Julian Assange’s legal options have nearly run out. He could be extradited to the U.S. this week. Should he be convicted in the U.S., any reporting on the inner workings of power will become a crime.
There is no good reason for Julian to be charged under the Espionage Act, because he didn't sell or give classified info to a foreign government. He merely told the truth the people needed to know, just like others such as Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, and made some privileged people look bad for doing wrong things. There needs to be a loud voice from many people opposing any action against Julian Assange.
I agree but I think you and others in this thread have missed one of the biggest points. “There is no good reason for Julian to be charged under the Espionage Act” because HE IS NOT A U.S. CITIZEN. He is an Australian citizen and has barely been in the US. One of the worst parts of this is that the US government is basically flagrantly ruling the whole world, which was de facto true anyway — its military knows no borders and it’s completely and outwardly mocking the idea of legal jurisdiction here. And I’m aware that the Espionage Act is very problematic locally in the US, but it needs to be emphasised what the US is also doing here — legally prosecuting a foreign citizen who has barely been in its country. (It isn’t surprising again, however, considering it has and still kills, tortures, assassinates people on the other side of the world and very likely at home with complete impunity)
Assange also didn’t *just* make some privileged people look bad for doing wrong things — he exposed war crimes and systemic abuses by the US as a imperial force. As Glenn Greenwald has repeatedly said, Assange is the most accomplished journalist of his generation, having broken more stories than the rest of them combined. The mechanism he pioneered for Wikileaks enabled whistleblowers to share information while having the ability to remain protected as possible (something the other media outlets copied after him and then didn’t care to seriously defend him)
I just didn't go that far in my comment. I know what you have said, and I agree...but whether he is a citizen or not, he didn't violate the Espionage Act.
I agree with you 100 percent! I also admire Edward with his truthfulness of what we in The United states of America have accomplished and achieved its point and told US The People the Truth about it since Snowden and Julian Assange (whom I love indefinitely for the Actual Truth About our War-mongering military that is a shit-show since 2001 when the 3 towers collapsed! Yes 3 Buildings not 2 like the rest of the world doesn’t understand! The dark = the dark and you’ll get no light anymore because that’s Been stolen by OUR GOVERNMENT to be hijacked for there meaningless bullshit to destroy the world! That’s what
I’d say release all 3 of them because they are actually the heroes in a diabolic nation called the USA that I unfortunately am disgusted and want to leave the nation that I used to Love!
I agree with you. They are courageous heroes in a diabolic nation. those running this 'sh*t show' want a huge war. I worry about that too. Besides where can one go anyway?
That’s why I’m voting for Cornell West and Chris Hedges ( or Jimmy D ) for our new leadership! I’m sick of these Duchbag’s screwing our world with M.I.C and the 27 trillion dollars for the 8 branches of our world. The Pentagon Needs to be stopped and we need to Heal ourselves with our troops to have and put our guns down for peace and prosperity! 1-2 trillion dollars is way to fucking much!
I lived in N.C right next to camp LaJune when I was 10 and the war and military is a huge part of the 850+ base’s over the globe. I wanted to be a sniper for the best marksman sniper,thank god my mother brought us back to Mass where I lived. Thank god for showing me the correct path to follow. I reported on Waco when I was 10 for my report. Even that was a disaster for military personnel for the M.I.C that burns the world! 27 trillion dollars for 8 branches is way to gosh dang much! We the people should be US the people not the Military! We are all running to Death if this happens in half a year for elections! I’m with Cornell West and Chris Hedges for Vice President. Or we can change our thinking and trash the 2 sided Monopoly for corrupt corporations that buy politicians for their profit!
And it is definitionally a political prosecution to charge someone with violating the Espionage Act, a notoriously abuse prone statute created in WWI to criminalize political activity disfavored by the state in the name of protecting national security, a fraudulent pretextual conceit. As the recent Trump indictment makes clear, claimed threats to "National Security" are invariably just threats to the security state apparatus, not the actual security of the nation.
The "good" reason for Julian to have been charged under the Espionage Act is the fact that, contrary to almost every other potential statutory basis for prosecution, the Espionage Act of 1917 does not allow for any Affirmative Defenses, which is to say that a Defendant is forbidden from explaining the rationale for his actions. Imagine if a person was being tried for attempted murder, for having thrown a baby out of a second story window, and the defendant father was not allowed to explain that the building was on fire and he believed that there was no way to carry the baby out of the burning building without it suffering burns, smoke inhalation and potential death. All the jury would be allowed to hear, in such a case, would be that the father threw the baby out the window. Period. That is why such "constitutional scholars" such as Obama have chosen to charge whistleblowers under the 1917 Act (one that had originally included Sedition, i.e., criticizing the government, as a felony) as the perfect vehicle for insuring as many successful prosecutions as possible.
I say the Esp act is unconstitutional. The whole point of a jury trial is to allow for a public interest defense. Besides, isn't the government supposed to be working in the interest of the public in the first place?
Yes I think if the extradition happens there will be many folks here in America taking on our wtf system. I believe in the rules of law but truth telling is a virtue not a transgression.
Thank you for your concise summary of the huge injustices Assange has endured up to this point in his persecution. Any compassionate person must conclude he has suffered way beyond anything justified by his actions. The people persecuting him have lost all their humanity!
"All of the public protests I have attended in defense of Julian in the U.S. are sparsely attended. Our passivity makes us complicit in our own enslavement."
I'd like to believe Assange inflicted a "grievous wound" to the deep state monsters, but it's hard to see it that way. Nobody cares, or even knows. Just like they don't care about a dangerous airborne disease, or know that the great heat--the end of normal--is at hand.
No. We're asleep. The comfortable among us will only fall more deeply asleep, desperate to keep what comforts they can.
Yes, Nicholas [Kristof], "Many on the left had erred on what was perhaps the most important issue of the 20th century, global totalitarianism" — but let's admit that the late 19th, all of the 20th, and well into the 21st century — we erred and followed the long arc of history in the wrong direction to Empire and Wealth instead of Love and Democratic Socialism.
As early as 'fixing' corporate capitalism in 1886, being judged a legal equality of humans and corporations, the wrong path was taken.
By 1898, when Mark Twain formed the American Anti-Imperialist League, the die was cast that "The Quiet American" Empire a century latter aspired to rule the world.
FDR's democratic social equality instincts by 1944 were dramatic, empathetic, and evolving — until 'the fix' was in — when Dixiecrats and 'Big City Bosses' orchestrated the first 'silent coup d'état', and democratic socialist Henry Wallace was excised.
With the success of the first, the ante was upped, in the early 60's with Ike's national security state reservations, concerns, and warnings, along with a string of not-so 'silent coup d'états'.
Then came the litany of duopolies, Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal 'Children-Killing' & 'War-Starting' EMPIRE, controlled by a ‘Ruling-Elite’, UHNWI, <0.003%ers, TCCers, arrogantly self-appointed "Masters of the Universe" — which hides Empire behind their totally corrupted dual-party Vichy-facade of faux-democracy — moving to a FULL-ON Global EMPIRE.
Sounds about right,this pyramid scheme should have been stopped hella-long ago! Look up your food Group and the pyramid scheme has so much Carbs it can kill ya alone, not to mention the pyramid scheme of fat-cat suckbag’s at the top for the 1 percent that screws is all at the end! That’s my statement and I’m sticking to it! I eat to much complex carbohydrates of SHIT that’s expensive as hell Raman noodles it is !
Julian Assange's plight is the same for me as all of the Iraq BS - the invasion and torture and unaccountability. RFK Jr says on Day 1 of his administration Julian and Edward Snowden will be pardoned.
I may be naively hopeful, but I do not think he is unaware of what he is up against. His background and public service and Democratic values are worthy of seriousness. I cannot vote for the better of two horrible candidates anymore. I'd rather opt out.
J'Accuse....! Or not. If only Americans weren't depressed and distracted, apathetic and utterly incurious. Throughout the Dreyfus Affair French citizens were passionately divided - and remain vociferously active and in the streets regarding perceived wrongdoing by their government. But U.S. citizens are the proverbial boiling frog, largely oblivious to the horrific injustice of Julian Assange's persecution and the inevitable wreaking-ball for investigative journalism that is intended with his extradition. As with anyone empathetic to Assange's plight and aware of the corporate totalitarianism behind it, this feels like a nightmare reaching its climax.
This is what 1.5 -2 trillion dollars will get ya for the stock Blowme market that’s skewed for the peter-pay Paul ,and rob ran to the Cayman Islands for Sam freed ! That way 1 year ago now and the cards keep on crumbling because we are building out of sticks that cost 1/2 a million dollars for a 30 year loan tack another 6.5 apr for the interest rate for Black Rock, or Vanguard or state street loans on a privatized shitshow for Larry Fink to stick that ass crack back in the shitshow we’re all looking through with paralyzed legs!
Oh shit it’s actually 9.75 percent from the Federal Reserve’s decision! Fuck them as well I know who they both are and one of them was a classmate at Yale ! I actually know who they are !
I always appreciate reading your lucid analysis of these vital matters. Julian Assange ought to be considered as the modern versions of Sacco and Vanzetti, or the Rosenberg case. Instead, we have a pacified public who with supposedly more technology has actually less information, and almost no motivation to get into the streets to protest abuse of power and reclaim their rights.
Thank you for being one of those few who still hold the torch of integrity aloft.
How do you do this without getting killed (or beaten to pulp ready for the hospital), how do you motivate people (that still think Mr Assange is a disgusting rapist and whatever, although ALL this was LONG AGO debunked) - you would need hundreds of thousands to block the roads in Washington DC - I certainly would like to see it, but I think we are / have LOST!
The answer is we do not lend any legitimacy to this illegitimate system. You cannot fight a government that has the monopoly on violence, but you can refuse lend it legitimacy. Look at the fall of East Germany, an example Chris uses a lot. Eventually it just collapses from within. What a situation like that would look like is anyones guess.
Shocking indeed. The slow murder of Julian may not be just revenge, but rather, warning to anybody daring to reveal more and bigger crimes in the future, including crimes that Julian has not yet revealed.
He hasn't completely lost his mind. My guess is he is well aware of the ramifications and would willingly commit suicide to protect journalism. I would not wish that rock and a hard pla e decision on an enemy. It is up to him to decide how to meet this crisis. He has children and should never allow anyone to make this choice for him. A true hero either way and I would guess that either way there will be violent retribution for the blatant inhumane treatment of a journalist who sought only to provide truth. Truly this is a very sad affair.
There is no good reason for Julian to be charged under the Espionage Act, because he didn't sell or give classified info to a foreign government. He merely told the truth the people needed to know, just like others such as Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, and made some privileged people look bad for doing wrong things. There needs to be a loud voice from many people opposing any action against Julian Assange.
I agree but I think you and others in this thread have missed one of the biggest points. “There is no good reason for Julian to be charged under the Espionage Act” because HE IS NOT A U.S. CITIZEN. He is an Australian citizen and has barely been in the US. One of the worst parts of this is that the US government is basically flagrantly ruling the whole world, which was de facto true anyway — its military knows no borders and it’s completely and outwardly mocking the idea of legal jurisdiction here. And I’m aware that the Espionage Act is very problematic locally in the US, but it needs to be emphasised what the US is also doing here — legally prosecuting a foreign citizen who has barely been in its country. (It isn’t surprising again, however, considering it has and still kills, tortures, assassinates people on the other side of the world and very likely at home with complete impunity)
Assange also didn’t *just* make some privileged people look bad for doing wrong things — he exposed war crimes and systemic abuses by the US as a imperial force. As Glenn Greenwald has repeatedly said, Assange is the most accomplished journalist of his generation, having broken more stories than the rest of them combined. The mechanism he pioneered for Wikileaks enabled whistleblowers to share information while having the ability to remain protected as possible (something the other media outlets copied after him and then didn’t care to seriously defend him)
Excellent point.
I just didn't go that far in my comment. I know what you have said, and I agree...but whether he is a citizen or not, he didn't violate the Espionage Act.
I agree with you 100 percent! I also admire Edward with his truthfulness of what we in The United states of America have accomplished and achieved its point and told US The People the Truth about it since Snowden and Julian Assange (whom I love indefinitely for the Actual Truth About our War-mongering military that is a shit-show since 2001 when the 3 towers collapsed! Yes 3 Buildings not 2 like the rest of the world doesn’t understand! The dark = the dark and you’ll get no light anymore because that’s Been stolen by OUR GOVERNMENT to be hijacked for there meaningless bullshit to destroy the world! That’s what
Thermite will do! We reap what we sow! That explains it!
I’d say release all 3 of them because they are actually the heroes in a diabolic nation called the USA that I unfortunately am disgusted and want to leave the nation that I used to Love!
I agree with you. They are courageous heroes in a diabolic nation. those running this 'sh*t show' want a huge war. I worry about that too. Besides where can one go anyway?
That’s why I’m voting for Cornell West and Chris Hedges ( or Jimmy D ) for our new leadership! I’m sick of these Duchbag’s screwing our world with M.I.C and the 27 trillion dollars for the 8 branches of our world. The Pentagon Needs to be stopped and we need to Heal ourselves with our troops to have and put our guns down for peace and prosperity! 1-2 trillion dollars is way to fucking much!
Yeah, and "provide for the common defense" had nothing to do with trying to take over the world like the Roman Empire...
I lived in N.C right next to camp LaJune when I was 10 and the war and military is a huge part of the 850+ base’s over the globe. I wanted to be a sniper for the best marksman sniper,thank god my mother brought us back to Mass where I lived. Thank god for showing me the correct path to follow. I reported on Waco when I was 10 for my report. Even that was a disaster for military personnel for the M.I.C that burns the world! 27 trillion dollars for 8 branches is way to gosh dang much! We the people should be US the people not the Military! We are all running to Death if this happens in half a year for elections! I’m with Cornell West and Chris Hedges for Vice President. Or we can change our thinking and trash the 2 sided Monopoly for corrupt corporations that buy politicians for their profit!
And it is definitionally a political prosecution to charge someone with violating the Espionage Act, a notoriously abuse prone statute created in WWI to criminalize political activity disfavored by the state in the name of protecting national security, a fraudulent pretextual conceit. As the recent Trump indictment makes clear, claimed threats to "National Security" are invariably just threats to the security state apparatus, not the actual security of the nation.
https://euphoricrecall.substack.com/p/another-rubicon-has-been-crossed
The "good" reason for Julian to have been charged under the Espionage Act is the fact that, contrary to almost every other potential statutory basis for prosecution, the Espionage Act of 1917 does not allow for any Affirmative Defenses, which is to say that a Defendant is forbidden from explaining the rationale for his actions. Imagine if a person was being tried for attempted murder, for having thrown a baby out of a second story window, and the defendant father was not allowed to explain that the building was on fire and he believed that there was no way to carry the baby out of the burning building without it suffering burns, smoke inhalation and potential death. All the jury would be allowed to hear, in such a case, would be that the father threw the baby out the window. Period. That is why such "constitutional scholars" such as Obama have chosen to charge whistleblowers under the 1917 Act (one that had originally included Sedition, i.e., criticizing the government, as a felony) as the perfect vehicle for insuring as many successful prosecutions as possible.
I say the Esp act is unconstitutional. The whole point of a jury trial is to allow for a public interest defense. Besides, isn't the government supposed to be working in the interest of the public in the first place?
Yes I think if the extradition happens there will be many folks here in America taking on our wtf system. I believe in the rules of law but truth telling is a virtue not a transgression.
Cheers
As Western Civilization digs its grave.....
Thank you for your concise summary of the huge injustices Assange has endured up to this point in his persecution. Any compassionate person must conclude he has suffered way beyond anything justified by his actions. The people persecuting him have lost all their humanity!
Sociopaths lack humanity, in the sense that they have no conscience.
"All of the public protests I have attended in defense of Julian in the U.S. are sparsely attended. Our passivity makes us complicit in our own enslavement."
This might be the ultimate tragedy.
Most people in America don't even know who he is.
Or they are all in favor of his persecution.
I'd like to believe Assange inflicted a "grievous wound" to the deep state monsters, but it's hard to see it that way. Nobody cares, or even knows. Just like they don't care about a dangerous airborne disease, or know that the great heat--the end of normal--is at hand.
No. We're asleep. The comfortable among us will only fall more deeply asleep, desperate to keep what comforts they can.
Yes, Nicholas [Kristof], "Many on the left had erred on what was perhaps the most important issue of the 20th century, global totalitarianism" — but let's admit that the late 19th, all of the 20th, and well into the 21st century — we erred and followed the long arc of history in the wrong direction to Empire and Wealth instead of Love and Democratic Socialism.
As early as 'fixing' corporate capitalism in 1886, being judged a legal equality of humans and corporations, the wrong path was taken.
By 1898, when Mark Twain formed the American Anti-Imperialist League, the die was cast that "The Quiet American" Empire a century latter aspired to rule the world.
FDR's democratic social equality instincts by 1944 were dramatic, empathetic, and evolving — until 'the fix' was in — when Dixiecrats and 'Big City Bosses' orchestrated the first 'silent coup d'état', and democratic socialist Henry Wallace was excised.
With the success of the first, the ante was upped, in the early 60's with Ike's national security state reservations, concerns, and warnings, along with a string of not-so 'silent coup d'états'.
Then came the litany of duopolies, Disguised Global Crony Capitalist Racist Propagandist Criminal Ecocidal 'Children-Killing' & 'War-Starting' EMPIRE, controlled by a ‘Ruling-Elite’, UHNWI, <0.003%ers, TCCers, arrogantly self-appointed "Masters of the Universe" — which hides Empire behind their totally corrupted dual-party Vichy-facade of faux-democracy — moving to a FULL-ON Global EMPIRE.
Excellent, honest and concise. I especially loved your final paragraph!
Sounds about right,this pyramid scheme should have been stopped hella-long ago! Look up your food Group and the pyramid scheme has so much Carbs it can kill ya alone, not to mention the pyramid scheme of fat-cat suckbag’s at the top for the 1 percent that screws is all at the end! That’s my statement and I’m sticking to it! I eat to much complex carbohydrates of SHIT that’s expensive as hell Raman noodles it is !
Yes, A far better diet Tyler
Julian Assange's plight is the same for me as all of the Iraq BS - the invasion and torture and unaccountability. RFK Jr says on Day 1 of his administration Julian and Edward Snowden will be pardoned.
For which reason alone RFK, Jr. will never be allowed to become president.
I may be naively hopeful, but I do not think he is unaware of what he is up against. His background and public service and Democratic values are worthy of seriousness. I cannot vote for the better of two horrible candidates anymore. I'd rather opt out.
J'Accuse....! Or not. If only Americans weren't depressed and distracted, apathetic and utterly incurious. Throughout the Dreyfus Affair French citizens were passionately divided - and remain vociferously active and in the streets regarding perceived wrongdoing by their government. But U.S. citizens are the proverbial boiling frog, largely oblivious to the horrific injustice of Julian Assange's persecution and the inevitable wreaking-ball for investigative journalism that is intended with his extradition. As with anyone empathetic to Assange's plight and aware of the corporate totalitarianism behind it, this feels like a nightmare reaching its climax.
This is what 1.5 -2 trillion dollars will get ya for the stock Blowme market that’s skewed for the peter-pay Paul ,and rob ran to the Cayman Islands for Sam freed ! That way 1 year ago now and the cards keep on crumbling because we are building out of sticks that cost 1/2 a million dollars for a 30 year loan tack another 6.5 apr for the interest rate for Black Rock, or Vanguard or state street loans on a privatized shitshow for Larry Fink to stick that ass crack back in the shitshow we’re all looking through with paralyzed legs!
Oh shit it’s actually 9.75 percent from the Federal Reserve’s decision! Fuck them as well I know who they both are and one of them was a classmate at Yale ! I actually know who they are !
I'm pretty sure that Julian is already destroyed psychologically and physically.
This is so wrong, on so many different levels. And we can't seem to stop it.
I always appreciate reading your lucid analysis of these vital matters. Julian Assange ought to be considered as the modern versions of Sacco and Vanzetti, or the Rosenberg case. Instead, we have a pacified public who with supposedly more technology has actually less information, and almost no motivation to get into the streets to protest abuse of power and reclaim their rights.
Thank you for being one of those few who still hold the torch of integrity aloft.
We have to overthrow the US government and dismantle the security and surveillance state
How do you do this without getting killed (or beaten to pulp ready for the hospital), how do you motivate people (that still think Mr Assange is a disgusting rapist and whatever, although ALL this was LONG AGO debunked) - you would need hundreds of thousands to block the roads in Washington DC - I certainly would like to see it, but I think we are / have LOST!
The answer is we do not lend any legitimacy to this illegitimate system. You cannot fight a government that has the monopoly on violence, but you can refuse lend it legitimacy. Look at the fall of East Germany, an example Chris uses a lot. Eventually it just collapses from within. What a situation like that would look like is anyones guess.
Julian is targeted for exposing to the public how our criminal overlords operate & who they are.
The crime against Julian Assange is so terrible that I cannot find the words .
Cnnnie Bygdnes
Shocking indeed. The slow murder of Julian may not be just revenge, but rather, warning to anybody daring to reveal more and bigger crimes in the future, including crimes that Julian has not yet revealed.
Of course. Otherwise Assange would have been Epsteined a long time ago.
He hasn't completely lost his mind. My guess is he is well aware of the ramifications and would willingly commit suicide to protect journalism. I would not wish that rock and a hard pla e decision on an enemy. It is up to him to decide how to meet this crisis. He has children and should never allow anyone to make this choice for him. A true hero either way and I would guess that either way there will be violent retribution for the blatant inhumane treatment of a journalist who sought only to provide truth. Truly this is a very sad affair.
It is surreal to watch this persecution. Thank you for your unwavering voice and journalistic integrity