Roger Waters has become one of the most eloquent and persistent supporters of Julian Assange. He is prepared to challenge the propagandists of the mainstream media head-on in a way that many more people should do.
For yesterday’s rally for Assange Roger had prepared a talk putting Julian’s persecution in a global context. He did not have time to give the whole speech, and so I asked him if I could publish it:
WE ARE HERE TODAY FOR JULIAN ASSANGE.
But I have four names on this piece of paper.
The First and last of course is Julian Assange, A Journalist, a courageous shiner of light into the dark places from which the powers that be would dearly like to have us turn away.
Julian Assange. A name to be carved with pride intoany monument to human progress.
Julian is why we are here today, but this is no parochial protest. We are today part of a global movement, a global movement that might be the beginning of the global enlightenment that this fragile planet so desperately needs.
Ok. Second Name. Sent to me by my friend VJ Prashad.
Second name is Aamir Aziz, Aamir is a young poet and activist in Delhi involved in the fight against Modi and his rascist Citizenship law.
Everything Will Be Remembered
Kill us, we will become ghosts and write
of your killings, with all the evidence.
You write jokes in court;
We will write ‘justice’ on the walls.
We will speak so loudly that even the deaf will hear.
We will write so clearly that even the blind will read.
You write ‘injustice’ on the earth;
We will write ‘revolution’ in the sky.
Everything will be remembered;
Everything recordedThis out pouring of the human spirit from India is taking place in a time of revolt, when the fetters of propriety are set aside.
As we meet here in London, across the Atlantic in Argentina thousands of women are taking to the streets to demand the legalization of abortion from President Fernandez.
It’s not just Argentina. This last year we have seen major protests erupt across the whole world against neoliberal/fascist regimes. In Chile, The Lebanon, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti,France and now, of course also in Bolivia fighting the new US imposed military dictatorship there.
When will we see the name of England appended to that noble list? I sense the scratching of heads in drawing rooms across the home counties, “What’s he talking about, the man’s a bloody pinkopervert, bloody anti semite, what’s he talking about? We don’t live in a dictatorship, this is a free country, a democracy, with all the finest traditions of fair play, pah!”
Well, I’ve got news for you Disgruntled of Tunbridge Wells. We’d like to think this is a free country, but are we really free? Why, when Julian Assange is brought to the dock in the tiny magistrates court inside Belmarsh prison are so many seats occupied by anonymous American suits, whispering instructions into the attentive ear of the prosecution’s lead barrister, James Lewis QC?
Why?
Because we don’t live in a free country, we live in a glorified dog kennel and we bark and/or wag our tails at the bidding of our lords and masters across the pond.
I stand here today, in front of the Mother of Parliaments, and there she stands blushing in all her embarrassment. And just upstream from here is Runnemede, where in 1215, we, the English, laid out the rudiments of common law. Magna Carta, ratified in 1297 article 29 of whichgave us Habeus Corpus. Or did it? It stated:
“The body of a free man is not to be arrested, or imprisoned, or outlawed, or exiled, or in any way ruined, nor is the king to go against him or send forcibly against him, except by judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.”
Sadly, Article 29 is not enforceable in modern law. Magna Carta is only an idea, and in this propaganda driven modern world, it provides no check in principle to Parliament legislating against the rights of citizens.
We do however have an extradition treaty with the USA and in the first paragraph of article 4 of that treaty it states. “Extradition shall not be granted if the offense for which extradition is requested is a political offense.” Julian Assange has committed no crime but he has committed a political act. He has spoken truth to power. He has angered some of our masters in Washington by telling the truth and in retribution for the act of telling the truth they want his blood.
Yesterday in front of Battersea Power Station I did a TV interview for SKY news to promote this event, there was no visual link, so my only contact with the lady asking me questions was via an ear bud on a curly wire. I learned something about telling truth in the phrasing of her questions to me. She came at me like some crazed Don Quixote every question laced, thick with the smears and innuendo and the false accusations with which the powers that be have been trying to blacken Julian Assange’s name. She rattled off the tired, but well prepared narrative, and then interrupted constantly when I made reply. I don’t know who she is, she may mean well. If she does, my advice would be to stop drinking the Kool-aid, and if she actually gives a fig for her chosen profession get her sorry ass down here and join us.
So England. I call upon our prime minister,Boris Johnson, to declare his colours, does he support the spirit of Magna Carta? Does he believe in, democracy, freedom, fair play, free speech, and especially the freedom of the press? If the answer to those questions is yes, then come on Prime Minister be the British Bulldog you would have us all believe you are? Stand up to the bluster of American hegemony, call off this show trial, this charade, this kangaroo court. “The evidence before the court is incontrovertible.” Julian Assange is an innocent man. A journalist doing very important work for “we the people” by exposing the crimes of powerful sociopaths in the corridors of power.
I call on you to free him today.
I cannot leave this stage without mention of Chelsea Manning, who provided some of the material that Julian published.
Chelsea has been in a federal prison for a year incarcerated by the Americans for refusing, on principle, to give evidence to a grand jury specifically convened to make an example of Julian Assange. What courage. They are also fining her $1,000 a day. Chelsea yours is another name to be carved in pride, I’ve been reading the latest on your case, it looks as if your legal team are finding light at the end of the tunnel, please god, you get out soon back to your loved ones, you are a true hero.You exemplify the bulldog spirit that I was talking about a few moments ago.
Also Daniel Hale
Daniel is a whistle-blower you may not know yet. He was in a great documentary movie National Bird, made by my good friend Sonia Kennebeck. He was part of the US drone program targeting Afghans in their own country from some mobile command center in Navada. When his stint in the USAF was over. Daniel’s good heart refused to edit out the burden of remorse he carried and he very bravely decided to tell his story. The FBI/CIA have pursued Daniel remorselessly ever since and he is now in prison awaiting trial. Daniel’s is another name to be carved in pride. Those of us who have never compromised our liberty in the cause of freedom, who have never picked up the burning torch and held it trembling over the crimes of their superior officers, can only wonder at the extraordinary courage of those who have.
There are other speakers here, so I will make way, I could stand here all day railing against the dying of the light should we not stand Bulldog like, with arms linked, ranks closed in front of our brother and comrade Julian Assange. And when the lackies of the American Empire come to take him, to destroy him and hang him in the hedge as a warning to frighten future journalists, we will look them in the eye and steadfast with one voice we will intone.
“Over our dead fucking bodies.”
Roger Waters Feb 22nd 2020
You can see Roger delivering the truncated version, with force but still self-deprecation, on this video of yesterday’s event. You can also see great speeches including by Yanis Varoufakis and Brian Eno. I hope you will forgive me for setting the video to start at my own speech, which was the final one. It was only by the generosity of readers of this blog that I have been able to be here campaigning this week at all.
Today I move from the centre of London down to Woolwich and have to get to Belmarsh Magistrate’s Court (which is entered through Woolwich Crown Court) before dawn to try to queue for one of the 14 public seats in the courtroom. Holding the hearing in such a tiny court is a deliberate act of censorship by the British government. If any readers can offer practical advice on where to queue precisely in terms of access to the building it would be extremely welcome. There is of course no guarantee that the authorities will respect any queue, or have not reserved some of the public seats for the US Embassy etc.
I promise this is the last time I shall repeat this appeal:
With great reluctance, I am obliged to ask for donations to help this blog cover the Assange court case. We have rented a house close to the court and I will be trying to queue in the early hours of the morning to get one of the tiny number of seats available to the public at the hearing. The last year has seen constant travels down to London to support Julian in one way and another, and funds for the blog are running very low at the moment – very substantially less than 1% of readers subscribe (I am grateful to and humbled by those who do subscribe – and was very touched to meet so many subscribers at yesterday’s rally. Please don’t feel reticent to introduce yourselves, it gives me heart). I generally do not seek one off donations, as long term income is required to keep things on the road, but for the Assange – and Salmond – cases to be covered properly an exception is needed. With humility and reticence, I therefore ask if a few people could put some small donations forward using the standard payment details below.
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Watching the fun outside the Woolwich Gitmo live on RT.com. Not as good as Nuremberg, but plenty of gestapo aound masquerading as welll wishers. Police sirens spasmodically going off to drown out broadcast interviews.
Well, as long as you’ve got a reliable source…
In the circumstances, the word ‘fun’ jars.
“Prosecutor says they are not criminalizing the publication of classified materials but rather the publication of names of informants or dissidents who help the US and allies in military operations”
Kevin Gosztola (Shadowproof) — @kgosztola — Twitter — Feb 24, 2020
https://twitter.com/kgosztola/status/1231891277547016193
Thread by @kgosztola: “This is a thread for Day 1 of Julian Assange’s one-week extradition hearing.”
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1231889705496666113.html
———
That’s an old smear that was already debunked by multiple witnesses. For example:
“Davis said the assertions by Guardian journalists that Assange exhibited a callous attitude towards US informants and others who may have been harmed by the publication of the document were ‘lies.’ . . .
“Their statements have played a key role in the attempts by the corporate media to smear Assange, and dovetail with US government claims that the 2010 publications ‘aided the enemy.’ In reality, the US and Australian militaries have been compelled to admit that release of the Afghan war logs did not result in a single individual coming to physical harm. . . .
“Significantly, Davis explained that despite the vast technical resources of the Guardian and the New York Times (NYT), it was left to Assange to personally redact the names of informants and other individuals from the war logs, less than three days before scheduled publication. Davis said Assange was compelled to work through an entire night, during which he removed some 10,000 names from the documents.
“‘Julian wanted to take the names out,’ Davis said. ‘He asked for the releases to be delayed.’ The request was rejected by the Guardian, ‘so Julian was left with the task of cleansing the documents. Julian removed 10,000 names by himself, not the Guardian.’”
Australian investigative journalist exposes Guardian/New York Times betrayal of Assange — WSWS — 10 August 2019
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/10/assa-a10.html
Even those who started the smear are now defending Assange:
Julian Assange smears fade as Wikileaks witnesses concede he was not reckless, did protect informants — Michael West Media — Aug 23, 2019
https://www.michaelwest.com.au/julian-assange-smears-fade-as-wikileaks-witnesses-concede-he-was-not-reckless-did-protect-informants/
“Actually, lives are at stake as a result of the silences and lies.”
— Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistle-blower
———
From the BBC, Johnstone, The Guardian, and Julian Assange:
———
“After this latest release a Pentagon official, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitive nature of the material involved, told the McClatchy newspaper group that even three months later the US military still had no evidence that people had died or been harmed because of information gleaned from Wikileaks documents.
“Daniel Ellsberg, the former military analyst who in 1971 released the Pentagon Papers which detailed government lies and cover-ups in the Vietnam War, is sceptical of whether the government really believes that lives are at stake.
“He told the BBC’s World Today programme that US officials made that same argument every time there was a potentially embarrassing leak.
“‘The best justification they can find for secrecy is that lives are at stake. Actually, lives are at stake as a result of the silences and lies which a lot of these leaks reveal,’ he said.
“‘The same charges were made against the Pentagon Papers and turned out to be quite invalid.’”
Has release of Wikileaks documents cost lives? — BBC News — 1 December 2010
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-11882092
———
“Smear 20: ‘He’s got blood on his hands.’
“No he doesn’t. There’s no evidence anywhere that WikiLeaks helped cause anyone’s death anywhere in the world. This smear has been enjoying renewed popularity since it became public knowledge that he’s being prosecuted for the Manning leaks, the argument being that the leaks got US troops killed.
“This argument is stupid. In 2013 the Pentagon, who had every incentive to dig up evidence that WikiLeaks had gotten people killed, ruled(*) that no such instances have been discovered.”
Debunking All The Assange Smears — Caitlin Johnstone
https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2019/04/20/debunking-all-the-assange-smears/
———
(*) Bradley Manning leak did not result in deaths by enemy forces, court hears | US news | The Guardian | 31 Jul 2013
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/bradley-manning-sentencing-hearing-pentagon
———
“If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth.”
— Julian Assange, speech at Trafalgar Square, October 8, 2011
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2owVwlXGM-8
“Prosecutor says they are not criminalizing the publication of classified materials but rather the publication of names of informants or dissidents who help the US and allies in military operations”,
As those people have committed crimes by betraying their own nations to help Washington in its habitual wars of unprovoked aggression (the supreme international crime), they deserve to be shot or hanged (according to taste). Being exposed to the vengeance of freelance patriots is just a fringe benefit.
“informants or dissidents who help the US and allies in military operations”
but refused to help the interpreters, and even deported some from Britain, to be executed by the terrorists when returned to their country of origin.
“Prosecutor says they are not criminalizing the publication of classified materials but rather the publication of names of informants or dissidents who help the US and allies in military operations”
If that was the case, David Leigh would be locked in the glass box, not Julian Assange. He’s the one who published the code to the unredacted tranche.
If as seems likely and US runs rough shod over whatever is left of a carefully rigged British trial, perhaps a more forceful approach should be added to the demonstrations.
What I might suggest is to turn parts of London into a massive grid lock whereby at certain times and in certain places, vehicles stop and switch on their hazard lights until the police arrive and ask them to move on.
I would also like to see every vehicle that agrees this is all wrong to display a bumper sticker saying “Free Assange”. If any of the newspapers agree that a free press is more important than pleasing the US, they would get my respect if they put a free bumper sticker in an edition of their paper.
It is well known that the closed court in America has been designed to prejudge Assange when he gets there. At the very least the British Courts when they send him there must demand that it must be in open court and with a fair group of jurors.
Brian
JA has no ‘public interest’ defence (which had formerly been the case for 78 years until the new Official Secrets Act 1989), and neither will anyone else who follows his example. Without a change in that law, this will just be the start, and the public will soon lose interest as the ‘arrests’ become more frequent. You will have no space left for ‘bumper stickers.’
This law must go.
Here’s an interesting thing– The “judge,” Vanessa Baraitser’s biographics appear to have been scrubbed from the Net. Four browesers, no info on her education, background, anything. The joke is that she’s a hologram.
So we have to thank Thatcher and this bunch of fascists for the creation of the Official Secrets Act 1989, updating the 1911 Act.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ministers_under_Margaret_Thatcher#June_1987_to_July_1989
Agreed, Mary.
A House elected by a minority, supported by another House represented by nobody, without Public debate and in the face of (then) significant media opposition, passed this draconian law that destroyed freedom of expression forever.
Sadly, poor JA may be but the first.
This law must go.
Could you explain where the Official Secrets Act comes into the prosecution of Julian Assange’s extradition to the US? I recall the controversies in the 80’s when the change was made to the OSA but as I recall that was made to counter the spate of UK civil servants who were blowing the whistle. I have never heard the OSA mentioned in context of Julian Assange, not saying it hasn’t been brought up but I have not heard anything.
Peter Preston writing (with prescience in 2017) in the Guardian on the Official Secrets Act. He was the paper’s editor 1975-1995. He died in 2018.
Beware, whistleblowers: officials still love secrets more than freedom
The draconian mooted revamp of the Official Secrets Act is another reminder to be wary of any press regulator under the control of parliament
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/feb/19/whistleblowers-official-secrets-act-love-more-than-freedom
Mary – you have linked to a good article on the frightening implications of what is happening right now to JA.
I do not know who the editor of the ‘Observer’ newspaper was back in 1988: it could well have been Peter Preston from the tone of it’s leader column. One article I remember well was pushing for a written constitution for GB & NI, that was backed by Charter 88 (also cited in the article). The article warned of the trouble to come from the enactment of the new OSA. Of course their efforts came to nothing.
BBC told how to play it.
Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange revealed the names of sources who subsequently “disappeared” after he put them at risk, a court has heard.
A lawyer for the US government made the claim at Woolwich Crown Court, in London, on the opening day of Mr Assange’s extradition hearing.
The court was told the Australian, 48, was guilty of “straightforward” criminality for hacking into and publishing US military databases.
So the problem is not that the US government has invaded and attacked dozens of independent sovereign nations, killing well over 10 million people, overthrowing social and built infrastructure, and doing its level best to reduce those states to chaotic anarchy.
No, the real problem is that someone has dared to published names of a handful of the hundreds of thousands of violent, insane criminals who carried out those illegal wars of unprovoked aggression (the supreme international crime).
I heard Julian Assanges father on the Victoria Derbyshire program the other day and I’m pretty sure that he said that his son had redacted thousands of names before publishing the Wikileak.
He added that all of the names became un -redacted when Luke Harding and his acolyte ( don’t know his name ) published the password in a book.
So shouldn’t the US authorities be looking at this idiot and his assistant rather than Assange?
Or am I being cynical in the idea that the password was only released by Harding and his mates when the US realised that Assange had over redacted before releasing the leaks to the public?
Harding and his chums had to add to the total in order to make the alleged crime look big.
Harding works for MI6 so they won’t touch him. He’s a useful idiot printing the security services drivel anywhere that will let him. He lied in the Guardian about the so called Manafort/Assange meeting that never happened then falsified evidence to support the claim which the Guardian printed. All been completely disproved, I believe that article is still on the Guardians website. They’re an utter disgrace.
I’ll be attending the “Imperialism on trial: Free Julian Assange” event tomorrow in London. Prior to this (at 1620), at the Curzon Bloomsbury cinema (near Russell Square tube station), is a showing of “Eminent Monsters: A manual for modern torture” (certificate 12). Documentary recommended by Nils Melzer.
https://www.curzoncinemas.com/bloomsbury/film-info/dochouse-eminent-monsters-a-manual
BBC
Some of his supporters gathered outside the gates of the court and their protests – which included a siren, chanting and singing – could be heard inside the courtroom.
That prompted Mr. Assange to address the court before the lunch break, saying: “I’m having difficulty concentrating. All this noise is not helpful either.”
“I understand and am very grateful of the public support and understand they must be disgusted…”
But District Judge Vanessa Baraitser then stopped him from speaking and asked his lawyer to address her instead.
Edward Fitzgerald QC, said: “What Mr Assange is saying is he can’t hear and can’t concentrate because of the noise outside.”
Judge Baraitser should not be able to stop Julian from speaking, he is fighting for his very existance.
The only people who have blood on their hands or the responsibility for deaths of “coalition” soldiers, are the warmongers who started this catastrophic bloodbath in the first place. The entire Bush administration and anyone connected with the decision making of the Bliar government.
Ultimately they are responsible for the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilian deaths, the million more traumatised and injured, not to mention the many more millions who have been displaced. They went on to do the same thing in Libya and Syria and show no signs of stopping.
They are evil madmen and women.
Julian Assange is an innocent person who has simply revealed the evil of others.
spot on
bob,
I should have added Obama, Hilary Clinton and Trump, backed by Sarkozy and Macron, plus Cameron and May, plus a good many on the opposition benches.
You’ve hit the nail on the head. I read an article in the Guardian a few weeks ago which discussed the current situation in Libya, the deaths, the destruction the chaos. 10 paragraphs of discussion, but not once was there mention of architects who are responsible for the hell hole this place has become, Cameron, Sarkozy and of course Clinton, Britain, France and USA.
The same can be said about the Manchester bombing, what is sad is the death of innocent people, especially children, however reading an article recently about the Manchester bomber, the media is careful not to even leave the slightest hint in peoples minds that, the reason why there was a bombing in Manchester is not solely because the perpetrator was bad or evil, but just maybe the bomber was unhappy about NATO intervention in his parents country or maybe because of NATO intervention, a family member may have been killed and he wanted revenge.
There is a side of the story we are never told, we only seem to get “our” version of events and maybe if we got a complete picture, then maybe some people would understand better. All the bombs dropped, all the people shot and killed or murdered by NATO forces, maybe it is their relatives who then decided to commit acts of violence, terror if you will on our streets, as an act of retribution, however they too are silenced, often killed by police or security services, so they cannot talk, although if they was the case, I am sure the police would keep it quiet, because then the question people would be asking is, why are causing pointless wars in their countries, then demonise them when they seek retaliation?
L3on
Our media constantly brainwashes us – those who are susceptible – to the notion that terrorists are scruffy, disorganised, evil, foreign (usually different skin colour) to us, and that people who use hightech methods – drones, state of the art military equipment, surveillance are the “good guys”.
The most evil country in the world for the past seventy years, has been the US, constantly at war, overthrowing countries which do not toe the line, pay homage to Uncle Sam, supplicate themselves before the unholy beast which is the U S of A.
Not sure how that theory fits in with his family being part of the war on of Libya, with official approval.
The actions of Theresa May as Home Secretary are pertinent here, it’s likely she personally authorised his travel visa between the UK and Libya.
Yes, as far as I understand it MI5/6 where trying to run the boy as an asset thus giving him free reign to travel to Libya and Syria and return unhindered on more than one occaision. May must have know of this and agreed to allow it to proceed. You put these people side by side with Assange and they make him look as clean as a new born baby.
Which is why the U.S. Department of Justice, is now often called. “The U.S. Department of Just Us.”
The patently obvious fact that is completely drowned out by in all the noise made by the media.
Deb O’Nair
A truly sorry state of affairs.
Roger Waters with Afshin Rattansi. 22nd February 2020
Two good men.
On this episode of Going Underground, Going Underground’s Social Media Producer Farhaan Ahmed speaks to Richard Burgon MP who is standing to be Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. He discusses the importance of Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange’s leaks, what his extradition could mean for press freedom in the UK and around the world and why his extradition should be halted.
Next, legendary former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters speaks to Afshin Rattansi about the persecution of Julian Assange, ahead of Julian’s upcoming extradition trial. He discusses why he believes Washington DC is seeking to imprison Julian Assange for 175 years, the importance of his leaks for billions around the world, the Washington-backed regime change attempt in Venezuela and coup in Bolivia and more!
Finally, Farhaan Ahmed speaks to BAFTA Award-Winning actor Steve Coogan and BAFTA Award-Winning Director Michael Winterbottom about their new film ‘Greed’, a comedy highlighting billionaire excess and the gap between the super-rich and the super-poor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=275&v=s6Tjp5ZT3Sk&feature=emb_logo
Live outside the court..Hoards of Press waiting on Julian’s dad and others to come and say a few words
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge9gZ20qMs4
Aye.. Very good RT.. About ten seconds after Julian’s Dad, John Shipton started speaking RT live feed went down, Still is.. What a Fck up, after being there in the rain since early this morning.
Brian: Sorry to say your loyalty is misplaced like so many here, blinded by a blighted bug on the ass of transparency.
Are you missing the Squonk blog Ben?
Ahh Ben… But As an outdoor Mountain walker..vast open Vistas..My Hebridean Islands out there in the Often Wild Atlantic.. I feel so sad When I think of Julian in that Cage 20 odd hours a day..I could no handle that.
Then there’s the war Criminals Striding the Globe making millions – Bush, Blair, Clintons, Obama
But a truth teller is to be tortured, then Burned at the Stake..
if the Climate / planet aint fucked enough..then the war on Truth.. the Wests Rabid intent with their Highest war Crimes will do the rest… But there Must be a Plan for the 1% to survive.. said Mr Spock to Captain Kirk
I was Sorry to see Sqounk Closed for now..I tried to look in on Friday 21st Feb..I hope he opens again at some point.
Well done, Craig. Keep up the good and necessary work. There’s a chill these days isn’t there? It comes from realisation that a type of fascism is in the air. Assange, who only wanted to publish the truth, in the age of lies, is now literally fighting for his life after suffering years of inhuman stress and attacks that amount to psychological torture, it’s a wonder he’s still around at all.
It’s dreadfu,l the capture of virtually the entire ‘liberal/left’ media, typified by the cowardly Guardian, has been miserable to witness. Were these platforms and people ever really ‘liberal’ at all, or was it only a big lie, something as thin as the wing of a fly?
Forty years of rightwing political rule have had an very negative effect on public life, people have been ‘disciplined’ and cowed and dissent hasn’t just been marginalised, it’s been crushed and almost outlawed within the ever more restrictive boundaries of our unfree media. My, how things have changed. Now, if one wants to follow the Assange Affair, one is forced to follow RT if one wants to be informed and Edward Snowden is living in Moscow!
writeon
The MSM has been force feeding the masses on mulch for a couple of decades at least. I use the PC for news and regularly tune in to RT on the TV. The real politics is found in what others consider subversive feeds, but that is how it is, needs must.
What a lot of people, including maybe some on here, do not recognise, is that if Labour had managed to get into power, they would have ousted Corbyn quickly and introduced a leader who would have done the same as a Blair previously.
I think there have been big changes at publications such as the Guardian and Independent, they have been taken over by neo Liberal/neo Conservative types, with a heavy influence of “woke” identity politics.
To be honest, I think that UK politics is a complete mish-mash of “non-policies”.
While we wait for Craig’s report on today’s happenings, here’s Kevin Gosztola’s take – very interesting.
https://shadowproof.com/2020/02/24/assanges-defense-details-cia-backed-espionage-operation-trumps-politicization-of-justice-department/
I might have missed it but did Craig get in today?
Also is it a different set of people who get in tomorrow and the other days?
Looks like he did. Check out his Twitter feed from the blue bird button at the top of the page. Relevant tweet copied below.
Back to our base after draining day in court. About to start writing up my report.
First thought – if there was a jury I would say we had a great day. But experience of the Assange trials so far indicates what happens in court is utterly irrelevant to pre-determined verdict.
Oh, looks like the icon is a T not a bird.
I don’t like Roger Waters’s position on foxhunting, but he is a sincere antifascist, which of course means he is a sincere anti-Zionist.
Those who are in any doubt about Dominic Cummings’s fascist orientation should read his long “essay” on “education” and in particular its “endnote” on genetics and IQ. Those with very short attention spans could just read the quote from Robert Weinberg with which Cummings ends his endnote, and his footnote to it.
Quoting Weinberg:
“And what happens if one of these days people discover alleles for certain aspects of cognitive function? … Whatever ability you want, valued or not so valued, what if those alleles begin to come out? … What if somebody begins to look for the frequency of those alleles in different ethnic groups scattered across this planet? … the fact is if you look at the details of human evolution … you’ll realize that most populations in humanity are the modern descendents of very small founder groups… So the fact is it’s inescapable that different alleles are going to be present with different frequencies in different inbreeding populations of humanity or populations of humanity that traditionally have been genetically isolated from one another. It’s not as if all the genes that we carry have been mixed with everybody else’s genes freely over the last 100,000 years. Different groups have bred separately and have … founder affects and genetic drift, acquired different sets and different constellations of alleles.‘Then for the first time there could be a racism which is based not on some kind of virulent ideology, not based on some kind of kooky versions of genetics, because the eugenicists in the beginning of the 20th century, as well as the Nazis hadn’t had any idea about genetics, they were just using the word, even though they knew nothing about the science of genetics as we understand it today. But what happens if now for the first time we, i.e., you who begin to understand genetics, begin to perceive that there are, in fact, different populations of humanity that are endowed with different constellation of alleles that we imagine are more or less desirable?‘What’s going to happen then? I don’t know. But some scientists say, well, the truth must come out and that everything that can be learned should be learned, and we will learn how to digest it and we will learn how to live with that. But I’m not so sure that’s the right thing. And you all have to wrestle with that as well.”
Listen to that contemptible wriggle at the end! No – if you advocate Nazism and you say it’s not “ideological” but “the scientific truth” this time, you are responsible for your actions.
Important point: no journalist covering the Andrew Sabisky case (I’d love to be proved wrong) has called Cummings out for the elitist fascist eugenicist piece of dogsh*t that he is.
Cummings’s footnote:
“Socrates’ nemesis, Callicles, rejected all conventional ideas about justice and virtue. ‘Nature (physis) shows that … both among the other animals and in whole cities and races of men … justice (dike) [is] that the superior rule the inferior and have a greater share than they’ (Gorgias). The majority ‘like getting an equal share, since they are inferior’ and they unsurprisingly wish to restrain the superior, those with intelligence (phonesis) and courage (andreia). Therefore the weak and inferior define justice as the restraint of greed (pleonexia) and use nomos (custom, law) to help them control the superior. Nomos is, therefore, a mere convention of the weak and inferior, which varies from city to city, and is less fundamental than physis. The superior man, he ‘whose nature is equal to it’, should trample the nomos of the inferior that violates nature’s law and vent on the world his ‘wantonness, lack of discipline, and freedom … [which] are excellence and happiness’
Cummings quotes Weinberg and references Callicles without a single word of criticism of either.
This is the man who is running the British government.
Well, well…Weinberg appears to be a “scientist” in the mould of Cyril Burt, the IQ-loving fraudster whose faked “twin studies” formed the basis of the segregation of the English state schooling sytem at age 11 into “grammar schools” and “secondary moderns”. From Wikipedia: “To this day Weinberg has retracted five research papers where he is listed as a co-author. The retractions include one paper in Cell, one in Cancer Cell, two in Genes & Development and one in Cancer Research. The reasons given for these retractions remain obscure but appear to involve misconduct in the form of data manipulation that renders the published data invalid or false.”
WHY CAN IT BE that those who believe in genetically determined “IQ” and in “natural” differences in average intelligence between ethnic groups – otherwise known as Nazi scum – need to fake their data?
Craigs speech after day two: https://youtu.be/u3B_1H6HTkg
Transcript of Craig Murray’s speech: https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/02/your-man-in-the-public-gallery-assange-hearing-day-1/comment-page-4/#comment-924985
Poor woman. Sounds as if she is beyond redemption. One of the most wickedly disingenuous things these broadcasters do is claim a kind of neutrality that is frankly just delusional, and hide behind the silly idea of balanced reporting. In a decent world, she would have been sacked the first minute into that interview.
IT is sad but it is true.Inhabitants of the so called Western Democracies think they are free,think they live in a free world .But it is not so.Roger Waters gave some names:Julián Assange at first but not the only one.He named Amir azziz,a young poet and activist in Nueva Dehly,fighter against racism. Chelsea Manning in jail for refusing making statements against Julián Assange.Daniel Hale who was part of a drone program firing against Afganisthan from a mobile command on Nevada .He couldn’t bear his pain and denounced it.Now he is un prison waiting for a trial.Men And women fighting in Chile,Bolivia,Ecuador,Colombia,Argentine.Social leaders,Latín American Journalusts,Mexican .Thousands and hundreds killed day by day.Palestinians…The list of víctims is endless and growlng.But voices of those who think they are living free in the so called Western Democracies are not heard as loudly as they should although they are under Dictatorship too.As well as we are.Evil and cruel people like Hillary Clintn Joe Bolton and so many others have turned this world into HELL. A CORRUPT JUDGE is directing the trial against Julián Assange, in a hidden place far from the centre of London.A small place that these awfull people have installed by Belmarsh,far from everywhere useful to dictate their Injust sentences.Few seats for the audiencias.Most of them occupied by US Officials who dictate to the corrupt Judge what She must do.LET US DON’T ALLOW THESE. Donald Trump should withdraw his request.Hillary Clinton lost the elections because American People don’t want her anymore.That was nothing to do with WikiLeaks.UK Government should reject Extradition
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Your report on day 1 of Assange hearing is amazing. Thank you so much.
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Has Mr. Roger Waters even bothered to read Mr. Modi’s CAA bill’s wording? If he had, he wouldn’t be calling it “fascist citizenship bill”. The legislation applies to those who were “forced or compelled to seek shelter in India due to persecution on the ground of religion”. In other words, it allows Paksitani Hindus/Sikhs (who are minorities in Pakistani and who fled to India after persecution) to seek Indian citizenship.
I don’t recall Rogers speaking out against the persecution of Hindus/Sikhs/Christian in Pakistan.
Second name is Aamir Aziz, Aamir is a young poet and activist in Delhi involved in the fight against Modi and his rascist Citizenship law.
Roger Waters is an ignoramus on Indian subcontinent and its history. Giving shelter to persecuted minorities from surrounding Islamic states is racism from Modi – India?? If he want to use the word racism he can address Pakistan’s military and un-uniformed jihadis, who have many supporters (and Arab oil money) in the UK too. The new CAA law doesn’t apply to any Indian citizens – so including Muslims. The same applies to NRC and other proposals.
This nonsense devalues his statements in favor of Julian Assange in the eyes of over 1 billion non-Muslims around the globe.
1 billion Hindus and Sikhs