By Stephen Lendman
Information Clearing House
August 20, 2019
Since April 11 when unlawfully dragged from Ecuador’s London
embassy to captivity, Assange has languished under draconian
conditions in a UK dungeon at the behest of the Trump regime,
wanting him tried in the US for the “crime” of truth-telling
journalism.
Dark forces in the US, other Western states, Israel, and most
everywhere else greatly fear widespread public knowledge of
their wrongdoing against ordinary people to benefit privileged
ones.
They want it kept out of the mainstream notably not on television
and in print publications with widespread readership.
If the fourth estate gave news consumers a daily diet of what’s
vital to know about domestic and geopolitical issues, another
world would be possible — plowshares replacing swords, social
justice over neoliberal harshness, equity and justice for all,
nations fit and safe to live in for all their citizens and residents.
Notably in hegemonic America, if ordinary people understood
the bipartisan plot against their rights and welfare in service
to monied interests, a national convulsion could follow, a possible
revolutionary uprising, maybe yellow vest-type protests involving
millions demanding justice.
That’s why dark forces in America want whistleblowers like
Chelsea Manning and investigative journalists like Julian Assange
silenced and punished.
Digital democracy is the last frontier of free and open expression,
the only reliable independent space for real news, information and
analysis – enabling anyone to freely express views on any topics.
Government censorship is an ominous possibility.
In America and other Western societies, democracies in name only,
the real thing prohibited, censorship increasingly is the new normal.
What’s going on is the hallmark of totalitarian rule – controlling
the message, eliminating what conflicts with it, notably on major
geopolitical issues.
Losing the right of free expression endangers all others.
When truth-telling and dissent are considered threats to national
security, free and open societies no longer exist – the slippery slope
America and other Western societies are heading on.
On August 11, Activist Post.com reported that “leaked documents
show (the) White House is planning (an) executive order to censor
the Internet.”
If indeed planned, the Trump regime plot involves having the
corporate-controlled FCC and FTC decide what’s permitted and
banned online, a frightening prospect.
In America, Big Brother watches everyone.
Will the same dark force henceforth end digital democracy as now
exists by executive order — to become the law of the land if not
judicially overruled.
Are things heading toward criminalizing truth-telling independent
journalists, risking a fate similar to Assange.
John Pilger tweeted the following:
“Do not forget Julian #Assange. Or you will lose him. I saw him
in Belmarsh prison and his health has deteriorated.”
“Treated worse than a murderer, he is isolated, medicated and
denied the tools to fight the bogus charges of a US extradition.
I now fear for him. Do not forget him.”
His mother Christine tweeted the following:
“My son Julian Assange is being slowly, cruelly & unlawfully
assassinated by the US/UK Govts for multi-award winning
journalism revealing war crimes & corruption! I’m tweeting
/retweeting #FreeAssangeNOW.”
In May, UN special rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer said
the following:
“My most urgent concern is that, in the United States, Mr. Assange
would be exposed to a real risk of serious violations of his human
rights, including his freedom of expression, his right to a fair trial
and the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment,” adding:
“In the course of the past nine years, Mr. Assange has been exposed
to persistent, progressively severe abuse ranging from systematic
judicial persecution and arbitrary confinement in the Ecuadorian
embassy, to his oppressive isolation, harassment and surveillance
inside the embassy, and from deliberate collective ridicule, insults
and humiliation, to open instigation of violence and even repeated
calls for his assassination.”
On May 9, Melzer visited him at London’s high-security Belmarsh
prison, accompanied by two medical experts on the effects of
torture and other forms of abuse, explaining the following:
“It was obvious that Mr Assange’s health has been seriously affected
by the extremely hostile and arbitrary environment he has been
exposed to for many years” — compounded by imprisonment at
Belmarsh on orders by the Trump regime.
Besides poor physical health needing treatment not adequately
gotten, Assange showed “all symptoms typical for prolonged
exposure to psychological torture, including extreme stress,
chronic anxiety and intense psychological trauma.”
Three months later, he likely deteriorated further, last spring
too weak and ill to communicate normally.
Britain in cahoots with the Trump regime may want him dead
from prolonged imprisonment and neglect.
They may not want him extradited following a federal district
court dismissal of a DNC suit against Russia, WikiLeaks, and the
Trump campaign.
Judge John Koeltl said “(t)he DNC cannot hold these defendants
liable for aiding and abetting publication when they would have
been entitled to publish the stolen documents themselves without
liability,” he stressed, adding:
Its lawsuit was “entirely divorced” from the facts…(riddled with)
substantive legal defect(s).”
“The Court has considered all of the arguments raised by the
parties. (They’re) either moot or without merit.”
Absolving WikiLeaks of wrongdoing applies to Assange, its founder
and editor-in-chief when active — meaning US federal courts at
the district, appeals, and highest level could absolve him at trial,
citing First Amendment free expression rights, defeating the Trump
regime’s aim to imprison him longterm.
With this in mind, they may want him languishing behind bars in
London, wanting him killed by neglect to avoid an embarrassing
judicial defeat if US courts support First Amendment speech and
media freedoms — what earlier Supreme Court rulings upheld.
WikiLeaks is an investigative journalism operation. Media freedom
is a constitutional right — no matter how unacceptable or offensive
views expressed may be to certain parties.
Abolishing the right jeopardizes all others.
Injustice to Chelsea Manning and Assange threatens the right of
everyone to express views freely.
It’s the most fundamental of all rights.
Without it, anyone expressing views publicly that challenge the
official narrative on vital issues is vulnerable to prosecution for
the “crime” of speech or media freedom.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52098.htm
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