On February 20, it was clear that things were not going to be made easy for Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who infuriated the US imperium, the national security establishment, and a stable of journalists upset that he had cut their ill-tended lawns. He was too ill to attend what may well be the final appeal against his extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States. Were he to be sent to the US, he faces a possible sentence amounting to 175 years arising from 18 venally cobbled charges, 17 spliced from that archaic horror, the Espionage Act of 1917….
Archiv: Espionage Act
Biden’s DOJ Is Pressuring Journalists to Help Build Its Case Against Assange
The Department of Justice and FBI are pressuring multiple British journalists to cooperate with the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, using vague threats and pressure tactics in the process. I know because I am one of the British journalists being pressured to cooperate in the case against him, as someone who used to (briefly) work and live with him, and who went on to blow the whistle on WikiLeaks’ own ethical lapses.
Daniel Ellsberg’s Dying Wish: Free Julian Assange, Encourage Whistleblowers & Reveal the Truth
(July 03, 2023)
Whistleblower Dan Ellsberg joined us after the Justice Department charged WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act for publishing U.S. military and diplomatic documents exposing U.S. war crimes. Assange is locked up in London and faces up to 175 years in prison if extradited and convicted in the United States. Ellsberg died in June, and as we remember his life and legacy, we revisit his message for other government insiders who are considering becoming whistleblowers: “My message to them is: Don’t do what I did. Don’t wait ’til the bombs are actually falling or thousands more have died.”
(…)
„It’s this generation, not the next one, the people living right now, that have to change these problems fast. And I think truth-telling is crucial to mobilize that.“
Nuclear Secrets, a Compost Heap and the Lost Documents Daniel Ellsberg Never Leaked
(April 20, 2023)
Daniel Ellsberg — who died Friday at 92 — fully expected to spend the rest of his life in prison after he leaked the Pentagon Papers to The New York Times and The Washington Post in 1971. The documents revealed decades of government lies and mistakes about the war in Vietnam, and eventually, they helped end it.
The charges against Ellsberg were ultimately dismissed, but he had a secret: The Pentagon Papers were only supposed to be the beginning. Alongside the documents about Vietnam, he’d copied thousands of pages of other documents about America’s nuclear war planning that he believed would shock the public conscience. But a series of mishaps kept those documents from ever coming to light.
„We are at this moment on a road to Hell.“ I discussed the Espionage Act, Julian Assange, and his own experiences with the Pentagon Papers, with the one and only @DanielEllsberg on my @MSNBC show tonight:
(May 8, 2023)
It‘s bizarre to watch establishment venues celebrate Daniel Ellsberg while spewing contempt for every cause and value he stood for — from defending Assange and Snowden as heroes to warning Americans that the US Security State always lies us into wars:
Why the Pentagon Papers Leaker Tried to Get Prosecuted Near His Life’s End
Citing the chilling effect that the creeping expansion of the law has on what information the public gets in a democracy, he expressed disappointment that the Biden administration had not dropped the Espionage Act charges against Mr. Assange.
“It’s clearly overly broad and does not just apply to people like me who had a security clearance. Assange is now feeling the weight of that,” he said, adding: “For 50 years I’ve been saying to journalists, ‘This thing was a loaded weapon looking at you.’”
To @POTUS and @TheJusticeDept: Stop the extradition of Assange. I am as indictable as he is on the exact same charges. I will plead „not guilty“ on grounds of your blatantly unconstitutional use of the Espionage Act. Let‘s take this to the Supreme Court.
(06.12.2022)
Trump Will Face Espionage Act Charges in Mar-a-Lago Documents Case, Report Says
(June 8, 2023)
The Espionage Act is frequently used to target and prosecute federal whistleblowers. Many progressives have called for reforms to the law due to its use against figures like Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning, who exposed atrocities committed by the U.S. military and civil liberties violations by the U.S. government.
Recording reveals that Trump took a secret plan to attack Iran from the White House
One of the witnesses questioned was General Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, one of the highest-ranking national security positions of the Trump era.
The meeting that was recorded was held in July 2021 at Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, with two people working on the autobiography of former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, as well as aides employed by the former president, including communications specialist Margo Martin, according to CNN, which points out that Meadows talks about what appears to be the same meeting in his book.
Trump Recording Raises Threat of Potential Indictment in Mar-a-Lago Case
(June 1, 2023)
Federal prosecutors obtained an audio recording in which former President Donald Trump admits retaining a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran, raising the threat of a potential indictment in the Mar-a-Lago investigation, according to CNN. (…)
The meeting took place in July 2021 at Trump’s Bedminster, N.J., golf course with two people working on former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ autobiography and Trump aides including communications specialist Margo Martin, according to the report. The individuals did not have security clearance required to see classified material.
Alternative Facts: How the media failed Julian Assange
(March 2023)
Assange has been the object of vindictive government attention for many years, even before being threatened with lifetime incarceration in a U.S. supermax dungeon. Why has it taken so long for the mainstream media to take a stand?
When I asked the Committee to Protect Journalists why Assange did not make their list, I was directed to a December 2019 statement: “After extensive research and consideration, CPJ chose not to list Assange as a journalist, in part because his role has just as often been as a source,” it reads, “and because WikiLeaks does not generally perform as a news outlet with an editorial process.” The newspapers that signed the November letter have similarly refused to claim Assange as one of their own. At the same time, other charges and smears have warped the public narrative, obscuring the threats to the First Amendment. Many of the outlets now expressing alarm have ignored or misrepresented key information about his plight along the way. It is crucial to reflect on these misdirections, especially as a blatant assault on press freedom now appears to be on the brink of success.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib urges fellow House members to demand DOJ drop charges against Julian Assange
The letter, which was obtained by The Intercept, is currently circulating among members as they are urged to sign it and has not yet been sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland. Democratic Reps. Jamaal Bowman, N.Y., Ilhan Omar, Minn., and Cori Bush, Mo., have signed the letter. The office of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said she intends to sign the letter.
„Pentagon Papers“ leaker Daniel Ellsberg, 91, is dying from cancer. Doctors have given him three to six months to live.
(03.03.2023)
To @POTUS and @TheJusticeDept: Stop the extradition of Assange. I am as indictable as he is on the exact same charges. I will plead „not guilty“ on grounds of your blatantly unconstitutional use of the Espionage Act. Let‘s take this to the Supreme Court.
(06.12.2022)
To @POTUS and @TheJusticeDept: Stop the extradition of Assange. I am as indictable as he is on the exact same charges. I will plead „not guilty“ on grounds of your blatantly unconstitutional use of the Espionage Act. Let‘s take this to the Supreme Court.
(06.12.2022)
Pentagon Papers‘ Daniel Ellsberg: „Stop the extradition of Assange. I am as indictable as he is on the exact same charges. I will plead „not guilty“ on grounds of your blatantly unconstitutional use of the Espionage Act. Let‘s take this to the Supreme Court“ #FreeAssangeNOW
Biden faces growing pressure to drop charges against Julian Assange
The charges against Assange for obtaining and publishing classified information, without any active role in actually stealing it mark “the crossing of a legal rubicon”, said Jaffer at Columbia University. That’s an ominous legal threshold, he said, for Assange and all journalists.
“It’s the first time the US government has used the Espionage Act to go after a publisher and the implications are huge,” Jaffer said. Assange “has been indicted for activity that reporters are engaged in every day and that reporters have to engage in every day to inform the public. This would have dramatic implications for national security journalism.”
To @POTUS and @TheJusticeDept: Stop the extradition of Assange. I am as indictable as he is on the exact same charges. I will plead „not guilty“ on grounds of your blatantly unconstitutional use of the Espionage Act. Let‘s take this to the Supreme Court.
(06.12.2022)
The extradition of Julian Assange must be condemned by all who believe in press freedom1
(June 17, 2022)
There is some historical irony in the fact that this extradition announcement falls during the anniversary of the Pentagon Papers trial, which began with the Times publication of stories based on the legendary leak on June 13, 1971, and continued through the seminal Supreme Court opinion rejecting prior restraint on June 30, 1971.
In the months and years following that debacle, whistleblower (and FPF co-founder) Daniel Ellsberg became the first journalistic source to be charged under the Espionage Act. What many do not know is that the Nixon administration attempted to prosecute Times reporter Neil Sheehan for receiving the Pentagon Papers as well — under a very similar legal theory the Justice Department is using against Assange.
Bernie Sanders Pledges to End Practice of Prosecuting Whistleblowers Under the Espionage Act
(22.10.2019)
As president, Bernie Sanders would end the practice of using the controversial Espionage Act to prosecute government whistleblowers, the Vermont senator told The Intercept in an interview on Saturday ahead of a major rally in New York.
The century-old law had largely gone out of fashion until it was deployed heavily by the Obama administration, which prosecuted eight people accused of leaking to the media under the Espionage Act, more than all previous presidents combined.
@CraigMurrayOrg on Julian Assange‘s appearance in court yesterday: „Everybody in that court yesterday saw that one of the greatest journalists and most important dissidents of our times is being tortured to death by the state, before our eyes.“
The World’s Most Important Political Prisoner
We are now just one week away from the end of Julian Assange’s uniquely lengthy imprisonment for bail violation. He will receive parole from the rest of that sentence, but will continue to be imprisoned on remand awaiting his hearing on extradition to the USA – a process which could last several years.
At that point, all the excuses for Assange’s imprisonment which so-called leftists and liberals in the UK have hidden behind will evaporate. There are no charges and no active investigation in Sweden, where the “evidence” disintegrated at the first whiff of critical scrutiny. He is no longer imprisoned for “jumping bail”. The sole reason for his incarceration will be the publishing of the Afghan and Iraq war logs leaked by Chelsea Manning, with their evidence of wrongdoing and multiple war crimes.
UK worsens Julian Assange’s persecution as US seeks extradition
Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief of Wikileaks, says that UK authorities are holding Julian Assange in worse conditions than accused terrorists and ‘making it impossible’ for him to fight US extradition.
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.
(07.08.2019)
Excellent rebuttal of CNN‘s biased story on Assange‘s time in the embassy from an Ecuadorian diplomat who worked at the embassy for 6 years of Assange‘s stay (and knows what actually happened):
CNN did not learn the lesson from the Manafort hoax 40 Rebuttals to CNN’s Bias on Assange
Having worked as a diplomat at the Ecuadorian embassy in London for six out of the seven years that Julian Assange lived there as a political refugee, unlike others, I am privy to what actually happened there. I am alarmed by CNN’s June 15th 2019 story, alleging Assange turned the Ecuadorian embassy in London into a command post for election meddling.
The story contains several substantive shortcomings and too many factual errors. I warned CNN about them when I was approached during their „investigation,“ but none of my points were included in the article.
„Collective violence, such as torturing a publisher for journalism, requires more than persecuting authorities, mobbing states and media smear campaigns to survive… Atrocity does not take place without passive, complacent, compliant bystanders“
Noam Chomsky on the US attempt to extradite Assange: „But why should the United States have the power to control what others are doing elsewhere in the world? I mean, it’s an outlandish situation. It goes on all the time. We never even notice it.“
Wanted for espionage – the hunt for Wikileaks
Panorama decided to take one day in the long and complicated saga of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and to dissect it. It’s April 11, 2019, the day when he was removed from the Ecuadorian embassy and arrested by the UK police. What happened that day? How did the UK government respond? Why don’t we know there were other people connected to Wikileaks who found themselves in trouble with the law that day? And what does April 11, 2019 tell us about the Assange saga?
Wikileaks: Rachefeldzug der US-Regierung?
„Es ist an der Zeit, Wikileaks als das zu benennen, was es wirklich ist: Ein nicht-staatlicher, feindlicher Geheimdienst“, sagte der heutige US-Außenminister Mike Pompeo über die Enthüllungs-Plattform bei einer Rede als CIA-Direktor 2017. Entsprechend behandeln die USA Assange nun nach seiner Festnahme in London. Sie werfen ihm vor, geheime Informationen erhalten und verbreitet zu haben. Und sie klagen ihn deshalb nach dem Spionage-Gesetz („Espionage Act“) an, das Strafen bis hin zur Todesstrafe vorsieht.
How public humiliation works: On 11 April #JulianAssange was mocked for his beard throughout the world. During my visit, he explained to us that his shaving kit had been deliberately taken away three months earlier.
Sajid Javid signs request for Assange to be extradited to US
Assange is serving a 50-week prison sentence after being dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in April and jailed for a bail violation.
And an investigation has been reopened into an allegation of rape in Sweden, which Assange has always denied.
Mr Javid told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I am very pleased that the police were finally able to apprehend him and now he’s rightly behind bars because he broke UK law.
Entscheidung in Großbritannien: Regierung für Auslieferung Assanges
Er wolle „stets Gerechtigkeit“, und es liege ein „legitimes Auslieferungsgesuch“ vor, sagte der zuständige Innenminister Sajid Javid im BBC-Radio. Die Entscheidung liege jetzt bei Gericht, das sich am Freitag wieder mit dem Fall beschäftigen werde.
Grundsätzlich gilt in solchen Fällen, dass der Innenminister ein gültiges Auslieferungsgesuch unterzeichnen muss, wenn die entsprechenden Kriterien erfüllt sind.
ABC raids a wake-up call to journalists who left Assange swinging
It is easy, and for some convenient, to forget how much in journalism was changed by the arrival of WikiLeaks.
It‘s perhaps one reason that he is rejected by so many journalists.
‚If Julian goes down, the rest of you do‘ – #Assange‘s father and Weiwei visit #Belmarsh
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei visits Julian Assange in prison as U.S. sends Britain a formal request to extradite him for leaking military secrets
Weiwei, who was detained without charge in China for 81 days in 2011 during a crackdown on political activists, is believed to have previously visited Assange in 2015 when he was holed up inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
The 47-year-old‘s father John Shipton arrived at the prison today with Ai Weiwei this afternoon.
USA beantragen Assanges Auslieferung
Die USA haben in Großbritannien ein formelles Auslieferungsgesuch für Julian Assange beantragt. Dem Gründer der Enthüllungsplattform WikiLeaks würden von Washington unter anderem Verstöße gegen Spionagegesetze vorgeworfen, teilte das Londoner Innenministerium am Dienstag mit. Noch diese Woche wollen die USA Beweise gegen ihn vorlegen.
The Assange case is a poster child of state persecution. Every journalist, activist & all who care about democracy should know about the massive propaganda & legal corruption used to take Assange down. This is what tyranny looks like! #FreeAssange
The first substantive US extradition hearing, previously planned for 12 June has now been moved to 14 June. The hearing will be in Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court.
Press Release: DoJ preparing to file additional indictment against Assange. The Trump´s DoJ is so desperate to build its case against Assange that it is using as star witness a sociopath, convicted conman and sex criminal, involved in an FBI entrapment operation against WikiLeaks
Trump’s decision to charge Assange under the Espionage Act will have a serious chilling effect on our freedom of speech and freedom of the press. It also undermines our democracy by keeping crucial information from the American people that they deserve to know.
Jeremy Hunt Works That Rogue State Status
When Jeremy Hunt decided to attack the United Nations on twitter yesterday, he didn’t expect them to respond. He got owned.