Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture
Sep 9, 2020 12 tweets 12 min read Read on X
For the third day in a row, @amnesty & 40 other legal observers, have been denied access to the technology that would allow them to observe the extradition hearing of @wikileaks founder #JulianAssange.

This was the letter we received yesterday.
#Assange
In her letter, the judge expresses her "regret" at her decision to deny remote access to the proceedings to @amnesty but offers no reason for her decision

Instead, she sets out rules to ensure the court is #COVID19 safe

But remote access is FAR safer than practices I witnessed.
Telling legal observers - some of whom are from the European Parliament - that they have to compete with the public for one of 8 gallery seats results in a scrum of people at the doorway to the court.

There was no distancing & even court officials & police weren't wearing masks. ImageImage
Today, two activists joined the queue for the public gallery in the early hours of the morning in order to give their spaces to @RSF_en observers.

Despite this, the court has so far refused them entry as they're awaiting some "VIPs” who haven't turned up.
End of Day 3. “We were able to monitor about 45 minutes of Prof Paul Rogers’ testimony, in which he spoke of his belief that the US case against #Assange is politically motivated.” @rebecca_vincent @RSF_inter. #JulianAssange #AssangeCase #AssangeHearing
“Sitting 20 feet away from #JulianAssange", I was struck by how much of a shadow of his former self he had become."

For the fourth consecutive day, @amnesty & other fair trial monitors, have been refused access to the proceedings in the #Assange hearing. amnesty.org/en/latest/news…
I met #JulianAssange briefly when he spoke at the Occupy London camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral in 2011

It was an extraordinary time

Occupy Wall St was spreading across the US & the Arab Spring was sweeping N. Africa / Middle East

It was a time when anything seemed possible. ImageImageImageImage
Outside the Old Bailey, #Assange's hearing has been like a carnival. Inside the courtroom, it's been a circus!

Hearing adjourned til Monday due to a #COVID19 scare with husband of one of the US lawyers coming down with Covid-like symptoms.
#JulianAssange
theguardian.com/media/2020/sep…
CARNIVAL: “We have a nice time here. But remember: carnivals come cheap. What matters is the day after.” Slavo Žižek

COURT: “Wherever he went, he’d bring the circus with him. But now - stood before the hanging judge - Moody longed for fewer clowns: for solemnity.“ Emerson Warner
The US Dept of Justice is reportedly obstructing a Spanish High Court request for assistance in its investigation into whether the Spanish company, UC Global & its owner, that spied on #JulianAssange, collaborated with the CIA. (@elpaisinenglish) #Assange elpais.com/internacional/…
Campaigns Director for @RSF_inter, @rebecca_vincent, gives an overview of proceedings so far at #Assange’s extradition hearing. Severe restrictions imposed on trial observers meant RSF is the only NGO that gained access to @wikileaks publisher’s hearing.
We’ve just had news that the US junior counsel’s #COVID19 test has come back negative and #Assange’s extradition hearing will therefore continue on Monday.

The hearing was halted on Thursday due to a #COVID scare. #JulianAssange #Assangecase #DontExtraditeAssange #BREAKING

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More from @StefSimanowitz

Jun 25
Wow!

Incredible news to wake up to

Julian Assange is free after a plea deal

He was released on bail from Belmarsh prison & boarded a plane which is currently heading to Australia

His release is a testament to those fought for his freedom #JulianAssange

Julian Assange is scheduled to appear in a federal court in Saipan, a US commonwealth in the Pacific, where he’s expected to plead guilty to one charge under the Espionage Act & be sentenced to 5yrs

Given he’s already served this time, he should walk free
The public have a right to know what their govts do in their name

Julian #Assange’s prosecution represented a grave threat to press freedom, undermining the key role of journalists & publishers in scrutinizing govts misdeeds & creating a chilling effect

Read 6 tweets
May 15
1/. Four years, ago this tweet👇broke the #CareHomeScandal

The govt had INSTRUCTED hospitals to send people “who may have #COVID19” to care homes WITHOUT TESTING

They KNEW about asymptomatic transmission in Jan 2020

Many thousands died

This revelation led to other questions…
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2/. From the start of the pandemic the govt had given #Palantir, a US spyware company with reported links to #CambridgeAnalytica, access to NHS health data

The NHS = the most trusted brand in the UK

Cambridge Analytica = the least trusted

Disturbing…

3/. Palantir worked on the NHS data store with #FacultyAI - a company with ties to Cummings

In 2020, @amnesty warned that Big Tech firms might use the COVID crisis to hoover up genomic data, obliterating the last frontier of privacy: our biological selves

Read 5 tweets
Mar 9
1/. “It is the greatest mass-killing in recorded history; & it goes on daily, hourly, as regularly as the ticking of your watch”

Arthur Koestler’s 1944 essay expressing frustration at the failure of the world to acknowledge Nazi atrocities resonates today
wethescreamers.com
2/ “There are a few of us…yelling at you in newspapers…Now & then we reach your ear…But it only lasts a minute. You shake yourself like puppies who’ve got their fur wet; then the screen again descends & you walk on, protected by the dream-barrier which stifles all sound”
#Gaza Image
3/ Koestler notes maniacs lose contact with reality so “perhaps it’s we, the screamers, who react in a sound & healthy way to the reality which surrounds us, whereas you are the neurotics who totter about in a screened fantasy world because you lack the faculty to face the facts” Image
Read 8 tweets
Feb 23
“They got me!” Liz Truss tells far-right kingpin, Steve Bannon, before going on to explain that, to have effectively tackled “the deep state” that runs Britain & its institutions, she would have “needed a bigger bazooka”! #LizTruss #BritanniaUnchained
"I was just saying it like it is & that’s what people respect me for"(!)

Liz Truss’ compares her premiership to a one night stand & says she was just “fattening the pig” for slaughter & that she should have gaslit the public like Rishi Sunak is doing (!)
"I faced the most almighty backlash...from the usual suspects in the media” Liz Truss

“Truss's decline is simultaneously tragic & horrifying but the claim that the media conspired against her can't go unchallenged. There are front pages praising her to the rafters” @mrjamesob



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Read 4 tweets
Jan 4
1/. In 2020 I started a thread warning that Trump might launch an attack on Iran before the end of his term

It wasn’t the first time there had been a real danger of a US-led, Israeli backed attack (records show Bush had come close in 2007/8)

The risk appears now to be very high
Image
2/. It’s clear that the bomb blasts in Kerman on the 4th anniversary of #Soleimani's assassination by the US, could lead to a quick ratcheting up of dangerous tensions

After Oct 7, the US sent two aircraft carrier groups to the region

Iran just deployed a warship to the Red Sea
Image
3/. Three US soldiers were killed & two dozen injured in an unmanned aerial drone attack on US forces stationed in northeastern #Jordan near the Syrian border, President @JoeBiden said

This could mark a dangerous escalation
arab.news/y8h8h
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Read 18 tweets
Nov 6, 2023
Despite previous denials, Michelle Mone finally admits her involvement in failed PPE supplier Medpro

There should be a criminal investigation into possible intentional breach of beneficial ownership disclosure rules

The govt VIP Lane needs investigating

Something about the #MichelleMone interview doesn’t pass the smell test

Why are Mone & her husband - currently under criminal investigation in UK & Spain - being given a prime time slot to tell ‘their side of the story’?

5 questions @bbclaurak should ask

@bbclaurak “I don’t honestly think there’s a case to answer. I can’t see what we’ve done wrong” @MichelleMone

Wow! #MichelleMone & #DougBarrowman on @bbclaurak’s programme, this morning

Read 13 tweets

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