10 Reasons Assange Should Walk Free
10 Reasons Assange Should Walk Free
By David
Swanson, Director, World BEYOND War
https://worldbeyondwar.org/10-reasons-assange-should-walk-free/
1. Governments’
(monstrous and criminal) behavior should not be secret.
People should know what their government is doing, and what
a powerful foreign government is doing to their own
countries. The actual results of the work of WikiLeaks have
been hugely beneficial.
2. If U.S. courts were to get
busy prosecuting the crimes exposed by WikiLeaks, rather
than trying to turn the act of revealing them into some sort
of crime, they would simply not have time for the
latter.
3. Prosecutions should not be arbitrary political
choices. A Justice Department wrongly under the thumb of
Obama decided against prosecuting Assange. A Justice
Department wrongly under the thumb of Trump decided to
prosecute, based on exactly the same information but
different politics. When Trump was celebrating WikiLeaks
three years ago it was for acts of journalism he is not
prosecuting; instead he is prosecuting just the journalism
that he opposes.
4. The choice to prosecute these
particular acts is driven by the military industrial
complex, but also by Russiagate. The U.S. media and top
politicians have long sought to depict Julian Assange as
something other than a journalist on the fictional grounds
that he is in the employ of or collaborating with an enemy
government. If Assange had exposed the peccadilloes of the
peace movement, or if he had not figured in the Russiagate
myth, he would be free. They’d let him be. Breathing air
like you and me.
5. Nobody on either side of the debate
right now has knowledge of or is focused on the details of
the allegation that Assange did something unjournalistic by
attempting unsuccessfully to hack into a computer in order
to protect a source. This trial by media is no more about
that than the Monica Lewinsky scandal was about lying under
oath. And the trial by jury is likely to resemble the trial
by media, if previous trials, such as Jeffrey Sterling’s,
in the Virginia court of choice for patriotic railroaders
are any guide.
6. The details of that unjournalistic
allegation are likely very weak, because the indictment
throws in various other allegations that are purely
journalistic: encouraging a source, protecting a source. To
an ignorant, all-white, militarized-community jury impressed
by important national figures saying the word
“conspiracy” a lot, these other allegations will loom
large.
7. If the United States charges Assange with
violating horribly anti-democratic U.S. secrecy laws, and
denounces him on TV as a “traitor,” despite Assange not
being a U.S. citizen, other countries may begin to find the
nerve to charge U.S. journalists with violating their
secrecy laws. The next Washington Post reporter hacked to
death by Saudi Arabia may get a trial first.
8. If
Assange is brought to the United States and not convicted,
or is convicted and serves out a sentence, one can expect
the U.S. government, legally or otherwise, to further
prosecute or simply imprison him indefinitely. In the
propaganda that surrounds this drama it is not a legal
proceeding, but a war. If Trump gets away with the numerous
crimes and outrages he has thus far gotten away with, he or
his successor will have little difficulty devising a way to
further “protect” us from Assange.
9. If Assange is
prosecuted, many U.S. journalists will deliver a
self-inflicted blow to their institution dwarfing what the
U.S. government delivers. They will declare it fit and
proper for a single head of a secretive government to
sadistically punish disapproved of journalists. They will
pledge their loyalty not to truth or public knowledge, but
to the Empire.
10. This.
--
David Swanson is an
author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director
of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign
coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson's books include
War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio.He is a 2015, 2016,
2017 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.
Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook.
Help support
DavidSwanson.org, WarIsACrime.org, and TalkNationRadio.org
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