Julian Assange will make his final appeal this week to the British courts to avoid extradition. If he is extradited it is the death of investigations into the inner workings of power by the press.
The issue and the impediment here are one and the same: the US government IS a criminal entity populated with, replete with, spineless colluding soulless criminals. As an American, I once thought better of this country, that it had better foundations, but unfortunately, too many elected leaders who took the corporate handouts forgetting the populace they represented. But that far-too-kind judgment is long past. Given the slow-motion murder of Julian Assange and the first amendment, given the obvious complicity in Palestinian genocide, I can only conclude that the entire experiment has morphed into terrorism theater, with that government as the terrorist; which should be extirpated, incarcerated forever as an ongoing crime against its own species, the biosphere, and any reference to sane cognition or morality. I completely reject my identity as an American citizen. Freeing Julian might make me feel better, but will never purge that judgment and the fecal taste it leaves on my tongue.
An excellent article. What the US , England, Sweden are doing is pure Evil. Those who have usurped whatever democracy we ever had, have unapologetically announced the totalitarian state once called the United States of America.
Thank you Chris for standing up for Julian from the beginning and writing so eloquently about his situation.
Hopefully, more people will be made aware of what is transpiring.
I believe there is an old saying that Hell has no fury as a woman scorned. I believe that this includes not only Hillary Clinton but all the rest of the Global Elites.
Julian's case exposes the rot at the heart of the American government. Thank you for your continuing efforts to expose the gross injustices committed by that government.
Thank you for your well-written article Chris Hedges and for your illustration Mr. Fish. Holding power accountable is now more important than ever. May Julian Assange be free.
The case against Assange has always bothered me for the reason Chris Hedges notes in this paragraph: "How can Julian, an Australian citizen, be charged under the U.S. Espionage Act when he did not engage in espionage and wasn’t based in the U.S when he received the leaked documents?" It shows the overwhelming arrogance of the US, the same arrogance that demands impunity for torture, indiscriminate murder, and spying, all results of the failed War on Terror. Fifteen years of persecution.
Much longer than that. The U.S. has been committing war crimes, assassinations and setting up coups against sovereign nations since the early 1950's when J. Edgar Hoover and Joe McCarthy scared the U.S. congress and citizens so badly over the red scare and it escalated from there. Once the corporations got involved, the gloves came off by the late 1950's and 1960's and the U.S. just started bullying anyone who didn't toe their line. Look at South and Central America. Look at the middle east. Europe used to be as bad but they have managed to push against American imperialism in the last couple of decades to their favor. Saudi Arabia has become a major power player as well now, much to the chagrin of the U.S. The U.S. is headed for a reckoning for all of their meddling in foreign affairs and it can't happen too soon for my taste. Maybe they should lose their cherished seat at the big boy table with the United Nations to start?
And everyone thinks the United States is such a beacon of hope for refugees, and asylum seekers. The U.S. is just another version of a totalitarian government hell bent on doing whatever it wants to keep the rich elitests happy. Nothing is taken off the table. The U.S. has and will continue to commit war crimes, assasinate dissenters and make disappear anyone who dares stand up to them and expose their dirty secrets. Julian Assange doesn't have much of a chance against the U.S. juggernaut. The U.S. needs to be brought to justice but that is not likely to ever happen.
As always, thanks to Reverend Chris for doing the true work of Christ-speaking truth to power. It seems truly endless, this fight for the truth and to reveal the horrific deeds of others who do these inhumane things. I too will be watching as best I can, hoping, praying, that justice for Julian will come. Late for sure-but I pray that true justice will come for this man.
An informative movie to see is OFFICIAL SECRETS with Kiera Knightly. Just a bit of the story but worth seeing how it works. The absurd length this has been going on tells you what is feared most is the Truth. Democracy. Actual Journalism. The Australian government, the New York Times, the WaPo, are disgusting in their pretend last minute support for Assange. This is a black eye on the US. But we not know that as a nation. It will be hidden from the public, like so much of what we ‘know’. . . . Just hidden. So much hidden. In broad daylight.
2019 movie. Yes, thanks for sharing!...it is informative. Interestingly the British government counter the visual arts dissemination of these illegalities 4 years later with a new, more repressive National Security Act. You'd think a film like this should have the opposite effect. I guess nobody in Britain bothered to watch it. Sheeple.
The unrelenting progression of the forces you describe mobilized against Julian Assange are truly frightening. "Legality" completely divorced from Justice. Someone used the word entity, and that's what these forces are - a nameless freezing entity, a machine, like HAL 9000. The distorted people swept into this entity of pure oppression seem to have lost all access to their individual consciences and shared Humanity.
I can only think that Julian has endured the ice-olation of this cruel machine devoid of heart or feeling for so long because of the warmth, love, gratitude and solidarity of his family, of friends like Chris, and the thousands, millions, of people around the world who are conscious, who continue to remember and carry him in their hearts. We need to find new words for evil in our modern times, when evil and greed is seen as "normal" ambition and when human beings can be turned into cold, hardened A.I.'s. When deliberately crafted destructive entities, whether in the form of drones, bombs/The Bomb, weapons and oil corporations or "legal" systems of Power,, swallow up its creators. Or perhaps that's an old story like HAL, Frankenstein, the Tower of Babel.
Thank you, Chris, for being there with Julian, and for being our witness and for sharing the gift of your integrity and words. And thank you to Mr. Fish for your powerful and fitting image of what happens to a good person who has the courage to steal the life giving light and warmth of Fire (for Humanity) from those who have come to think they are Gods with power over life and death. I don't believe their reign can last. I see it already starting to crumble.
I pray for a miracle and that Julian finally be Freed.
Let us not forget to hold HRC responsible for the 2016 death of Berta Cáceres, Honduran environmental activist, indigenous leader, co-founder and coordinator of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras.
Even if Assange is "forgiven" and released, all charges dropped, you can be sure there will be no where in the world this poor man can go where the claws of the sinister US Govt/CIA can't find him and kill him. This is guaranteed. Osama Bin Laden is also very dead, while Godzillary sits on a throne of skulls.
The issue and the impediment here are one and the same: the US government IS a criminal entity populated with, replete with, spineless colluding soulless criminals. As an American, I once thought better of this country, that it had better foundations, but unfortunately, too many elected leaders who took the corporate handouts forgetting the populace they represented. But that far-too-kind judgment is long past. Given the slow-motion murder of Julian Assange and the first amendment, given the obvious complicity in Palestinian genocide, I can only conclude that the entire experiment has morphed into terrorism theater, with that government as the terrorist; which should be extirpated, incarcerated forever as an ongoing crime against its own species, the biosphere, and any reference to sane cognition or morality. I completely reject my identity as an American citizen. Freeing Julian might make me feel better, but will never purge that judgment and the fecal taste it leaves on my tongue.
Picturing millions of Americans reading this with blank stares and guppy lips, blowing bubbles in complete myopic incredulity
Perfect comment. So many of us feel the same, but will never be heard. The mindless majority will just ride the curve all the way down.
Julian Assange, one of the most consequential journalists in history, deserves to be free.
I've compiled a comprehensive timeline of Wikileaks and Assange to shed more light on this immensely important story.
https://issuechronicle.substack.com/p/united-states-v-journalism-julian
Wow. Thank you so much for the timeline, Lenny Broyton! Incredibly helpful and powerful.
An excellent article. What the US , England, Sweden are doing is pure Evil. Those who have usurped whatever democracy we ever had, have unapologetically announced the totalitarian state once called the United States of America.
Thank you Chris for standing up for Julian from the beginning and writing so eloquently about his situation.
Hopefully, more people will be made aware of what is transpiring.
I believe there is an old saying that Hell has no fury as a woman scorned. I believe that this includes not only Hillary Clinton but all the rest of the Global Elites.
Thanks Chris for this. We who want truth will all be watching.
Julian's case exposes the rot at the heart of the American government. Thank you for your continuing efforts to expose the gross injustices committed by that government.
Not only the American government, but that of its puppets.
Thank you for your well-written article Chris Hedges and for your illustration Mr. Fish. Holding power accountable is now more important than ever. May Julian Assange be free.
The case against Assange has always bothered me for the reason Chris Hedges notes in this paragraph: "How can Julian, an Australian citizen, be charged under the U.S. Espionage Act when he did not engage in espionage and wasn’t based in the U.S when he received the leaked documents?" It shows the overwhelming arrogance of the US, the same arrogance that demands impunity for torture, indiscriminate murder, and spying, all results of the failed War on Terror. Fifteen years of persecution.
Much longer than that. The U.S. has been committing war crimes, assassinations and setting up coups against sovereign nations since the early 1950's when J. Edgar Hoover and Joe McCarthy scared the U.S. congress and citizens so badly over the red scare and it escalated from there. Once the corporations got involved, the gloves came off by the late 1950's and 1960's and the U.S. just started bullying anyone who didn't toe their line. Look at South and Central America. Look at the middle east. Europe used to be as bad but they have managed to push against American imperialism in the last couple of decades to their favor. Saudi Arabia has become a major power player as well now, much to the chagrin of the U.S. The U.S. is headed for a reckoning for all of their meddling in foreign affairs and it can't happen too soon for my taste. Maybe they should lose their cherished seat at the big boy table with the United Nations to start?
And everyone thinks the United States is such a beacon of hope for refugees, and asylum seekers. The U.S. is just another version of a totalitarian government hell bent on doing whatever it wants to keep the rich elitests happy. Nothing is taken off the table. The U.S. has and will continue to commit war crimes, assasinate dissenters and make disappear anyone who dares stand up to them and expose their dirty secrets. Julian Assange doesn't have much of a chance against the U.S. juggernaut. The U.S. needs to be brought to justice but that is not likely to ever happen.
Yes I do believe this will happen too...............too much dirt!
As always, thanks to Reverend Chris for doing the true work of Christ-speaking truth to power. It seems truly endless, this fight for the truth and to reveal the horrific deeds of others who do these inhumane things. I too will be watching as best I can, hoping, praying, that justice for Julian will come. Late for sure-but I pray that true justice will come for this man.
“Julian is the first. We are next. “ Word.
An informative movie to see is OFFICIAL SECRETS with Kiera Knightly. Just a bit of the story but worth seeing how it works. The absurd length this has been going on tells you what is feared most is the Truth. Democracy. Actual Journalism. The Australian government, the New York Times, the WaPo, are disgusting in their pretend last minute support for Assange. This is a black eye on the US. But we not know that as a nation. It will be hidden from the public, like so much of what we ‘know’. . . . Just hidden. So much hidden. In broad daylight.
2019 movie. Yes, thanks for sharing!...it is informative. Interestingly the British government counter the visual arts dissemination of these illegalities 4 years later with a new, more repressive National Security Act. You'd think a film like this should have the opposite effect. I guess nobody in Britain bothered to watch it. Sheeple.
The unrelenting progression of the forces you describe mobilized against Julian Assange are truly frightening. "Legality" completely divorced from Justice. Someone used the word entity, and that's what these forces are - a nameless freezing entity, a machine, like HAL 9000. The distorted people swept into this entity of pure oppression seem to have lost all access to their individual consciences and shared Humanity.
I can only think that Julian has endured the ice-olation of this cruel machine devoid of heart or feeling for so long because of the warmth, love, gratitude and solidarity of his family, of friends like Chris, and the thousands, millions, of people around the world who are conscious, who continue to remember and carry him in their hearts. We need to find new words for evil in our modern times, when evil and greed is seen as "normal" ambition and when human beings can be turned into cold, hardened A.I.'s. When deliberately crafted destructive entities, whether in the form of drones, bombs/The Bomb, weapons and oil corporations or "legal" systems of Power,, swallow up its creators. Or perhaps that's an old story like HAL, Frankenstein, the Tower of Babel.
Thank you, Chris, for being there with Julian, and for being our witness and for sharing the gift of your integrity and words. And thank you to Mr. Fish for your powerful and fitting image of what happens to a good person who has the courage to steal the life giving light and warmth of Fire (for Humanity) from those who have come to think they are Gods with power over life and death. I don't believe their reign can last. I see it already starting to crumble.
I pray for a miracle and that Julian finally be Freed.
Another excellent look at the criminal efforts to crucify Julian Assange is Nils Meltzer's 2020 piece detailing fraud behind Swedish prosecution ~ A murderous system is being created before our very eyes... https://www.republik.ch/2020/01/31/nils-melzer-about-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange
Thank you for sharing, PamelaDrew. Stunning details.
Nice, pocket ready synopsis of all the illegalities associated with Assange persecution. Spread the word. Never forget.
Let us not forget to hold HRC responsible for the 2016 death of Berta Cáceres, Honduran environmental activist, indigenous leader, co-founder and coordinator of the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras.
Even if Assange is "forgiven" and released, all charges dropped, you can be sure there will be no where in the world this poor man can go where the claws of the sinister US Govt/CIA can't find him and kill him. This is guaranteed. Osama Bin Laden is also very dead, while Godzillary sits on a throne of skulls.