The highly dubious death of Jeffrey Epstein in a US maximum security prison is another strong reason not to extradite Julian Assange into one – particularly as many of the same people who are relieved by Epstein’s death would like to see Assange dead too.
But there is every reason to fear Assange is already in danger, in Belmarsh maximum security prison, where he is currently incarcerated. As the great journalist John Pilger tweeted six days ago:
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 US extradition. I now fear for him. Do not forget him.
There is no official explanation as to why Julian’s health has continued to deteriorate so alarmingly in Belmarsh. Nobody genuinely believes him to be a violent danger, so there is absolutely no call for him to be imprisoned in the facility which houses the hardcore terrorist cases.
Assange is fighting major legal cases in the UK, Sweden and the United States, yet is permitted visitors for only two hours per fortnight, inclusive of time spent with his three sets of lawyers. All of his visitors have been alarmed by his state of physical health and many have been alarmed by his apparent disorientation and confusion.
It is because of Assange’s draconian one year sentence for “bail-jumping” on claiming political asylum that he can be kept in such harsh conditions and with so little access to his lawyers. That is why his sentence was so unprecedentedly stiff for missing police bail. Otherwise, as a remand prisoner awaiting extradition hearing his conditions would ordinarily be less harsh and his access to lawyers much better. The Establishment has conspired to reduce his ability to defend himself in court. I am not convinced it is not conspiring to destroy him.
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The UK government will never again be able to claim, with the slightest credibility, that it does not hold political prisoners. Indeed, Julian Assange is being treated as badly as many of the USSR’s political prisoners.
The UK government, police and judiciary have given up even trying to look as if they care about legality or decency – let alone the Christian virtues.
The velvet glove has been discarded, and the iron fist is brandished for all to see.
Amazing that Assange is treated like a terrorist for having been accused of rape, charges repeatedly dropped by Swedish prosecutors, but Epstein plea bargained as a sex offender to be able to live at home during a prison sentence.
Does say that equality before the law in the Anglosphere is only remarkable by its complete absence.
“it would be a good idea” as gandhi might have said.
There were never any charges against Julian Assange. Epstein’s first spell in prison was spent in comfortable accommodation (quite different from his fellow inmates), and he was allowed day release six days a week to go to his office to continue his ‘business’.
The world is such a mess right now, with so much going on that nobody is able to focus on anything. I feel like Rodney King must have felt as those cops introduced themselves.
On a more positive note, I don’t think the “western” establishment has ever been so discredited. The world is watching and hoping we do something about the maniacs we have let take control.
It’s one of those ‘King’s got no clothes on’ scenarios, except the King in our case is running around murdering people, destroying the planet, and using kids as a form of currency.
Completely agree and have commented on previous threads on his deteriorating health. It is disgraceful and we should ALL be ashamed of what OUR government is doing to him.
I bet he has been discussed today by Bolton and the blond ‘temporary’ occupant of No 10.
WRITE:
https://writejulian.com/
I wrote to Julian about two weeks ago. The letter has not come back so presumably he has been given it. I included a SAE for him to reply, but thus far he has not done so.
I tried to make the letter short and encouraging. I would think he needs to be given strength and the will to stay alive and healthy. Of course the nature of his health problems have not been disclosed.
“Of course the nature of his health problems have not been disclosed”.
Possibly something he ate or drank.
His health problems might be mental – he might be suffering from severe depression.
He might be suffering from some sort of physical illness due to long confinement without access to exercise and fresh air.
He might have some sort of other physical chronic illness.
I don’t know anything about prison food. I doubt it tastes very good.
Yes I wrote to him last week too
I have also written to Julian around the time of his birthday? With an SAE suuplied, but I do not expect him to write back as he is probably busy with trying to find out about the drugs they are administering to him and how to get out off this forced incraceration in a high security jail.
We all should write to him. Massive amounts of post is the only indicator of his public popularity, the more he receives the better.
I agree with Craig, Epsteins demise does diminish the prospect of Julian getting a fair trial, or even make the trial.
That said, we arr perfectly capable of doing such dirty work over here, his reduced heath and drugged state dont add up to an unbiased judiciary.. please write, it is so important.
It’s a damning indictment of the majority of the UK press that Assange and his situation has been forgotten so quickly in the mainstream news. One would think they’d be concerned about press freedom, unless of course the majority of them aren’t in any danger as they’re not actually journalists.
You have hit the nail on the head, Northern. They are “journalists” by virtue of having a desk, reporting to an editor, having an accreditation card and drawing a salary from a “media organization”.
But they are not *journalists* – meaning people who are dedicated to the truth and will do anything they can to publish it.
Paul Craig Roberts is exactly right when he calls them “presstitutes”. It’s the perfect description.
Those people are in no danger of prosecution or persecution, because they write only what the authorities explicitly permit them to. In some cases, they publish material that the authorities have written themselves and handed to the “media” for dissemination.
It has been fairly widely documented that much of the western media has been infiltrated by the CIA. You can certainly see that in our media with the reverence for the American state and its objectives abroad, which is in complete contrast to the bashing of the EU and just about every nation on our continent.
Tom
August 13, 2019 at 22:42
“It has been fairly widely documented that much of the western media has been infiltrated by the CIA. ”
And it was the CIA that created the EU project.
But now they want to dismantle it.
You are wrong, the first Franco-German coal and steel union occurred in the 1930s and only foundered because they didn’t then have the tools to deal with different economic cycles.
When the EEC was mooted post war they just dusted off the first one and lo and behold! it started with a Franco-German coal and steel union.
BTW I got that from a University history Prof who had been looking at the original papers for the 1930s one. It was at a party full of us academic types and he was full of his discovery so three of us let him talk partly out politeness (we do it to others) and partly because it was bloody interesting.
“And it was the CIA that created the EU project.”
Not quite, although the USA were in favour of re-arming West Germany, and the creation of the European Defence Community, which France scuppered in 1954 as a threat to national sovereignty.
After Seth Rich was murdered I remember how there were waves of emolliating sentiment on MSM, along the line of it being somehow disgraceful and disrespectful to want to pursue his killers. There was a similar public relations campaign after Assange was bustled out of the embassy, dousing us all in Julians dirty bath water, most if not all of which turned out to be shite they’d washed off themselves. And though it didn’t stick, many remained clueless about the significance of his work, successfully averted, confused, embarrassed into complicity. Far worse, they never seemed to understand the degree to which their emotions were manipulated by their own ambition.
Anyway, was the end goal to mute the will of the audience and give Caesar his thumb? As if we’re all spellbound in some kind of bizarre public spectacle.
Fuck that.
Here is the response of the NUJ to the arrest of Julian Assange
https://www.nuj.org.uk/news/nuj-reaction-julian-assange-arrest/
There does not appear to be any follow up or comments from the NUJ. It’s rather pathetic, This is what you are up against.
What ‘we’ are up against.
I wouldn’t, myself, compare Mr Assange to Epstein, who was an alleged pimp. A nearer example would be President Morsi.
Bramble
Mursi pledged Egypt’s unflinching support for USUKIS ‘s terror wing Al Qaida.
Assange exposed USUKIS ‘s terror inflicted on the Iraqi people.
Assange’s exposure of our terror led to the decision to farm out future colonial wars to proxy terrorists.
But in my book Mursi and Erdogan were/are dangerous terrorists, while Assange is a whistleblower and a patriotic hero.
Obviously my opinion on this is irrelevant.
Prison staff in high security prisons are convinced for simplicity’ sake that all prisoners are guilty and that must be very demoralizing for an innocent man like Assange.
Personally I think Mursi was not innocent.
You lost me g.
Dungroanin
I worked for a week in Long Lartin 30 years ago high security prisons are there to protect the public from dangerous and manipulative criminals and The staff emphasised to me that point.
Assange is in such a prison only because he has exposed USUKIS violence treachery and corruption but I do not think the staff will treat him for one second as innocent.
This is intended to break him psychologically. May was vindictive and racist ‘re. Windrush and Patel is treasonous. and deceitful. But imho the prison officers cannot let down their guard for any prisoner they have been told is guilty. Not their pay grade.
I hope I’m wrong and they treat him with respect. Psychiatrists are not all arseholes but not their pay grade to overrule the Zionists
Idiots like you who see “Zionists” behind absolutely everything the UK/US state does help legitimize the narrative floated by actual Zionists and fans of Israel that every anti-Zionist is really a closeted anti-Semite.
You don’t need to make shit up in order to criticize Israel and the Zionist project. Verifiable reality provides plenty of rope with which to hang them.
That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least some of you morons are hasbarists looking to create “anti-Semites” in order to bolster the official Zionist narrative.
Baalbek
Cui bono the destruction of Muslim countries?
The destruction which Assange exposed?
Oh , obviously the gnomes at the bottom of the garden.
Ok . I’m an anti- gnomist.
With regard to Sweden are the prosecution there still seeking his extradition? Or did the hearing in Uppsala end that?
His next court appearance in the UK is scheduled for 24/2/2020, if they decide to extradite has he the right to appeal, what stage are the proceedings at the high court/supreme court –I am not familiar with the English legal system.
Like Epstein they want to make an example of him and like Epstein TPTB would prefer to see him gone. Is this the world we live in! Let’s just call it the Soviet Union and switch off the lights.
Ciaran-
As far as I remember, it was like this:
The Swedish court in Uppsala decided in May this year that there is no basis for issuing a European Arrest Warrant, as there is no rape charge. Assange can be asked to attend an additional interview in his case in Sweden. I am unaware of any new developments in this matter.
If this had happened in 2010, there would have been no case against him! But in 2010 the EAW was issued by the Swedish prosecutor only, not decided by a court, which would have been the correct procedure. This was the second prosecutor, the first one had been replaced by another one, with more suitable attitude towards JA. The first prosecutor had closed the case immediately after hearing the charges and seeing the “evidence”.
One more reason for the court decision can have been (this is my speculation) the unwillingness to have JA in the Swedish hands and bearing the responsibility of extraditing him or not to the US. Let the British do it. If he survives the prison time, that is.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/06/a-swedish-court-injects-some-sense/
they’re currently getting away with whacking epstein, the skripal nonsense, financial crimes, genocide in places like libya and syria and iraq and venezuela–what is going to deter the “lawful authorities” from committing another homicide?
Nothing can happen until he is freed. We might as well conclude that the entire political class runs a huge pedophile ring.
I’d conclude that every office and function of state is totally and comprehensively corrupted, with no exceptions and I include the ballot.
Where the country goes from here I’m unsure; were this 1919 not 2019, I suspect we would have already witnessed public unrest.
What on earth are you talking about? I’ll conclude no such thing.
I think Yr Hen Gof’s comment expands and explains David’s.
In other words, what is done to Assange (and what was done to Epstein, and all the many other false flags and cover-ups such as the Skripal farce) strongly suggests that the entire political class has closed ranks and will do anything at all to prevent the truth from coming out.
That’s very generous Mr Welsh. I thought David’s comment was ridiculous. Just my opinion.
His plight is a travesty and political elites are acting more like medieval monarchs than 21st century democrats, no doubt. But Assange has made serious errors himself; entering the Ecuadorian embassy with no plans beyond an indeterminate stay, was obviously chief among them. Statement of the bleedin’ obvious here, but it lost him so much goodwill and allowed powerful opponents to link him with an alleged ‘sex crimes’ in the public mind. Accusations that went unanswered as he was incommunicado, portrayed as some fugitive from justice; a narcissist, laughing and cocking a snook at the law. Then the cherry on top: a willing Russian pawn, helping that bête noire of the liberal/progressives’ Donald Trump gain victory. Of course none of that is true, we know that, but this was only ever about shaping public perception and in that the establishment succeeded… with knobs on.
Realistically, his best hope(s) now rest with either : An early UK election (November – December) in which Labour, under Corbyn, either win outright or can form a comfortable majority with the SNP providing confidence and sup[ply. The extradition will almost certainly be halted / revoked somehow.
Failing that…
The Democrats selecting either Sanders or Warren (Gabbard likely has no chance), and then Trump being defeated in 2020. I believe a President can set aside or commute any sentence if deemed in the public interest to do so? This would seem to fit that criteria.
Worth mentioning Chelsea Manning’s ongoing nightmare too, over her refusal to testify; the fine for which was approaching half a million dollars last time I saw it reported and she’s staring at 18 months in jail. Not quite as bleak as Assange’s situation , but pretty dark nevertheless.
i don’t think he had a choice about entering the ecuadoran embassy, his plan was to stay alive. what was he going to do, get extradited back to sweden with a fast delivery to the united states?
@pretzelattack
Hindsight is a marvellous thing admittedly. But given all we know now, he may have been better taking his chances with President Obama.
For instance, we know now the Obama administration worried about the implications for the US press ,resulting from any attempt to prosecute. And Assange’s reputational stock was so much higher back then. Look how many key backers and supporters he’s lost in the intervening years stuck in the embassy, basically incommunicado, while everyone took free hits on the man including the guardian with its many snidey articles on everything from his character to his personal hygiene.
Ebola Obama? The man who created Daesh to achieve US regional interests in the ME?
The kiss of death.
All terrorist attacks in the West and in the entire world are the work of NATO:
Revelations on the attacks of 2004 and 2017 in Spain
by Thierry Meyssan
https://www.voltairenet.org/article207159.html#nh11
‘The recent revelations about the attacks which took place in Barcelona and Cambrils in 2017 – like those concerning the previous attack in Madrid in 2004 – pose exactly the same legitimate questions as those formulated in other countries about other attacks. Why, everywhere, do the Islamist terrorists appear to be linked to NATO?’
‘Ansar el-Islam was led by the Kurd Mullah Krekar, who is currently under house arrest in Norway. According to the Turkish Kurd daily Özgür Gündem (today shut down by orders of President Erdogan), the CIA organised a secret meeting in Amman (Jordan) to plan the conquest of Iraq by Daesh [11]. The daily published the record of this meeting, which had been drawn up by the Turkish secret services and then stolen by the PKK. It appears that Mullah Krekar, still officially under arrest, had participated in the meeting. He had flown down from Norway in a special NATO plane, and then quietly went back to prison.’
Oh dear! NATO would appear to be the source of all world terrorism.
A wonderful example of “concern trolling,” a dying art.
@Sopo, you’re far too cynical.
I’ve consistently stated a belief Assange is a journalist who exposed war crimes and should therefore be freed asap. And I’ve criticised the appallingly reactionary Sajid Javid, over his decisions, in relation to Assange and others, during his brief stint as Home Secretary. I know Craig gets people on here with agendas, those feigning concern(doing what Luke Harding did to Assange), but I can reassure you, I’m not one of them. I just comment as I see it.
He was going to be demonized no matter where he was once he’d exposed the truth about Hillary Clinton and the DNC.
Unfortunately, the prospect of a PM Corbyn boldly intervening in the Assange case promptly and decisively is an increasingly faint hope.
It’s just my distant (USA) observer’s opinion, but given Corbyn’s ostensibly pragmatic compulsion to compromise and conciliate to a fare-thee-well– especially when the “fare thee well” ought to be directed to Brussels and the EU– I strongly doubt that Corbyn will rescue Assange.
Instead, I reckon that if Corbyn becomes PM, we will hear many “sensible” justifications for why it is “unwise” for Corbyn to precipitously rush to succor Assange. I am wearily familiar with the litany of supposedly ironclad practical political considerations in support of dilatory, noncommittal government, having heard US politicians and pundits rehearse them for decades.
So, my guess is that we will be told that Corbyn earnestly desires to curtail or end Assange’s shameful multi-state persecution, but: first he must consolidate his support within his own fractured party, and reassure an anxious public that he is a strong, confident, able, and entirely trustworthy head of state. Then he must cautiously sort out the complex relations with the US and to a lesser extent Sweden, upon the dictum that a statesman must first attend to the Big Picture at the expense of relatively minor crises.
This will be augmented by pious rhetorical deferral to “due process”, letting “the rule of law” and the wheels of justice grind in their own good time, etc. While Corbyn proceeds with all deliberate speed, incidentally constrained by political identity-politics ideologues who, for instance, compel Corbyn to validate the Swedish fit-up, Assange will continue to twist slowly in the wind.
I wouldn’t mind being proved wrong, though.
Ort.
I can see where you are coming from.
the rhetoric of leaders is legion prior to coming into office.
But there is a reason why the so called ‘ Establishment ‘ view Corbyn and a Labour government as anathema ( including many of his Labour MPs ) and it has a material and just as much, a political basis.
His plan is to end austerity -the austerity which stalks not just the UK but the US and many other Western Nations.
My view of Corbyn is that he is not like the others who say they will do something and then don’t ( see Johnson) but he does threaten those with an interest ( indeed future interests and careers ) of many MPs who’s aim is to ‘ Do politics ‘ for a bit and land a job in the Private Sector.
This is why the politicians we have currently know very little about politics – they are literally spinners of yarn.
The yarn being the daily obfuscation of reality by numbers and sophistry.
Many of the Labour MPs emerged from the Charitable and/or NGO sector and they only know how to wheedle contracts funding – salaries ( for themselves ) and so on.
So when Jess Philips wonders why her kid’s school is closed on a Friday’s she appeals to the Tory government to do something about it – when the demand should be – why are you idiots still in power and when’s the Election?
This is typical of what Corbyn is up against.
The PTB are scared of Corbyn and if they weren’t they would not have bothered smearing him and other left members of the Party for all these years.
The simple truth for all No No Dealers is that if they don’t vote the government down on the first day back in September the No Deal will go ahead.
Anyone who professes to be a Remainer or Soft Brexiter had better act accordingly and make it happen.
That includes particularly the Tory @ Rebels ‘ and even the managed Brexit MPs.
If it doesn’t happen on that day it will probably be too late.
That’s the stark choice – whether you like Corbyn or not.
A potential Corbyn government ( possibly with the SNP – supply and confidence etc ? ) or a No Deal debacle.
That’s the stark choice.
If these jokers get away with it Jess Phillip’s kid’s school will be shut Thursdays and Fridays.
I hope she knows that.
She should do, as she professes to be a Labour MP.
Agreed KK, i’ll add
Yup Jess with her son doing homework on the doorstep of No 10, lol.
Funny loser Tom saying Labour must work with LibDems to stop Brexit rather than imploring the LibDems to work with Labour.
(there is zero chance that the Blairites want to actually stop a hard brexit as there was of them stopping Austerity or allowing the Overton Window reverting back towards the peoples benefit).
Oh and we don’t elect presidents, even if Thatcher and Blair behaved as such with their diminishment of Cabinet authority and independence. So no possibility that a Corbynite Labour government PM can singlehandedly hand out largesse without a Cabinet that approves and legal niceties observed.
Anyway I don’t expect that bojo is actually planning to call an election – he is just warming to his Churchill at War role that he was chosen for. His Caesar General Bolton has been to town and told the grovelling Cabinet and DS flunkies that He is putting boots on the ground as a last ditch attempt to keep the centuries old Empire on top of the Worlds non-Anglos.
The rabid Oz xenophobes have been bred to be canon fodder and are being rallied by the Fartage with his Benito like bravado!
We have our own bred soldier towns and counties which have always been relied on to provide easy recruits. Austerity has created underemployed young in the far flung corners who will sign up.
It all comes down to the conscience of our elected MP’s and civil servants and us the people if we let the Empire drag us into a futile war and loss.
So it is over to Parliament, Mr Speaker and these MP’s who put people ahead of Empire.
I could go on – rain has curtailed cricket – but enough for now.
“The extradition will almost certainly be halted / revoked somehow.”
With that you’re assuming, as you said, some sort of SNP-Labour coalition which to me seems unlikely right now. Also, I haven’t heard Sturgeon mention Assange — has she? I know she quotes people like senator McCain (deceased) but I haven’t seen her refer to Assange.
Manning is a very different case, from a legal standpoint, and I’d say in a worse position since Manning was a federal/US Military employee. Assange was a journalist and wiki a publisher, doing exactly what journalists and publishers do.
The most likely defence for Assange, if he finds himself in a US court, is jury nullification. Not really a defence in the normal sense, more a claim that the law by which he is charged is inapplicable on account of him being a journalist.
Any talk of any coalition prior to the outcome of an election is always wrong.
Any electoral pacts pre election are wrong.
It is anti democratic and in no way should be encouraged.
It can be used as a weapon in a election to stop people voting for the manifestos they would otherwise choose.
It is subject to propaganda and scare mongering.
The AS rouse has failed and is being replaced by the ‘coalition’ bollocks.
Assange should have sought asylum in Russia or a Russian embassy at risk to his reputation in the mainstream Western media.
Taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London was risky and he really should have known before doing so that his safety there would last only as long as Rafael Correa was Ecuadorian President. Once Correa was gone or had served the maximum number of terms allowed him by the Ecuadorian constitution, Assange would have been in trouble.
IMO, Ed Snowden did the right thing even though he had originally planned to go to Latin America. But Bolivian President Evo Morales’ plane being stopped and searched on the way back to Bolivia from Europe for Snowden by European authorities at the time should have been an alarm bell.
We have to rebel. Here are the ten principles of Extinction Rebellion:
https://rebellion.earth/the-truth/about-us/
They say nothing about climate change, nor even mass extinction. Rather, Principle 1, the unifying principle, states:
– “We have a shared vision of change – Creating a world that is fit for generations to come”
A system that imprisons those who publish the truth is not fit for generations to come.
Visit your local group, where people are learning to organise and rebel.
I understand climate change is an important topic (and not the one being discussed here I might add), but you must be deluded if you think this lot are going to get even remotely near the levers of real power. The whole operation screams astro turf opposition.
Organise through your own local networks, not ones run establishment darlings.
My local XR group is organising; we are not astroturf. Go along to your local group; if it is not organising, it is up to you to change that.
[ Mod: This thread is about the threats faced by Julian Assange, not about climate change. If you’d like your comments to stay up longer than a few minutes, then please place them in a relevant thread or take them to the discussion forums. ]
—
Clark
August 13, 2019 at 18:09
XR should go and glue themselves to to the fences of the US military bases in this country because the biggest polluter on the planet is the US military. And we know XR are a scam.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/environmentalists-are-ignoring-the-elephant-in-the-room-u-s-military-is-the-worlds-largest-polluter/5591596
Christiana Figuereres who was at the Davos meeting said with regards to the climate change agenda.”There is money to be made from this.”
Also Bilderberger Zanny Minton Beddoes editor-in chief of The Economist who attended this Davos meeting said he only people that matter on the planet are those here at Davos.” Ref.interview BBC World Service.
DL: “And we know XR are a scam.”
What “we” is this, white man?
A scam. Which the entire scientific community dedicated to the subject is all in on. Uh huh, of course. But the fossil fuel industry, polluters generally, and their bought-and-paid-for politicians (besides their useful idiots), not to mention religious nutcases – they’re all on the side of the angels, right?
DL: I have to add… are you really this dense? I don’t want to offend, but someone is trying to get the richest and most powerful movers on the planet in some direction. What do you suppose might motivate such people to act in a way that favours your goals? Tough one, huh?
I’m concerned about animal welfare. I would like to see everyone go veg*n. Suppose I point out that going veg*n would improve their health, and actually benefit the environment. That must mean – given you think everything is a zero sum game – that I have to be running a scam, when I claimed animal welfare to be my concern in the first place, right?
You try to get what you want, by pointing out how it might be in the interests of others. That is basic diplomacy, not a knee-jerk call to denounce that person as a “sell-out!!”
I hope you’re not one of these tiresome people who’ll dance around and pretend you cannot follow such obvious logic.
Dave: – “XR should go and glue themselves to to the fences of the US military bases”
Who knows? Maybe some of us will; US military bases are clearly incompatible with Principle 1:
– “…creating a world that is fit for generations to come”
I know for a fact that some members of my local XR group will be helping to disrupt the DSEI “arms fair” in London next month, and we’ll be using the methods we have been practicing at XR local meetings. Is that XR or not? Principle 10:
– “…Anyone who follows these core principles and values can take action in the name of Extinction Rebellion”
I expect your ‘reply’ to be deleted in due course; I have just spent a week with Nadira who is a film-maker and an actress. Thanks for showing your true colours.
Hi Clark, are you not worried about the originating organisations behind XR? Their approval by neolib/con crowds and rolling out across the Empire? Their weaponisation of youth and incitement to rebel against their parents and guardians as some modern day ‘scouts’ or worse?
I mean if they were to ‘somehow suddenly decide’ that the greatest threat to the world is the continued imprisonment and silencing of Assange and Wikileaks as the primary step in stopping ‘Xtinction’ would they and you be marching and camping daily outside Belmarsh in some modern day Greenham Common?
Shouldn they be encouraged in having school strikes to enable that mass demand on the government for the only worldwide source of freedom of information? Infact why isn’t that happening?
I worry when the grown-ups start moulding the impressionable children who are not otherwise allowed to do, eat and believe whatever their innocent daily growing minds desire by their parents and guardians.
I’m seriously asking?
My judgement of XR is based on my experience of it: the people I have met at the London camps last April, the atmosphere of support and love at the actions, and the social organisation rapidly developing within the groups.
XR membership is very diverse politically, so there will always be potential for criticism from opposite ends of the political spectrum. That’s why I quoted Principle 1:
– “We have a shared vision of change – Creating a world that is fit for generations to come”
This is the way to overcome the differences that fragment us – first, find something that we can all agree with, and then use that point of agreement as the basis of discussion of how to achieve it. For instance we might disagree about whether we approve of Assange (or our impressions of him), but we can agree that truthful publishing should be protected.
“..first, find something that we can all agree with, and then use that point ..”
That is exactly my point. That is how opposition is controlled through the ages, by rabble rousing and then watching as a leader emerges to direct these mobs.
Study the Gotdon riots and ALL mob mentality. The emotional joy of gathering like minded peoples is soon taken over by organised money and power.
It is like the summer festivals of now compared to the free fests that originated them 30-40 years ago.
You are able to consider what i say and look up the background of XR, i have, and make up your own mind – i don’t want to say i told you so down the road.
Peace.
The people of XR that I have met are not “mobs”; we are a non-violent movement. We make our own decisions and plan our own actions within small autonomous groups, using an inclusive discussion group procedure.
Of course I see your point; there is a terrible danger that the rich and powerful will have us install pink boats and organise illegal gigs and dancing in city centres all over the world…
The sky will surely fall in as our gratis vegan kitchens and composting toilets spring up in strategic locations one after the other, no-charge teas and coffees, and cake on feast days… Truly we are to be feared.
And the samba bands. Oh no, please, not the samba bands…
Dungroanin
August 14, 2019 at 14:10
You are spot on Global warming is a scam.The so called climate scientists cannot do the physics.They suffer from tunnel vision and do not look at other effects.
DL: You are a denialist. Simply screeching “scam! scam!” doesn’t make it so, any more than you can deny the last two months are the hottest two months in recorded history.
You have a vested interest in being a denialist, or is this some masturbatory intellectual exercise, being a contrarian to try and prop up some sense of being ahead of everyone else?
Dungroanin: I’m always impressed by someone who makes a bunch of rather contentious pronouncements, topped off with “That’s it – not talking about it anymore!”
Always strikes me as immensely powerful and courageous, seeing someone drop their points and then run away like you just did.
If a point is worth making, it’s surely worth defending. You obviously disagree, or you don’t really think it was worth making in the first place.
Is he in a fit state to stand trial? Sometimes “krankheit rettet”. (The reference to wartime black propaganda is deliberate)
Well, of course, James Earl Ray did after he was extradited from this country to the USA.
“Mr. Ray pleaded guilty to the King assassination in March 1969, avoiding the possibility of the death sentence that could have resulted from conviction at trial.”
How very convenient (for some) that there was no trial!
https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/24/us/james-earl-ray-70-killer-of-dr-king-dies-in-nashville.html
James Earl Ray was a murderer. Julian is not.
I know nothing about the King assassination, except that I have heard worrying rumours that the CIA and FBI were behind it.
If so, and given that he pled guilty to avoid a trial, how can we possibly know if Mr Ray was a murderer or not?
I heard that James Earl Ray was convicted of King’s murder.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Earl_Ray
Maybe Ray pled guilty because he was guilty.
It’s a very long time ago and has no direct relevance to this discussion, which was the point of my terse reply to Tony.
The King family’s lawyer William Pepper has written several books demonstrating Ray’s innocence. The most recent: “The Plot to Kill King” (2016).
That such a miscarriage of justice could occur is additional reason not to extradite Assange.
A Memphis civil jury later, in deciding there was a government conspiracy to kill King, also held that Ray was innocent.
James Earl Ray was a Manchurian Candidate, programmed to kill Martin Luther KIng earlier in New Orleans.
James Earl Ray was as much of a murderer as Lee Harvey Oswald and Sirhan Sirhan. Patsies all. Read some books about the MLK assassination.
lysias, I agree with you on LHO, Sirhan, and Ray. The William Pepper book on Ray, Lisa Pease’s 2018 book on the RFK assassination, ‘A Lie Too Big to Fail’, and (too numerous to mention) on JFK are essential reading. For those who have unquestioningly accepted the CIA/FBI line on these deaths, the Mary Ferrell Foundation website is the best starting point.
In ‘The Plot to Kill King’ it is alleged that the assassination of MLK was originally planned for Los Angeles but it was decided not to because Robert Kennedy was due to be assassinated there and it would not be a good idea to have two in the same city.
Ultimately, I would imagine that LBJ was probably behind these two assassinations as he was behind that of JFK.
Lysias. Unless you were an eye witness you don’t know with certainty. Conspiracy theories sell newspapers, books and make great Hollywood blockbusters. There’s money in them.
Having seen well researched documentaries on these matters it is my view that in all probability Lee Oswald shot Kennedy, Sirhan Sirhan shot his brother and Ray killed King.
But I wasn’t there. So this is just my considered opinion. Nothing more.
You’ve done no ‘watching’ of ‘well researched’ documentaries or you wouldn’t be touting such a worthless opinion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1iR4WuKvAY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCU2MCxjAJ0
Trials, like elections, are purely ornamental.
As Douglas Adams pointed out to us,
“The purpose of the Office of the President is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it”.
The same is true of many British institutions.
All these unjust prison sentences , miscarriages of justice and one law for us and one for them cases surely must wake people up to the complete and total disregard the elite has for us all. It is beyond me why people continue to think simply changing the faces in parliament will change anything else. The system only works for the elite. Vote for them and you legitimise them. If ten million people refused to obey their edicts what could they do?
They would carry on as usual, unperturbed. At the last general election in 2017 over fifteen million eligible voters did not vote, a third of the UK electorate. In the America half the eligible voters did not vote in the presidential election of 2016 – some 230m people. Yet both the Conservatives and Donald Trump behave as if they had achieved 100% of eligible votes .
This is what fascist states do.
The Rule of Law is phoney and can be manipulated to do whatever is required. Incarceration without trial, hanging judges, illegal treatment, and if need be extra judicial killing.
That is the UK and it’s being done in front of our very eyes.
US federal court exposes Democratic Party conspiracy against Assange and WikiLeaks
https://countercurrents.org/2019/08/us-federal-court-exposes-democratic-party-conspiracy-against-assange-and-wikileaks
Unless mentioned before and I missed it
This is a pretty major (recent) ruling re Assange’s position, so would be very surprised that it hasn’t been mentioned.
Craig you must have thoughts on this ruling. It is intensely pro-Assange. You can debate the veracity of the event (which I’m happy to do) or at least tell us why you didn’t at least think to mention it. I can’t believe you weren’t aware of it, in the same way I can’t believe Epstein’s death was an accident.
I may be impatient, and I will not press this point further.
Did you miss it?
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/08/in-the-world-of-truth-and-fact-russiagate-is-dead-in-the-world-of-the-political-establishment-it-is-still-the-new-42/
You have to wake up pretty early round here..?
You have to stay up all night 😉
Cheers!
And meanwhile the establishment try to keep the lid on the good time Royal Prince now being fingered in court papers for having sex with minors.
Traversing the world in private planes carrying young girls unaccompanied by their kin the extent of the behaviour of the Prince Andrew, Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell et al is horrifyingly breath taking. Like Jimmy Saville, nothing is off limits for these people.
Long to reign over us, it doesn’t take much gumption to realise how Princess Dianna was no accident or Willie MacRae, who apparently had details of an establishment pedophile ring, was no suicide.
Anything goes with these people, and Prince Andrew is just one of them.
Assange will slowly be poisoned by a untraceble poison. Like Edgar Allan-Poe, his death certificate will read unknown cause of death.
I’m surprised they aren’t fattening Assange up and keeping him in good health, he surely must know quite a few things that only torture and duress can reveal. If he’s truly ill I doubt he’d last the process and reveal anything substantial.
Should we storm the Bastille? I doubt writing to our MP’s will do any good at all. If he expires all we’ll have is a finger pointing excercise.
Should we storm the Bastille?
probably his best hope!
occasionally, justice does work without any ‘storming’
https://inews.co.uk/news/scotland/alex-salmond-paid-500000-by-scottish-government-to-cover-legal-bill/
can we get JA moved to Scotland, it’s a bit closer to irrelevant Sweden and relevant US?
The family of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi might disagree with you on Scottish justice.
As did Robert Black and many other distinguished jurists (including the UN and EU representatives).
The last thing they want is to hear truthful testimony from him. They are as averse to the truth as a vampire is to a crucifix.
Yea, well, he had it coming to him. The major human rights issue right now for the human rights blogger is HONG KONG. But it doesn’t fit the agenda.
Hong Kong is a colour revolution organised by the US, like Ukraine. The complaints are vague, apart from the extradition act, which has been suspended. Just a deal needs to be made, so that everyone can agree. In principle the Chinese are right; it should be possible to extradite criminals to China, who have committed crimes in China not in Hong Kong. Obviously the US wants to stir up trouble, and if possible provoke a military intervention. Well, I doubt that it will work. The military intervention may take place, but Trump already has his trade war with China, and China has a right to intervene on its own territory. Much as I think China is not very delicate, particularly with regard to the Uyghurs, in the end Britain handed over Hong Kong to China in 1997.
I agree. The Yellow Vests in France may have been something similar – again, vague objectives and no obvious leadership. If Brexit doesn’t happen to the Americans’ satisfaction, I can see the agent provocateurs coming here.
On the other hand keyboard provocateurs like Tom and Laguerre look much more like typical Deep state pawns. No blows on the head or teargas for them….
XR supporters on the other hand hardly get beaten up or blocked, a clear sign.
Not very bright. You just want war against everybody, for no purpose, it looks like.
And better if it’s on behalf of the Americans.
“The Yellow Vests in France may have been something similar”
This statement is hogwash and an unjustified smear without any explanation.
The yellow vests are a major threat to French/European/Imperial neoliberalcons and are the first such movement in years without any deep “Open Society Foundation” funding and ideological agenda.
Sodoff Soros
I recently saw Jo Swinson on TV while she was campaigning to become Lib Dem leader. She claimed she wanted to restore the true liberal traditions and identity of the party (or words to that affect). Taking her words at face value I wrote to her claiming she could pick no better cause to promote those values than that of defending Julian Assange. I got a brief reply, indicating that she had passed my concerns on to the Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland. Mr Buckland subsequently sent me a generic template letter which related to the general treatment of all prisoners at Belmarsh.
So, rather than use her brief moment of limelight to do some good she (unsurprisingly) conformed to my lowest expectations. Jo really is a paint it by numbers soulless bureaucrat. Perhaps it stuck in her craw that I said her predecessor Charles Kennedy was the last Lib Dem leader of any note. Someone who put his money where his mouth was when the push for war was in full swing and called out the liars and war mongers for who they were. Jo belongs in advertising or insurance or retail management, but certainly not as leader of a ‘liberal’ political party. Poor show!
I too remain very concerned for Julian. I do not put it past the authorities to seek to do him in. Keeping the attention on him really is critical. I will do my bit where I can.
“Jo really is a paint it by numbers soulless bureaucrat.”
She’s having it easy right now but it won’t be long before her cheap mask slips and her party is back in the electoral basement with her.
Heartily agree that Swinson (my MP) is very poor. She hasn’t the calibre or intellectual heft for her prominent role. I think her main plus factor is her youth. If I can summon the strength to over come my disability I will be campaigning against her,( for the SNP) to unseat her.I hope the SNP will put up a credible figure.
“I hope the SNP will put up a credible figure.” What’s wrong with John Nicholson? Unlike Swinson he actually lives in Bearsden, as opposed to “having a house in Bearsden”.
I think John Nicholson also has a house in london.I wonder which one he prefers.
Swinson is the lowest of the low. She determines that the LibDems will not act in cooperation with Labour as long as Corbyn is leader. I have little respect for Corbyn’s leadership qualities (although I sympathise with his circumstances (bogus anti-Semitism charges and constant plotting against him)), but Corbyn is undoubtedly a decent human being. Swinson relies on projecting the image of a nice decent middle class professional. In reality she is deeply corrupt and cynical (not unlike that other toad, Tom Watson).
Reference her election expenses for 2017, official submission £210 under the limit but only after £7,000 was knocked off for being material they CLAIM wasn’t delivered (such profligacy) or was “material not specific to Swinson” and therefore didn’t count (a preposterous claim given the timing).
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/15477703.mp-swinson-under-fire-over-vanishing-election-costs/
“Fuck him and vive Le Pen!”
Pretty sure that’s banning offence, in here, you won’t be missed.
“Intriguing choice of deletions, mod/craig/clark. Your function is now, 100% without a doubt, to remove dissenting voices”
You’re not a dissenting voice, you’re a paid state actor.
Appendix:
Mr Buckland referred me to Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 16-2011. Buried within this document is a section dealing with visiting rights.
“Output 3: Every un-convicted prisoner is given the opportunity to receive at least three, one hour social visits each week, one of which may be on a weekend.
3.4 Each unconvicted prisoner must be informed of their visits allowance at the earliest opportunity. Unconvicted prisoners must be allowed visits on at least three days a week, which includes weekends. Each visit must last at least one hour.”
If Julian really is not receiving more than 2 hours visitation every 2 weeks then this is something that Jo Swinson (and others) ought to take up with Mr Buckland. I will be writing to both in due course. At the very least it ill be interesting to see how they try to fob me off next time. Jo would put herself in a very interesting position were she not to raise this issue in a more public way, perhaps via a question in the house of commons. How could a liberal not at the very least challenge the government to uphold its responsibility to provide basic prisoners rights. Surely she has received more letters than just my own. Surely she does not wish to be embarrassed by her constituents, especially if the worst should happen and Julian should die in custody.
Goatboy,
Anything about the numbers per visit? I’m thinking what is to stop a coalition of the willing from requesting visit(s)?
goat boy
It maybe that his treatment is based on a thcnicality: he has been convicted: of skipping bail.
He’s not an un-convicted prisoner though. He got 50 weeks for breaking the conditions of his bail.
Convicted prisoners are allowed at least 2 one hour visits every four weeks. Maximum three adults at a time.
Yes, he’s ended up being over sentenced for skipping bail.
Not exactly Crime of the Century.
So why is Assange amongst some pretty dangerous people?
Of course once his 50 weeks is up he’ll be free to wander around England taking in the scenery he missed whilst in
the Ecuadorian Embassy.
Let’s face it – his imprisonment is not about the law.
It’s about politics.
The grovelling politics of getting up the Americans backside and staying there.
Not my words those but the US Ambassador under Blair.
You will find ( and you’ll find it with the Boris Brexit ) that this is and has always been true.
Forget the legal niceties I just hope Corbyn gets in and tells the US to ” Go away and shut up! ”
In the way best mates do – of course.
He is an Australian citizen? Then the Queen ought to go and see him, inquire about his health etc. (Please forward the idea to Her Majesty by opportunity).
She is too busy worrying about her second eldest son, her favourite. Perhaps that’s why he went wrong. Too much smothering from Mumsie and a kick in the backside from Pa.
PS Where is Phil the Greek?
I would have thought that Mr.Assange is entitled to healthcare. Has he been seen by independent Doctors? Maybe the Swedish authorities should be ensuring that his human rights are upheld. The UN, where are they? If he is disorientated and ‘confused’ that is not a sign of depression it’s a sign of enforced medication. They will be injecting him with powerful drugs, as they do in mental health hospitals with seriously mentally ill patients. These drugs are horrific.
Sounds like the film, ‘One flew Over the cuckoo’s nest’. Even mild anti phsychotic drugs are addictive, have terrible terrible side effects, and of course in large doses, will kill you.
It hardly bares thinking about what this man is being put through. What a terrible world, and what a disgusting nasty regime the British government really are.
Sometimes the way humans treat each other is just bizarre it’s so inhumane. How those people taking orders, and doing the dirty work against people in this way, sleep at night, or ever feel good about themselves, is something I can never ever understand.
In 100 years time almost everyone alive now will be dead, I do hope those coming after them are more human.
Epstein’s death in prison was a Deep State own goal; Assange’s would be another, even bigger one. They have to weigh that in vs. average whistle blower deterrent.
Wonder if Julian created himself an “intelligence insurance” to publish after death?
These articles are so interesting to me to resolve as the durrig my years in spoon bending iq class of 1982-6 I recall that dear old invisible friend I knew of back then say don’t ever forget him for he never forgive me and to find him in the future hopefully before he got stuck in jail as he is today. In my experience remember ing any of my time in that corrupted World and gifted talented iq class has never helped me. In fact it has been pure hell. Do you know what it’s like to grow up and have to say someone free Julian again the poor guy has been protecting hisbown family since I first heard of him decades ago. Do you know what it’s like to grow up and say that again in a world that still doesn’t care. So Barr can solve what pass off Ted Gunderson reports to Mueller about last alphabet corruption at best. None of this helps me so why must I not forget anyone. I got stuck in an isolated iq class room for life in a world of people who never have a hoot I did. I see no reason to remember no one seemed to remember me and that didn’t matter did it
I’m not feeding a troll, I’m mentioning the recent unclassified/not for release FBI doc that was released about ‘conspiracy theories’
nice article here
https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2019/aug/13/fbi-conspiracy-theory-bulletin/
which very much ties in to Julian’s predicament as the torture that he is suffering is not due to conspiracy theories , but the conspiracy. As the (linked) FBI doc….
goes on to concede that the conspiratorial mindset underpinning such theories may be influenced by “the illegal, antidemocratic, or harmful activities by high level government officials and political elites” … known as actual conspiracies.
I’d say the FBI bulletin accurately sums up that Julian Assange is where he is today PURELY because of
the illegal, antidemocratic, or harmful activities by high level government officials and political elites
It is so amusing to see the English language mangled by Doesn’t Matter, ie Lynn Grayson, who is advertising her wares, this time from Greece, not Russia!.
It sounds like they have him on strong antidepressants, this would account for his disorientation. From personal experience this could be Dothipin or Venlafaxine (less likely) Look for side effects like very dry mouth, slow to respond, difficulty in forming complex sentences or dealing with complicated matters as he once would have. Excessive sweating may be another side effect, more pronounced on the latter.
It’s not to say he doesn’t need these medications, but taking them will leave him extremely vulnerable as he will find himself unable to think as clearly or remember things, even important things which he would need to so that he can have a reasonable chance of defending his case.
I imagine that both his accusers and our own government at using this time effectively, no doubt other charges will follow. I gather he is being charged with something like conspiracy to hack into US Government servers and theft of information via that route. I can’t see them going only on this charge. More will be made of it, probably just before the extradition hearing, to prevent him building his defence properly. And the Swedish case will be brought up again as a safeguard. But I can’t imagine the UK Government not trying to find a way to levy more charges of their own. Something along the lines of hacking, something to destroy his credibility that would ‘prove’ him a liar. He would be presented in court in the US as a liar and a sex offender. Thus reducing his chances of acquittal yet further.
It seems to be the way they do it, destroy credibility by making you out either as a thief or liar, add a sexual element then present you on a thin charge with little to no evidence but with your reputation completely destroyed. Usually works, at least in the sense of stopping the public believing what you are saying – and that’s the real aim after all.
They’ve done this so many times to people who’s only crime was to speak out on the wrongdoing of the US or UK. We rightly see through Putin arresting opposition politicians but we ignore the evidence of our own eyes and ears when innocent people are charged with ridiculous offences and proved guilty when there is NO evidence against them and could not be. I won’t mention names but in some cases people have been charged with offences which are inherently impossible to prove (without confession or evidence of an admission to a cohort)
Interesting post Gary, but with respect I think you may be leaping to conclusions about what Julian may or may not be being medicated with.
As you say, the side effects of drugs such as you describe can outweigh their alleged benefits. I wouldn’t take them.
Depression in my opinion generally an environmental condition. Julian’s extended confinement and sensory deprivation I would think is likely to make him vulnerable to mental health problems of this kind.
I think it’s clear they want to shut him up.
I can’t help but hope that if – when – Julian is released that he considers retiring from this sort of work. For the sake of his own long term health. Not so that they “win”, but because he’s not the only person capable of taking them on.
Julian has become a figurehead, a target for oppressive government aggression. Others can take on that mantle. He doesn’t have to fight them alone.
Julian Assange was given 12 months for skipping bail. The Swedish lawyer representing one of the alleged victims, in seeking to reawaken the case against JA, said that she understood from the British authorities, that JA would serve 6 months. I wonder what will happen when the six months are up, cannot be too long now.
John A, if six months comes and goes and Julian is still locked up, we will then know definitely, that Julian is a political prisoner and not a normal low level bail jumper.
First of November by my reckoning. I think the chances of him getting bail again whilst the extradition goes through the courts are nil and that could take years to sort out.
When you hear a corporate politician/corporate journalist talking about democracy remember that Boris Johnson and his gang of loony proto-fascists have no mandate and no legitimacy, e.g. Priti Patel should be excluded from public office for life for acting as an agent for a foreign nation while serving as a cabinet minister, not running the home office.
When you hear a corporate politician/corporate journalist talking about the rule of law remember the countless stories that have been reported of extremely serious police corruption and mass surveillance, of the government consistently denying peoples fundamental human rights, legal right and civil liberties.
When you hear a corporate politician/corporate journalist talking about free speech and a free press remember Julian Assange, locked up for publicising the plain truth. Remember the constant stream of political and geopolitical propaganda that appears daily in the newspapers and on TV screens.
This is the reality of the UK in the 21st century, a dysfunctional and dystopian nightmare brought to you by a political and media elite in the pay of big money, just as Hitler and the Nazis were in 30s Germany.
proto-fascists = crypto-fascists