They're Killing Him: Assange's Stroke Reveals The Western Version Of The Saudi Bone Saw

Julian Assange suffered a mini-stroke in October during the hearing for the US appeal of a UK court's ruling on his extradition case.

"The WikiLeaks publisher, 50, who is being held on remand in the maximum-security jail while fighting extradition to America, was left with a drooping right eyelid, memory problems and signs of neurological damage," The Daily Mail reports. "He believes the mini-stroke was triggered by the stress of the ongoing US court action against him, and an overall decline in his health as he faces his third Christmas behind bars."

"Assange was examined by a doctor, who found a delayed pupil response when a light was shone into one eye – a sign of potential nerve damage," the article reads.

"Julian is struggling and I fear this mini-stroke could be the precursor to a more major attack. It compounds our fears about his ability to survive the longer this long legal battle goes on," Assange's fiance Stella Moris told the Daily Mail.

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"Assange's stroke is no surprise," tweeted UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer in response to the news. "As we warned after examining him, unless relieved of the constant pressure of isolation, arbitrariness and persecution, his health would enter a downward spiral endangering his life."

Melzer examined Assange with medical experts in 2019 and published a report with the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights saying that "Mr. Assange showed all symptoms typical for prolonged exposure to psychological torture, including extreme stress, chronic anxiety and intense psychological trauma."

The following year Melzer put it even more bluntly, writing that "Julian Assange displays the typical symptoms of psychological torture. If he doesn’t receive protection soon, a rapid deterioration of his health is likely, and death could be one outcome."

In October of this year Melzer put it blunter still, saying, "If he should die in prison he has effectively been tortured to death. That's the reality of it. And I'm not exaggerating. I've been working in areas of war. I have a long history of visiting prisoners. I visited Julian Assange, and I had two specialized forensic doctors with me and a psychiatrist evaluating him for four hours, and we all independently from each other came to those conclusions. At that time his life was in danger. And sure enough, a few days after we left the prison he entered a downward spiral."

They are killing Julian Assange. Experts agree that they are killing him. Assange's stroke is just another item on the mountain of evidence we already had for this.

The US-centralized power alliance is murdering a journalist, as surely as the Saudi regime murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. The only difference is that Khashoggi was killed quickly by live dismemberment via bone saw while Assange is being killed slowly by lawfare.

The Assange extradition case is just the western version of the bone saw treatment. It's no less barbaric, cruel, vicious and tyrannical; it's just more media-friendly and better-suited for the Nice Guy Fascism of the western branches of the globe-spanning empire which rules our world. The US, UK and Australian governments are not hacking Assange to pieces in their coordinated campaign toward his destruction, but they may as well be.

The world recoiled in horror when it learned of Khashoggi's grizzly end, and it won't be long before the world begins recoiling in the same way to what has been done to Assange as well. Our society is becoming rapidly more conscious; we're already ashamed of things we thought were fine just a few years ago. We realize now that men like Harvey Weinstein are predators and the Hollywood starlets people used to criticize for "sleeping their way to the top" were actually victims of assault. We realize now it was wrong to crack jokes about the intern Bill Clinton sexually abused. We realize that the "Leave Britney alone" kid everyone made fun of in 2007 was actually on to something. We realize now that it's wrong to make people feel bad about their sexual orientation or sexual identity. Many movies made even ten or fifteen years ago are uncomfortable to watch now because of how unconscious they were of power dynamics we all see much more clearly now.

And, whether Assange survives this slow-motion assassination attempt or not, it won't be long before society fully understands that their government and its allies actively conspired to murder a journalist for telling the truth.

Julian's fiancée.

Julian Assange has a stroke in Belmarsh prison: Fiancée blames extreme stress

Julian Assange has had a stroke in Belmarsh Prison, his fiancee Stella Moris revealed last night.

The WikiLeaks publisher, 50, who is being held on remand in the maximum-security jail while fighting extradition to America, was left with a drooping right eyelid, memory problems and signs of neurological damage.

He believes the mini-stroke was triggered by the stress of the ongoing US court action against him, and an overall decline in his health as he faces his third Christmas behind bars.

It happened at the time of a High Court appearance via video link from Belmarsh in October.

A 'transient ischaemic attack' – the interruption of the blood supply to the brain – can be a warning sign of a full stroke. Assange has since had an MRI scan and is now taking anti-stroke medication.

Ms Moris, 38, a lawyer, said: 'Julian is struggling and I fear this mini-stroke could be the precursor to a more major attack. It compounds our fears about his ability to survive the longer this long legal battle goes on.

He was feeling really unwell, far too ill to follow the hearing, and he was excused by the judge but could not leave the prison video room.

'It must have been horrendous hearing a High Court appeal in which you can't participate, which is discussing your mental health and your risk of suicide and in which the US is arguing you are making it all up.

'He had to sit through all this when he should have been excused. He was in a truly terrible state. His eyes were out of synch, his right eyelid would not close, his memory was blurry.'

He apparently had visual symptoms of having a stroke and he should have been taken for medical attention immediately, but he had to continue listening to people making up lies about him while he couldn’t do anything to defend himself. That is beyond barbaric!

Glenn Greenwald on the Assange decision. This was before news of his stroke came out.

No matter the outcome of further proceedings in this case, today's ruling means that the U.S. has succeeded in ensuring that Assange remains imprisoned, hidden and silenced into the foreseeable future. If they have not yet permanently broken him, they are undoubtedly close to doing so. His own physicians and family members have warned of this repeatedly. Citizens of the U.S. and subjects of the British Crown are inculcated from birth to believe that we are blessed to live under a benevolent and freedom-protecting government, and that tyranny only resides in enemy states. Today's judicial approval by the U.K. High Court of the U.S.'s attack on core press freedom demonstrates yet again the fundamental lie at the heart of this mythology.

Reposting this comment from today’s OT.

Excellent read on why the UK shouldn’t trust our promises for Assange not to be thrown into a dark hole if extradited here by Richard Medhurst

The US will break its assurances on Assange. Here’s why

All this is very reminiscent of the assurances for Assange. The wording is equally ambiguous; even if you take these assurances at face value you simply can’t trust them. They allow the United States to subject the WikiLeaks co-founder to so-called special administrative measures (SAMs) or imprison him at ADX Florence supermax prison, a maximum-security facility in Colorado, if “after entry of this assurance, he was to commit any future act that met the test for the imposition of a SAM”. I spoke to Mendoza, who was imprisoned at Englewood, near ADX Florence, where Assange is likely to be sent. He said that any innocent, random conversation Assange has with his partner or lawyers could be interpreted by the US authorities as some sort of “code”, and used as a pretext to lock him up immediately under SAMs in some other hellhole – that’s if they don’t do it the moment he sets foot in the US.

Alternatively, they could also place Assange in a communications management unit (CMU) or special housing unit (SHU) and then say, “See? We didn’t break any assurances, because we didn’t place Assange under SAMs.” The thing is, the reason Baraitser blocked the extradition is because the isolation and psychological torment is what could drive Assange to suicide. Whether it’s SAMs or a CMU or an SHU isn’t the issue here.

The High Court has also accepted an assurance from Washington that Assange could serve any potential sentence in his home country, Australia. As I heard Lewis put it in court, Assange could “look forward” to being jailed Down Under.

Prison transfers don’t work that way. The United States can’t just say Assange can serve his sentence in Australia, in Tanzania or on the Moon and then make it so. The administering state, meaning Australia, must also accept the transfer ahead of time. This is very clearly spelled out under Article 3(f) of the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons.

There is lots of information in the article about another case when a person from Spain had been extradited here with lots of promises made to him, but we broken after he arrived so it’s best to read at its source. The judge is an idiot for believing that we will keep our word for Assange.

And for those who say that Assange can prove his innocence in court there is no self defense allowed in an espionage act trial. It’s a trial where the decision has already been made and it’s just for show.

I have been heartbroken over what has been happening to Julian since he entered the Ecuadorian embassy to try to save himself from being extradited here and locked away in a deep, dark hole. I didn’t know that my heart could break any farther, but it has.

(Caitlin gives permission to republish her writing.)