In an article on the future of the US alliance in the Australian Journal of International Affairs, the Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of the United States and of #AUKUS in the Parliament, Luke Gosling, says moving from ‘interoperability’ to ‘interchangeability’ as @… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… He cites a Loewy Poll that shows the majority of Australians support the alliance but Gosling worries that an even greater majority fear entanglement in a war. “Still, it’s heartening 76% of Australians believe the US would defend Australia..”.

This is a failure of the our… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

FM Penny Wong will address @PressClubAust today to respond to criticism of her and of AUKUS by Paul Keating.

She will also have to explain the shift in her position since moving from Opposition to Govt, pointed out starkly by Hugh White in The Monthly.

The Stepped up… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… She is spinning the US battle to maintain hegemony as a battle to preserve multipolarity. Gobsmacking hutzpah.

Excellent article by Hugh White:

‘if AUKUS stands, it is inconceivable that Aus would not fight by America’s side if America ever goes to war with China.’

AUKUS is the NATO of the Asia Pacific - we become like any NATO nation, a US base for global war themonthly.com.au/issue/2023/apr… In Opposition, @SenatorWong
‘clearly understood that in calling for a new multipolar order in Asia she was advocating an outcome very different from the goal of US policy.’

Here is something to retweet over and over in our troubled times ahead, and be forever grateful to the great @DanielEllsberg

Do not underestimate the power of protests - it gives hope to the world and clips the wings of war mongers.

(short thread) #nuclearwar #Russia #China… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… Regarding the trend among youth “to favour humanistic values” that gives Ellsberg hope.

Ref: Island Off the Coast of Asia, Instruments of Statecraft in Aus Foreign Policy, Clinton Fernandes, MUP

What does it take for our govt to get it?
No understanding of recent history of Ukraine.
How about getting hit in the face with a wet fish?
The Russians are fighting Nazism in #Ukraine #Russia ⁦@SenatorWong⁩ ⁦@AlboMP⁩ Here’s some more research if you still doubt the nature of the situation in #Ukraine

“Ukraine’s Azov movement has grown from a militia of fringe far-right figures & football hooligans .. into a multipronged social movement that has become the envy of the global far right. In… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

Join me online (Facebook - Marrickville Peace Group)
or at Marrickville TowHall at 4.45pm today AEST
for a discussion on the lies that lead to war, #AUKUS, US ForeignPolicy, geopolitical shifts, and #China
We cross to Col L Wilkerson in the US, who has told me (thread) ‘China so far is not a belligerent nation — actually, it need not be as its manufacturing capacity & thus its industrial base already surpasses that of any other country in the world…
China's supreme diplomat Wang Yi's recent orchestration of a rapprochement between Teheran ..

Media partisanship leads not only to a collective demonisation of an assigned ‘enemy’, it leads to contempt for fellow journalists who won’t be co-opted into concealing the truth to protect the anointed.
Short thread on the contempt for Assange and Hersh: Hersh said a journalist from Die Welt called (you’d be forgiven in thinking he was writing a story about the Nordstream sabotage) to ask him why he wrote the story.. Did he know it would help Russia? Similarly, Assange has been accused of publishing the DNC emails to help Trump..

What would war with #China look like for Australia? Part 2 - ABC News
Behm: ‘Australia has a "fundamental strategic pathology – to support the interests of the US at the expense of our own."’ abc.net.au/news/2023-02-2… ‘Korea was an unnecessary war, as were the conflicts in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. Vietnam and Iraq were illegal wars, with the US Administration(s) lying to their citizens and their allies about the strategic necessity and the morality of the use of armed force.’

In contemplating the unfolding war in Ukraine, it helps to recall the lessons of the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Small thread on how to start a proxy war and make it a success - famously recommended by Zbigniew Brzezinski A fervent anti-communist, Jimmy Carter’s National Security advisor hatched a plot to create a ‘Soviet Vietnam’ - to lure the Soviet Union into an unwinnable depleting war. Disparate Afghan war lords - collectively known as the Mujahideen - had been attempting to overthrow

Military buildup & AUKUS breast beating has nothing to do with protecting trade with China from China, it’s about the freedom to conduct military & intelligence activity in another country’s Exclusive Economic Zone - something China makes clear is not on arena.org.au/trade-routes-o… The US “fears that if China’s position were to gain greater international acceptance, it would affect the United States’ ability to project naval and air power in other EEZs such as the Persian Gulf..” (1 of 2)

I have requested permission to observe 20 April #Assange hearing when the magistrate will issue the order to extradite him to the US. The order will then go to the UK Home Secretary Priti Patel for approval. Assange's defence will make submissions to Patel by May 18th. They intend to appeal the original decision on the grounds of Press Freedom and Fair Trial.

Day 2 of the US High Court #Assange Extradition Appeal in London.
Today the Defence will counter the arguments presented yesterday, & raise new reports from former US officials that the CIA considered kidnapping or murdering Assange. I’ll be covering proceedings on this thread. They will also argue that if the Court decides to admit the US assurances & view them as comprehensive, then consideration will need to be given to which tribunal ought to assess their trustworthiness & will propose Baraitser as she has heard days of detailed evidence.

The US High Court Extradition Appeal in London is scheduled to start in about an hour.
I’ll be monitoring on the videolink - along with other journalists - and will keep you posted on this thread.
#Assange The 5 grounds on which the HC has agreed the US can appeal are:

1. That the Extradition judge applied S91 of the Act improperly ie that extradition would Not be Oppressive or Unjust

2. The Judge should have given the US the opportunity to offer assurances

I’ll be following the UK High Court Appeal by the US

in the case of Julian #Assange

and **live tweeting**

Starts at 10.30am London time on 11 August - in just a few hours.

You can follow this thread, and quite a few others! It appears this Court has allowed other observers besides journalists, unlike Judge Baraitser who barred human rights groups and parliamentarians form the Extradition hearing.
Amnesty International’s rep has been approved as was the Australian Parliamentary Assange supportgroup

#Assange Bail Hearing 6 January 2021
On the videolink to London and waiting to cross to the court room.

Within 2hrs we’ll know if Julian will walk out of that court room or head back to Covid infected Belmarsh to spend potentially another couple of years while appeals are heard. They are having internet problems. Our screen was frozen for 10 mins. They fixed it but mine is frozen again. Trying to reconnect. @AndrewJFowler & I still in the virtual waiting room

#Assange Extradition Decision

Joined the videolink to London’s Old Bailey.

There are 12 of us on this link so far, but journalists can join for another half an hour.

Well cross to the court room shortly before 10 London time. ABC News Europe correspondent @lb_online also on the link

Extradition September hearing Day 17 (19 incl 2 Covid),
expected to be the final day.

Joined the video link waiting to cross to the court room. Today we expect to hear an update on the Spanish surveillance case and summaries of the remaining witness statements.

I’ll provide as much information as I can on this thread.

Extradition September hearing Day 16 (18 incl 2 Covid)

Joined the video link waiting to cross to the Old Bailey.

In a significant development yesterday, the judge agreed to accept the statements of 2 former UCGlobal employees without requiring them to reveal their identities.. .. This was a critical decision as the only protection they have (besides armed guards) is the fact that their former boss would be the suspect should anything happen to them given he alone would know their identities, Defence argued.

In accepting the Spanish court’s ruling on..

Extradition September hearing Day 15 (17 incl 2 Covid)

Joined the video link waiting to cross to court. There are 12 of us on this videolink today. Perhaps @kgosztola can tell us how many journalists are on the link at the Old Bailey

Extradition September hearing Day 14 (16 inl 2 Covid)

On the video link waiting to cross to court.

Expect to be back to US prison conditions today.
Yancey Ellis is an EDVA lawyer who will focus on pre-trial conditions, another US lawyer Joel Sickler on post-conviction work. Hard to believe there are a mere 13 of us on the video link around the world, other than the few journalists in the adjacent court room at the Old Bailey

Extradition September hearing day Day 13 (15 with 2 lost Covid days)

Joined the video link.

I believe the only remains medical witness is Paul Mullen, Emeritus Professor at Melbourne’s Monash University. He was JA’s consulting psychiatrist in Australia & diagnosed.. ... him with clinical depression in 1995.

The other witness scheduled for today is computer forensics expert, Patrick Eller.

His report reviews evidence from Chelsea Manning’s court martial.