Julian Assange Loses Appeal: British High Court Accepts U.S. Request to Extradite Him for Trial
greenwald.substack.com
Press freedom groups have warned Assange's prosecution is a grave threat. The Biden DOJ ignored them, and today won a major victory toward permanently silencing the pioneering transparency activist.
We live in a country where George Floyd is a hero and near worshiped while Julian Assange is a villainous criminal. We live in a dystopian Alice in Wonderland world.
"American prosecutors also agreed that they would consent to any request from Assange that, once convicted, he could serve his prison term in his home country of Australia rather than the U.S."
Once convicted? Isn't there supposed to be a fair trial? Keep your noses clean out there, people. Once the US security state becomes interested in you, unless you're a billionaire or hold incriminating videos of "too important to fail" politicos, you're well and truly fucked.
We will know who the true "journalists" are by their response to and treatment of this news. Thank you, Mr. Greenwald, for upholding freedom of the press.
I have to think Assange did something right given the rage the political elite & corporate media have toward him. Look at the deal the US cut with Britian - not "if" convicted, but "when" convicted. Just skip the kangaroo court and the sideshow it'll bring and lock the guy up now. We all know he's toast.
I know I sound like a whack job, but here goes (again): all the same corrupt people and systems of governments that just hung Assange out to dry are, as always, accountable to no one. They run the show to their own liking, making and taking shit tons of money while doing it. Pure fuckery. And they always get away with it. Always.
Assange, unfortunately, is the just the latest pinata to be busted up by these elites. There are others every day, he just happens to be of a higher profile.
So now we have an international precedent (from the Anglosphere, nonetheless) under which anyone anywhere in the world can be charged with crimes under any country's laws, even if they are not citizens of that country (Assange is an Australian) and their activities took place outside the country charging them (Assange was outside the US when he received the leaks and published them), and any country friendly to (or wishing to curry favor with) the charging country can arrest and extradite them for trial. I wonder, how will the US and UK will like it when this precedent is used against their own citizens by one of China, Iran, Russia or Belarus?
All the US blather about "democracy" and "political prisoners" - there is no difference I can see in the Nazi-like treatment of Assange from Obama, Trump, and Biden. How much of the authoritarian US "Pandemic" response comes from these same security state actors? "Let no emergency go to waste."
While the MSM are not reporting this, the irony of it coming on the heels of Biden's conference on nourishing democracy, which was widely reported, goes beyond anything Orwell imagined.
This is a dark day for liberty. I light a candle for Assange and hope his bravery will illuminate the path for a million more to rise up in his footsteps, like the courageous souls I cite as examples in “Letter to a Colluder: Stop Enabling Tyranny” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-a-colluder-stop-enabling) 🕯
While not surprising, this is terrible news. The West is intent on a slow and torturous death for Assange, it seems, and for any who seek an alternative to the soul-crushing, Earth-destroying, Imperialist hell-scape they and their presstitutes are building. God help us all.
I hate it when people try to make lemonade out of lemons, but here I am trying, because, especially in this seemingly dark moment, Assange may yet be the hero who not only defeats The Empire (again), but the one whose nearly unbearable sacrifice will be the straw that breaks The Empire’s back.
While it seems there is no absurdist reality Americans won’t accept, no totalitarian effort we won’t embrace, I like to—I have to—believe there are limits even to our national collective cowardice. If Julian Assange has the herculean strength to survive his ordeal and keep his wits, he has the single best opportunity of any human on the planet to to expose The Empire for what it is, and, with our awakening support, to bring that Empire down in a final cloud of dust and ash.
The Imperials now flaunt their power. They act as if their power has no limits. But the one thing we know for certain about empires is they have a 100% failure rate. Hubris is a fatal flaw. The U.S. is a powder keg awaiting a spark, and that spark could be the American sham trial of Julian Assange—an unprecedented overreach with unprecedented, even Empire ending, blowback.
thanks for the diligence. this is very disheartening for lovers of liberty.
Assange is being martyred right in front of us for the crime of exposing the lawlessness of those in power.
after seeing the herd kowtow to the short statured medical tyrants with covid, this is an unwelcome but unsurprising development- which i'd wager most US citizens are oblivious to or have bought the mainstream narrative that wikileaks is a stateless intelligence operation undermining the US Fed gov and its benevolence globally.
with restrictions on protests being implemented in various western EU states and further assaults on press freedoms -its open warfare on civil liberties by the nation states.
This case and ones like it (Snowden and other anti-establishment whistleblowers), along with media censorship, are *the* most important challenges of our time -- greater than all the other emergent totalitarian abuse.
Open discourse is simply more fundamental than any thing else in a democracy. Competition among viewpoints are the only way to keep a tether on reality, not only for the public but for the elites leading it.
Or as Caitlin Johnstone keeps pointing out, "it's all about the narrative".
My Spirit and sense of liberty and truth have been sent into a tailspin down into a very dark place on this development for Julian. My Heart and rational mind simply cannot 'stomach' the level of evil and corruption at the highest offices of the Executive Branch. WHY... is there not legal recourse for defenders of 1st Amendment Journalism, to take these criminals to task in an appropriate court of competent jurisdiction? Or am I just dreaming that there is no available avenue open to bring this matter to justice and into the public "Light of Day". I am horrified to KNOW..... that my military service oath "...to preserve, protect and defend..." has been rendered meaningless. Respectfully Regards,
couldn't stop the tears of frustration. The international conspiracy of suppression and cronyism will stifle his courageous stance, and he will break. How dare he expose the underbelly of their supposed selfless governing? The is an egregious international web of jingoistic deceit and I rue the day he is shipped here from his European ordeal. Shame, shame on our country's leaders
This is a great setting of the scene for why Assange is now a political issue and why true journalists all supported him from the beginning.
Next, I'd like to see a specific, actionable recommendation of what society should do next. One option is a jury trial in the US where he can argue to normal people the benefits of his journalist contributions against the espionage charges (I think Assange requested this); another is a deferred prosecution agreement; another is do nothing (a decision that only lasts 4 years).
I don't want to just read this reporting and feel good, nor to read it and hate the liberals; I want to read it and support the most consequential journalist of his generation in a way that is aligned with millions of other supporting people.
We live in a country where George Floyd is a hero and near worshiped while Julian Assange is a villainous criminal. We live in a dystopian Alice in Wonderland world.
"American prosecutors also agreed that they would consent to any request from Assange that, once convicted, he could serve his prison term in his home country of Australia rather than the U.S."
Once convicted? Isn't there supposed to be a fair trial? Keep your noses clean out there, people. Once the US security state becomes interested in you, unless you're a billionaire or hold incriminating videos of "too important to fail" politicos, you're well and truly fucked.
We will know who the true "journalists" are by their response to and treatment of this news. Thank you, Mr. Greenwald, for upholding freedom of the press.
I have to think Assange did something right given the rage the political elite & corporate media have toward him. Look at the deal the US cut with Britian - not "if" convicted, but "when" convicted. Just skip the kangaroo court and the sideshow it'll bring and lock the guy up now. We all know he's toast.
I know I sound like a whack job, but here goes (again): all the same corrupt people and systems of governments that just hung Assange out to dry are, as always, accountable to no one. They run the show to their own liking, making and taking shit tons of money while doing it. Pure fuckery. And they always get away with it. Always.
Assange, unfortunately, is the just the latest pinata to be busted up by these elites. There are others every day, he just happens to be of a higher profile.
So now we have an international precedent (from the Anglosphere, nonetheless) under which anyone anywhere in the world can be charged with crimes under any country's laws, even if they are not citizens of that country (Assange is an Australian) and their activities took place outside the country charging them (Assange was outside the US when he received the leaks and published them), and any country friendly to (or wishing to curry favor with) the charging country can arrest and extradite them for trial. I wonder, how will the US and UK will like it when this precedent is used against their own citizens by one of China, Iran, Russia or Belarus?
All the US blather about "democracy" and "political prisoners" - there is no difference I can see in the Nazi-like treatment of Assange from Obama, Trump, and Biden. How much of the authoritarian US "Pandemic" response comes from these same security state actors? "Let no emergency go to waste."
While the MSM are not reporting this, the irony of it coming on the heels of Biden's conference on nourishing democracy, which was widely reported, goes beyond anything Orwell imagined.
This is a dark day for liberty. I light a candle for Assange and hope his bravery will illuminate the path for a million more to rise up in his footsteps, like the courageous souls I cite as examples in “Letter to a Colluder: Stop Enabling Tyranny” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-a-colluder-stop-enabling) 🕯
While not surprising, this is terrible news. The West is intent on a slow and torturous death for Assange, it seems, and for any who seek an alternative to the soul-crushing, Earth-destroying, Imperialist hell-scape they and their presstitutes are building. God help us all.
You forgot to say that allegations the emails were stolen by Russia are without evidence.
I hate it when people try to make lemonade out of lemons, but here I am trying, because, especially in this seemingly dark moment, Assange may yet be the hero who not only defeats The Empire (again), but the one whose nearly unbearable sacrifice will be the straw that breaks The Empire’s back.
While it seems there is no absurdist reality Americans won’t accept, no totalitarian effort we won’t embrace, I like to—I have to—believe there are limits even to our national collective cowardice. If Julian Assange has the herculean strength to survive his ordeal and keep his wits, he has the single best opportunity of any human on the planet to to expose The Empire for what it is, and, with our awakening support, to bring that Empire down in a final cloud of dust and ash.
The Imperials now flaunt their power. They act as if their power has no limits. But the one thing we know for certain about empires is they have a 100% failure rate. Hubris is a fatal flaw. The U.S. is a powder keg awaiting a spark, and that spark could be the American sham trial of Julian Assange—an unprecedented overreach with unprecedented, even Empire ending, blowback.
thanks for the diligence. this is very disheartening for lovers of liberty.
Assange is being martyred right in front of us for the crime of exposing the lawlessness of those in power.
after seeing the herd kowtow to the short statured medical tyrants with covid, this is an unwelcome but unsurprising development- which i'd wager most US citizens are oblivious to or have bought the mainstream narrative that wikileaks is a stateless intelligence operation undermining the US Fed gov and its benevolence globally.
with restrictions on protests being implemented in various western EU states and further assaults on press freedoms -its open warfare on civil liberties by the nation states.
This case and ones like it (Snowden and other anti-establishment whistleblowers), along with media censorship, are *the* most important challenges of our time -- greater than all the other emergent totalitarian abuse.
Open discourse is simply more fundamental than any thing else in a democracy. Competition among viewpoints are the only way to keep a tether on reality, not only for the public but for the elites leading it.
Or as Caitlin Johnstone keeps pointing out, "it's all about the narrative".
Honorable Glen,
My Spirit and sense of liberty and truth have been sent into a tailspin down into a very dark place on this development for Julian. My Heart and rational mind simply cannot 'stomach' the level of evil and corruption at the highest offices of the Executive Branch. WHY... is there not legal recourse for defenders of 1st Amendment Journalism, to take these criminals to task in an appropriate court of competent jurisdiction? Or am I just dreaming that there is no available avenue open to bring this matter to justice and into the public "Light of Day". I am horrified to KNOW..... that my military service oath "...to preserve, protect and defend..." has been rendered meaningless. Respectfully Regards,
couldn't stop the tears of frustration. The international conspiracy of suppression and cronyism will stifle his courageous stance, and he will break. How dare he expose the underbelly of their supposed selfless governing? The is an egregious international web of jingoistic deceit and I rue the day he is shipped here from his European ordeal. Shame, shame on our country's leaders
This is a great setting of the scene for why Assange is now a political issue and why true journalists all supported him from the beginning.
Next, I'd like to see a specific, actionable recommendation of what society should do next. One option is a jury trial in the US where he can argue to normal people the benefits of his journalist contributions against the espionage charges (I think Assange requested this); another is a deferred prosecution agreement; another is do nothing (a decision that only lasts 4 years).
I don't want to just read this reporting and feel good, nor to read it and hate the liberals; I want to read it and support the most consequential journalist of his generation in a way that is aligned with millions of other supporting people.