Julian Assange’s lawyers — in a final bid on Tuesday to stop his extradition — fought valiantly to poke holes in the case of the prosecution to obtain an appeal.
Thank you, Chris, for bearing witness to the agonizingly cruel and inhumane treatment of Julian Assange. You are a consummate friend to Julian and Stella as well as an exceedingly rare journalist of courageous integrity.
As you know, I dedicated my poem “Ode to a Whistleblower” to Julian Assange and Daniel Ellsberg last year. I included an appeal to help fulfill Dan’s dying wish to #FreeAssange in the video played at Ellsberg’s tribute during the Whistleblower Summit:
It is my hope that these can be used to help galvanize further support for Julian and his heroic example of truth-telling, for which he has sacrificed everything.
May justice, for once, prevail, and Julian be liberated from torture and bondage for the crime of exposing the crimes of the State.
What a pathetic and diseased nation the US is; and what disgusting and unfit examples of so-called "humanity" these players, those who seek to destroy Julian Assange. Biden, Trump, Pompeo, et al, all show their corrupt nature and complicit loyalty to the Military Industrial Complex. AS I write this, the mainstream news is broadcasting another report on Hunter Biden and that crap-show on that; yet so far (and that may change but I doubt it) not a thing about Julian's ongoing struggles to obtain, at long last, some justice. That says it all about what the media really stands for. God help Julian Assange, and God help all of us.
Thank you Chris Hedges for your tireless effort to bring the truth to us.
Julian Assange is facing life in a maximum-security US prison because he exposed the criminality of the most powerful government on earth.
Just two examples of his immense contribution follow below:
July 25, 2010 – Wikileaks, along with three media partners – The New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel – begin publishing the first of 91,731 classified military documents that would become the Afghan War Logs. The documents, covering the period between January 2004 and December 2009, offer a picture of the war that is a lot different from the rosier one offered publicly by US officials. Some of the key findings first published by the New York Times follow below:
• Secret commando units like Task Force 373 — a classified group of Army and Navy special operatives — work from a “capture/kill list” of about 70 top insurgent commanders. These missions, which have been stepped up under the Obama administration, claim notable successes, but have sometimes gone wrong, killing civilians and stoking Afghan resentment.
• The military employs more and more drone aircraft to survey the battlefield and strike targets in Afghanistan, although their performance is different than officially portrayed. Some crash or collide, forcing American troops to undertake risky retrieval missions before the Taliban can claim the drone’s weaponry.
• The Central Intelligence Agency has expanded paramilitary operations inside Afghanistan. The units launch ambushes, order airstrikes and conduct night raids. From 2001 to 2008, the C.I.A. paid the budget of Afghanistan’s spy agency and ran it as a virtual subsidiary.
October 22, 2010 – Wikileaks publishes 391,832 classified documents covering the period between January 2004 and December 2009. The mass disclosure becomes known as the Iraq War Logs. Some of the key findings from this latest batch of documents follow below:
• The official tally of civilian fatalities was undercounted by approximately 15,000 people.
• US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape, and murder by Iraq’s military and police.
• US forces were given a video showing a dozen Iraqi soldiers executing a prisoner with his hands bound.
• According to one of the logs, a US medical officer discovered “bruises and burns as well as visible injuries to the head, arm, torso, legs, and neck” on the body of a man Iraqi officials had claimed died by suicide.
• In another incident, a US Apache helicopter gunship executed two men on the ground who had been trying to surrender.
makes one want to move to a non narco South American state and hide. Resistance is futile here in the facist surveillance capitalistic state called USA where free speach is censored and surveilled by agencies working to keep the underbelly Jullian and others have exposed hidden. What democracy?
When Hitler, er, I mean Reagan, got elected president, my first instinct was to leave the U.S. Unfortunately, I'd never been out of the U.S., didn't know anyone in another country, and didn't even have a passport at that time, so I just stayed here. If I'd had the European friends I have now, I would have moved there and never come back. I really don't like being in the Americas, because my ancestry is European and I feel like a colonizer just being here.
It's not about that, it's about where to go that you're not being just another colonizing invader. I don't know whether there are any Native Cubans left, I think the colonizers killed them all hundreds of years ago. But if I were going to move to the tropics, I'd go to a small South Pacific island.
Yeah, can't get away from feeding the machine, unfortunately. But we can all do SOMETHING. For example, I have no kids and I gave up my car 23-24 years ago. If everyone made at least SOME effort and their kids did the same and on & on, the world would be an exponentially better place. We didn't get into this mess overnight (in human terms), and we're not getting out of if overnight either. Incremental change works if you continue to make it.
As to global warming, I'm pretty old and I don't think that an island I'd move to would be underwater by the time I die.
The US indictment and extradition request are obviously made in bad faith and retaliatory, in other words persecution not prosecution. There's almost as much evidence in the public record of this malign intent as there is of Israel's genocidal intent.
That should be emphasized, not the legal nuance -
And Julian is a journalist and publisher, and his actions are protected by the First Amendment. So, the indictment violates the US Constitution as well. British law on press freedom is far weaker, so the Judges' must be made to understand this.
Doesn't matter what they argue. This is a kangaroo court, and the decision was made well in advance of the hearing. Political cases are determined by politics, not law or feelings.
And public opinion can be influenced by "legal" arguments made in the courtroom and broadcast to the street activists.
And powerful institutions like The NY Times et al can be influenced by public opinion - it is significant that the major media issued a statement in support of Assange and that members of Parliament were present in the Court. Longtime observes of the case stated that this at least forced the judges to be respectful and not hostile to the defense.
Don't be such a nihilist - and if you really think this way, why read and comment here?
This example of insanity by the Court, is reflective of the deep rooted corruption that plagues all courts throughout the world. It is a clear example of the evil that the Deep State Cabal and Military Industrial Complex, and its secretive corporate alliances have destroyed the world, under years of false claims of fairness in a judicial system that is as corrupt as any governmental agency has been.
Well no, I would say they are equal, we reached the same despicable state of affairs. If you ever seen a clip of 'Mr.Freisler' (may he roast in hell - if there is one) ranting and raving and the outcome of these so called trials (hanging by wire f.i.) you would not think that the nazi's (may they also roast in hell) are dispassionate ...
This is the breaking point for the media around the world. As pointed out in the panel broadcast, world leaders are using this case as reason to lock up journalists around the world for investigating corruption and human rights violations. If the U.S. gets their hands on Julian Assange, the rest of the journalists around the world need to take note. What you write about will get you killed. Look at all of the Al Jazeera journalists that the IDF has killed in Gaza. The U.S. is setting a bad precedent for the rest of the world at large. 'If the U.S. can do it, so can we.' And democracy takes another step back.
Yes, and on top of that, the U.S. always claims that it's the beacon of "freedom," including freedom of speech (which includes freedom of the press). That big lie is now completely exposed here, though I'd be willing to bet that many if not most Americans still think that theirs is still a free country (it never was, depending on whose freedom we're talking about).
I am planning a podcast show around this so called 'Freedom of the Press' for next week to try and point out the hypocrisy of our 'Bill of Rights'. I will reference these substack posts and videos from Chris Hedges, along with my own stories of interacting with U.S. journalists back in 2002 in Afghanistan. Maybe if enough of us make enough noise about stuff like this, we can try and put a stop to the obvious facist doings of the CIA and the U.S. military industrial complex.
What's more likely is that if people make enough noise, they'll send out the military to repress and maybe even kill them. People in power don't give it up, it has to be taken from them. The most successful way of accomplishing that is to shut down society by people getting into the streets and staying there until they get the changes they demand.
Good idea if you are willing to put your life on the line for what you believe in. Remember Kent State? Going up hard against the current ideation of the United States may very well get you dead, either by the local police (most likely situation) or by the guys hired by the government to put down riots (such as the no name fake protestors out west a few years ago, which turned out to have been hired thugs by the government). I have no problem with it but I was career military with multiple deployments into bad places. I can take care of myself but I am the exception to the average protestor. How many people are willing to risk their lives against half assed trained police these days?
Mainstream/corporate/establishment media is mainly propaganda for the ruling class and their corporate interests, including the military/intelligence/industrial complex. What you're seeing in the Washington Post is exactly what I would expect from a propaganda rag like that.
You are right of course, I did not read the article, I read comments - horrible (with a very few exceptions). Where does all this bottomless HATE come from? (I guess that is a stupid question too ... we are LOST)
Trump doesn't care about anything but his money and his ego. He was also considering pardoning Assange at the end of his term as president. I don't support and wouldn't vote for him either, but he's not the evil Satan that the establishment makes him out to be compared to the rest of these Wall Street war mongers and empire tools.
So you’ll never hear the words “All the kingdoms of the world will be yours if you will just bow down and worship me!” from Trump’s lips? Or: Vote for me, I’ll make you so tired of winning?
Thank you, Chris, for bearing witness to the agonizingly cruel and inhumane treatment of Julian Assange. You are a consummate friend to Julian and Stella as well as an exceedingly rare journalist of courageous integrity.
As you know, I dedicated my poem “Ode to a Whistleblower” to Julian Assange and Daniel Ellsberg last year. I included an appeal to help fulfill Dan’s dying wish to #FreeAssange in the video played at Ellsberg’s tribute during the Whistleblower Summit:
• “Ode to a Whistleblower” (poem + article on Julian and Daniel): https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/ode-to-a-whistleblower
• “Ode to a Whistleblower (Video Tribute to Daniel Ellsberg)”: https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/ode-to-a-whistleblower-video-tribute
It is my hope that these can be used to help galvanize further support for Julian and his heroic example of truth-telling, for which he has sacrificed everything.
May justice, for once, prevail, and Julian be liberated from torture and bondage for the crime of exposing the crimes of the State.
Thank you, Margaret for your poem. Allow me to share mine:
The Empire Strikes Back (for Julian Assange)
In videos of black and white
The Emperor’s flung into the light
Wanton carnage a shooters game.
Revealing not a stitch or shame.
Shows not the slightest of remorse.
Nothing deters this incarnadine course.
Those who dare think “resist”
Their name is added to the list
The self-proclaimed democracies
Know what to do with such as these.
Revealing truths they’ll quickly smother
Hoping there’ll never be another.
These days of reading dangerously fast
“Extradition”
Looks way too much like
“Execution.”
What a pathetic and diseased nation the US is; and what disgusting and unfit examples of so-called "humanity" these players, those who seek to destroy Julian Assange. Biden, Trump, Pompeo, et al, all show their corrupt nature and complicit loyalty to the Military Industrial Complex. AS I write this, the mainstream news is broadcasting another report on Hunter Biden and that crap-show on that; yet so far (and that may change but I doubt it) not a thing about Julian's ongoing struggles to obtain, at long last, some justice. That says it all about what the media really stands for. God help Julian Assange, and God help all of us.
Thank you Chris Hedges for your tireless effort to bring the truth to us.
Julian Assange is facing life in a maximum-security US prison because he exposed the criminality of the most powerful government on earth.
Just two examples of his immense contribution follow below:
July 25, 2010 – Wikileaks, along with three media partners – The New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel – begin publishing the first of 91,731 classified military documents that would become the Afghan War Logs. The documents, covering the period between January 2004 and December 2009, offer a picture of the war that is a lot different from the rosier one offered publicly by US officials. Some of the key findings first published by the New York Times follow below:
• Secret commando units like Task Force 373 — a classified group of Army and Navy special operatives — work from a “capture/kill list” of about 70 top insurgent commanders. These missions, which have been stepped up under the Obama administration, claim notable successes, but have sometimes gone wrong, killing civilians and stoking Afghan resentment.
• The military employs more and more drone aircraft to survey the battlefield and strike targets in Afghanistan, although their performance is different than officially portrayed. Some crash or collide, forcing American troops to undertake risky retrieval missions before the Taliban can claim the drone’s weaponry.
• The Central Intelligence Agency has expanded paramilitary operations inside Afghanistan. The units launch ambushes, order airstrikes and conduct night raids. From 2001 to 2008, the C.I.A. paid the budget of Afghanistan’s spy agency and ran it as a virtual subsidiary.
October 22, 2010 – Wikileaks publishes 391,832 classified documents covering the period between January 2004 and December 2009. The mass disclosure becomes known as the Iraq War Logs. Some of the key findings from this latest batch of documents follow below:
• The official tally of civilian fatalities was undercounted by approximately 15,000 people.
• US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape, and murder by Iraq’s military and police.
• US forces were given a video showing a dozen Iraqi soldiers executing a prisoner with his hands bound.
• According to one of the logs, a US medical officer discovered “bruises and burns as well as visible injuries to the head, arm, torso, legs, and neck” on the body of a man Iraqi officials had claimed died by suicide.
• In another incident, a US Apache helicopter gunship executed two men on the ground who had been trying to surrender.
makes one want to move to a non narco South American state and hide. Resistance is futile here in the facist surveillance capitalistic state called USA where free speach is censored and surveilled by agencies working to keep the underbelly Jullian and others have exposed hidden. What democracy?
When Hitler, er, I mean Reagan, got elected president, my first instinct was to leave the U.S. Unfortunately, I'd never been out of the U.S., didn't know anyone in another country, and didn't even have a passport at that time, so I just stayed here. If I'd had the European friends I have now, I would have moved there and never come back. I really don't like being in the Americas, because my ancestry is European and I feel like a colonizer just being here.
But most, if not all, of Europe are sycophants to USA foreign hegamonic ways. Maybe Cuba?? is where to go
It's not about that, it's about where to go that you're not being just another colonizing invader. I don't know whether there are any Native Cubans left, I think the colonizers killed them all hundreds of years ago. But if I were going to move to the tropics, I'd go to a small South Pacific island.
watch out for grobal warming cause you soon could be under watert.
LOL and appredcciate you feed back. Like you I'm so discusted so frustrted and feel so helpless. I'm just feeding the machine that I despise.
Yeah, can't get away from feeding the machine, unfortunately. But we can all do SOMETHING. For example, I have no kids and I gave up my car 23-24 years ago. If everyone made at least SOME effort and their kids did the same and on & on, the world would be an exponentially better place. We didn't get into this mess overnight (in human terms), and we're not getting out of if overnight either. Incremental change works if you continue to make it.
As to global warming, I'm pretty old and I don't think that an island I'd move to would be underwater by the time I die.
hope you find some peace where ever you end up
lol
The US indictment and extradition request are obviously made in bad faith and retaliatory, in other words persecution not prosecution. There's almost as much evidence in the public record of this malign intent as there is of Israel's genocidal intent.
That should be emphasized, not the legal nuance -
And Julian is a journalist and publisher, and his actions are protected by the First Amendment. So, the indictment violates the US Constitution as well. British law on press freedom is far weaker, so the Judges' must be made to understand this.
Doesn't matter what they argue. This is a kangaroo court, and the decision was made well in advance of the hearing. Political cases are determined by politics, not law or feelings.
and public opinion can influence "politics".
And public opinion can be influenced by "legal" arguments made in the courtroom and broadcast to the street activists.
And powerful institutions like The NY Times et al can be influenced by public opinion - it is significant that the major media issued a statement in support of Assange and that members of Parliament were present in the Court. Longtime observes of the case stated that this at least forced the judges to be respectful and not hostile to the defense.
Don't be such a nihilist - and if you really think this way, why read and comment here?
Thanks Chris.
This example of insanity by the Court, is reflective of the deep rooted corruption that plagues all courts throughout the world. It is a clear example of the evil that the Deep State Cabal and Military Industrial Complex, and its secretive corporate alliances have destroyed the world, under years of false claims of fairness in a judicial system that is as corrupt as any governmental agency has been.
Excellent article, Mr. Hedges. Keep up the good (and difficult) work.
This entire farce makes the Nazi-era Volksgerichtshof (the 'People's Court') look like an exercise in dispassionate and measured jurisprudence.
Well no, I would say they are equal, we reached the same despicable state of affairs. If you ever seen a clip of 'Mr.Freisler' (may he roast in hell - if there is one) ranting and raving and the outcome of these so called trials (hanging by wire f.i.) you would not think that the nazi's (may they also roast in hell) are dispassionate ...
I've heard Feissler.
This is the breaking point for the media around the world. As pointed out in the panel broadcast, world leaders are using this case as reason to lock up journalists around the world for investigating corruption and human rights violations. If the U.S. gets their hands on Julian Assange, the rest of the journalists around the world need to take note. What you write about will get you killed. Look at all of the Al Jazeera journalists that the IDF has killed in Gaza. The U.S. is setting a bad precedent for the rest of the world at large. 'If the U.S. can do it, so can we.' And democracy takes another step back.
Yes, and on top of that, the U.S. always claims that it's the beacon of "freedom," including freedom of speech (which includes freedom of the press). That big lie is now completely exposed here, though I'd be willing to bet that many if not most Americans still think that theirs is still a free country (it never was, depending on whose freedom we're talking about).
I am planning a podcast show around this so called 'Freedom of the Press' for next week to try and point out the hypocrisy of our 'Bill of Rights'. I will reference these substack posts and videos from Chris Hedges, along with my own stories of interacting with U.S. journalists back in 2002 in Afghanistan. Maybe if enough of us make enough noise about stuff like this, we can try and put a stop to the obvious facist doings of the CIA and the U.S. military industrial complex.
What's more likely is that if people make enough noise, they'll send out the military to repress and maybe even kill them. People in power don't give it up, it has to be taken from them. The most successful way of accomplishing that is to shut down society by people getting into the streets and staying there until they get the changes they demand.
Good idea if you are willing to put your life on the line for what you believe in. Remember Kent State? Going up hard against the current ideation of the United States may very well get you dead, either by the local police (most likely situation) or by the guys hired by the government to put down riots (such as the no name fake protestors out west a few years ago, which turned out to have been hired thugs by the government). I have no problem with it but I was career military with multiple deployments into bad places. I can take care of myself but I am the exception to the average protestor. How many people are willing to risk their lives against half assed trained police these days?
Oh yes and worse, just look at the extremely hostile comment section on articles about Mr Assange in the (precious) WashPost
Mainstream/corporate/establishment media is mainly propaganda for the ruling class and their corporate interests, including the military/intelligence/industrial complex. What you're seeing in the Washington Post is exactly what I would expect from a propaganda rag like that.
You are right of course, I did not read the article, I read comments - horrible (with a very few exceptions). Where does all this bottomless HATE come from? (I guess that is a stupid question too ... we are LOST)
Thanks, Chris. This report should be all over the front pages of all print media.
Julian Assange should be released, celebrated, and allowed to go home and recover.
The blindfold on the statue of justice signifies the willful disregard of the criminal behavior of the government.
Thanks for alerting me to Trump's position on Julian Assange. Along with his support of Israel, I won't be voting for him.
Trump doesn't care about anything but his money and his ego. He was also considering pardoning Assange at the end of his term as president. I don't support and wouldn't vote for him either, but he's not the evil Satan that the establishment makes him out to be compared to the rest of these Wall Street war mongers and empire tools.
So you’ll never hear the words “All the kingdoms of the world will be yours if you will just bow down and worship me!” from Trump’s lips? Or: Vote for me, I’ll make you so tired of winning?
May the Gates of Hell make ready for all those who have for years tortured Julian Assange. As the final tortuous walk to Julian’s Golgotha plays out.
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here."
Hi Chris, what are your sources? Were you in court yourself?