and their media and academic allies are not in the business of trashing themselves and the US empire.
Right enough Joel. Kinda makes you hope there is another plane of existence does it not – that ancient philosophies and modern NDE accounts are correct in basis, that the ancient Egyptians really knew something when they said that Maat weighed the soul against a feather. Because if they are right – and ancient man had the same size brain as modern man, well, you can rewrite the unofficial history all you like, the official history is untamperable and accountable. Good luck with that one Mr Blair, Mrs Baraitser and pals.
Do not agree with the extradition.
Sickening and chilling in equal measure.
Thanks for your crucial work on this terrifying case.
Thank you so much for this. I too, fear for him and can clearly see Julian has ‘laid his hand on the Leviathan’ which is now seeking to devour him. How can I (we ordinary people) help? I’ve written to the Australian govt. Posted how to write to him and have done so myself but what else can be done? It seems so difficult when the appalling truth is out there so blatantly. They want to hang draw and quarter him. It makes me weep.
I regret that from your description, Vanessa Baraitser seems like a judge working under a dictatorship.
OTOH, she may have suspected him of shamming like Pinochet, who sprang from his wheelchair once he landed at Santiago, even though he had apparently been so ill that Home Secretary Straw released him on medical grounds.
… In defiance of the Spanish investigating magistrate’s extradition request.
You forgot “gleefully”.
I can only reiterate what others have said, very distressing and thanks to Craig for writing what was clearly a difficult piece.
People are rightly feeling exhausted by the levels of elite crime now evident in the west, but particularly it seems in countires like Britain (Or England more specifically) and USA (The American Empire).
But this degree of criminality, evident in cases like the treatement of Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning, are for me also evidence of a system in a state of collapse (Under the weight of its’ own malfeasance). So don’t lose heart, you only have to look at the many groups active within the USA, for example Veterans for Peace, to see the growing resistance to a system controlled by a relatively small and increasingly besieged group of (Some would say) corporate-power elite criminals/organised criminal gangs.
Whether it will help, well I doubt it; but I am going to try and arrange a small delegation of local folk to visit to my MP on the matter of Julian.
Some posters have called for letters to be sent to Amnesty International. This case is so high profile, that such letters may fall on deaf ears. Whilst I accept that Amnesty International still does some good work, its founder Peter Benenson stated the organisation had been infiltrated by British Intelligence Agents, and later the CIA, and as a result was forced out of the organisation.
There is further significant evidence that Amnensty International is primarily a US State Propaganda Organisation. “Suzanne Nossel, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, for instance was drawn directly from the US State Department”
In Syria, there is extremely strong evidence, that Amnesty International have extensively falsified reports, claiming that the Syrian Government was responsible for chemical attacks on its own population, whereas other investigative reporters including the OPCW, have proved that this is not the case.
In my view Amnesty International is part of the problem, just as much as The BBC and all the mainstream media are. However the vast majority of people, believe the propaganda they are fed on a daily basis, and I see no simple solutions to this problems.
Julian Assange is just another victim, but basically we all are. There are no simple solutions to brainwashing, as history has demonstrated on numerous occasions, with societal collapse, war and genocide the end result.
Tony
Tony
Your comments about Amnesty hit the mark. In fact the same can be said of all the major NGOs and many smaller western-funded ‘charitable’ organisations. Of the major players, the OPCW has repeatedly endeavoured to cover up its own findings when they are contrary to the narrative promulgated by Western neocons.
@ Borncynical October 23, 2019 at 15:18
I agree with both of you. I campaigned in Amnesty for many years, and borrowed and read his personal copy of his book ‘Gangrene’.
I hadn’t known he had been forced out.
One organisation that seems to have kept it’s ethics dry is Reprieve. I am emailing them to ask, and including Craig’s link to this blog article.
The CIA infiltrates so many things:
The State Department
The Pentagon
The White House etc.
It was behind the coup against Nixon and there is some evidence that it even tried to assassinate him. It is also heavily involved in the drug trade.
It also infiltrated the original weapons inspectorate that operated in Iraq after Gulf War 1.
Thank you Craig for the brilliant article.
” the two extra American government officials who arrived halfway through proceedings were armed security personnel ”
A loud cry of , ” Gun, that man has a gun! ” might have livened things up and also forced the MSM to report properly.
I’ve emailed my MP, Paul Sweeney. If there is a useful reply, I’ll post it up here.
Break him out.