A Small Confession 89

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I have to confess that after the last court session of another tough week (and yesterday was a particularly emotional and startling court day) I went to the pub with a friend after court yesterday rather than start writing. So Friday’s report this afternoon.

Although Julian’s days in court are horrible in some ways, with 5am starts, strip searches and shackling for transport in a kind of upright fridge inside an armoured serco van, at least he gets to see us all and after the final session he gave John Pilger and I a raised fist salute as they took him down. It has definitely been better for him than effective solitary confinement all this time. Wondering what he is thinking right now back locked in his Belmarsh cell.

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89 thoughts on “A Small Confession”

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  • Per

    I would like to thank you for standing up for the truth.
    We may disagree about most things politically and i guess you would roll your eyes @ me as often i do to your writings if we knew eachother, but i do respect you and even admire you for your courage regarding the work you do for real journalists and Assange.
    Per.

    • Marmite

      Is that ‘rolling the eyes’ as in:
      1) get real?
      2) don’t be naive?
      3) tell me something I don’t know?
      Just curious, as it is not something I have found myself doing here at all.

  • Slave2PaperWithInkOn

    Craig, Thankyou for these CONSTANT updates. Far as I’m concerned you’re THE BEST journalist in the world [least on Assange ! Only joking. Gud for morale] Just re-watched the classic movie ”A Matter of Life and Death,” [David Niven] It struck me during the Final court scene – how BIASED in the U$’s favour, the jury was !! Probably not much help to you, but even back THEN, the US’s power / arrogance, WAS showing !! Cheers, again. (ps. the film is still on bbc iplayer for the next 16 days – and on youtube somewhere. Might spark an idea or three !)

    • Clark

      – “What happens to those who tell the truth?”

      Well Dane Wigington has nothing to worry about then. Tricking people that water can fall upwards under the influence of “frequency” by reposting someone’s factual, educational video about the stroboscopic effect counts as blatant deception of the gullible in my book. Trawling satellite photos of clouds and posting the one in a million that has roughly straight edges, and claiming this to be caused by the weather radar and mobile ‘phone networks is also deceptive. Wigington is either deluded or dishonest.

  • Kia Kaha

    I don’t know whether this has been mentioned before but you can follow proceedings as they happen on
    https://twitter.com/i/lists/1231878830870188032
    Courage Foundation combines many of the reporters’ tweets in real time.
    You do not have to be a subscriber to TwittyWorld to read these.
    Craig’s reports add of course a totally different dimension to it as it is very personal, well observed and served with a dash of humour even in this grim situation.
    Thank you so much Craig.
    Aroha nui

  • Willow

    Dear Mr. Murray,
    Can Assange’s legal team recall the German Journalist Goetz as a rebuttal witness as a strategy to get his testimony in the record? There has remedy to refute introduce or introduce impeachment testimony in response to the government witnesses self-serving testimony

    Additionally, I hope Assange”s legal considers that Julian Assange had a very strong motive, interest in redact/protect the names of the whistleblowers because they were his sources that Wikileaks had a relationship with, whereas the Guardian journalists Harding, et al, felt no loyalty or obligation to protect them because they were not their direct sources and had no relationship with them. Thins speak for themselves and the fact is that Julian is still in prison because he refused to reveal his source of the DNC leaks. Julian is a living saint.

    • craig Post author

      Re Goetz making a further statement, I have discussed precisely that with Julian’s lawyers and I think it will happen.

  • Der amerikanische Freund

    Craig, such willful hedonism must end!
    During the day I read the Consortium News account and the next morning I excitedly read your account. God bless you and God bless Julian!

  • giyane

    I take it we’re still in the pub for the purposes if this thread. So all topics van be freely discussed. I am thinking about whether the US or Britain are in fact democracies if the shapers if opinion , common or garden hacks, can be confined to barracks for the duration of a trial about the meaning if democracy itself.

    Are we being told that our opinions are now so unimportant that we are no longer invited to participate in the pilurical discussion about war and foreign policy.

    I live inside an immigrant community that traditionally defers political discussion to the mosque or wealth, completely regardless of their political knowledge or competence.

    Are we saying, by having no public discussion whatsoever in the subject of war whistle blowing that any body outside the Everton window ie Thstcherite worship if the market is now ineligible to even possess a view?

  • Josh R

    Important to take some R&R, Craig. Am sure Julian would want to know you are looking after yourself as well as looking after the rest of us, with your brilliant efforts to keep the Truth alive.
    Your reports, as always, are well worth waiting for.

  • Romanoff

    It just occurred to me that there is a logical consequence of the USA stating that anyone, anywhere on earth is guilty of breaching their Espionage Act if they read or have in their possession what they deem to be US government “secrets”.

    It means that any other government can equally apply or pass similar legislation which then applies to any American citizen who reads or has any of their secrets in their possession.

    So any government, anywhere can arrest an American citizen on similar charges, keep them locked up indefinitely, embark on a travesty of a trial and the USA has established the precedent that its perfectly OK to do so.

    Do they really want that?

    • FlakBlag

      You are assuming a level playing field, which is not the case. Those who control the US have (perhaps) the most capable military, (waning) control of the world financial system, and (tenuous) control of the narrative. This facilitates exceptionalism, which may be disputed in the wider world but seems near unquestioned in the halls of power at the center of the evil empire.

      • Tom Welsh

        The USA hasn’t had the most capable armed forces for some time – a fact that has been very effectively disguised by its control of the narrative (media).

        Of course such things can be assessed only in some particular context. If they went all out, the USA and Russia could completely destroy each other and much of the rest of the world. According to Daniel Ellsberg, as long ago as the 1950s US planners had no way to launch a nuclear attack on Russia without also attacking China. It was all or nothing. Perhaps that has changed.

        Other than thermonuclear Armageddon, the USA could not successfully attack Russia or China… or probably Iran. Perhaps not even Venezuela. There has been so much military porn for decades that it’s easy to overlook that the USA hasn’t won a war (alone) against a competent enemy since… let me see… well, actually, ever. It has lynched Mexico, Spain, various Latin American nations, and Grenada. It has attacked Korea and Vietnam, accomplishing nothing more than a stalemate in Korea and abject defeat in Vietnam. Recently it has attacked Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and a few others, with uniform lack of victory. More and more US troops get bogged down around the world, which control of the narrative magically represents as military control.

        • Jo

          I am sure Syria has been and is being set up as some kind of experimental playground by USA against Russia….note ever increasing USA supply convoys through al walid illegal border gate….al yang….and the games USA plays dberately harassing Russian patrols not Turkish ……trying to see what they can get away with and provoke. Thrust and parry so to speak.

          Watched greenzone last night….ye gods if there is any truth in that….realistic of the chaos certainly.

          • FlakBlag

            I think it’s at least as likely that the reverse is true. It’s clear that the US is an empire in decline, Tom Welsh’s point that their military is bogged down in several unwinnable conflicts is one indicator of this. Perhaps Syria is a Russian test (though I’m sure the Chinese are paying close attention) of what proportion of the tiger is made of paper.

        • FlakBlag

          Broadly agreed, the only point I would make is this… Perhaps the objective of the recent US wars of aggression is to seize resources, wreck countries and warn other states that this is the cost of defying US diktats, they aren’t even trying for a traditional military victory. Perhaps the aim is simply to justify the huge military budget from which so many of the cynical, cruel and amoral people you mention skim profit from. In this light their recent wars have been successful.

      • Tom Welsh

        Where the rulers of the USA do have – and have had since at least the 1840s – is a global lead in cynicism, cruelty and amorality. Which certainly has some practical advantages – but some drawbacks as well. (As when the leaders of Russia describe the US government as not capable of keeping agreements).

    • Micha Das Bach

      Seeing cookies everywhere and this trail – we can be surveillance while using a laptop or cell phone while journalists and publisher can be arrested where ever they are – because they give us information we should know when voting a next president.
      Julian Assange is tortured in Europe. What are the reactions? Each day reading your information from this trail shows the alarming situation our democracy is. THANK you for your work I am very impressed! Hope the Julian Assange will be free by the end of next week!

    • craig Post author

      Thanks Jo, I am fine. Was more tired than I expected, have slept almost all weekend. Finishing Friday’s report now – you will see why it took so long!

      • Ort

        So Friday’s report this afternoon.
        ________________________________________________

        Next time (and I hope there is a next time), perhaps choose an ambiguous but encouraging phrase like “So Friday’s report will follow shortly.” This may at least postpone concerned “wellness checks” or anxious inquiries from readers who hang on your every word.

        I’m certain that you had every intention of publishing the report “this afternoon”, but we are all subject to being derailed because “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”. I look forward to reading the report at your leisure, or earliest convenience. Cheers. 😉

  • M.J.

    Even if the Americans succeeded in extraditing Assange they would have to give him a fair trial like Ellsberg, and most likely they would end up with egg on their faces again. Makes you wonder why they bother.

    • Piotr+Berman

      Why gods chained Prometheus to a rock and subjected to daily torture? To deter further leaks of information to mortals. It is not the sentence but the terrifying spectacle that matters.

  • Blissex

    «horrible in some ways, with 5am starts, strip searches and shackling for transport in a kind of upright fridge inside an armoured serco van»

    That’s pretty nasty, but then usually these details only come up when those on the receiving end are nice middle class people, “one of ours”. Many people ignore or approve them when they are applied to “nasty people”, every day, every day.

  • Free Assange Polska

    Thank you is not enough..
    I hope you really enjoyed that more than well deserved drink.
    Makes me think.. one day soon..a huge party..with you, Julian, and all all the rest of us..
    Until then, we’ll keep fighting.

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