THE STALINIST TRIAL OF JULIAN ASSANGE

 CounterPunch 7 September 2020

By John Pilger

The Stalinist Trial of Julian Assange 

Drawing of Julian Assange by Nathaniel St. Clair

Having reported the long, epic ordeal of Julian Assange, John Pilger gave this address outside the Central Criminal Court in London on September 7 as the WikiLeaks Editor’s extradition hearing entered its final stage.

When I first met Julian Assange more than ten years ago, I asked him why he had started WikiLeaks. He replied: “Transparency and accountability are moral issues that must be the essence of public life and journalism.”

I had never heard a publisher or an editor invoke morality in this way. Assange believes that journalists are the agents of people, not power: that we, the people, have a right to know about the darkest secrets of those who claim to act in our name.

If the powerful lie to us, we have the right to know. If they say one thing in private and the opposite in public, we have the right to know. If they conspire against us, as Bush and Blair did over Iraq, then pretend to be democrats, we have the right to know.

It is this morality of purpose that so threatens the collusion of powers that want to plunge much of the world into war and wants to bury Julian alive in Trumps fascist America.

In 2008, a top secret US State Department report described in detail how the United States would combat this new moral threat. A secretly-directed personal smear campaign against Julian Assange would lead to “exposure [and] criminal prosecution”.

The aim was to silence and criminalise WikiLeaks and its founder. Page after page revealed a coming war on a single human being and on the very principle of freedom of speech and freedom of thought, and democracy.

The imperial shock troops would be those who called themselves journalists: the big hitters of the so-called mainstream, especially the “liberals” who mark and patrol the perimeters of dissent.

And that is what happened. I have been a reporter for more than 50 years and I have never known a smear campaign like it: the fabricated character assassination of a man who refused to join the club: who believed journalism was a service to the public, never to those above.

Assange shamed his persecutors. He produced scoop after scoop. He exposed the fraudulence of wars promoted by the media and the homicidal nature of America’s wars, the corruption of dictators, the evils of Guantanamo.

He forced us in the West to look in the mirror. He exposed the official truth-tellers in the media as collaborators: those I would call Vichy journalists. None of these imposters believed Assange when he warned that his life was in danger: that the “sex scandal” in Sweden was a set up and an American hellhole was the ultimate destination. And he was right, and repeatedly right.

The extradition hearing in London this week is the final act of an Anglo-American campaign to bury Julian Assange. It is not due process. It is due revenge. The American indictment is clearly rigged, a demonstrable sham. So far, the hearings have been reminiscent of their Stalinist equivalents during the Cold War.

Today, the land that gave us Magna Carta, Great Britain, is distinguished by the abandonment of its own sovereignty in allowing a malign foreign power to manipulate justice and by the vicious psychological torture of Julian – a form of torture, as Nils Melzer, the UN expert has pointed out, that was refined by the Nazis because it was most effective in breaking its victims.

Every time I have visited Assange in Belmarsh prison, I have seen the effects of this torture. When I last saw him, he had lost more than 10 kilos in weight; his arms had no muscle. Incredibly, his wicked sense of humor was intact.

As for Assange’s homeland, Australia has displayed only a cringeing cowardice as its government has secretly conspired against its own citizen who ought to be celebrated as a national hero. Not for nothing did George W. Bush anoint the Australian prime minister his “deputy sheriff”.

It is said that whatever happens to Julian Assange in the next three weeks will diminish if not destroy freedom of the press in the West. But which press? The Guardian? The BBC, The New York Times, the Jeff Bezos Washington Post?

No, the journalists in these organisations can breathe freely. The Judases on the Guardian who flirted with Julian, exploited his landmark work, made their pile then betrayed him, have nothing to fear. They are safe because they are needed.

Freedom of the press now rests with the honourable few: the exceptions, the dissidents on the internet who belong to no club, who are neither rich nor laden with Pulitzers, but produce fine, disobedient, moral journalism – those like Julian Assange.

Meanwhile, it is our responsibility to stand by a true journalist whose sheer courage ought to be inspiration to all of us who still believe that freedom is possible. I salute him.

John Pilger can be reached through his website: www.johnpilger.com

BRADLEY MANNING POSTERS - SPREAD THE MESSAGE!

These posters have been displayed in the USA and they should be displayed internationally to demonstrate the US government's torture of one of its own citizens who was in the US army and who exposed the corruption of the government and the military.

UNITED STATES EXECUTES TROY DAVIS - JOINS IRAN AND CHINA IN EXECUTION RATES!

The following report was in the Guardian newspaper on 22 September 2011:

Troy Davis campaigners vow to fight 'inhumane and inflexible' death penalty

Relatives and activists say execution in Georgia should act as a wake-up call to US politicians to abolish the death penalty
• Troy Davis execution: join our Flickr group
• Troy Davis execution goes ahead despite serious doubts
• Ten reasons why Troy Davis should not have been executed



Ed Pilkington in Jackson, Georgia
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 22 September 2011 18.06 BST
Article history

(photo not available)
Troy Davis campaigners
Troy Davis protesters in Jackson, Georgia. Activists said Davis's execution was a clear wake-up call to politicians across the US to have the death penalty abolished. Photograph: Stephen Morton/AP

In statistical terms, it may have been just another execution, a convicted murderer dispatched by prison medics with clinical efficiency. But, on the morning after the death by lethal injection of Troy Davis, there was no sign that the controversy over the case would be buried with him.

Davis was sent to his death despite a mass of evidence casting his 1991 conviction in doubt, including recantations from seven of the nine key witnesses at his trial for the murder of a police officer.

The execution has provoked an extraordinary outpouring of protest in Georgia, at the supreme court and White House in Washington, and in cities around the world.

Davis's case has become even more charged by the manner of his death: he was reprieved three times before Wednesday night and an intervention by the supreme court delayed the execution by four hours.

Relatives of Davis and civil rights leaders across the south vowed to fight on with the campaign to have the death penalty abolished.

Richard Dieter, the director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said it was a clear wake-up call to politicians across the US.

He said: "They weren't expecting such passion from people in opposition to the death penalty. There's a widely-held perception that all Americans are united in favour of executions, but this message came across loud and clear that many people are not happy with it."

Brian Evans of Amnesty, which led the campaign to spare Davis's life, said that there was a groundswell in America of people "who are tired of a justice system that is inhumane and inflexible and allows executions where there is clear doubts about guilt". He predicted the debate would now be conducted with renewed energy.

Martina Correia, Davis's sister, who kept vigil at the prison until the end, said that a movement had been formed that would transcend her brother's death.

Sitting in a wheelchair as she battles cancer, she said: "If you can get millions of people to stand up against this, we can end the death penalty."

The case has attracted high-profile backers, and the #RIPTroyDavis hashtag was trending on Twitter on Wednesday. Protesters with placards gathered outside the White House. But so far, national politicians have refrained from entering the debate.

Before the execution, White House press secretary Jay Carney said: "It is not appropriate for the president of the United States to weigh in on specific cases like this one, which is a state prosecution."

Rick Perry, the leading contender for the Republican nomination and a strong supporter of the death penalty, has made no public statement on the Davis case.

His presence in the Republican race guarantees that the issue of capital punishment will remain in the spotlight in a way it hasn't for years. At a TV debate earlier this month, the audience cheered when the host noted Texas had executed 234 death row inmates during Perry's time as governor.

In Jackson, Georgia on Wednesday night, there were dramatic scenes outside the Diagnostic and Classification Prison, where Davis was pronounced dead at 11.08pm.

About 500 protesters, most of them African-American, lined up on the other side of the road to the entrance of the prison which was barricaded by a cordon of Swat police dressed in full riot gear and brandishing tear gas rifles.

Davis was executed for the 1989 murder of Mark MacPhail, who was working off duty as a security guard when he intervened to help a homeless person being attacked. Davis was implicated by another man, Sylvester Coles, present at the time. But since the trial seven of the key witnesses have come forward to say their evidence was wrong, and others have testified under oath that Coles was the killer.

As he lay on the gurney, Davis once again declared his innocence, telling the family of MacPhail lined up behind a glass screen in front of him that the wrong person was about to die.

Raphael Warnock, the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta, where Martin Luther King had his ministry, said that though Davis's final hours were distressing, "through this, America is being transformed. This is one of those watershed moments when a human evil and injustice that is part of the norm suddenly becomes questioned and challenged."

Attention is now focusing on the American south. Though 34 of the 50 states still have the death penalty, only 12 states carried out executions last year, and now 80% of all executions take place in the south.

The south's history of racial segregation has also highlighted claims of racial bigotry. One of Davis's lawyers, Thomas Ruffin, has called his death a "legal lynching", pointing out that while black males make up 15% of the population of Georgia they fill almost half the cells on its death row.

The civil rights group the NAACP said it would step up its campaign to persuade states, particularly in the south, to abolish the death penalty. "States like Georgia have an ugly history of state-sanctioned executions like that of Troy Davis, and in our view they are reminiscent of the lynchings that happened in the deep south," said the NAACP's Steve Hawkins.

A further area of concern raised by the case is reliance on uncorroborated eyewitness accounts. Davis was convicted without any DNA or other forensic evidence, and the murder weapon was never found.

False witness evidence has been found to be a crucial factor in three-quarters of the cases where convicted prisoners were found to be innocent and were then exonerated. Al Sharpton, who attended the protests in Jackson, said he would be pressing for new legislation to ban death penalties in cases relying only on witness statements.

But it is unlikely that a new law overturning the practice could be passed in Washington. It is convention that individual states have control over death penalty rules, and the federal government can only lead by example in its own execution practices; it does not generally have the power to tell states like Georgia what to do.

UNITED STATES ATTACKS ITS OWN CITIZENS - YET AGAIN!!

Received by email from MONDOWEISS on 30 DECEMBER 2010

SJP statement on FBI intimidation: ‘We live in an age in which silence is not only criminal but suicidal – we shall, therefore, make as much noise as we can’

Dec 30, 2010 01:52 am | Students for Justice in Palestine

National Solidarity Statement on Impact of Grand Jury Subpoenas on Students’ First Amendment Rights

December 29, 2010

“For if they take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night.”

– James Baldwin, in an open letter to Angela Davis, November 19, 1970

As students at over fifty American universities, we unequivocally condemn the abuse of grand jury subpoenas to chill the exercise of First Amendment rights by university students and anti-war activists speaking and organizing against Israel’s continued oppression of the Palestinian people. Since September 24, 2010, the F.B.I. has served at least 24 grand jury subpoenas on students and activists in a secret investigation that many have called a witch-hunt. We call upon Attorney General Eric Holder and United States Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to respect the civil rights and free speech of all those who support the Palestinian struggle for freedom by immediately withdrawing grand jury subpoenas which threaten the First Amendment rights of students and activists around the country.

The government’s assault on organizations and individuals who support the Palestinian struggle for freedom has become increasingly authoritarian. The abuse of laws criminalizing “material support for terrorism” is unprecedented and, had they been implemented at the time of South African apartheid, would have effectively criminalized broad American support for the anti-apartheid movement. At the apparent behest of US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, the government today has cast a net so wide that it has entangled journalists, college students, and peace activists. We know that a campaign so indiscriminate will seriously impinge on the First Amendment and other civil rights of people living in the United States. This will, in particular, affect active and outspoken students on university campuses, especially those of Palestinian descent.

It is not only our right but also our moral duty to speak and act against American foreign policy and its destructive impact on innocent people around the world. Today, America unfortunately stands behind Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people with money, weaponry, and diplomatic support. We seek to reverse this situation so that American foreign policy stands on the side of people who work towards justice. We reject the government’s efforts to isolate the Palestinian people by severing them from their non-violent supporters abroad. Therefore we stand in solidarity with the victims of our government’s campaign both in America and around the globe.

If Attorney Fitzgerald’s campaign marks the morning of a new day, then we are certain of what awaits us in the night. Like Baldwin before us, we live in an age in which silence is not only criminal but suicidal – we shall, therefore, make as much noise as we can.

Signed:

American University, Students for Justice in Palestine
Arizona State University, Students for Justice in Palestine
Bard College, International Solidarity Movement
Benedictine University, Students for Justice in Palestine
Boston University, Students for Justice in Palestine
Brandeis University, Brandeis SJP
Brooklyn College CUNY, The Palestinian Club
Columbia University, Students for Justice in Palestine
Cornell University, United for Peace and Justice in Palestine
DePaul University, Students for Justice in Palestine
Eastern Washington University, SLAC
Florida International University, Students for Justice in Palestine
George Mason University, Students for Justice in Palestine
George Washington University, Students for Justice in Palestine
Georgetown University, Students for Justice in Palestine
Hampshire College, Students for Justice in Palestine
Harvard Law School, Middle East Law Students Association
Harvard University, Alliance for Justice in the Middle East
Harvard University, Harvard College Palestine Solidarity Committee
Harvard University, Harvard Law School Justice for Palestine
Hunter College, Students for Justice in Palestine
Loyola University, Middle Eastern Student Association
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Palestine@MIT
New York University, Students for Justice in Palestine
Northeastern Illinois University, Students for Justice in Palestine
Northwestern University, Students for Justice in Palestine
Ohio State University, Committee for Justice in Palestine
Pennsylvania State University, Students for Justice in Palestine
Rutgers University – New Brunswick, BAKA: Students United for Middle Eastern Justice
Saint Xavier University, Students for Justice in Palestine
San Diego State University, Students for Justice in Palestine
San Jose State University, Students for Justice in Palestine
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Students for Justice in Palestine
Temple University, Temple Students for Justice in Palestine
Tufts University, Students for Justice in Palestine
University of Arizona, Students for Justice in Palestine
University of California, Berkeley, Students for Justice in Palestine
University of California, Berkeley Law, Law Students for Justice in Palestine
University of California, Davis, Students for Justice in Palestine
University of California, Irvine, Students for Justice in Palestine
University of California, Los Angeles, Students for Justice in Palestine
University of California, Riverside, Students for Justice in Palestine
University of California, San Diego, Students for Justice in Palestine
University of Chicago, Students for Justice in Palestine
University of Florida, Students for Justice In Palestine
University of Illinois at Chicago, Students for Justice in Palestine
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Students for Justice in Palestine
University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Students for Justice in Palestine
University of Michigan, Students Allied for Freedom & Equality
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Palestine Solidarity Committee
University of New Mexico, Coalition for Peace and Justice in the Middle East
University of Pittsburgh, Pitt Students for Justice in Palestine
University of South Florida, Students for Justice in Palestine
University of Southern California, Students for Justice in Palestine
University of Texas at Austin, Palestine Solidarity Committee
University of Washington, Students for Justice in Palestine
Vermont Law School, Law Students for Justice in Palestine
Wellesley College, Justice for Palestine
Yale University, Yale Students for Justice and Peace in Palestine