{"id":176567,"date":"2021-01-11T12:00:34","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=176567"},"modified":"2021-01-08T05:39:27","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T05:39:27","slug":"the-empire-is-not-done-with-julian-assange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2021\/01\/the-empire-is-not-done-with-julian-assange\/","title":{"rendered":"The Empire Is Not Done with Julian Assange"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As is clear from the memoir of one of his attorneys, Michael Ratner, the ends have always justified the means for those demanding his global persecution.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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4 Jan 2021 – <\/em>Shortly after WikiLeaks released the Iraq War Logs<\/a> in October 2010, which documented numerous US war crimes \u2014 including video images of the gunning down of two Reuters journalists and 10 other unarmed civilians in the Collateral Murder video<\/a>, the routine torture of Iraqi prisoners, the covering up of thousands of civilian deaths and the killing of nearly 700 civilians that had approached too closely to US checkpoints \u2014 the towering civil rights attorneys Michael Ratner and Len Weinglass, who had defended Daniel Ellsberg in the Pentagon Papers<\/a> case, met Julian Assange in a studio apartment in Central London, according to Ratner\u2019s newly released memoir \u201cMoving the Bar\u201d<\/a>.Assange had just returned to London from Sweden where he had attempted to create the legal framework to protect WikiLeaks\u2019 servers in Sweden.\u00a0 Shortly after his arrival in Stockholm, his personal bank cards were blocked.\u00a0 He had no access to funds and was dependent on supporters.\u00a0 Two of these supporters were women with whom he had consensual sex.\u00a0 As he was preparing to leave, the Swedish media announced that he was wanted for questioning about allegations of rape. The women, who never accused Assange of rape, wanted him to take an STD test.\u00a0 They had approached the police about compelling him to comply. \u201cI did not want to put any charges on Julian Assange,\u201d texted one of them on August 20 while she was still at the police station, but \u201cthe police were keen on getting their hands on him.\u201d She said she felt \u201crailroaded by the police.\u201d Within 24 hours the chief prosecutor of Stockholm took over the preliminary investigation.\u00a0 He dropped the rape accusation, stating \u201cI don\u2019t believe there is any reason to suspect that he has committed rape.\u201d Assange, although not charged with a crime, cancelled his departure and remained in Sweden for another five weeks to cooperate with the investigation.\u00a0 A special prosecutor, Marianne Ny, was appointed to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct.\u00a0 Assange was granted permission to leave the country.\u00a0 He flew to Berlin.\u00a0 When Assange arrived in Berlin three encrypted laptops with documents detailing US war crimes had disappeared from his luggage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe consider the Swedish allegations a distraction,\u201d Ratner told Assange, according to his memoir. \u201cWe\u2019ve read the police reports, and we believe the authorities don\u2019t have a case. We\u2019re here because in our view you are in much more jeopardy in the US Len [Weinglass] can explain why.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assange, Ratner recalled, remained silent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWikiLeaks and you personally are facing a battle that is both legal and political,\u201d Weinglass told Assange. \u201cAs we learned in the Pentagon Papers case, the US government doesn\u2019t like the truth coming out. And it doesn\u2019t like to be humiliated. No matter if it\u2019s Nixon or Bush or Obama, Republican or Democrat in the White House. The US government will try to stop you from publishing its ugly secrets. And if they have to destroy you and the First Amendment and the rights of publishers with you, they are willing to do it. We believe they are going to come after WikiLeaks and you, Julian, as the publisher.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCome after me for what?\u201d asked Julian.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspionage,\u201d Weinglass continued, according to the memoir. \u201cThey\u2019re going to charge Bradley Manning with treason under the Espionage Act of 1917. We don\u2019t think it applies to him because he\u2019s a whistleblower, not a spy. And we don\u2019t think it applies to you either because you are a publisher. But they are going to try to force Manning into implicating you as his collaborator. That\u2019s why it\u2019s crucial that WikiLeaks and you personally have an American criminal lawyer to represent you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ratner and Weinglass laid out potential scenarios.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way it could happen,\u201d Ratner said, \u201cis that the Justice Department could convene a secret grand jury to investigate possible charges against you. It would probably be in northern Virginia, where everyone on the jury would be a current or retired CIA employee or have worked for some other part of the military-industrial complex. They would be hostile to anyone like you who\u2019d published US government secrets. The grand jury could come up with a sealed indictment, issue a warrant for your arrest, and request extradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happens if they extradite me?\u201d asked Julian.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey fly you to where the indictment is issued,\u201d Weinglass told Assange. \u201cThen they put you into some hellhole in solitary, and you get treated like Bradley Manning. They put you under what they call special administrative measures, which means you probably would not be allowed communication with anyone. Maybe your lawyer could go in and talk to you, but the lawyer couldn\u2019t say anything to the press.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s very, very unlikely that they would give you bail,\u201d Ratner added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs it easier to extradite from the UK or from Sweden?\u201d asked Sarah Harrison, who was at the meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know the answer to that,\u201d Ratner replied. \u201cMy guess is that you would probably have the most support and the best legal team in a bigger country like the UK In a smaller country like Sweden, the US can use its power to pressure the government, so it would be easier to extradite you from there. But we need to consult with a lawyer who specializes in extradition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assange\u2019s British lawyer, also at the meeting, proposed that Assange return to Sweden for further questioning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s wise,\u201d Weinglass said, \u201cunless the Swedish government guarantees that Julian will not be extradited to another country because of his publishing work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe problem is that Sweden doesn\u2019t have bail,\u201d Ratner explained. \u201cIf they put you in jail in Stockholm and the US pressures the government to extradite you, Sweden might send you immediately to the US and you\u2019d never see the light of day again. It\u2019s far less risky to ask the Swedish prosecutor to question you in London.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US government\u2019s determination to extradite Assange and imprison him for life, despite the fact that Assange is not a US citizen and WikiLeaks is not a US based publication, Ratner understood from the start, will be unwavering and relentless.<\/p>\n

In the 132-page ruling<\/a> (pdf) issued today in London by Judge Vanessa Baraitser of the Westminster Magistrates\u2019 Court the court refused to grant an extradition request only because of the barbarity of the conditions under which Assange would be held while imprisoned in the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cFaced with the conditions of near total isolation without the protective factors which limited his risk at [Her Majesty\u2019s Prison] Belmarsh, I am satisfied the procedures described by the US will not prevent Mr. Assange from finding a way to commit suicide,\u201d said Baraitser, \u201cand for this reason I have decided extradition would be oppressive by reason of mental harm and I order his discharge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assange is charged with violating 17 counts of the Espionage Act, along with an attempt to hack into a government computer.\u00a0 Each of the 17 counts carries a potential sentence of 10 years. The additional charge that Assange conspired to hack into a government computer has a maximum sentence of five years. The judge ominously accepted all of the charges leveled by US prosecutors against Assange \u2014 that he violated the Espionage Act by releasing classified information and was complicit in assisting his source, Chelsea Manning, in the hacking of a government computer. It is a very, very dangerous ruling for the media. And if, on appeal, and the US has already said it would appeal, the higher court is assured that Assange will be held in humane conditions, it paves the way for his extradition.<\/p>\n

The publication of classified documents is not yet a crime in the United States. If Assange is extradited and convicted, it will become one. The extradition of Assange would mean the end of journalistic investigations into the inner workings of power. It would cement into place a terrifying global, corporate tyranny under which borders, nationality and law mean nothing. Once such a legal precedent is set, any publication that publishes classified material, from The New York Times to an alternative website, will be prosecuted and silenced.<\/p>\n

Assange has done more than any contemporary journalist or publisher to expose the inner workings of empire and the lies and crimes of the US ruling elite.\u00a0 The deep animus towards Assange, as fierce within the Democratic Party as the Republican Party, and the cowardice of the media and watchdog groups such as PEN to defend him, mean that all he has left are courageous attorneys, such as Ratner, activists, who protested outside the court, and those few voices of conscience willing to become pariahs in his defense.<\/p>\n

Ratner\u2019s memoir, which is a profile in courage of the many dissidents, including Assange, he valiantly defended, is also a profile of courage of one of the greatest civil rights attorneys of our era. There are few people I respect more than Michael Ratner, who I accompanied to visit Assange when he was trapped in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. His memoir is not only about his lifelong fight against racial injustice, a rising corporate totalitarianism, and the crimes of empire, but is a sterling example of what it means to live the moral life.<\/p>\n

Assange earned the eternal enmity of the Democratic Party establishment by publishing 70,000 hacked emails belonging to the Democratic National Committee and senior Democratic officials. The emails were copied from the accounts of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign chairman. The Podesta emails exposed the donation of millions of dollars to the Clinton Foundation by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and identified both nations as major funders of Islamic State [ISIL\/ISIS]<\/a>. They exposed the $657,000 that Goldman Sachs paid to Hillary Clinton to give talks, a sum so large it can only be considered a bribe. They exposed Clinton\u2019s repeated mendacity. She was caught in the emails, for example, telling the financial elites that she wanted \u201copen trade and open borders\u201d and believed Wall Street executives were best positioned to manage the economy, a statement that contradicted her campaign statements. They exposed the Clinton campaign\u2019s efforts to influence the Republican primaries to ensure that Donald Trump was the Republican nominee. They exposed Clinton\u2019s advance knowledge of questions in a primary debate. They exposed Clinton as the principal architect of the war in Libya, a war she believed would burnish her credentials as a presidential candidate.<\/p>\n

The Democratic Party, which routinely blames Russia for its election loss to Trump, charges that the Podesta emails were obtained by Russian government hackers. Hillary Clinton has called WikiLeaks a Russian front.\u00a0James Comey, the former FBI director, however, conceded that the emails were probably delivered to WikiLeaks by an intermediary, and Assange has said the emails were not provided by \u201cstate actors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Journalists can argue that this information, like the war logs, should have remained hidden, but they can\u2019t then call themselves journalists.<\/p>\n

A few weeks after Ratner\u2019s first meeting with Assange, WikiLeaks published 220 documents from Cablegate<\/a>, <\/em>the US State Department classified cables that Chelsea Manning had provided to WikiLeaks. The cables had been sent to the State Department from US diplomatic missions, consulates, and embassies around the globe.\u00a0The 251,287 cables dated from December 1966 to February 2010. The release dominated the news and filled the pages of The New York Times, the Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and El Pa\u00eds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe extent and importance of the Cablegate revelations took my breath away,\u201d Ratner, who died in 2016, wrote in his memoir. \u201cThey pulled back the curtain and revealed how American foreign policy functions behind-the-scenes, manipulating events all over the globe. They also provided access to US diplomats\u2019 raw, frank, and often embarrassing assessments of foreign leaders. Some of the most stunning revelations:<\/p>\n