How long will it take? That's an open ended question that wanders into several broad discussions on the impact of propaganda and the comprehensive Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank (MICIMATT) Complex. I guess I ask that question more as a call to action, in some hope that it makes people wonder enough until they themselves decide to take action for one of, if not the biggest press freedom case. After a decade of psychological torture at the hands of the US Empire, Julian sits in Hellmarsh (HMP Belmarsh) Prison in London, despite a ruling from a (pretty compromised) judge which ordered him to be released from prison at the end of it. Denied bail, psychologically tortured, held in solitary confinement, given a computer with the keys glued down, left to freeze through winter, and much more suffering inflicted towards a single human in order for an empire to gain international jurisdiction over journalism.
The entire case around Julian could not be more compromised from different angles. Beginning with the judge of the extradition trial herself, Judge Vanessa Baraitser, her supervisor Lady Arbuthnot and her husband had known ties to the MIC, benefits from the actors exposed by Wikileaks.
https://twitter.com/drgloryjjjjj958/status/1248228643215675392?s=20
- drgloryjjjjj958
What about the prosecution? The absolute clown show that the United States put forth to help them put the nail in the coffin of press freedom's corpse. The prosecution lawyers are all clowns and that's me putting it nicely, but let's look at their argument. Part of the argument against Julian is based off the backwards Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which was recently narrowed in scope by the Supreme Court, granted it was in the case of a cop, but it was done- https://www.natlawreview.com/article/scope-doj-s-enforcement-computer-fraud-and-abuse-act-after-van-buren. Also in recent news is the fact that they relied on a certified nonce who lied in his testimony- https://stundin.is/grein/13627/. And then there's another point where the case should have gotten thrown out with the continued spying on Assange and his legal team in the Ecuadorian Embassy. On behalf of the CIA, Spanish security company UC Global spied on Julian and conspired against him in plots that included a potential kidnapping and stealing a diaper from his son- https://shadowproof.com/2020/09/30/uc-global-employee-thwarted-plan-to-massively-bug-ecuador-embassy-to-spy-on-assange/. And through all of this I didn't even touch on the fact that trying to frame the act of journalism as espionage is completely asinine and would have disastrous implications for journalists all over the world.
And with all of these compromising points of the prosecution who are the great defenders of Julian? Certainly not the "human rights advocacy" NGOs, who put out statements for Assange as long as they don't have to deliver them to US officials' faces. Because for all the work that a group like Reporters Without Borders has done, when their Secretary General is faced with US SoS Antony Blinken, we don't hear anything about Assange. In fact, RSF even bumped up the US's ranking in their press freedom rankings and let the US celebrate that.
https://twitter.com/cdeloire/status/1387871334600949762?s=20
- cdeloire
And please don't expect politicians to save press freedom for us either. There are some allies in parliaments or congresses in the world but the legislatures are compromised. As much as I appreciate the allies for Julian we've seen in some legislatures the simple fact is we don't have enough time to wait for politicians to catch up with what's right, and for enough to stand up for Julian.
Perhaps the worst part of it all is the fact that we can't even place much faith on Julian's own legal team. Some legal team advisors including the head QC Lewis Fitzgerald sit on the advisory board of the Clooney Foundation for Justice Trialwatch. Not only is the organisation named after the CIA's favorite actor, but Assange does not get a single mention on their Trialwatch page. Does that speak to a compromised legal team? Or an even more compromised NGO? Perhaps both?
https://twitter.com/minininjalove/status/1405190903866736641?s=20
- minininjalove
There's more as to how this case is compromised and should be thrown out completely, but one thing it ultimately tells us is that it's up to us to raise hell for Julian. We can barely trust any of the main actors currently in the biggest press freedom trial, which is why we need to take the ground game and the public pressure campaign and turn it up fully. I have immense respect for journalists who cover every aspect of this case and the activists which protest and organise for this cause constantly, so it's time to uplift these grassroots efforts and do them even more. I know it might seem hard, but you can start with just talking to people around you about the case. Bring flyers and stickers about Assange everywhere you go and sprinkle it around like pixie dust. Take a sign and yell at people at a street corner. Be safe and I know it can sound crazy, but this case has reached such absurd levels it might demand equal if not more levels of absurdity from us. But that's the beauty of being an activist is the slight presence of hope that this while build up into something massive; that we can build up a movement massive enough to force the powers that be to actually act and free Julian.
This Saturday, July 3rd, is Julian's 50th birthday, meaning there will be an international day of action for him and press freedom, I think that day will be a great start if you are just getting into this. If you are anywhere near Los Angeles, the event I helped organise along with Steve Poikonen who I cohost the Slow News Day Show with and our fam at The Convo Couch will take place at Echo Park Lake starting at 12pm PST. There will be food, water, and lots of rallying in the particular surveillance haven of Los Angeles:
https://twitter.com/Fiorella_im/status/1410756571403935744?s=20
- Fiorella_im
If you are not around Los Angeles, there are actions taking place all over the world, in 53 cities across 20 countries so far:
https://twitter.com/Candles4Assange/status/1410778369214468099?s=20
- Candles4Assange
If you can't find an action near you, feel free to start your own, or talk to people for Julian's birthday, or raise hell in your own way. IT'S BEEN TIME to secure a little bit of agency, to make sure the empire doesn't gain international jurisdiction over the free press, to save some journalism, and to free Julian Assange.
