a small reprieve for julian assange

below Craig's Tweet:

'In an unjust society the only place for a just man is prison.'

~ Henry David Thoreau

WikiLeaks on Twitter doesn't have the news, but from yesterday:

@johnpilger Jan 23

'In court, US lawlessness drives the Julian @Assange
extradition. The protection of the US Constitution for journalists does not apply to him, they say. And when extradited, he will be subject to Special Administrative Measures that cut him off from all humanity. This is fascism.'

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I am glad that Assange is no longer in solitary. I'm hoping against all odds he isn't tortured to death behind bars/gets Epsteined.

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wendy davis's picture

@Le Frog

being slow-mo tortured to death, tragically. last we heard he'd lost buckets of weight, was unable to even speak coherently, and was being given sedatives of some sort.

that news bulletin from Kristinn Hrafnsson was so fascistic that the mind reels, although not unexpected. julian's mama did tweet once or twice lately, but earlier had shut down her account due such hideous harassment. she's going thru cancer treatment at the same time, the poor woman...

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

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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

an interesting parallel, moonbat, although i've never seen the film.

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@wendy davis I just knew "Attica! Attica!" was a famous film quote, and with vague understanding of the context.

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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!

I hope inmates will share info with him from their access to the internet and even phones. It might help him have more access to his lawyers, unless they punish the other inmates for such sharing.
It might get us more info about his health, now that inmates can basically report to their families and friends what they are observing.
He is a long way from freedom, but the reprieve from isolation is certain to improve his mental state.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

wendy davis's picture

@on the cusp

the gods' ears. it's so evil that he can meet with his attorneys for about an hour a month, even though there are so many interview rooms empty. judge vaneessa baraitser should be an inmate at belmarsh, not a judge at westminster magistrate's court.

his next administrative hearing is apparently on feb. 19; wonder how that will go? extradition hearing to begin on feb. 24.

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because anything that stretches out the extradition procedure is a great break for Julian and his Defense Team.

Extradition hearing for WikiLeaks' Assange to be split in two parts

"Following applications from Assange’s legal team and lawyers representing the United States, Judge Vanessa Baraitser at Westminster Magistrates’ Court agreed that his extradition hearing would start on Feb. 24 for a week, with the remaining three weeks taking place from May 18.

Both sides in the case argued that they needed more time to prepare for the hearings and gather evidence. Assange’s lawyers said it was hard to speak to their client, who is currently being held at Belmarsh Prison in east London and appeared on Thursday by videolink.

“We simply can’t get in as we require to see Mr Assange and take instructions ... we need time to deal with that,” his lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said...."
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-assange/extradition-hearing-fo...

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wendy davis's picture

@aliasalias

and thank you for bringing it. good on baraiter for permitting it, and for edward fitzgerald and all for making the case for the request.

what might this mean?

Clair Dobbin, the lawyer representing the U.S. authorities, said they would oppose allowing Assange to call anonymous witnesses as his legal team intends.

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Situational Lefty's picture

should be granted Nobel Peace Prizes rather than extradition orders.

Is this really the year 2020?

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"The enemy is anybody who is going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on." Yossarian

wendy davis's picture

@Situational Lefty

will give his to julian. too bad the intercept chose to shut down the snowden archives with so few unpublished, though.

i was trying to remember the applicable precedent about daniel ellsberg having been spied on and stefania maurizi's pending (?) foia requests, and UC global'a spying.

. case against the cia and UC global spying on assange in the ecuadorian embassy post rafael correa...but this is the only thing i kicked up just now, and of course it's long and complicated: Spanish judge to question Assange over illegal CIA spying in Ecuadorian embassy, By Oscar Grenfell, 2 December 2019

According to El País’ reports, the surveillance was particularly targeted at Assange’s legal team.
Audio and video of confidential discussions between Assange and his lawyers were recorded and streamed directly to the CIA, while legal documents were stolen or copied. Spying equipment was even installed in the women’s bathroom, where Assange’s female lawyers sometimes conferred with him in a bid to evade the surveillance.

The flagrant violations of Assange’s attorney-client privilege, by the very American authorities that are pursuing him, brands the attempted US prosecution as a violation of international and domestic law.

Assange’s lawyers have pointed to the parallels with the pursuit of Daniel Ellsberg by the US administration of President Richard Nixon in the 1970s. Nixon’s attempt to prosecute Ellsberg on espionage charges, over his release of the Pentagon Papers that exposed the criminality of the Vietnam War, collapsed when it was revealed that the administration had overseen illegal spying on consultations between the whistleblower and his doctors.

The breach of Assange’s privacy is of an even greater order of magnitude. Commentators have noted that while Assange was living as a political refugee in the Ecuadorian embassy, it was likely the most surveilled building on earth.

In a detailed article for La Repubblica last month, Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi, who has collaborated with WikiLeaks and Assange for the past decade, provided new information exposing the extent of the surveillance.

Files obtained by Maurizi showed that when she visited the embassy, “she was not just filmed, but her phones were screwed open, presumably to obtain the IMEI code that allows uniquely identifying the phone in order to intercept it.”

Those who featured in UC Global’s spy files included doctors, famous lawyers, journalists, politicians and celebrities who had visited Assange. Some of them were American citizens. US government surveillance against its own citizens, without a warrant, would be a violation of the American Constitution.

and wsws's longer version of hrafanson's news: As extradition hearing dates are set, US Department of Justice argues Assange has no First Amendment rights, jan. 24 and the splitting of the extradition hearing into two phases.

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Pricknick's picture

Is this really the year 2020?

History is fun.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/what-year-is-it

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Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.

Caitlin is on it-

Belmarsh is a notoriously harsh maximum-security prison full of violent offenders and prisoners convicted under anti-terrorism laws, one of many reasons that Assange supporters have so vigorously opposed his confinement there. What does it tell you about the society you are living in that this population has a superior moral compass to the people who are actually running things?
For years I've been arguing with Democratic Party-aligned liberals on one side saying that Assange is a Russian agent who deserves to be tortured, and a bunch of Trump-aligned right wingers on the other side saying their president is extraditing Assange for the good of the world. These are the two mainstream views on Assange within the western empire today. And a group of Belmarsh prisoners just proved themselves infinitely more ethical than any of them. They have a better sense of right and wrong than those running the empire, and they have a better sense of right and wrong than the propagandized apologists for that empire

.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/01/25/belmarsh-prison-inmates-prove-mo...

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wendy davis's picture

@irishking

yep, she's on it.

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wendy davis's picture

i'd checked into stefania maurizi's account and found this tweet and the greenwald reTweet:

did julian assange ever get to make his case at the NY/CIA times? hate to use a click, i think i have one left for the month...

blow me down:

@ggreenwald 21h21 hours ago

Glenn Greenwald Retweeted Neera Tanden

"Yet again, CAP President @neeratanden doing Putin’s work by sowing division & hatred in attacking one of the Dem front-runners who could be the nominee to defeat Trump. We know CAP has long been funded by the tyrants of UAE. Now starting to wonder if rubles are also involved..."

kiss my grits, glenn.

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wendy davis's picture

@wendy davis

not knowing who neera tanden nor CAP are, i began typing neera into a bing engine, and kicked up this from oct. 12 before i'd even finished. for the Lulz!

i admit that i can't abide either him or snowden for the myriad ways and times they'd smeared julian, as had five other 'investigative journalists' at Pierre's Palace.

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