}
https://images.app.goo.gl/uVMDmPLrr9RmwkSE7
Censorship, like most repression, is reserved for those who dissent from majoritarian orthodoxies, not for those who express views comfortably within the mainstream. Establishment Democrats and Republicans — adherents to the prevailing neoliberal order — have no need for free speech protections since nobody with power would care enough to silence them. ~Glenn Greenwald
When Julian Assange and Wikileaks disclosed the war crimes of the Bush administration he was hailed by Democrats as a hero. However, when he released the Clinton emails exp[osing the corruption in Washington DC he went from hero to public enemy number one. The further release of the CIA’s Vault 7 and the Obama war crimes found in the Chelsea Manning documents he became a target for the intelligence agencies of both the US and UK. The charges against Assange are as nonsensical as his being held in a maximum security prison.
It should be abundantly clear by now that the ruling elite intends to punish Assange for practicing journalism, exposing the crimes that the legacy media refuses to expose. These government propagandists won’t even cover the persecution of a man whose only offense is telling the truth, a perfidious warning to anyone else including whistleblowers of what happens to those that reveal the crimes of the elites.
“And once we strip out a sophisticated campaign of character assassination against Assange by western governments and a compliant media, the sole justification for this relentless attack on press freedom is that a 49-year-old man published documents exposing US war crimes. That is the reason – and the only reason – that the US is seeking his extradition and why he has been languishing in what amounts to solitary confinement in Belmarsh high-security prison during the Covid-19 pandemic. His lawyers’ appeals for bail have been refused.”
It should also be abundantly clear that neither the US or UK have any intention of allowing Assange to go free. One does not offend the ruling class and goes scott free (or alive for that matter). If extradited to the US Assange faces 175 years in prison -- a life sentence. Essentially he’s already serving a life sentence having been denied freedom for over 10 years counting the time he remained in the Ecuadorian embassy under constant surveillance and monitoring even in the bathroom. Now he’s serving what could very well be a life sentence in Belmarsh Prison, one of the most dangerous maximum security prisons in the UK while waiting on a disposition of an appeal by the US Department of Justice. If the intent was only to prevent him from fleeing, surely a less draconian venue would suffice -- but this is about punishment, killing Assange in slow motion. In reality a life sentence is a life sentence whether it’s in a supermax in the US or Belmarsh in the UK.
“The U.S. and British governments hate Assange because of his revelations that exposed their lies and crimes, while Spain was enraged by WikiLeaks’ journalistic coverage of and activism against Madrid’s 2018 violent repression of the Catalan independence movement. So they bullied and bribed [Ecuadorian President] Moreno to throw Assange to the wolves — i.e., to them. And ever since, Assange has been held in the high-security Belmarsh prison in London, a facility used for terrorist suspects that is so harsh that the BBC asked in 2004 whether it is ‘Britain’s Guantanamo Bay.’”
In a just world Assange would never have been imprisoned, but even in the corrupt world in which we live we should reasonably be able to expect his release due to the fact that the testimony of the DOJ’s star witness Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson was a complete fabrication. The deal with Thordarson is typical of the DOJ and FBI’s long history of doing business with completely untrustworthy despicable characters to achieve a political objective. Thordarson, or “Siggi the Hacker,” as he is known also has a long history of criminality most of which eclipses anything Assange did.
“Sigurdur Ingi Thordarson, often known as “Siggi the Hacker,” made the confession to Icelandic outlet Stundin (6/26/21) last weekend. The article details how Thordarson, a convicted felon, pedophile and diagnosed sociopath, used his position to steal money from Wikileaks, and received immunity from prosecution from the FBI in a quid pro quo.”
https://thewashingtonstandard.com/zero-mockingbird-media-coverage-as-key-assange-witness-recants/
This is another issue completely ignored by the legacy media in their effort to provide cover for the real criminals in the US government. Thordarson is allowed to remain free to pursue his criminal activity which includes the molestation of children while Assange remains imprisoned for exposing criminality. Outside of pissing off some very powerful criminals by exposing their war crimes and corruption, Assange is guilty of no crimes at all, a chilling message to anyone else who may contemplate exposing corruption. “No good deed ever goes unpunished,” is transitioning from a joke to a reality.
By keeping Assange imprisoned the British government has exposed themselves as willing accomplices in the pernicious acts of the corrupt American system of injustice. Given the revelations by Siggi the Hacker the charges should be immediately dropped but that is extremely unlikely to happen. Like I said before, Assange's imprisonment is meant to serve as an example to discourage anyone else from exposing corruption.
“In a nation with a healthy media system, the press would be hailing these revelations as a final blow to an authoritarian government’s attempts to use its muscle to silence free speech and investigative journalism worldwide, while also wondering how such an untrustworthy witness could have become such a key source for the FBI and the DoJ.”
https://thewashingtonstandard.com/zero-mockingbird-media-coverage-as-key-assange-witness-recants/
But we don’t live in a nation with a healthy media system, only a nation in which the mass media serves as a propaganda tool for the authoritarian government. This is not terribly different than the preemptive censorship on social media of any “misinformation” critical of the Covid vaccine narrative, illegal immigration, or anything else the corrupt ruling elites don’t agree with. The Mockingbird media is already complicit in narrative shaping which is why they’ve hung Assange out to dry.
I can’t emphasize enough that the treatment of Julian Assange has nothing whatsoever to do with criminality, treason, or espionage on the part of himself or Wikileaks, nor is it a Republican vs. Democrat or left vs right issue -- this is a humanitarian issue. This is purely a vituperative act on behalf of the past four administrations, beginning with the war crimes of G.W. Bush and the corruption of Hillary Clinton and the DNC during the 2016 election -- corruption that cost Seth Rich his life. The Trump DOJ were the ones that amended the indictments adding more charges including espionage and treason. One cannot commit treason against a country that one is not a citizen of.
Both Assange and fellow whistleblower Edward Snowden are charged with the antiquated Espionage act of 1917, “...a law that bars him from even raising a defense of “justification” in court and thus obtaining a fair trial. Under this propagandistic framework, not only the governments that grant asylum against U.S. persecution (such as Ecuador and Russia) but also the individuals who seek asylum from U.S. persecution (such as Assange and Snowden) are cast by the U.S. and British media as villains and even criminals for availing themselves of this internationally guaranteed asylum right.”
Both the US and UK used coercion to force Assange out of the Ecuadorian Embassy and it’s highly unlikely that the Biden administration will drop the charges despite the pleadings of Assange’s wife and attorneys, not to mention the new revelations by Siggi Thordarson. Biden has always been a “hitman” for establishment Democrats, for evidence one need look no further than his vicious attacks during the Clarence Thomas hearings. Despite his liberal platitudes Biden is very much a creature of the Washington DC “swamp.” LIke Bush,Obama, and Trump before him, Biden will take a hard line against whistleblowers lest his own corruption be exposed.
There is absolutely no legitimate legal framework to support holding Assange in prison -- but then again there never was. I hate to sound like the voice of doom, but even with the new revelations by Siggi Thordarson it appears to me that they’ll drag this out in court with appeal after appeal until Julian Assange dies in the Guantanamo Bay of the UK. The British prison officials have been torturing Assange both physically and mentally keeping him in isolation. He’s shown almost superhuman strength having survived for this long. It’s just a question of time before he runs out of the energy to survive and the authorities in the US and UK are in no hurry. LIke I said before, a life sentence is a life sentence whether it’s in a Colorado supermax or awaiting trial in Belmarsh Prison in the UK.