#Assange Prosecution Will Focus On #ChelseaManning Era Releases, Not #DNCEmails
disobedientmedia.com/2018/11/assang…
disobedientmedia.com/2018/11/assang…
Recent reports have indicated that formerly secret charges pending against #JulianAssange will focus on material relating to @xychelsea and the earliest releases published by #WikiLeaks.
This latest news directly counters allegations published by #Russiagate hysterics, who suggested the charges would relate to WikiLeaks’ 2016 publications of the #DNC and #JohnPodesta emails.
The distinction between the possible prosecution of the #WikiLeaks co-founder for his 2016 publications versus the earliest WikiLeaks releases is a massively important one.
For #Russiagate proponents, the support for #Assange’s prosecution becomes much more difficult if the charges against the publisher stem from the revelation of Bush-era #warcrimes, not the exposure of #HillaryClinton and the @DNC’s corruption.
In Rolling Stone, @mtaibbi relayed the statements of Assange’s US-based lawyer, Barry Pollack:
“I would think it is not related to the 2016 election since that would seem to fall within the purview of the Office of Special Counsel.”
“I would think it is not related to the 2016 election since that would seem to fall within the purview of the Office of Special Counsel.”
Another member of Julian Assange’s legal team, @AssangeLegal, was also quick to clarify confusion on which material served as the basis for the charges against Assange in an informative Twitter thread (I recommend reading it in full multiple times):
Jonasson directly refutes what she referred to as the ‘wildly speculative’ suggestion of security journalist and FBI informant Marcy Wheeler (@EmptyWheel), who claimed that the charges against the former WikiLeaks Editor-In-Chief related to the #Russiagate scandal.
Jonasson related that the document revealing the charges indicated that the indictment is in the Eastern District of Virginia.
Following the gagging of Julian Assange in March, @JohnKiriakou relayed that the Eastern District of Virginia is known as “the Espionage court.”
Following the gagging of Julian Assange in March, @JohnKiriakou relayed that the Eastern District of Virginia is known as “the Espionage court.”
The existence of such charges against Assange is not a new revelation. In an article with @CommonDreams, @nozomimagine wrote: “In 2010, the US AG publicly confirmed the existence of a secret grand jury investigation into disclosures of classified information made by WL."
Hayase continued, eloquently conveying the importance of WikiLeaks and the whistleblowers it protects, calling alleged sources like Chelsea Manning the ‘conscience of America.’
As discussed in @Suzi3D’s Being Julian Assange, JA & WL's central role in raising support for #ChelseaManning has been virtually memory-holed by the MSM, which is loath to recall that it was Julian Assange who, in January 2017, promised his own extradition on the condition that..
.. Manning was to be given clemency. Just four months later, thanks in part thanks to Assange’s promise, Chelsea Manning was freed.
The confirmation of the US’s intent to extradite and prosecute Assange also confirms what his supporters have stated for years: Assange is a political prisoner.
His asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London has been transformed under Moreno into a torture chamber, that Pulitzer-prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges recently characterized as a “little house of horrors.”
In the title of his piece, Hedges compares Assange’s treatment to the Crucifixion of Christ. Like Nozomi Hayase’s description of WikiLeaks acting as a shield for whistleblowers, Hedges’s allegorical comparison of Assange’s treatment with crucifixion gets at the heart of...
... the journalist’s shocking suffering on behalf of others and evident selflessness, but also the degree to which the slow death of Assange is taking place in public, mocked by crowds of what should be his strongest protectors: fellow journalists.
In a discussion with fellow journalist and EIC of Consortium News Joe Lauria, it was alleged that Assange went multiple days without food after his lawyers were forbidden from visiting him.
Chillingly, it appears that Assange has been barred from meeting with his legal counsel again over the weekend, preventing him from preparing for an upcoming US Court hearing:
Over the years that Assange has been illegally trapped in the Ecuadorian embassy, his selflessness has been mislabelled arrogance, & a lack of concern for himself has been branded callousness.
The very same hack journalists responsible for the unredacted leak of the State Department cables branded Assange unfeeling. An article by New Matilda illustrated the depth of direct betrayal by the Guardian:
"Returning to the present.. to get some obvious points out of the way: the revelation of longstanding charges against Assange sweeps away the paltry establishment narrative that has portrayed him as hiding within the Ecuadorian Embassy re: allegations of sexual assault."
"It also negates the line copy-pasted by endless trolls: “He can leave whenever he likes.” We now can state unequivocally that Assange is being tortured by the Ecuadorian government, while under siege by the US/UK military estab, for the “crime” of searingly accurate journalism."
In essence, the unelected power structure of the US and UK has consistently and specifically projected its psychopathic nature onto #Assange and #WikiLeaks.
"The unparalleled lengths WL has gone to in order to protect its alleged sources – & non-sources, like @Snowden – can be directly contrasted w/ journos like #MarcyWheeler (@Emptywheel) who voluntarily turned her unnamed source in to the #FBI."
"The hatred with which Marcy (@emptywheel) and her cohorts appraise Assange might, in this light, appear rather natural."
