updates on the dire straits of julian and chelsea: Updated

...at the bottom of the comment thread.

Sadly, more questions than answers as regards the probabilities, possibilities, and unknowns are epically confusing to me, as they may be to you.  Noting that process stories suck, allow me to proceed.  I’d been searching for Julian’s status within Belmarsh UK Gitmo prison (above), checking what seemed to be the relevant Twitter accounts when I’d come up on this Tweet from Ariel: on Julian’s mama’s account:

“Has the UN @UN been discussing his case? After 2 weeks he is still not allowed visitors, including his lawyers!! His doctors said he is in urgent need of medical care… We must protect his human rights. WE MUST ACT BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.”, replying to Christine Assange, but the apparent parent Tweet wasn’t on mama’s account, what in the world?

Baffled, I’d searched Twitter for Jen Robinson’s account, and discovered that there are two, not just one.  But on the first one at the link, and it’s (moderately trolled), I’d found:

@olfashdeb  Replying to @suigenerisjen @LowyInstitute

“May I ask, how you are responding to being “refused by Belmarsh” to visit Assange?  as his mother states;  Thank you for your devoted service.”  (with no response of course, as she may use the other account) on which I’d found this travest of Injustice:.

Zo…knowing that I knew how to reach Hanna Jonnason’s account, I’d booted up @assangelegal and found: nope, although loads there on Chelsea Manning, including this travesty of (In)justice:

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Miles Neimuth at wsws.org has the criminally sick story this morning, including:

“While Assange has been charged by the US government with conspiracy to commit computer fraud, carrying a possible five-year sentence, the grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia is still seeking Manning’s testimony, indicating that further charges are in the works. CNN already reported last week that the US Justice Department expects to bring further charges against Assange.”

I can’t even remember on which account I’d finally scored this from Mama, with the reply below:

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

@BoenaSvoabo  “It all depends on the ability of a lawyer, so I’m not surprised if she is not able to arrange a visit. The ‘Belmarsh prison visiting information’ rule applies to all, but not to Julian, his lawyers and his family? https://www.justice.gov.uk/contacts/prison-finder/belmarsh/visiting-information …

11:29 AM – 21 Apr 2019

How did Mama Assange know this?  Even more dislocating to me, it was on her own account this morning, along with any number of ways supporter could help him, plus solidarity events around the world…including Afghanistan.  Does she have two similar accounts as well?

Oh, and I’d thought that Friday’s Vigil4Assange at consortiumnews.com might have information as to Julian’s condition (no), but featured info re: the likelihood of his extreme rendition to amerika from the UK hearing on May 2; in the comments below was this hint from commenter Bill:

“Whereas much of this vigil has a US focus, it seems that the critical point, during these few days at the present time, is what may transpire in the UK, or European, context. The situation now is suddenly different to what it has been during the several years previous. The inclusion of Francis Boyle’s comments may be particularly appropriate. This appeared informed and pertinent.

Joe Lauria: “You’re saying, his lawyers, Assange’s lawyers, need to come armed on May 2nd ready to appeal to the European Human Rights Court, immediately, that day?”

Francis Boyle: “No, I’m saying. . . the European Court of Human Rights has regulations on this precise matter encouraging lawyers to file a law suite and a request for provisional measures of protection immediately, when there is a threat of deportation, or extradition, that they believe would violate the human rights of their clients. So I think what needs to be done is, next week some time, for Assange’s lawyers to file a law suite with the European Court of Human Rights and get these provisional measures of protection ordered against the British Government from extraditing him. So, May 2nd will be too late. If they wait too long – based on prior observation, the filing of that request for provisional measures could take 24 to 48 hours for the Court to respond, – and by then, I think Assange will be on a private jet to the United States.”

Zo, I dug Boyle’s portion of the three hours up on youtube:

And from the same comment:

“Julian Assange’s legal team appears to include some of the best lawyers in the UK. One might imagine that consideration of this avenue, along with other pertinent legal considerations, would not have been omitted.’  with this link:

‘EU passes law on protecting whistleblowers (and facilitators) … days after Assange’s arrest’, RT.com, 16 Apr, 2019

Surely he’s correct that his raft of brilliant attorneys would have already prepared for this, but is this where the need might be discussed, or does it sound ‘too public’ a venue?

But back to Julian’s court day and the activism popular resistance is urging:

Julian Assange: Call for International Days of Action May 1 and May 2, By Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance, April 21, 2019

“Julian Assange is incarcerated and being threatened with extradition to the United States where he is facing prosecution for publishing documents that exposed US war crimes and corporate corruption.

On May 2, the preliminary hearing will be held in London on the extradition proceedings. It is important for the movement seeking to Free Julian Assange to be highly visible in expressing our opposition to the political persecution of a publisher who has reported some of the most important stories of this century and has created a democratized media that empowers people and breaks the stranglehold of corporate domination of the media.” [snip]

“It is also important that on the day of the first hearing in the extradition proceeding the court sees people of the world taking action in support of Assange and in opposition to his extradition. The extradition proceedings are likely to be a long process and the movement must build a campaign to prevent Assange’s extradition.

We urge people to take action at British embassies in the United States, at US Department of Justice and US Attorney’s offices and other appropriate locations on May 1 and 2, and if you are in London to be at the Westminster Court for the hearing.”

List of British embassies in the US.  (eleven I count.)

If you are planning an action please notify us at info@PopularResistance.org as we will have a list of actions around the world to notify people so they can participate.”

In Oscar Grenfell’s April 22Legal experts: Assange likely faces espionage charges if extradited to US’, wsws.org, he reminds of his last exposé:

“A CNN report last week, revealing that the US Justice Department “expects to bring additional charges” against Julian Assange has underscored the immense dangers confronting the WikiLeaks founder, after he was illegally arrested by British police at Ecuador’s London embassy on April 11.”

This is what he’s referencing: ‘Omissions in Assange case and ongoing investigations signal broader charges to come’, April 16, 2019, cnn.com

(Manning, Roger Stone’s homie Andrew Miller, but to me, this is the Big Deal:)

On Monday, a federal judge in New York City also noted how a criminal investigation related to yet another alleged WikiLeaks leaker is ongoing.

The case, against former CIA software engineer Joshua Schulte, had originally begun as a child pornography case in August 2017 — the type that’s routinely prosecuted by federal authorities.

But in June 2018, prosecutors added to the charges against Schulte, alleging he illegally gathered classified information from the CIA on his computers with the intent to harm the US. He allegedly sent the info to WikiLeaks — called “Organization-1” in the court record, which posted the documents. It’s known as the “Vault 7” leak.

Schulte has pleaded not guilty to the charges he faces, and his trial is set for November.

Schulte in recent weeks has tried to tell the federal court “time is up” and the “investigation is over,” a federal judge noted on Monday. But prosecutors assured the court this month the investigation is continuing.

For that reason, they want to keep search warrants in the case confidential.”

I reckon they’ll try to flip Schulte to rat out Assange, even if it’s by way of TestiLying, myself.  The CIA Vaults publication turned Pompeo and Bolton into even more crazed monsters than usual.  But as they still have Chelsea in prison, no bail…they may offer her a bout of incentive to flip on Julian, as well.  Back to Grenfell:

“Even today, dissemination of the search warrant materials to third parties ‘could, among other things, jeopardize the safety of others and national security, and impede ongoing investigations,'” prosecutors wrote on April 2, quoting a still-in-place court order that locks down documents in the case.”

And those are the standards for…Espionage charges, rather than ‘political offenses’.  Back to Grenfell:

“Kevin Gosztola, a US journalist, noted on Shadow Proof that Brown’s affidavit also contains references to WikiLeaks’ publications on Afghanistan “aiding the enemy.” It claimed that WikiLeaks publications were found in Osama bin Laden’s Pakistani compound after a 2011 raid by US Special Forces. As he commented, this is of no greater significance than if the Al Qaeda leader had copies of the New York Times in his possession.

Gosztola added, however: “The mention of the bin Laden raid is notable because it formed a key part of the ‘aiding the enemy’ case that military prosecutors put forward in the court-martial against Manning in 2013. However, Denise Lind, the military judge who presided over the trial, found Manning was not guilty of ‘aiding the enemy.’”

He also mentions Francis Boyle in the Unity4J vigil:

“Boyle said he thought the presiding UK district judge Michael Snow would rule on May 2 that Assange is extraditable. He cited Snow’s previous denunciation of Assange as a “narcissist” and the summary conviction of the WikiLeaks founder on bogus British bail charges, within hours of his arrest.”

And that if that’s Snow’s ruling, as well as failed appeals, his attorneys’ only option left is to appeal to would be to seek a temporary restraining order, at the European Court of Human Rights, preventing extradition. If this was unsuccessful, he said Assange would be on the “next available jet to the US.” The legal expert stated that Assange would not have anything resembling due process in the US.”

Two more noteworthy Tweets:

https://twitter.com/nytimesworld/status/1120306769484558336

https://twitter.com/rosendo_joe/status/1119679070323838976

(cross-posted from Café Babylon)

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wendy davis's picture

i'd thought i'd figured out a way to cross-post tweets from the Café version. turned out i was er...massively incorrect, and had to enter them all over again here. anyway, one more:

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snoopydawg's picture

charges are going to be placed against Assange which probably includes something that will allow him to be under the espionage act. This should prohibit the U.K. from extraditing him here. There was a recent case over there where the guy won because of this. Laurie?

I know you have an aversion to reading stuff from Caitlin, but she makes some excellent points here.

The Prosecution Of Julian Assange Is Infinitely Bigger Than Assange

In the sci-fi novel Ender’s Game, the young protagonist applies a vicious beating to one of his bullies, killing him. When asked why he did this by his handlers, the boy, who has been bred and raised to become a strategic savant, explains that he did it not out of malice toward the bully, nor only to win the fight, but to win all future fights as well. If the kids at school see what savagery he’s capable of and know he’s not to be trifled with, he won’t ever have to fight them.

If this sounds a bit sociopathic to you, that’s because it is. And, with the notable difference of the bully and victim roles being reversed, this is exactly the principle we are seeing exercised with Assange.

The entire world is watching what is being done to Assange currently. No matter how propagandized you are, no matter how much you hate the man personally, you’re watching that happen and learning a lesson from it. And that lesson is, never do anything remotely like what that guy did, or you’ll meet the same fate. This is the real goal of Assange’s persecution, and it doesn’t impact merely one Australian publisher in a UK jail cell, nor even merely the investigative journalists around the world who are interested in practicing the lost art of holding power to account using journalism, but everyone in the world who consumes news media.

And it works. I know it works because it works on me. I’ll say right here and now, if you’ve got information that incriminates the most powerful people in the world, keep it the hell away from me. Give it to someone else, literally anyone else, because I myself am far too cowardly and have far too much to lose by getting involved in anything that could lead to me rotting in some overseas prison cell. I’ve got kids. I’m in love. I cannot and will not go down that path. And if this is true for me I know for certain that it’s true for countless others as well. They’ve brutalized whistleblowers to the point that it’s surely had a severe chilling effect on those who would otherwise become key leak sources, and now they’re brutalizing the journalists who publish those leaks as well. The odds of someone willing to blow the whistle on real power meeting a journalist who is willing to help them are rapidly diminishing to zero.

They’re trying to win this fight against Assange in brutal fashion to ensure that they win all future fights as well.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

wendy davis's picture

@snoopydawg

one of the things i admire the most about her is her steadfast devotion to assange. my favorite diary of hers was entitled close to: 'why it would be in australia's best interest to repatriate julian assange. it rocked in its brilliance.

her metaphor serves, as does her plea to keep such information away from her, including what she would risk in her own life.

thanks for commenting, snoopy. g' night. say a prayer, light a candle, smudge them w/ sweet grass smoke...for julian and chelsea's safety and freedom. wish we could find out if J's mama is correct, and if he's getting the right sort of health care. his lungs, small wonder, had been breang down, among other things. i just gave up trying to find out who might tell us.

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wendy davis's picture

let this stand as tonight's lullaby:

Jah Guide | Playing For Change Band | Live in Australia

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyX82K7CgoE]

Though my enemies fight me everyday
I will fear no evil
Though my enemies set traps in my way
Still I will fear no evil

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detroitmechworks's picture

That's not justice, that's revenge.

I am just amazed that everybody forgets that this entire thing is about a video where US soldiers GLEEFULLY gunned down civilians. All just lost in the ether of accusations about the "Conspirators".

Conspiring to reveal the truth. Let us all be brave enough to be remembered for such accusations. Judge people by their enemies and all that.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIGMUAMevH0]

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

snoopydawg's picture

@detroitmechworks

People seem to have forgotten that Chelsea gave Wikileaks evidence of US soldiers committing war crimes. And that she first went to the NYT and WaPo to see if they were interested in publishing what she gave Wikileaks. But then they are nowhere near what they were when they published the pentagon papers.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

detroitmechworks's picture

@snoopydawg Drones don't brag about their kill counts. And if they do, they don't tell the truth. Because as we know, no drone has ever killed a non-combatant. EVER.

/snark

Information control has gotten very big with the military these days. They check bags of departing and arriving troops for contraband. Computers and other recording devices are top priorities. Hell, I remember the excuse that was given too. It was funny. We might be smuggling porn. Because porn might offend the Islamic population. Same reason we weren't supposed to smoke or eat in view of "our allies" during Ramadan.

Some time I should write a book about the "hard Drive Swap" parties that we had where new guys would pass around their portable hard drives, because that's where you kept everything good.

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I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

wendy davis's picture

@detroitmechworks

but i'd have to add that 'information control' is very big with the cia and other nat sec agencies as well, which is why bolton and pompeo the mafia boss...are even more seriously jonesin' to get him into an amerikan gitmo by way of extreme rendition.

additionally, not a few D presidential candidates love drones, as well, unless they've 'modified' their positions, of course.

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wendy davis's picture

@detroitmechworks

comrade x at the café said: 'Manning is guilty of “aiding the enemy”, the enemy being you, me, and 7.6 billion others." the radical left, of course being: anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-amerikan and their puppets in crime.

great and apropos song, here are the lyrics. quite a horn section; whooosh.

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

Is there something I can do to help, or not? I'm not going to insult 2/3 of the 21st-Century Trinity with "thoughts and prayers".

I've been bearing the weight of the world of my shoulders for so long that it's broken my back (to say nothing of my heart) and paralyzed me. Some would say that the best thing for me right now would be to pull an Atlas Shrugged...but I feel so ashamed and guilty. I can hardly even track where it's all coming from by now. I've been powerless and livid for too long, trapped in a world that I now feel COMPLETELY alienated from. My reward for my bleeding heart is to be sucked dry, and screwed out of the few things that used to bring me joy, pride, and/or hope one after the other.

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

wendy davis's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

of your references here, if you will. "I'm not going to insult 2/3 of the 21st-Century Trinity with "thoughts and prayers"." and "Some would say that the best thing for me right now would be to pull an Atlas Shrugged."

i will say that i'd thought i'd hoped i'd innured myself to the video on assange being carried out the door of the ecuadorian embassy like smelly trash, but as it turned out, i hadn't, as i'd discovered over the past two days working on this post.

now i dunno that you've meant this literally or metaphorically: 'I've been bearing the weight of the world of my shoulders for so long that it's broken my back (to say nothing of my heart) and paralyzed me."

but if metaphorically, one course of action that zeese and flowers say will help is if you're near any of these amerikan cities with UK embassies, you can email them to say you're trying to put some folks together to protest on may 2:

washington deecee, atlanta, boston, chicago, denver, houston, los angeles, new york city, miami, san francisco , and seatlle

would that i had the wherewithal to do so, but alas: all i have is sending prayers (and a bit o' music) to the gods via the noosphere, lighting candles, smudging them (as well as other in need) with sweetgrass smoke or occasionally hemp buds, and being one of the keyboard warriors champions who are unable to put their lives (even if just freedom from jail) on the line.

but i do hear you as you say this is more than you can bear. often when i'm in such a condition, i treat myself to a few rounds of EFT to decompress as far as i care to. as far as assange's dastardly predicament, not much, not that i want to be a martyr, but thinking that if he has to put up with ten thousand times more than i, i can put up with this much. but as you're in such dire straits yourself, you may want to give EFT a whirl or ten, amigo/amiga.

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wendy davis's picture

@wendy davis

i'd tapped a few rounds, and why. i was in such a funk i needed out of my prison, and wanted to write up something fun. so on april 18 i'd strung together a post: wanna play some Novichok™ . but such sincerely bad timing, as the mueller report was still of major importance, after 8 hours there were three comments, so i'd unpublished it. me, i couldn't tell you the names of the key players involved, i'd so slept thru it all. what's a misfud? mifsud, anyway? ; )

i did keep the café version just for later references, though.

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wendy davis's picture

Mr. wd had seen a paragraph at RT.com about this news, fwiw.

and papa assange quietly blows the lying bastard quentin levitt ('Oh, look who's crawled out of the toilet bowl now all of a sudden') out of the water with yanno...the facts. step one is always to nuke julian about 'hiding from those 'sex charges' in sweden; rape and salacious lies sell newspapers. i'm so glad that papa knew chapter and verse.

i'll be back soon.

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GeorgeJohn's picture

Thanks for assembling all of this in one place. I am sure it took great effort.

It has been nothing less than excruciating to try to weed thru Twitter to try to find unadulterated information. Impossible not to become completely despondent about the state of the world as well as the splintered nature of the Left everytime I get on there. Or, stealing Liberal Moonbat's statement above: it is oftentimes "more than I can bear" as a human being.
So, thanks.

FWIW, I am not so sure either the UK or US is in any great rush to have Julian 'jetted over' to Virginia, IMHO.

As it now stands, the ruling against Chelsea Manning states that she will remain imprisoned throughout the life of the Grand Jury process if she continues to decline answering their questions.

If the process therefore is slow, it is to the benefit of all who wish to keep Chelsea imprisoned.

The fact is the gov't compelled her testimony via a Grand Jury, when they did not have to use that venue - as her lawyers have already pointed out; they used it b/c it was the only venue which disallows/can ignore a citizen's 5th amendment rights; therefore, besides trying to leverage her to provide information; and besides using the venue as a way for prosecutors to 'preview' how she would be used as a defense witness for Julian - the entire process was actually also designed/intended to re-incarcerate Chelsea.

I am just saying, for those who expect this to come to some sort of timely...errr...'conclusion' ...or even 'start'...you may want to re-assess that.

The longer Julian and Chelsea are in prison, as opposed to in front of a court - the more time the Plutocracy has to break them down.

Keep on.

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wendy davis's picture

@GeorgeJohn

my morning additions and your comment must have crossed in time, and i'd failed to see it. but first, you're welcome, and it's a pleasure to meet you. i'd agree that discovering reliable information from 'the splintered left' on twitter is also hard to bear. i guess that's why i most often look to the 'radical left' on twitter, including the various supporters of wikiLeaks and assange, as well as a few of the tankies on twitter who seem to have keen eyes for seeing and dissecting...Big Brand rubbish.

now don't take my word for it, as my memory is crap, but as i remember it, they can hold her in prison for close to another 93 (?) days after the current GJ times out. but thank you for this reminder: 'as her lawyers have already pointed out; they used it b/c it was the only venue which disallows/can ignore a citizen's 5th amendment rights'.

now you might be able to refresh my memory on this, but speculation has been that judge snow of 'assange is a narcissist, could admit to his crimes and get on w/ his life'...will hold a separate court date to give his decision. or had already named that date, dagnabbit, i wish i could remember this stuff.

but as far as papa assange's 'touchless torture goes', in belmarsh UK gitmo, who can say? is there more er...kinetic torture at play than solitary confinement, no hospital for his failing health? there are just too many unknowns to not buy trouble, even though most of us try not to. there are also two variations of which judge he'd appear before. for some reason this is on my word doument for this diary; i must have been about to look to find the female judge john kiriakou had mentioned earlier.

”In the U.S., Eastern Virginia District Court Judge Claude Hilton, an appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan and a former judge on the intelligence court that approves foreign surveillance warrants, will hear Assange’s case. That’s the same location as the trial of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and the place where Hilton recently held Manning in contempt of court.”

thanks for reading, commenting, and your contributions.

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wendy davis's picture

@wendy davis

'No fair trial awaits Assange at US ‘Espionage Court,’ only more charges – CIA whistleblower Kiriakou' april 11:

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GeorgeJohn's picture

@wendy davis Hi Wendy, thanks again for your tireless efforts.

in response to your reply to my earlier comment - the info I was referring to on Chelsea being held for the life of the GJ was taken from a Politico article, this one: https://gizmodo.com/court-rules-chelsea-manning-must-stay-in-jail-for-re...

it notes the life of the GJ proceeding can last up to 18 months (around 540 days).

Not sure when the 'start' of such a clock would be, or have been, however.

Indeed, if by your recollection the 'clock' has only 93 days left on it, then that is good. But it doesn't seem to be what the article (published a few days ago) intimated.

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wendy davis's picture

@GeorgeJohn

i must have said it awkwardly; what i'd meant to say is that i'd read that chelsea can *legally*?...be held for another 88, 93 days after her current GJ expires, which as you note via politico is: 'up to 18 months'. 'up to' is hardly technical, but again, it's only as i remember it, grand jurors only meet one day a week but of course that may be different in different venues.

would that clock have started ticking on march 2 when she was subpoenaed to testify? the wapo seems to think that was the date.

it's all so fucking punitive, isn't it? ach, i tried to bingle for how many days extra, but my laptop seems to be disobeying my (respectful) orders, so: no joy.

mama assange and wsws.org are reporting lots of solidarity actions around the globe for press freedom day, as well.

if i may, whose photo is in your avatar? and again, you're welcome, and nice to meet you, and to have you on the thread.

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wendy davis's picture

@wendy davis

i'm fair' blind with searching reading, not only wsws's oeuvre on manning, but kevin gostola's as well.

i may have to just drop these off for now, perhaps come back later to unwind some of, but kevin g. reports that GJs in that district can meet for up to 26 months.

kevin g, march 7 2019:

“She could face up to 18 months in jail if she is found “in contempt” of court.”

Grand juries can be empaneled for 18 months, or if they are “special” grand juries, they may last up to 36 months. Over the past eight years, the grand jury has presumably gone through multiple iterations, either being renewed or relaunched.

““You go back into the grand jury room,” Ratner-Kunstler added. “If you testify, that’s one thing. If you refuse to testify, you’re brought back before the judge, and the judge then holds you in what is known as civil contempt.” A person is in jail for the length of the grand jury.

When a person is held in civil contempt, “The keys to the jail are in your pocket. You’re in jail for as long as you refuse to testify.”

the other one...needs some parsing and decoding as to dates, esp. when the wikileaks GJ was empaneled first. i'd copied this excerpt:

"When Manning filed her appeal, WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange was still in the Ecuador embassy in the United Kingdom. The government of Ecuador had not expelled him and allowed the British authorities to arrest and haul him out to a police van at the request of the United States government, which indicted Assange and filed an extradition request.

Assange’s expulsion and arrest on April 11 was the clearest confirmation yet that the government is targeting him for information WikiLeaks published in 2010, which was disclosed by Manning.

“The indictment against Julian Assange unsealed today was obtained a year to the day before Chelsea appeared before the grand jury and refused to give testimony,” Manning’s attorneys declared later that day.

“The fact that this indictment has existed for over a year underscores what Chelsea’s legal team and Chelsea herself have been saying since she was first issued a subpoena to appear in front of a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia—that compelling Chelsea to testify would have been duplicative of evidence already in the possession of the grand jury, and was not needed in order for U.S. Attorneys to obtain an indictment of Mr. Assange.”

kevin g. april 22, 2019

it seems as if her attorney Moira Meltzer-Cohen doesn't partake of the twitter, but i did find this on chelsea's account, with many links below.

so...who knows how many times her GJ can be repurposed, extended? you likely know that gosztola had covered her trial at quantico, as had alexa o'briend @carwinb, who'd created a searchable archive with hers. the canary piece really had nothin' of interest. guess we'll just have to stay tuned for further fukkery and tricks.

oopsie, looks as though alexa's account is private. which reminds me, some of my favorite tankies on twitter say that Twitter is 'shadow banning them'. they reckon for being 'too subversive'. prolly so.

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GeorgeJohn's picture

@wendy davis @wendy davis Great information, Wendy, and that last paragraph with the quote from Chelsea's lawyer ('The fact that this indictment has existed for over a year..." ) is the most concise and accurate argument I have yet read, and it should be r/t'ed ad infinitum.

Regarding the ength of the GJ...I am pretty certain that the answer to that really is "however damn long we (the gov't) choose the length of the GJ to be"...because as you said....none of this is being guided by Justice (which long ago vanished in the courts of this country), but rather by corruption. The Plutocracy being purely punitive....and very sadly we are discovering how individuals all through the chain are more than willing to simply 'do what they are told'...without any sort of personal or group moral counterbalance present, apparently.

THIS, for me, is the most unfathomable part of it all.

In order for all of this to have happened - Julian literally being illegally torn out of the Embassy and now held with NO rights in the UK Gitmo - there had to be a fair number of people involved in these machinations...in UK, US, Ecuador, even Sweden for chrissake. That nobody, anywhere along the line, in any of those places nor the countless other agencies clearly involved, would actually have done anything to slow this (or warn about it or leak it, etc)....it truly gives me no hope for our own human race.

Sadly, while I can also respect the intent of the vigils, petitions, peaceful protests, and legal wranglings taking place now....

....I do believe that (as history has shown) the Plutocracy has no fear of such things.
They result in no leverage on the direction and course this tragedy will continue to take, whatsoever...because those who are determining this course are quite aware they have no accountability for their actions.

If there is a brighter side to this, someplace, I invite someone to show what that might be. I do not believe that relying on written and codified law will be any sort of answer, however.

(I dunno who the gent is in my avatar...I just stumbled upon it one day and it seemed a very appropriate visual for "The True Progressive in the New Millennium").

Cheers.

G

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wendy davis's picture

@GeorgeJohn

gosztola had said, the GJs can be expanded, repurposed, refocused, yada yada, ad infinitum (my words, not his. Miz hyphenated Ratner *may be* the wife late and sincerely awesome Michael Ratner who started CCR, the center for constitutional rights.

yeah, i don't guess the vigils, etc, really matter much either, but i do appreciate that many folks do what they feel called to do, almost like a vocation, and bless their hearts.

the gent in your avatar photo sure looks like his head aches; i'd figured he was a news anchor kinda like howard beale in broadcast news. "i can't take it any more!"

as for feeling cynical about the human race, i hear that. but then i think of the

arise like lions from your slumber...
we are many and they are few...

but so many of us submit so easily to believing, as a fer instance, that the Next New Electoral Hope will make it all....better (and not only in amerika).

but then, my next stop once again is Venezuela (and the other bolivarian nations) and the wars on them that never end. depressing? O.M.G.

cheers back to you.

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wendy davis's picture

she'd retweeted: Ruled By Criminals‏ @jaraparilla "Donald Trump will be visiting the Queen while Julian Assange remains jailed in London. #FreeAssange"

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TheOtherMaven's picture

@wendy davis

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There is no justice. There can be no peace.

wendy davis's picture

@TheOtherMaven

so. but a visit from the nation ruled by scott morrison who'd laughed at assange's predicament?

(can't quote the citation, although there would several, esp via wsws. a rogue in morris's gummint? as if turnbull (when caitlin johnstone had penned her brilliant 'why australia should
repatriate assange' (or close) advice. he of course should have recalibrated his alliance with the amerikan hegemon. but no... puppets do what they find expedient.

but mama assange is indomitable, isn't she? and papa's purdy well-versed, isn't he?

as for UK attorneys in the UK, the only ones i know for sure have been jen robinson and liam walker (both doughty street barristers), no word from them on twitter, although walker rarely tweets, and i can't say i admire his social politics. ; )

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

and denying him his fundamental human rights on the mere charge (no trial yet mind you) of simply jumping bail should be Exhibit A as to why he was justified in fleeing to the Ecuadorian embassy and asking for asylum in the first place.

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

dervish's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger are relatively minor, both in the UK and the US, on paper he's only looking at five years tops. So how can they justify no visitation, even with counsel? It's frankly nuts.

I'd expect this nonsense from the US, but apparently Trump has the UK on a short leash as well.

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"Obama promised transparency, but Assange is the one who brought it."

wendy davis's picture

@dervish

has to wonder who is now advising one of the attorneys for one of the alleged rape victims in sweden to reopen the case against assange, yes? not the alleged rape victim herself, but her freaking attorney! that's a whole 'nother complicating factor, as swedish prosecutors had questioned him, found no case, and had allowed him to leave the country in the first place. but hell yeah, knowing the geopoitical lay of the land *and* that they wouldn't guarantee that he wouldn't be extradited straight to the US, he rightfully sought refuge under rafael correa's embassy protection. coorea then gave him status as an ecuadorian citizen, which moreno had 'suspended'. such a quaint term for such a dastardly deed, yes?

and jen robinson says he'll face that eventuality if needs be:

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wendy davis's picture

@Not Henry Kissinger

add that it's a bit more complex than that, imo. let me see if i can get my thoughts in order.

given that it was lenin moreno who'd invited the metro police into the embassy to kidnap julian, allegedly for wikiLeaks having published the INA papers (which they hadn't, but had only mentioned them on the twitter account) added to which ecuador was waiting to receive a $4.2 billion dollar IMF loan...also factor in that the UK is a US puppet, and that moreno had signed a memo of military understanding with the T regime...(see Guaido as King of VZ and that unholy military alliance against the bolivarian nations....), etc. it's been conspiracy to get assange out of the embassy.

one of the twitter accounts had a great cartoon versions of it, but i cannae remember which one or i'd go fetch it. it was pretty good, all in all

oh, and on my last 'status of julian assange' or maybe the 'what's next' one i remember having to correct rafael coorea's remarks that his arrest was due to 'wikileaks had published the INA papers' (perhaps to misdirect from his abject corruption). it was an opponent of moreno who'd leaked them, and they *may* have been published at El Pais, but i'd have to do a lot of looking to find out for sure. 'defense of assange (.org?)' may even tell the story.

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wendy davis's picture

a message which vibrations i hope julian can hear somehow: i wish you knew how much your mama and papa have your back; they are tireless in your defense.

for both chelsea and julian, those who desire to keep you in deep dark badger holes...or worse, cause me to commit thought crimes. given The Truth of that, this is tonight's closing song from the extraordinary bruce cockburn:

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOjHior0RfU]

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wendy davis's picture

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wendy davis's picture

"If lies bring war...truth can bring peace"

and the nuclear clock seems to be one minute before midnight, mainly due to the fact that the amerikan imperium and friends challenges a multi-polar world with nuclear threats, this is tonight's closing song. john trudell: we imagined a better and different world...except that we weren't different.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q3j-i7GLr0]

g' night all.

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wendy davis's picture

UN official visits Julian Assange, investigating Ecuador’s illegal surveillance’,
Mike Head, 26 April 2019

“The United Nations special rapporteur on the right to privacy, Joe Cannataci, was finally permitted yesterday to meet with Julian Assange inside London’s Belmarsh prison.

Confronted by worldwide protests and petitions against the illegal termination of Assange’s political asylum and the immediate launching of proceedings to extradite Assange to the US, the British government felt compelled to grant the UN access. Cannataci became the first person allowed into Belmarsh prison to visit Assange, who has even been denied his right to speak to his family."

"For weeks, the UN has been investigating the blanket surveillance conducted by Ecuador’s government against Assange inside its embassy.”

“Having met with Assange for two hours, the UN special envoy reported that Assange was “in fairly good shape and certainly very cogent in replying to our questions.” This is another indication of Assange’s defiant determination to fight his removal to the US, despite the damage done to his health by his seven-year confinement inside the Ecuadorian embassy.
Interviewed by the Italian newspaper Repubblica, Cannataci pointed to the far-reaching nature of the spying. He said he was seeking access to the material currently held by the Spanish police, who are investigating an attempt to extort WikiLeaks for copies of the documents and videos.”

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