{"id":173628,"date":"2020-11-30T12:00:15","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T12:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=173628"},"modified":"2020-11-30T09:24:15","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T09:24:15","slug":"the-real-threat-to-democracy-isnt-julian-assange-its-the-espionage-case-against-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2020\/11\/the-real-threat-to-democracy-isnt-julian-assange-its-the-espionage-case-against-him\/","title":{"rendered":"The Real Threat to Democracy Isn\u2019t Julian Assange \u2014 It\u2019s the Espionage Case against Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have complicated feelings about Assange. But prosecuting him under the Espionage Act would be a disaster for journalism and democracy. <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Hxbe5Orb0do&feature=emb_logo<\/p>\n

19 Nov 2020 – <\/em>Beginning in 2010, we, the Yes Men, developed a friendship with Julian Assange and a collaboration with Wikileaks. In 2015, we made this short video<\/a> about it, originally for inclusion in our third film, \u201cThe Yes Men Are Revolting,<\/em>\u201d but it didn\u2019t quite fit. We think it shows a charming, funny and thoughtful side of the man, and so \u2014 despite our more complicated feelings<\/a> about him after 2016 \u2014 we\u2019re making it available now, given the dire threats facing Assange and free speech more broadly.<\/p>\n

Assange is currently facing extradition<\/a> to the United States from London, for allegedly violating the U.S. Espionage Act \u2014 marking the first time the act has been used to prosecute the publishing of information. If the extradition is successful, he\u2019ll face trial in a Virginia \u201cespionage court\u201d<\/a> that has never once absolved a national security defendant.\u00a0 Allowing the Virginia court to try (and most likely convict) him would be a disaster for democracy \u2014 something even Obama\u2019s Justice Department believed in 2013, when they determined that indicting Assange would mean having to prosecute any news organization or writer who publishes classified material. (They called it<\/a> \u201cthe New York Times<\/em> problem.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Assange\u2019s extradition hearing began in February 2020, with the second part delayed from May until Sept. 7 because of\u00a0COVID-19. In its apparent eagerness to extradite Assange, the court has committed some egregious abuses \u2014 such as introducing new charges in June that Assange couldn\u2019t respond to \u2014 that are mentioned in this summary by the Electronic Frontier Foundation<\/a> and this short film<\/a> by Wikileaks collaborator Juan Passarelli.<\/p>\n

Meeting the mastermind<\/strong><\/p>\n

We first met Assange in the summer of 2010, in an awkward English manor\/organic farm. He was under house arrest<\/a> as he awaited a hearing for extradition to Sweden, where authorities wanted to question him on allegations of sex crimes. (The case was later dropped<\/a>.) From Sweden, he would have been vulnerable to extradition to the United States, where he might have been subject to torture or worse; all things considered, he seemed pretty calm, not to mention funny and thoughtful, as we hope our little film<\/a> shows.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A screenshot of the landing page for Wikileaks\u2019 release of Stratfor\u2019s internal emails, called The Global Intelligence Files. (WNV\/The Yes Men)<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We saw Julian again in February of 2011. Wikileaks had received thousands of internal emails from corporate spy agency Stratfor; a few dozen emails showed that Dow Chemical\u00a0had hired Stratfor to spy on us<\/a>, which was flattering to say the least.<\/p>\n

In 2015, we shared a delicious rotisserie chicken and bottle of wine at London\u2019s Ecuadorian embassy, where Julian was receiving diplomatic protection<\/a> from Ecuador\u2019s left-wing government.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Angry at the DNC, angry at Wikileaks<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our feelings about Julian got more complicated when, a year later \u2014 not long before the disastrous U.S. election of 2016 \u2014 Wikileaks released a trove of private emails showing the Democratic National Committee had conspired with the Clinton campaign against Bernie Sanders\u2019 candidacy. The first group of emails came just before the summer congress of the DNC, and the second, more directly linked to Clinton, a week before the election.<\/p>\n

Of course, the DNC\u2019s actions against its own party\u2019s populist leanings were loathsome, not to mention myopic and stupid. Forty years of bipartisan neoliberalism had left millions expecting nothing from government, laying the groundwork for the rise of a right-wing populist like Donald Trump. Now, the DNC was squelching the only thing that could have countered him: a left-wing<\/a> populist<\/a> like Bernie Sanders, offering much-needed popular solutions<\/a> based in reality rather than hatred.<\/p>\n

Without Sanders in the mix, millions faced a choice between the same old neoliberal shit they\u2019d been offered for decades, and a brand new kind of shit, untested and unproven. Many chose Trump, who became far and away the worst and most dangerous president in American history.<\/p>\n

Still, for as much as we\u2019ve mainly blamed Democrats for the horrible outcome of the 2016 election \u2014 see our 2017 #DNCTakeBack intervention<\/a> \u2014 we\u2019re also angry that Wikileaks chose to release the DNC emails, especially the second batch, when they did. The timing undoubtedly helped an unhinged authoritarian, in charge of an unhinged party, to win the election. Had Trump been more competent, we could easily be looking at the end of any sort of democracy in America; a Clinton presidency could have been many things, but not that.<\/p>\n

Wikileaks claims that releasing the DNC emails when they did was a matter of \u201cjournalistic integrity.\u201d But \u201cjournalistic integrity\u201d could also have justified not <\/em>releasing them at that time, considering the widely-supported possibility<\/a> that the emails came from a concerted foreign campaign against Clinton. (Assange continues to insist they were not from a \u201cstate actor,\u201d but it\u2019s hard to see how that could be strictly ruled out.) It also seems that \u201cjournalistic integrity\u201d could have meant releasing the emails after the election was over, rather than give the advantage to a scoundrel known to have even worse skeletons in the closet (that were known then but not publicized until later<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Also, \u201cjournalistic integrity\u201d would have probably precluded talking to Donald Trump Jr.<\/a> about what they could do for each other.<\/p>\n

The real reasons?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We don\u2019t believe that \u201cjournalistic integrity\u201d was Julian\u2019s main reason for releasing those emails at the moments he did. There was also his abiding hatred<\/a> of at least two things Hillary Clinton represented: her hawkishness and her neoliberalism.<\/p>\n

While Clinton had supported the Iraq war, Wikileaks shined a light on U.S. abuses there with its \u201cCollateral Murder\u201d videos<\/a>. (Among the revelations for which Assange is on trial is Wikileaks\u2019 release of the Army\u2019s rules of engagement<\/a>, which it used to prove that such drone strikes on civilians are in fact murder.) According to leaked online chats<\/a>, Assange seems to have believed that Clinton\u2019s hawkish tendencies would only worsen if she became president.<\/p>\n

Wikileaks has published a lot of crucial information and revolutionized the idea of what journalism can do, whether or not we like all its results.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And while Clinton was the most prominent champion of the neoliberal consensus \u2014 which helped lead to Trump \u2014 Assange had long fought that consensus and the financialization it led to. (Financialization, the increase in size and influence of financial institutions and markets, was why Visa, MasterCard, Paypal and others were able to cut off contributions<\/a> to Wikileaks following its release of the \u201cCollateral Murder\u201d videos, effectively censoring the organization with no legislative recourse to speak of.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also possible that Julian, like some others on the left, thought a Trump presidency would put a dent in U.S. power abroad, both militarily and economically. But when strongmen succeed the results are predictable \u2014 just look at China, Russia or, yes, Germany in the 1930s. Luckily, Trump was too incompetent to succeed, even if he did directly and profoundly affect millions of Americans, including the hundreds of thousands who\u2019ve unnecessarily died of COVID-19. You just can\u2019t tell an American that the gambit was worth it.<\/p>\n

Now what?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We intensely regret that Julian acted as he did in 2016, whether it was out of \u201cjournalistic integrity,\u201d hatred for Clintonite warmongering or other policies, or a desire to see American power fail.<\/p>\n

But we even more intensely believe that extraditing Julian to the United States to face trial under the Espionage Act would be a disaster for journalism and democracy worldwide. Wikileaks is a media organization, and an incredibly effective one at that. It has published a lot of crucial information and revolutionized the idea of what journalism can do, whether or not we like all its results.<\/p>\n

________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Andy Bichlbaum is a co-founder of the Yes Men<\/a>, an ever-expanding, increasingly diverse group who, these days, mainly partner with activist groups on creative tactics to further campaigns. The Yes Men have made three feature films about their stunts, which give mainstream journalists humorous fodder for covering important issues.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original – wagingnonviolence.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

19 Nov 2020 – We have complicated feelings about Assange. But prosecuting him under the Espionage Act would be a disaster for journalism and democracy. He is currently facing extradition to the US from London, for allegedly violating the U.S. Espionage Act \u2014 marking the first time the act has been used to prosecute the publishing of information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":172858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[229,918,910,942,487,378,651,234,911,454,572,639,292,70,126,921,113],"class_list":["post-173628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whistleblowing-surveillance","tag-activism","tag-assange","tag-big-brother","tag-ecuador","tag-human-rights","tag-journalism","tag-justice","tag-media","tag-surveillance","tag-sweden","tag-torture","tag-uk","tag-un","tag-usa","tag-violence","tag-whistleblowing","tag-wikileaks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173628","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=173628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}