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Glenn Greenwald
@ggreenwald
, 4 tweets, 2 min read Read on Twitter
All those who spent the last 2+ years proclaiming to be so very concerned about attacks on a free press will now have to decide whether they really meant it, or whether - due to feelings about Assange - they will cheer the Trump Administration's frontal assault on press freedom:
Again: the reason Assange sought asylum and Ecuador gave it wasn't to hide from the Sweden case. He & Ecuador always said he'd go to Sweden if they promised not to send him to the US. The asylum was to protect him against this: *espionage* prosecution for *publishing documents.*
Anyone cheering the Trump Administration's indictment of Assange under *espionage* laws is an enemy of a free press, no matter how many vapid and empty tweets they've posted over the last 2 years pretending otherwise. Here's @jeremyscahill
The @ACLU condemns the indictment of Assange as "an extraordinary escalation of the Trump administration's attacks on journalism, and a direct assault on the First Amendment." Read their whole warning, especially liberals cheering the Trump Administration: aclu.org/press-releases…
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Glenn Greenwald
@ggreenwald
Between exposing massive US war crimes & then committing the even-worse sin of publishing docs harmful to Hillary & the DNC, Julian Assange is so despised in the west that even slowly torturing him to death with no medical care - what's been happening - is viewed as justified:
"Julian Assange was too ill to appear by video link for the latest hearing in relation to his possible extradition to the US....WikiLeaks said on Tuesday the Australian had been moved to the hospital wing of Belmarsh after a “dramatic” loss of weight and deteriorating health."
People speak often about things like "challenging power" & "confronting the powerful." It's very easy to say those things It's much harder to do. The nature of "power" - its defining attribute - is the ability to destroy those who impede its will & agenda theguardian.com/media/2019/may…
Read 3 tweets
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Glenn Greenwald
@ggreenwald
Please watch this @ChuckTodd clip, from @jimmy_dore, on the Assange matter. I say this with all sincerity: the stupidity is overwhelming. Ask yourself this: if journalism is about exposing the bad acts of powerful factions, who has done more of that: Chuck or Julian Assange?
In terms of deciding who is and isn't a journalist, can someone please tell me what @ChuckTodd has done that is remotely comparable to WikiLeaks when it comes to the core acts of journalism? What makes Chuck Todd a "journalist" but not Assange? I'm asking earnestly.
Every self-proclaimed journalist who goes on TV or Twitter to pronounce Assange is "not a journalist" should compare the work they've done in exposing the bad & corrupt acts of powerful factions to what he's done in that regard & let us know what they find salon.com/2010/12/24/wik…
Read 3 tweets
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Glenn Greenwald
@ggreenwald
I was going to make this exact point after spending a full day at a pig farm outside London last week. Nobody should be forced to change their diet. But if you're going to support an industry that tortures & mass slaughters animals, at least inform yourself about who they are.
Speaking of which, I'll be in San Francisco this weekend along with Amy Goodman and thousands of brave animal rights activists for the Animal Liberation Conference. Come if you can! sfgate.com/news/bayarea/a…
Pigs are beautiful, gentle, highly social, and incredibly tranquil sentient beings who experience suffering, pain, joy and connection. Factory farming is a moral evil
Read 3 tweets

Related threads

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Larisa Alexandrovna
@larisa_a
1.Think about the ramifications of the #Assange espionage indictment. He is a publisher who obtained whistle-blower documents that showed criminal conduct involving the most serious of issues: war. He published those documents. Now imagine, every journalist (including myself)
2. Who associated with #Assange at that time or obtained related documents is now seen as part of an act of espionage, rather than the protected act of exposing government corruption (journalism).
3. Now imagine too that journalists who want to expose lies leading up to future wars (cough, Iran) could face espionage charges for doing so. This is a warning to all of us to back off the military-industrial-complex because they need their wars. This is a direct attack on...
Read 5 tweets
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Bradley P. Moss
@BradMossEsq
Assange thread

I despise Julian Assange. I cannot stand him. However, the superseding indictment brought by DOJ is terrifying in terms of constitutional implications for every single media outlet - no matter its ideological bent or size - that has ever published or would ever
publish leaked classified information. If DOJ can win this case against Assange, and they can get established precedent for the idea that the Government decides who is and is not a journalist for purposes of the Espionage Act, it will threaten the very foundation of the free
press.

This is the case the Obama team wasn’t willing to make due to fears about constitutional ramifications. Trump’s team is apparently willing to make the argument.

You have to wonder why, don’t you?

So thanks a lot, @realDonaldTrump, because now I have to defend Assange
Read 4 tweets
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(((AG)))
@AG_Conservative
You don't know the guy who has
(successfully) led almost all of your anti-ISIS diplomatic efforts in Syria and Iraq since the start of your administration?

Maybe that's why you aren't making informed decisions...
Trump has spent 2 years bragging about our success against ISIS. McGurk is one of the main people responsible for that and everyone knows it. Trump can claim credit because he left him in charge, but BS to now diminish what he did bc McGurk objects to Trump's withdrawal policy.
So Trump is going to attack or try to diminish everyone who calls him out for his foolish and ill-informed Syria policy? even those who spent several last years working to make his Presidency succesful.

You can see why he is having so much trouble filling cabinet positions.
Read 3 tweets
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nozomi hayase
@nozomimagine
I made a presentation at the public forum in SF on the topic of prosecution of Julian #Assange & the US war on the First Amendment. Here are the slides that I used to explore the role of corporate media in this war. nozomihayase.com/wp-content/upl… #WikiLeaks
Last month, public learned that criminal charges against #Assange exist under seal. This attack on the publisher that we are now seeing didn’t begin with the Trump administration. This is an escalation of Obama’s war on whistleblowers.
Roots of this war go much deeper. A spark for this war was lit in 2008. There is a documentation about the US counterintelligence’s investigation into #WikiLeaks, where the US intelligence viewed WikiLeaks as a threat to US military. wikileaks.org/wiki/U.S._Inte…
Read 21 tweets
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Emma Best
@NatSecGeek
No one has really explored either the legal or practical implications of #Assange seeking employment from multiple governments while running #WikiLeaks, and what success would have meant for the government, the man, and Organization 1.
Note that the only government #Assange is known to have worked for (under contract) is the Russian government.
Coincidentally, one can easily interpret comments from Russian officials as implying not only foreknowledge of #Vault7, but a specific intent behind the #WikiLeaks release – alleging that allegations of Russian hacking were all CIA false flag operations.
Read 3 tweets

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