Bulletin N° 947

 

Subject: Julian Assange’s extradition ruling due on 4 January 2021.

 

Grenoble, 27 December 2020

 

Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,

Please find below 2 items recently received at CEIMSA which concern the up-coming hearing in the British court of Julian Assange’s case for extradition to the United States for trial on counts of “treason” and “espionage” against the United States. The legality of the state actions against Assange these past many years remain unanswered questions for the judicial systems of Great Britain, Equator and the United States; and, as is expressed in the two documents below, have given rise to serious doubts about the credibility of the judicial process in these countries.

To make matters worse, the corporate, 4-profit media world-wide have fully collaborated with this state-orchestrated conspiracy to elude justice for Julian Assange over these past many years.

 

Sincerely,

Francis Feeley

--

Professeur honoraire de l'Université Grenoble-Alpes
Ancien Directeur des Researches
Université de Paris-Nanterre
Director of The Center for the Advanced Study
of American Institutions and Social Movements
(CEIMSA-in-Exile)
The University of California-San Diego
http://www.ceimsa.org

 

 

1)

From: Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Saturday, December 26, 2020
Subject: [MCM] London African Gospel Choir performs outside Belmarsh Prison in support of Julian Assange

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTGVauuSn4s&feature=youtu.be

 

 

In Front Of London Prison Where He Is Being Held

http://r20.rs6.net/on.jsp?a=1109359583686&r=3&c=69f0a100-f12d-11e8-8ad7-d4ae528eb986&d=1135161859141&ch=69f5d120-f12d-11e8-8ad7-d4ae528eb986&ca=2af2bbf6-6cad-42d6-a1fa-f0e2c0e05883&o=https://imgssl.constantcontact.com/ui/images1/s.gif

 JUSTICE INITIATIVE

 Christmas Gospel For Assange In Front Of London Prison Where He Is Being Held 

 

London African Gospel Choir perform outside Belmarsh prison in support of Julian Assange

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTGVauuSn4s&feature=youtu.be

(5:23)

 

 

Opinion Julian Assange


The Guardian view on Julian Assange: do not extradite him

Editorial
The Guardian

Fri 18 Dec 2020 13.25 EST

The US should never have brought the case against the WikiLeaks founder. This attack on press freedom must be rejected

 

 

https://files.constantcontact.com/6c1ebfa4201/a6af3068-dcdc-42a7-9a42-f76c11676683.jpg

Photograph: AP

 

On 4 January, a British judge is set to rule on whether Julian Assange should be extradited to the United States, where he could face a 175-year sentence in a high-security "supermax" prison. He should not. The charges against him in the US undermine the foundations of democracy and press freedom in both countries.

 

The secret military and diplomatic files provided by Chelsea Manning, and made public by WikiLeaks working with the Guardian and other media organisations, revealed horrifying abuses by the US and other governments. Giving evidence in Mr Assange's defence, Daniel Ellsberg, the lauded whistleblower whose leak of the Pentagon Papers shed grim light on the US government's actions in the Vietnam war, observed: "The American public needed urgently to know what was being done routinely in their name, and there was no other way for them to learn it than by unauthorized disclosure."

 

No one has been brought to book for the crimes exposed by WikiLeaks. Instead, the Trump administration has launched a full-scale assault on the international criminal court for daring to investigate these and other offences, and is pursuing the man who brought them to light. It has taken the unprecedented step of prosecuting him under the Espionage Act for publishing confidential information. (Mike Pompeo, secretary of state and former CIA director, has previously described Wikileaks as a "non-state hostile intelligence agency"). In doing so, it chose to attack one of the very bases of journalism: its ability to share vital information that the government would rather suppress.

 

No public interest defence is permissible under the act. No publisher covering national security in any serious way could consider itself safe were this extradition attempt to succeed - wherever it was based; the acts of which Mr Assange is accused (which also include one count of conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer network) took place when he was outside the US. The decision to belatedly broaden the indictment looks more like an attempt to dilute criticisms from the media than to address the concerns. The real motivation for this case is clear. His lawyers argue not only that the prosecution misrepresents the facts, but that he is being pursued for a political offence, for which extradition is expressly barred in the US-UK treaty.

 

Previous cases relating to Mr Assange should not be used to confuse the issue. Sweden has dropped the investigation into an accusation of rape, which he denied. He has served his 50-week sentence for skipping bail in relation to those allegations, imposed after British police dragged him from the Ecuadorian embassy. Yet while the extradition process continues, he remains in Belmarsh prison, where a Covid-19 outbreak has led to his solitary confinement. Nils Melzer, the UN special rapporteur on torture, has argued that his treatment is "neither necessary nor proportionate and clearly lacks any legal basis". He previously warned that Mr Assange is showing all the symptoms associated with prolonged exposure to psychological torture and should not be extradited to the US. His lawyers say he would be at high risk of suicide.

 

Such considerations have played a part in halting previous extraditions, such as that of Lauri Love, who denied US allegations that he had hacked into government websites. But whatever the outcome in January, the losing side is likely to appeal; legal proceedings will probably drag on for years.

 

A political solution is required. Stella Moris, Mr Assange's partner and mother of his two young children, is among those who have urged Donald Trump to pardon him. But Joe Biden may be more willing to listen. The incoming president could let Mr Assange walk free. He should do so.

 

Note:

I am so thankful to writer and activist Ann Garrison
for sharing this video with me.

 

 

 

# # #

 

 

https://imgssl.constantcontact.com/letters/images/sys/S.gif

https://imgssl.constantcontact.com/letters/images/sys/S.gif

2)

From: Al Burke [mailto:editor@nnn.se]
Sent: Saturday, December 26, 2020
Subject: Assange extradition ruling due on 4 January 2021

 

Assange extradition ruling due January 4th
Profound implications for individuals and societies everywhere


Nine days from now, on 4 January 2021, a corrupt and malicious British judge is expected to deliver her ruling on whether or not a corrupt and malicious British government may be permitted to deliver Julian Assange into the hands of a corrupt and malicious U.S. government.

Anyone who regards that as a matter of little or no importance may perhaps be forgiven — given that, with relatively few exceptions, it has been systematically ignored and/or misrepresented for over a decade by leading political and journalistic actors. In so doing, they have grossly violated their essential democratic functions with, among other things, an unprecedented smear campaign and abuse of judicial power concentrated on a single human being.

In fact, however, the case has profound implications for individuals and societies everywhere. With good reason, the persecution of Julian Assange has been called the Dreyfus affair of our time — although that is probably an understatement. Among the issues at stake: 
                                                                                               
• freedom of the press

• freedom of speech in general

• the viability of civil and legal rights

• abuse of judicial and governmental powers

• accountability of governments for war crimes and other serious misdeeds.

As an aid to those who wish to acquaint or reacquaint themselves with the facts of the case, a collection of news and analysis concerning the Assange extradition hearing is being prepared in two PDF documents. The first is now available at:  www.nnn.se/nordic/assange/docs/hearnews-1.pdf    

Barring medical or other impediments, the second part should be completed within the next few days; recipients of this e-mail will be notified at that time. (The web address is expected to be: www.nnn.se/nordic/assange/docs/hearnews-2.pdf) 

This compilation of published material contains several hundred pages, and few may have enough time or ambition to wade through all of them. But anyone who reads only the relatively few “Selected Highlights” listed on page 1 should thereby acquire a basic knowledge of the main issues and events.

Questions and comments are welcome, and may be addressed to Al Burke via e-mail at <editor@nnn.se>

 
 
— 26 December 2020

_____________

Al Burke

editor@nnn.se

076 - 392 19 20

www.nnn.se