{"id":140790,"date":"2019-08-19T12:00:42","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T11:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=140790"},"modified":"2020-02-18T07:27:27","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T07:27:27","slug":"killing-julian-assange-slowly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/08\/killing-julian-assange-slowly\/","title":{"rendered":"Killing Julian Assange Slowly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

14 Aug 2019 – <\/em>Since April 11 when unlawfully dragged from Ecuador\u2019s London embassy to captivity, Assange has languished under draconian conditions in a UK dungeon at the behest of the Trump regime, wanting him tried in the US for the \u201ccrime\u201d of truth-telling journalism. More on this below.<\/p>\n

Dark forces in the US, other Western states, Israel, and most everywhere else greatly fear widespread public knowledge of their wrongdoing against ordinary people to benefit privileged ones.<\/p>\n

They want it kept out of the mainstream, notably not on television and in print publications with widespread readership.<\/p>\n

If the fourth estate gave news consumers a daily diet of what\u2019s vital to know about domestic and geopolitical issues, another world would be possible\u2014plowshares replacing swords, social justice over neoliberal harshness, equity and justice for all, nations fit and safe to live in for all their citizens and residents.<\/p>\n

Notably in hegemonic America, if ordinary people understood the bipartisan plot against their rights and welfare in service to monied interests, a national convulsion could follow, a possible revolutionary uprising, maybe yellow vest-type protests involving millions demanding justice.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why dark forces in America want whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning and investigative journalists like Julian Assange silenced and punished.<\/p>\n

Digital democracy is the last frontier of free and open expression, the only reliable independent space for real news, information and analysis\u2014enabling anyone to freely express views on any topics.<\/p>\n

Government censorship is an ominous possibility. In America and other Western societies, democracies in name only, the real thing prohibited, censorship increasingly is the new normal.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s going on is the hallmark of totalitarian rule\u2014controlling the message, eliminating what conflicts with it, notably on major geopolitical issues.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

“Anything to Say?” Sculptures of Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Bradley Manning in Berlin’s Alexanderplatz<\/p><\/div>\n

Losing the right of free expression endangers all others. When truth-telling and dissent are considered threats to national security, free and open societies no longer exist\u2014the slippery slope America and other Western societies are heading on.<\/p>\n

On August 11,\u00a0Activist Post.com<\/a> reported that \u201cleaked documents show [the] White House is planning [an] executive order to censor the Internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

If indeed planned, the Trump regime plot involves having the corporate-controlled FCC and FTC decide what\u2019s permitted and banned online, a frightening prospect.<\/p>\n

In America, Big Brother watches everyone. Will the same dark force henceforth end digital democracy as now exists by executive order\u2014to become the law of the land if not judicially overruled.<\/p>\n

Are things heading toward criminalizing truth-telling independent journalists, risking a fate similar to Assange.<\/p>\n

John Pilger tweeted the following: \u201cDo not forget Julian #Assange. Or you will lose him. I saw him in Belmarsh prison and his health has deteriorated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTreated worse than a murderer, he is isolated, medicated and denied the tools to fight the bogus charges of a US extradition. I now fear for him. Do not forget him.\u201d<\/p>\n

His mother Christine tweeted the following: \u201cMy son Julian Assange is being slowly, cruelly & unlawfully assassinated by the US\/UK Govts for multi-award winning journalism revealing war crimes & corruption! I\u2019m tweeting\/retweeting #FreeAssangeNOW.\u201d<\/p>\n

In May, UN special rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer said the following: \u201cMy most urgent concern is that, in the United States, Mr. Assange would be exposed to a real risk of serious violations of his human rights, including his freedom of expression, his right to a fair trial and the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,\u201d adding, \u201cIn the course of the past nine years, Mr. Assange has been exposed to persistent, progressively severe abuse ranging from systematic judicial persecution and arbitrary confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy, to his oppressive isolation, harassment and surveillance inside the embassy, and from deliberate collective ridicule, insults and humiliation, to open instigation of violence and even repeated calls for his assassination.\u201d<\/p>\n

On May 9, Melzer visited him at London\u2019s high-security Belmarsh prison, accompanied by two medical experts on the effects of torture and other forms of abuse, explaining the following: \u201cIt was obvious that Mr Assange\u2019s health has been seriously affected by the extremely hostile and arbitrary environment he has been exposed to for many years\u201d\u2014compounded by imprisonment at Belmarsh on orders by the Trump regime.<\/p>\n

Besides poor physical health needing treatment not adequately gotten, Assange showed \u201call symptoms typical for prolonged exposure to psychological torture, including extreme stress, chronic anxiety and intense psychological trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three months later, he likely deteriorated further, last spring too weak and ill to communicate normally.<\/p>\n

Britain in cahoots with the Trump regime may want him dead from prolonged imprisonment and neglect.<\/p>\n

They may not want him extradited following a federal district court dismissal<\/a> of a DNC suit against Russia, WikiLeaks, and the Trump campaign.<\/p>\n

Judge John Koeltl said, \u201cThe DNC cannot hold these defendants liable for aiding and abetting publication when they would have been entitled to publish the stolen documents themselves without liability,\u201d he stressed, adding, Its lawsuit was \u201centirely divorced\u201d from the facts\u2026 [riddled with] substantive legal defect[s].\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court has considered all of the arguments raised by the parties. [They\u2019re] either moot or without merit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Absolving WikiLeaks of wrongdoing applies to Assange, its founder and editor-in-chief when active\u2014meaning US federal courts at the district, appeals, and highest level could absolve him at trial, citing First Amendment free expression rights, defeating the Trump regime\u2019s aim to imprison him long-term.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, they may want him languishing behind bars in London, wanting him killed by neglect to avoid an embarrassing judicial defeat if US courts support First Amendment speech and media freedoms\u2014what earlier Supreme Court rulings upheld.<\/p>\n

WikiLeaks is an investigative journalism operation. Media freedom is a constitutional right\u2014no matter how unacceptable or offensive views expressed may be to certain parties.<\/p>\n

Abolishing the right jeopardizes all others. Injustice to Chelsea Manning and Assange threatens the right of everyone to express views freely.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the most fundamental of all rights. Without it, anyone expressing views publicly that challenge the official narrative on vital issues is vulnerable to prosecution for the \u201ccrime\u201d of speech or media freedom.<\/p>\n

______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stephen Lendman<\/em> lives in Chicago. His new book as editor and contributor is titled <\/em>Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III<\/a>. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net<\/a>.Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Julian Assange<\/em> is the founder of <\/em>WikiLeaks. His most recent book is <\/em>The WikiLeaks Files<\/a> (Verso).<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 intrepidreport.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

14 Aug 2019 – Since April 11 when unlawfully dragged from Ecuador\u2019s London embassy to captivity, Assange has languished under draconian conditions in a UK dungeon at the behest of the Trump regime, wanting him tried in the US for the \u201ccrime\u201d of truth-telling journalism. More on this below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":131535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,65,62,51,139,60],"tags":[229,918,120,276,942,487,378,651,234,291,91,444,287,985,380,1109,911,454,572,249,639,292,70,126,118,172,921,113,75],"class_list":["post-140790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activism","category-anglo-america","category-media","category-europe","category-justice","category-whistleblowing-surveillance","tag-activism","tag-assange","tag-conflict","tag-democracy","tag-ecuador","tag-human-rights","tag-journalism","tag-justice","tag-media","tag-military","tag-nato","tag-nonviolence","tag-power","tag-social-justice","tag-solutions","tag-spying","tag-surveillance","tag-sweden","tag-torture","tag-trump","tag-uk","tag-un","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-war","tag-west","tag-whistleblowing","tag-wikileaks","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}