Julian Assange remains in a maximum security jail, despite never being sentenced for anything but a long ago served spell for bail-jumping, and despite the US Government’s request for extradition having been refused.
It is approaching six months since I was in court to hear the decision rejecting Julian’s extradition, and it was in the same week that Baraitser ordered Julian be kept in jail pending a US appeal. Since then the US has submitted its appeal, which is somewhat intemperate in its efforts to discredit a number of highly distinguished expert witnesses at the hearing. The defence has submitted its response, including notice of points, where Baraitser found for the US, that the defence intend to counter-appeal.
Then for over three months – nothing. The High Court has not only not set a date for the US appeal, it has not even indicated if the US appeal meets the bar to be heard – there is some thought that the appeal lacks any arguable points of law and may be simply rejected. But the seemingly leisurely approach of the High Court to looking at the matter is entirely inappropriate given that, in the meantime, an innocent man is suffering the most extreme form of incarceration available in the UK.
Assange’s status is that his extradition has been rejected. He ought not to be in jail at all, let alone in such harsh conditions.
By contrast, I am sitting in my study despite being sentenced to eight months in jail. I am at liberty while the Supreme Court decides whether to hear my appeal. My lawyers believe, from their contact with the court administrators, that it is entirely possible that the Supreme Court will decide on whether to take my appeal, within the four week suspension of my jail sentence granted by Lady Dorrian. This is because otherwise I might be imprisoned.
Why can the Supreme Court potentially decide whether to hear my appeal so quickly due to the threat of imprisonment, when the High Court is taking six times or more as long to decide whether to hear the US appeal, when an innocent man is already imprisoned? It makes no sense.
It is not due to complexity: while of course Julian’s case is more important, any points of law at issue in the US appeal are notably less complex than in my own appeal. To me, the only possible explanation is the determination of the state to keep Julian imprisoned at all costs.
It is now plain that Biden intends to press forward with the charging of Julian, a publisher and journalist, under the Espionage Act. This despite the opposition, however belated, of every major news organisation and every major civil liberties oriented NGO. Biden’s recent European trip was choreographed to establish his full credentials as a Cold War warrior and to ensure a western orthodoxy of hostility towards China. Biden is proving, as predicted, a perfect representative of the security and military state.
Having seen off the $15 minimum wage and proposals for meaningful “New Deal” expenditure, Biden can get down to the serious neo-liberal work of improving the fortunes of the ultra-wealthy.
In October 2020, I published a post specifically about the massive suppression on the internet of information about the corrupt dealings of Joe and Hunter Biden, particularly in Ukraine. On 10 February 2021 I published an article about the sacking of Nathan Robinson from the Guardian, which included his statement that the Guardian had spiked his column about Hunter Biden’s corruption.
Russell Brand caused a stir last week when he spoke about the suppression of information about Biden corruption, along precisely the lines of my article last October. He was of course immediately “othered”, as has been Glenn Greenwald.
There is a fascinating phenomenon in western democracies of fake liberal left political parties acting as enablers of the global billionaire elite. Biden, Starmer, Sturgeon, Macron, Trudeau, Sanchez, all pretend to be some kind of alternative to rampant neo-liberalism while acting as its most effective enablers. All are very willing advocates of not just neo-liberalism but the military and security complex and the NATO cold war stance, plus companions in the steady ratcheting down on civil liberties. None has the slightest intention of closing the gap between ordinary people and the super-wealthy.
The democracy of false choice appears to be a decent working title for the current state of western society.
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Assange is in prison for no other reason than being too smart for these times. Like Gramsci in the 20s / 30s
It’s perfectly clear that the offences that Assange and Murray have been accused of exist in Law in the minds of their accusers, but don’t actually exist in existing Law. Question is, can you punish anybody for doing something that is clearly not against the Law, just because you and others would like and intend to tbring in that non-existent Law at some point in the future.
Winging it isn’t in it. Maybe Tom Baker could give some advice.
Apparently the legal word for the opposite of retrospective is prospective, Law that governs the future.
To comply with retrospective Law, you would have to be clairvoyant maybe?
Well said. Joe Biden has always been the Empire pol par excellence, who went further than anyone else in branding Julian a terrorist. He is also perhaps the greatest corporate stooge in one of the world’s great corporate-owned political parties. Liberal-centrist media ignores Biden’s career long essence and will continue gaslighting us about him until the day he dies
Give Biden his due, he won a fake election despite being dead (or undead).
Many Americans would say it helped that the dead voted for him, and he also promises to bring back the soul of America… does this make him the first necromancer to be elected President?
We’ve brought witch burnings back in the West, along with trial by ordeal, and we now chase after phantoms while self-assured we’ve overcome the superstition, injustice, and foolishness of our past, as we serfs still struggle against our masters and desperately try to put an end to both plague and plight – yet remain unable to find the real witch, whose black magic must surely be the source of our suffering!
Many Americans say a lot of very stupid things.
Do you have any evidence that dead people voted for Biden, or that the election was in any way fraudulent? I hear lots of assertions – made very loudly, in fairness – but no _actual_ evidence whatsoever. None has been brought to a court of law, for instance, despite Trump scamming the stupid and gullible (i.e. his supporters) out of vast amounts of money to supposedly fight such cases.
some of the primary results were fraudulent (see Iowa) but I know of no evidence that the biden bowl of crap had to use fraud to beat the trump bowl of crap.
Even the most casual investigation of the US voting regime reveals 50 different standards and voter rolls that have not been up to date for decades.
Its a difficult concept for us in western Europe to grasp, but electoral fraud is baked into US elections, and likely has been for at least 200 years if not more.
different standards are baked in to the system yes. that doesn’t mean fraud. and there is precious little actual evidence of actual voter fraud, as opposed to government inspired voter fraud (which would include Bush’s victory over Gore in 2000, another race where it may not have mattered on the warmongering imperialist front won, just like Trump vs Biden.)
On that basis Glenn, Al Gore had no case to answer in regards to supposed electoral fraud during the 2000 USA presidential vote.
There is no evidence and no court cases of election fraud when the fraudsters take power. Look at the irregularities in the UK postal vote company – if that’s not worth an investigation I don’t know what is.
Another point is that GE’s in the West have become a vote of endorsement for the media establishment’s already chosen puppet. Even if the vote is fixed it makes no real difference to the nature and behaviour of the government other than the domestic misery that they can get away with inflicting on the population.
“Do you have any evidence that dead people voted for Biden”
Yup. He’s a Democrat.
there was lots of fraud in florida in 2000. not sure what “al gore had no case to answer” means, but in the long run he was a neoliberal like clinton, so the foreign policy wouldnt have been much differerent, but he might have been more restrained than bush jr.
American elections have always been fraudulent, with money and power exerting decisive influence. Moreover, I suspect most Americans know that very well, but are happy to go along with it, as in their book money and power are the new equivalents of virtue and holiness.
The Democrats just had to push the fraud a little too far in order to get the otherwise unelectable elected. Now there is indignation because the Republicans are making a fuss about the normal, standard electoral fraud from which they have benefited just as much as anyone over the centuries.
If anyone has the patience to read the following paragraphs quoted (as usual) from Gustavus Myers’ “History of the Great American Fortunes”, they will see that nothing at all has changed since the 19th century. Except, perhaps, that the art of concealing fraud and bribery has advanced considerably, making it easier for ordinary citizens to fool themselves that they live in a fair society ruled by law.
“Laws were sold at Albany to the highest bidder. ‘It was impossible,’ Tweed testified after his downfall, ‘to do anything there without paying for it; money had to be raised for the passing of bills’.
“Every one who could in any way be used, or whose influence required subsidizing, was, in the phrase of the day, ‘taken care of’. Great sums of money were distributed outright in bribes in the legislatures by lobbyists in Vanderbilt’s pay. Supplementing this, an even more insidious system of bribery was carried on. Free passes for railroad travel were lavishly distributed; no politician was ever refused; newspaper and magazine editors, writers and reporters were always supplied with free transportation for the asking, thus insuring to a great measure their good will, and putting them under obligations not to criticize or expose plundering schemes or individuals…
“In this collision with Vanderbilt, Gould learned a sharp lesson he thereafter never overlooked; namely, that it was not sufficient to bribe common councils and legislatures; he, too, must own his judges.
“[Gould’s] corrupt operations, he indifferently testified, extended into four different States. ‘In a Republican district I was a Republican; in a Democratic district, a Democrat; in a doubtful district I was doubtful; but I was always for Erie’. The funds that he used in widespread corruption came obviously from the proceeds of his great thefts; and he might have added, with equal truth, that with this stolen money he was able to employ some of the most eminent lawyers of the day, and purchase judges…”
“Were the bribers ever punished, their illicitly gotten charters declared forfeited, and themselves placed under the ban of virtuous society? Far, very far, from it! The men who did the bribing were of the very pinnacle of social power, elegance, and position, or quickly leaped to that height by reason of their wealth…
“It was a society essentially built upon money; consequently he who was dexterous enough to get possession of the spoils, experienced no difficulty in establishing his place among the elect and anointed. His frauds were forgotten or ignored; only the fact that he was a rich man was remembered. And yet, what is more natural than to seek, and accept, the obeisance lavished upon property, in a scheme of society where property is crowned as the ruling power?”
Neatly and accurately summarised there Tom.
People need to realise that the USA is essentially powered by two great motors, those being Bullshit, and Corruption.
Thing is, when your economy is close to 25% of planetary economic activity, and you have 4% of the planets population, its a game that can gather in rich spoils 🙂
Yes, and any investigation into the fake election was suppressed and censored by Big Media and the corrupt Judicial system, as fully as any investigation into the contents of the Biden laptop were suppressed and censored initially by the FBI, (who had had the laptop for over a year), and subsequently by Big Media. By my reckoning, that doesn’t leave many (any?) branches of the US government that aren’t corrupt fraudsters.
Would that “big media” happen to include Fox News, which is the largest of the “news” broadcasters? You know the one – it campaigns relentlessly for the Christian Fascist Death-cult Party (officially called the Republicans), and has done for many years.
Don’t they count as MSM to you? What about the even more whacked out OAN?
They did pretend the voting machines were fraudulent, but had to rapidly walk that back because they lacked anything with which to substantiate the claim, such as proof.
Now you mention the Justice system – would that be the one packed with Christian Fascists during the Trump era, from the Supreme Court on down?
Shame nobody actually took on my challenge, which was to refer to actual proof that fraud had assisted Biden. Nobody brought it to a court, you see, because lies cannot be told in court without consequences. Whereas they can be plastered all over the place by Trump supporters – see above for examples.
Well, if being a corporate stooge is the royal road to fame and fortune (it is), why not go the whole hog and be the ultimate corporate stooge?
Indeed, the personality cult posing as a political party that is Sturgeon’s SNP is all but owned by the US State Department.
Who signed the HoC letter to Biden to request he call off Julian’s persecution? The ALBA two, Joanna Cherry and Tommy Shephard.
Meanwhile, John Nicolson praises, “brave young journalist Roman Protasevich” in the recent Commons debate on press freedom. Protasevich fought with the Azov Battalion. Nicolson knows what he’s doing. His first paid employment was as speechwriter to Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Moynihan sat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
The way this case ends shall set the template for Western press freedom for a very long time to come.
Isn’t this what ‘habeus corpus’ is supposed to be all about?
An oppressive state, or instance of the state is holding someone in prison without cause: they are required to show cause or the person goes free.
‘Cause’ cannot mean “we – or some other state somewhere in the world – *might* want to charge him with *something* at some point, who knows?”.
That ’cause’ could be applied to literally anyone at any time.
Since 9/11 (and probably earlier) and the obscenity that is Guantanamo Bay, justice has been cancelled. Now Governments, and specifically the USA, can do what they want, wherever they want, with no fear of opposition virtually anywhere on the Planet. This is the new reality and there is no hope for any of us while the ‘Great Satan’ exists.
Your mention of Habeas Corpus got me googling.
Why isn’t Assange a prime subject for a Writ?
“In God we trust” can’t imagine it’s reciprocated.
Blair said he would take responsibility for Iraq.
By the dodgy theology of the vicarious atonement of sins Blair can easily appoint Julian Assange to carry the blame for him. Always carry a couple of dodgy dogmas in your breast pocket for occasions like these.
Biden says , Alzheimer’s helps too.
Succinct, informed and damning post — many thanks.
“Jail” is for Julian & “the study” is for you are only because that is exactly where they want the two of you to be! For right now anyways.
Welcome to the new world of dictators who can make it appear as if people are “free” and that there still is a “justice” system that treats people fairly.
Control through smoke and mirrors!
So what happened to the confront Russia narrative then? I thought it was widely acknowledged NATO cannot fight two major conflicts at once. So why sntagonise China as well?
Together China and Russia would kick NATO’s ass. Biden thus seems like a dangerous lunatic loose in the asylum.
Maybe I should start building a bomb shelter with filtered air. China hasn’t signed a lot of the conventions. They are also not my enemy just like Russia isn’t.
“NATO cannot fight two major conflicts at once”
Can NATO fight one major conflict?
I think the strategy of the empire is to try to engineer regime change in its enemies through external pressure of all kinds and internal subsidised subversion.
NATO would have absolutely no chance against any opponent with proper armed forces and modern weapons. But that’s not what it’s for. NATO is nothing more than a political mechanism to allow the leaders of subject nations to gather together and yap at “adversaries” and “antagonists” whom they are powerless to harm.
Britain’s pretence of threatening Russia and China is perhaps the most pitiful and shameful of all, given that a century ago it was a real world power. But that’s why ity is ruled by people like Johnson. “Cometh the hour, cometh the pitiful whingeing coward”. It does apparently impress the British voters, though.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WCMtHOtPXkw/ViK0KA7c4VI/AAAAAAAABlE/38hYC833eG8/s640/CRgq-gcUkAEeq38.png
I think ‘they’ know that fossil fuels and process heat for steel & cement, and uranium, cobalt, copper, and even helium needed for IC manufacture, etc. (the list is VERY long) are all going to run out in the next few decades = global collapse of civilisation as we’ve known it for the last few centuries – unless you believe in magic fairy unicorns & deny thermodynamics.
“The democracy of false choice appears to be a decent working title for the current state of western society.”
No need for neologisms, it’s fascism.
Their pro-war media, BBC, France 24, German DW and the rest of them, no longer have full the stage to themselves. The so-called Labour Party just lost an election, previous huge majority being reduced to only a loss of 600 odd. Pretend impostors such as the The Young Turks TYT in the States now fully exposed after smearing Aaron Maté and Jimmy Dore. Craig and Independent journalists have huge readerships. The Houthis have shown that poor people can use cheap drones to withstand billion dollar budgets. Col Lawrence Wilkerson gives Israel twenty years. The Arab Street is walking in one direction now. Neo Fascists in Ukraine didn’t get the expected backing from Uncle Sam, who is all mouth. Southern countries want trade with China, which is now on its next five year plan to catch up on semi conductors and super chips. The EU is made a total laughing stock by the likes of Clare Daly. I see much to be positive about. The price the “Collective West” will pay for its treatment of Julian and Imperial Barbarism can be seen already on its own degeneration. But will the Cretins change course? No
As far as I know, Labour have never had a majority, huge or otherwise, in Chesham & Amersham – though, as you stated, they did get reduced to their lowest post-war by-election tally, with a mere 622. Interestingly enough (for me at least), the Fib Dems also posted their lowest and joint-second lowest numbers of by-election votes this year, in Airdrie & Shotts and Hartlepool respectively.
Be interesting to see if Galloway and his Workers Party can push Labour into third in Batley & Spen in just over a week’s time. I don’t think he can win – but then I thought that about Bradford West in 2012. On a related note, judging by (some of) the glossy leaflets they’ve been pushing though letterboxes in (parts of) the constituency, Labour appear to have suddenly become concerned about the plight of Muslims in Palestine, Kashmir and elsewhere. Funny that, innit.
https://twitter.com/AmandeepBhogal/status/1404394868240158723
Its an absolute disgrace that Julian Assange hasn’t been released, in my opinion the rule of law has been corrupted to be used against Assange to hold him in prison under a kind of false legality. The same kind of false injustice is currently being used against you Craig, I really don’t understand the reticence of mainstream journalists in defending Assange or yourself, for any one of them could next to end up between the crosshairs of the judiciary, though looking at the standard of journalism in England and Scotland, one could easily think that and be right that most of them are compliant, being funded by the BBC, Westminster and Holyrood.
Anyone who has read “Family Of Secrets” by Russ Baker, will know that if Biden shows the slightest Socialist leaning, he will be out on his ear – by any method the bunker people can get away with.
Expecting a POTUS, of any proclaimed political leaning, to upset the current cosy world order is simply naive.
Whoever these bunker people are they don’t need to worry about this president. He was a key architect of the Democratic Party’s rightward turn, ushering in the end of the New Deal order and enabling the political takeover of the radical right. During fifty years in Washington he often outdid even Reagan, Gingrich, and Bush, assisting the right-wing war against the working class, and ultimately paving the way for Trump.
Last year he promised the interests who bankroll him that nothing would change if he got into the White House, which is why he was always the preferred nominee of his party and the media.
plus the shell of biden is probably even more compliant than mentally competent biden. just have to keep him away from the press, which is a bunch of lapdogs anyway.
The Rule of Law has ceased to exist in cases such as Assange and Amb Murray. Justice has become political, pure and simple. Freedom of the press has similarly been expunged given its loss of profitability and have become simple echo chambers for the approved narrative with journalists reduced to being PR scribes. Until monopolies can be broken and corporate power democratised (some hope!) we are likely to continue our downward decline into a new feudalism with the evisceration of the middle classes and an ever expanding underclass eventually leading to violent opposition, a depression and maybe war. We are certainly at the right place in the 80 years cycle for such an eventuality with the drums against Russia and China beating ever louder.
Johnson is well known for not being much bothered about the law. In this case, I’m not even sure it’s reached his attention.
What I don’t understand is why there isn’t a case of the type ‘habeas corpus’ to force the authorities to make a case why the appeal hasn’t been judged, and why Assange should not be released in the meantime.
“What I don’t understand is why there isn’t a case of the type ‘habeas corpus’ to force the authorities to make a case why the appeal hasn’t been judged, and why Assange should not be released in the meantime.”
Because, when push comes to shove, you realise that the law is only for the little people to obey.
this case makes no sense to me, other than the authorities are going to keep him in jail, where they hope he will soon die, by any means necessary, as a useful object lesson to anybody who might be tempted to commit journalism.
Biden is acting as predicted, settling down the situation at home with a coherent strategy to address Covid-19, unlike Trump, and other ameliorative measures and trading these off against an American foreign imperialist strategy abroad. If that is the case he has more to lose by bringing Julian Assange on to home territory, where Julian has received more support from the not inconsiderable independent media, which is likely to press his case and lift the cover of the Biden family’s murky dealings in doing so.
The delay in Julian Assange’s case might be one of political dithering.
At the same time there is undoubtedly a logjam in the justice system ostensibly but not necessarily caused by the Covid-19 situation, which can act as a convenient smokescreen for avoiding taking politically inconvenient decisions.
What is required is a recognition by the justice system that it is not delivering justice, and the need to build some mitigation into the delays such as accepting that Craig has already served more than his 8 months in terms of the stress and uncertainty created by the maladministration of justice.
It is also depressing is that there is no challenging by our elected representatives of either the English or Scottish governments of the fundamental damage that they, the governments, are inflicting on democratic values.
How lucky for Snowden not to follow Assange’s example and not to seek refuge in Ecuador? Thanks to the illegal forced landing of the presidential plane of Evo Morales.
“This despite the opposition, however belated, of every major news organisation”
Belated, grudging and insincere Also barely visible, vanishingly fleeting, and long gone. Contrast with the vast wall of noise and genuine howls of outrage on behalf of arch Establishment journo Nick Watt when he was yelled at outside Parliament.
Keeping Julian Assange remains in a maximum security jail despite never being sentenced does serve a purpose: it puts a pirate flag on GB (again), worldwide visible thanks to Internet.
Any lecturing from London about foreign injustice can now be countered with two words: Julian Assange.
British “Common law” is shown to be run by common court criminals. Craig Murray’s own case is a close second proof.
The big economic bomb that will go off is if the US passes Biden’s $6 trillion budget – which is an insanely staggeringly large amount of money that can only further damage the value and credibility of the dollar as a global reserve currency. Meanwhile the US/UK are very busy behind the scenes assembling a global political and military coalition against China using every tactic in their extensive toolbox.
They sincerely believe that they can create as much “money” as they like out of thin air, and their economy will keep right on delivering the expected standard of luxurious living.
Of course to believe that you have to ignore the tens of millions living in wretched poverty – but they find that easy.
It’s a modern cargo cult: Americans honestly believe that the world not only owes them a living, but a luxurious, even sybaritic living. Even when most of the actual stuff comes from China, which could stop the flow whenever it likes.
https://youtu.be/Yp6AMudo_tc
Biden’s pretend news conference with pre selected friendly media muppets at the Summit.
After the hilarious hypocrisy at 12:06, wondering what people would think “if” America was seen to interfere in other countries’ elections (?!?)
His crocodile tears for Navalny & contrived concern were he to die in custody were truly sickening.
“Hey, Joe, you’ve had Jullian banged up for over a decade. You gonna keep him in a cage till he’s dead?”
Biden’s filthy history of war mongering, creepy fondling & doddering senility were a plain matter of record.
That so many fake liberals were cheerleading this entirely predictable t/fool of a malicious status quo, jerking off on their “Trump is the devil” band wagon to the exclusion of all rational or principled thoughts, is perhaps more despicable than the ‘to be expected’ lies of political puppets.
But this ‘trendy’ effort to liberally lynch & consign to the censors’ dustbin all those who can be framed for not embracing their ideological leash, seems to be all too ‘normal’ & not at all ‘new’.
So Assange remains in a cage, Kamala keeps the cages full of lonesome children & the border hostile, Biden keeps Trump’s tax cuts for those of ‘high net worth’ – & no living wage or universal health care for the ‘worthless’, & the bombs, occupation, lootin’ & shootin’ continue…… & let’s not forget our moral duty, according to those who honestly & historically have our best interests at heart (?), to get jabbed & tagged under threat of strangling the working poor of the world into oblivion or social exclusion.
If folk had had the backbone to dig into Killary’s illegal email stash, revealing the DNC’s efforts to kibosh Bernie & the other Libyan related correspondence, instead of sucking on the phallic fraud of the MSM’s “RussiaGate & the Orange man”, perhaps they wouldn’t look so fkn sycophantically inept & irrelevant today.
Guess I’m starting to see how the Nazi’s got away with calling themselves Socialists…….. & I’m a socialist !?! ….. but with a small ‘s’…… & a big heart :-))))
“There is a fascinating phenomenon in western democracies of fake liberal left political parties acting as enablers of the global billionaire elite”.
The key word, here as everywhere, is “fake”. Although the recently popular term “fake news” is itself as fake as plastic ebony, it is clear that everything in the administration of Western societies has been painstakingly devised to fool the broad masses into believing that they are “free”.
There is a superficially credible simulation of democracy, with much voting theatre, debating theatre, and party political theatre. And there is a rather less whole-hearted simulation of justice – spoiled from the outset by the astonishing cost and delays of even the most basic forms of legal action. (Why should recourse to law be an expensive luxury available only to the very rich or those with many friends willing to subscribe?)
Mr Assange’s fault is that he seriously annoyed some of the most powerful members of the global elite. The US government assumes, by right, that everything in the world belongs to it and that no one may interfere with that right, on pain of death (perhaps after torture). No Great King of Persia or Japanese shogun could be more arbitrarily cruel.
As for the abject obedience displayed by the “UK government” (ha!) to its masters in Washington, that merely continues a tradition dating back to 1940 (at least). Although FDR may have been disappointed that Hitler failed to conquer Britain (Joe Kennedy certainly was), the grand plan unrolled smoothly as soon as Churchill appealed for US funds to help Britain stay in the war. Like all professional creditors, the Americans doled out money and other war supplies – always in return for collateral of far greater value. Technical innovations such as radar, the jet engine, encryption and decryption equipment (Alan Turing himself went to Bell Labs to spell out the basics), the jet engine, penicillin and even a good deal of early nuclear know-how were handed over absolutely free of charge – and mostly ended up as legally American property.
Not satisfied by that, Washington insisted on repayment of the debts – the last instalment was paid, as I remember, about 2005. The vicious rationing that continued in Britain until 1954 was largely due to American control of the purse strings. And the utter destruction of Britain’s flourishing aerospace industry (see “Empire of the Clouds”, passim) and computer industry also contributed to the US plan to strip Britain of all power and wealth, and reduce it to slave status.
Sorry about the repetition of “the jet engine”. On second thoughts, that might be subconsciously deliberate, as aerospace secrets were handed over many times – occasionally the British government went so far as to give the USA all documents and tools, and insist that everything retained by British companies be destroyed! The plan was obviously to put an end to the British aerospace and computer industries, and make a present of them to the USA.
Tom Welsh. TSR2, a generation ahead of any other jet. Scrapped, jigs destroyed, in return its alleged for IMF loan.
Spot on Tom. It’s become obvious that the USA’s golden period during the 50’s and 60’s was built entirely on the asset stripping of various nation’s following the war. Not just physical assets but intellectual assets as well – and probably cultural assets. Japan, Germany, Britain all victims of this theft along with many others. And our governments were, and still are, totally complicit – beware the enemy within !
Exactly, Stevie. And it was all planned far in advance. As long ago as 1890 the people who owned the USA were planning to destroy Germany – the main “antagonist” at that time. And did they ever make a thorough job of it! Given that the period of peace 1919-1939 was just a breathing space in what was essentially one single world war – necessary to bring up a fresh generation of cannon fodder – it is instructive to contrast Germany in 1910 with Germany in 1945. That is what happens when you are perceived to be in the way of the USA.
Werner von Braun’s expertise in all things rocket, as well as Mengele’s dastardly arrived at genetic research has found willing appreciation by the victors, its historic.
The slow eradication of free speech, dressed up in emergency laws and or state of war legislation against whistle blowers is going to be the next project to arrive at their kind of fascism.
I fear for Julian, he seems to be destined to rot in Hellmarsh until he ‘falls ill’. I cannot understand the jovial nastiness of this polit- judiciary supporting an unaccountable hyst by this Tory Government and their UKIP charges.
It was quite ludicrous how in Britain we invented so many things, yet all given away, perhaps most galling computers.
Michael, I always warm to Alan Turing – his genius, his personality, even his witty put-downs.
‘In December 1946 Wilkes sent his technical proposal for the EDSAC to Womersley. Womersley in turn sought the advice of his electronic computer expert, Turing. Turing was thoroughly dismissive of the EDSAC. He wrote:
‘“The ‘code’ which he [Wilkes] suggests is however very contrary to the line of development here, and much more in the American tradition of solving one’s difficulties by means of much equipment rather than by thought. I should imagine that to put his code (which is advertised as ‘reduced to the simplest possible form’) into effect would require a very much more complex control circuit than is proposed in our full-size machine… It is clearly rank folly to develop a complex control merely for the sake of a pilot model”’.
From “Alan Turing and his Contemporaries: Building the World’s First Computers”, edited by Simon Lavington.
germany was not the main antagonist of the usa in 1890, nor in the 1930’s for that matter. there was a lot of popular support for the fascists, hitler was time’s “man of the year”, german american bunds were numerous. wilson glommed onto ww1 and accompanied it with a lot of propaganda–“the bloody hun”–to sell the war to an unwilling populace, but the powers that be feared russia much more than germany in the 30’s, and you still have people arguing that the u.s. fought the wrong war.
Indeed, in the 1930s the US considered the British Empire, whose markets were closed to American products through preferences, its enemy and even prepared to attack Canada. Gen McArthur was a strong advocate and airports were built along the border for the attacks. Roosevelt eventually nixed the plan.
Respectfully, pretzelattack, it seems you might have misunderstood Tom Welsh’s “the people who owned the USA”.
Tim Berners-Lee comes to mind as the British inventor of the World Wide Web and the first web browser. His parents worked on the first commercially built computer, the Ferranti Mark 1. Interestingly a version of this computer made the earliest known recording of digital computer-generated music with programming by a friend of Alan Turing.
Now the Internet is controlled by the U.S. and the U.S. government despite privatisation could arbitrarily use the root DNS zones as a vehicle for its geopolitical agenda. Fall out with Google and web advertising becomes problematic at the fundamental organic level forcing companies to invest heavily to gain exposure, influence and authority.
US authorities have apparently seized the web domains of Iran’s international media outlets Press TV and Al-Alam, along with the Yemeni TV channel Al Masirah, run by the Houthi faction, and an Iraqi Shia satellite channel.
Visitors to the three domains were greeted on Tuesday with a notice that they were seized under US laws that allow civil and criminal forfeiture of property involved in “trafficking in nuclear, chemical, biological, or radiological weapons technology or material, or the manufacture, importation, sale, or distribution of a controlled substance.”
In regard to USA ‘seizing web domains’ I wonder if any commenter could provide a brief explanation of how the internet hierarchy works that would allow the USA to disable websites potentially anywhere within the world?
Perhaps Assange’s team could consider approaching Prince Charles with a submission. Surely its is within Prince Charles’s mandate as the Queen’s representative to assist in maintaining UK’s justice status at the level it has taken centuries to reach. Nothing to do with forming an opinion on the merits of the case.
The way things stand at the moment only the worst of tin pot dictatorial fascist states operate in the current manner.
I think Prince Charles would prove to be a broken reed. Although equipped with a decent brain and having inherited a great capacity for work and a conscience, he seems to have drunk the Kool-Aid and ordered another dozen bottles. I like him personally, but I do not expect him to act or speak independently.
A few years ago, on a visit to the USA, he made some unsolicited remarks about Mr Putin which, as far as I am concerned, proved that he is a hopeless case.
“Biden, Starmer, Sturgeon, Macron, Trudeau, Sanchez, all pretend to be some kind of alternative to rampant neo-liberalism while acting as its most effective enablers. All are very willing advocates of not just neo-liberalism but the military and security complex and the NATO cold war stance, plus companions in the steady ratcheting down on civil liberties. None has the slightest intention of closing the gap between ordinary people and the super-wealthy.”
Now you are getting to the crux of our problems.
Julian was holed up in the Embassy, then, almost certainly arrested and removed in a fashion that should not have been legal.
Perhaps that arrest and removal, should be looked at afresh.
Who was at the apex of the choice to enact that dastardly rendition?
After all rendition is not supposed to be legal.
Laws do not apply to the Great Satan. They are for the lesser breeds.
The major news organisations support JA only as a rope supports a hanging man. They have never tried to investigate his epoch-defining case, but instead publish false information about him.
As for the liberal left of politics, it is not fake. It is exactly what we see. Many years ago Blair told the socialist Left at a Labour conference, “it’s worse than you think…we actually believe this stuff”. The unhinged, vicious treatment of Corbyn too – whether by Labour, Lib Dem, Greens or SNP – ought to have removed any lingering illusions that these people are in some way faking being neoliberal imperialists.
Great new article by Jonathan Cook about, inter alia, corporate media.
Yes it is very good, thanks.
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2021-06-22/greenwald-trump-happened/
yes, very good article from Cook & a very important conversation that needs to be had.
Youwontbegrinningsoon
Trump shifted the weight in the school bus from the right side to the left. Suddenly the sufferings of working class Americans at the hands of Democrat exporters of manufacturing to China were being addressed, the sufferings of the victims of Obama’s Islamic State were not just addressed but Obama’s Islamic State was crushed.
The fact that Obama the Democrat was now in partnership with the most right wing entity on earth gave Republican Trump the opportunity to grab the voters on the left.
Biden has told the kids to all sit in their right places and he promises won’t do the rightward lurch of Obama, and the republicans mustn’t do the leftward lurch of Trump.
We’re supposed to be the world leaders. How do you think we look to outsiders if we keep lurching off the road. Just calm down, kids.
And possibly the world is s safer place now that the Left has seen what happens when it makes an alliance with the foaming Right Islamists. In other words , the right grabs their legitimacy as representatives of the people and sanity.
There’s always the hard way to find things out for those not bright enough to foresee it.
Bright. Aye good self description.
‘It makes no sense’
That’s the only way to sum it all up really. Politics in Britain. It makes no sense. Economics in Britain. It makes no sense. Law in Britain. It makes no sense. Life in Britain. Etc.
It will continue thus till we demolish the class system and stop being caged turkeys.
Actually economics everywhere makes sense, once you realise that most of the economists are paid by the establishment and say whatever it wants. (Like the media, come to think of it).
Honourable exceptions: Michael Hudson, Steve Keen, and a few others. You can usually tell, because their explanations make sense and are crystal clear, whereas most economists are paid to obfuscate and confuse before concluding that everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.
Interesting to see Russell Brand’s face again. Haven’t seen him since 2011 or so.
Somehow he seems to have got disappeared. Did he suffer some smear or false allegations too, which I don’t know about? I was never a follower, but I do remember him firing up the youth about a decade ago.
He has his own YouTube channel. Has some good and bad guests putting forward their views. The guest explaining the Gaza Seige was allowed to speak without interruption! Brand also had an Israeli supporter on. Lets hope he gets Craig on.
https://twitter.com/jeremycorbyn/status/1407342748949221388?s=20
Jeremy Corbyn videoing his plea to the Council for Europe to intervene on Julian Assange’s behalf. He mentions the letter from MPs to Biden. At least he is trying to do something.
Crispa: thank you for this link, which has cheered me up somewhat. Well done Jeremy!
“There is a fascinating phenomenon in western democracies of fake liberal left political parties acting as enablers of the global billionaire elite. Biden, Starmer, Sturgeon, Macron, Trudeau, Sanchez”
Craig, I’m just not so sure why – today of days – you have to lump “Sanchez” in that list.
I do assume you are referring to the President of Spain, Pedro Sánchez. Isn’t it the case that he is the leader of a coalition government that includes the support of Podemos (Pablo Iglesias) and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (The Left Wing Republican party of Catalunya)?
Is it not the case that just today Sánchez pardoned the leader of the ERC, Oriol Junqueras in order to set him free?
Do you know that sometime ago, Junqueras, when he first became leader of the ERC, at the Sitges Economic Forum, declared his admiration for the economics of Thatcher! As someone who grew up in the midst of the miners strike and now lives very close to Sitges, I do remember reading about it very vividly. BTW Gerhard Schröder was in the audience.
If only I had bookmarked the article!
As a note, my understanding is that ALL elected political parties are in some sense compromised by the “billionaire elite”.
I’m no lawyer but Julian Assange has done his time for jumping British Bail.
So, the only reason he is still in jail must be for something that he might do if he is released.
That is : he is released and he legs it to the Cuban Embassy or some other sympathetic Embassy.
I heard that the French have offered him asylum but maybe Uncle Joe ( capitalist not communist ) has had a word in Macron’s ear.
Basically in my view the UK are holding Assange so that he can’t do what he did last time – that is
seek legal asylum in a non aligned Embassy.
As usual the Yanks say jump and the poodle like British governments ask – How High?
I’m no lawyer either Mark, but your assumption that Julian would leave his family and children in London, are assumptions without evidence or even signs of intention.
Julian fully respected his bail when staying in Norfolk, checking in as required into Beccles police station, something ignored by the corpo-rat media and the all knowing judiciary.
He has no need to run away Mark, but engage to have his life, and freedom to move, back.
He should be freed.
I hope you appreciate what he has done for the world and the price he pays as a publisher, news the other corpo- rat-media profited from after setting him up by publishing the code that opened up a vault of information that was not for public view.
He has no question to answer or feel the need to hide away. He should have a break with his family and balls to the rest, the least he deserves.
Biden should realise that he is creating opposition to his plans via his intransigence, not only in his own country, but here and Europe.
Biden is obeying his orders from the Deep State.
The Deep State is obeying it’s orders from the Rich Man and his Corporations.
nevermind
Julian Assange should have been freed as soon as he had served his UK sentence for jumping bail.
Maybe it’s a naive view but like all prisoners who do their time he should walk free like anyone else.
He has not been allowed to and instead has become an unusual and special prisoner due to the UK’s grovelling to the US.
The latest British antics in the Black Sea is another example of the UK doing the US’ bidding.
Assange is in jail because the British State are holding him on something he might do.
Or he might not do – they don’t know what he will do so as a safety measure they are illegally holding him prisoner on behalf of the US.
As close as to a ‘ Thoughtcrime ‘ as you can get for my money.
The penalty for jumping bail in most jurisdictions is proportional to the severity of the charges. Since there were no charges the penalty should have been in relation. Whats more because there were no charges any jumping of bail becomes null and void so it can’t be used by a judge as a pretext for keeping Assange in jail.
Did Assange’s lawyers use this line of reasoning?
Craig wrote: Biden can get down to the serious neo-liberal work of improving the fortunes of the ultra-wealthy.
The plandemic has of course empowered Blair; ordained Blair; appropriated Blair as part of the Great Reset, the World Economic Forum; the Chinese New World Order; a Global government; a Global Health, the Institute for Global Change.
War criminal Blair has called on “executive powers” to coordinate the response to the “emergency” on a global scale.
Blair sees humanity as a blight, something to be controlled and imprisoned. As the ‘great communicator’ for the ultra-wealthy Blair serves an ultra-wealthy that wants a unipolar world, one government, one digital currency, one education program, one global centre for a Fourth Industrial Revolution, one et al..
https://www.corbettreport.com/meet-the-world-economic-forum/
https://www.weforum.org/great-reset
Mark Golding
What have they done with the white cat?
…one leader, one people, one empire?