Journalism is Still in Jail

Here's my report from last weekend's Assange Action in London

Last week marked 4 years since Julian Assange was arrested by the Metropolitan Police on a charge of breaching bail conditions concerning an investigation into an allegation of rape in Sweden.

Upon his arrest, an indictment from the United States of America was immediately unsealed. The original indictment was for a crime of “conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.”

Pictures from the Ecuadorian Embassy, London

The indictment alleged that Assange sought to help Chelsea Manning crack a password hash so that Manning could use a different username to download classified documents. This "would have made it more difficult for investigators to identify Manning as the source of disclosures of classified information."

Chelsea Manning already had access to the documents she leaked. She didn’t need to hack anything to gain access to the documents, and no password hash was ever hacked.

In fact, it is not entirely clear whether the person who Manning spoke to online in that incident was even Julian Assange. Somebody else with extensive knowledge has recently claimed on Twitter to be the individual in question.

Regardless of whether Manning was speaking to Assange in that incident, no password hash was ever hacked.

A few weeks after Assange was arrested, Assange was indicted on 17 new charges relating to the Espionage Act of 1917, a piece of legislation originally written to punish conscientious objectors in World War 1, but had been used most recently to prosecute journalists who exposed US crimes.

Barack OBama used the Espionage Act to prosecute journalists more than all other Presidents combined during his 8 years in the Oval office.

The court all espionage cases in the US are are heard, known as “the espionage court”, is in Virginia. CIA headquarters is also in Virginia. As is the Pentagon, Quantico (where all FBI recruits are trained) and a further 60 or so federal agencies.

What would you say the chance of Assange getting a fair trial in the “espionage court” in Virginia be, with jurors taken from the families of those in the surrounding areas and no possibility of even making a public interest defence?

The further charges against Assange are related to obtaining and publishing documents. One of these charges is based upon the testimony of a convicted pedophile and fraudster who has admitted what is written in the FBI’s indictment is false, who was given immunity for that testimony.

The other charges pertain to putting people in “harm” with the release of unredacted information, a claim that no evidence of which could be produced in both Assange and Manning’s court cases AND could not be attributed to Assange anyway as the information online was only made available because Luke Harding of The Guardian newspaper published the password to the documents in one of his books.

The claim Assange published unredacted information that put people at risk is false. How can Assange have put anybody at risk by publishing unredacted information, if you cannot present evidence of anybody who was put at risk, and when the fact is he didn’t publish the unredacted documents in the first place?

Assange always claimed he sought asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy to avoid extradition to the United States, not Sweden, and 6 months after Assange’s arrest for breaching bail conditions, the “investigation into an allegation of rape” in Sweden was dropped entirely.

No charges were ever brought forward by Swedish prosecutors. The “investigation into an allegation of rape”, an allegation that NEITHER of the women in Sweden made, by the way, was finally dropped entirely, having been opened and closed more times than I can remember.

Assange should have been released from HMP Belmarsh on 22 September 2019, but was told instead he would be kept in jail pending a hearing to determine whether he would be extradited to the US.

He has been in Belmarsh Prison ever since serving no sentence for no crime in this country, while the UK judiciary decides what to do.

A lower level Magistrates Court denied the extradition request in January 2020 on the basis Assange would be a suicide risk and would not survive the harsh US prison system, however, Judge Baraitser ruled against Assange’s claims the charges against him were politically motivated and that he wouldn’t get a fair trial in the US.

The incoming Biden Administration in America appealed the judgement, and Assange remained in jail.

A long-winded hearing at the Old Bailey ensued, and the decision to deny extradition was overturned at the Royal Courts of Justice based on the US making assurances Assange wouldn’t be put under harsh measures in a US prison. Assurances Amnesty International called, “inherently unreliable.”

Priti Patel signed off that extradition, and the Assange legal team first lodged an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, which was rejected.

As it stands, the legal process is so convuluted Assange’s lawyers are appealing against Judge Baraitser’s original decision in the Magistrates Court to deny that the charges against him are politically motivated or that Assange could ever get a fair trial in the US, based on reports in the years since that decision that the CIA were spying on Assange 24/7 while he was in the Embassy and were even reportedly drawing up plans to kidnap and kill Assange in the centre of London.

If that appeal is denied, an appeal will be made to the European Supreme Court. And Julian Assange will remain in jail.

If that appeal is won another appeal hearing will start some time later, and Julian Assange will remain in jail.

If that appeal hearing is won, the US will appeal that decision and another hearing will begin some time after that, and Julian Assange will remain in jail.

If that appeal hearing is lost, presumably Assange’s lawyers will appeal that decision and another hearing will begin some time after that. And Julian Assange will remain in jail.

Do you see what is happening here?

It does not matter whether Julian Assange’s lawyers win or lose in a UK court of law. Julian Assange remains in jail.

It has been 1469 days at the time of writing, and Julian Assange is still in jail.

Above is the Live Stream from outside the Ecuadorian Embassy. I am very sorry that I reacted to the idiot in the Taxi yelling abuse. Some people haven’t got a brain in their head, and in this case neither did the taxi driver.

I shouldn’t have reacted that way.

The above Live Stream is from outside Westminster Magistrate’s Court.

My friend Joe Brack

EF Press

covered the action and speeches from outside Belmarsh Prison later in the day:

Julian Assange will remain in jail until enough people care about the truth. If you care about the truth, whatever that truth is, you need to demand that we free Julian Assange.

Here’s my speech from this weekend: