THE DOCTRINE OF THE N.A.F.T.A. GLOBALIST DEMOCRATS IS TO SERVE THE BILLIONAIRE CLASS WITH ENDLESS WAVES OF INVADING 'CHEAP' LABOR SUBSIDIZED WITH WELFARE FUNDED BY TAXES ON MIDDLE AMERICA.
In many speeches, Mayorkas says he is building a mass migration system to deliver workers to wealthy employers and investors and “equity” to poor foreigners. The nation’s border laws are subordinate to elites’ opinion about “the values of our country,” Mayorkas claims.
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
U.S. WORKERS DEMAND RELEASE OF JULIAN ASSANGE - HILLARY CLINTON WANTS THE JOURNALIST DRONED BECAUSE HE EXPOSED HER AS A SADISTIC SOCIOPATH
“The jailing of Assange is an attack on the entire working class”
US workers demand the release of Julian Assange
Workers in the United States have reacted with outrage to the jailing of Julian Assange in the United Kingdom and the efforts of the Trump administration to illegally seize the WikiLeaks founder and subject him to detention, possible torture and even death for exposing the war crimes and diplomatic intrigues of the US government.
While the news media and politicians from both the Democratic and Republican parties have hailed the arrest and support the vendetta against Assange, most workers and youth consider Assange, along with former US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning and former National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden, to be heroes because they defied persecution in order to tell the truth to the people of the US and the world.
“The jailing of Assange is an attack on the entire working class,” Angela, a Fiat Chrysler worker in Kokomo, Indiana and member of the Steering Committee of the Coalition of Rank-and-File Committees, told the World Socialist Web Site. “If journalists aren’t safe to tell the truth, then nobody is. The media is smearing Assange as a narcissist. But he is the exact opposite. He is serving us all by telling the truth about what our government is doing. Assange published material about US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan and what Snowden revealed about the government spying on the American people.”
Angela warned workers “not to get sucked in by the mainstream media.” The corporate-controlled media, she said, “tried to dupe us about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that never existed.” She continued: “The rule of law is used as a weapon to jail a journalist when it is convenient, and then it is disregarded when it isn’t. What happened to the right to political asylum? He’s already spent seven years in the embassy, and it looks like they’re trying to pin the label ‘terrorist’ on him. That’s frightening.”
These attacks, she said, did not show the power of the ruling class, but its fear. “The capitalists and the powers-that-be are desperate. They don’t want workers to know the truth. They recognize that the working class is more powerful than we recognize ourselves, and they are afraid of us.
“Julian Assange exposed the ugly truths. Ignorance is not bliss. It is downright dangerous to keep our heads in the sand. We are supposed to have First Amendment rights to free speech, we are supposed to be able to call it as we see it, and we should. We have to unite around Assange, Chelsea Manning, Snowden and all those telling the truth.
“That the mainstream media is bashing Assange just shows its disconnect. What the US did to Iraq and Afghanistan were horrific crimes. The US calls it collateral damage, but if it were your son, daughter or loved ones, you would say it was a crime. Assange showed us what the US government is capable of. If our government can do this to people in the Middle East, they can do this to us in America.”
A Fiat Chrysler warehouse worker in Atlanta, Georgia and another member of the Steering Committee, added, “Journalists and whistleblowers are now being jailed for their bravery. It is clear Julian Assange will not receive a fair trial, as it is being debated in the media if he even is a journalist at all. People must stand up against this outrage and stop the oppressive and heinous overreach of a government that is rapidly declining into an openly fascist state.”
John, a worker at Fiat Chrysler’s Kokomo Transmission plant in Indiana, said, “I think it’s absolutely critical that this attack on the First Amendment is thwarted. It’s an attack on journalism everywhere. It’s an attack on everyone’s right to know the truth. And it’s all being done under the claim that it’ll defend ‘national security.’”
Assange “did us a great justice,” he continued. “He’s telling the truth. He brought us information about the many atrocities being done by the American military.
“If whistleblowers don’t have somewhere to go, if they don’t have that right, journalism’s dead, right? That’s what Assange is. He’s a publisher and journalist, he’s not a hacker. Isn’t the way they arrested him from the embassy a violation of international law? And the people he’s proven to have committed war crimes and crimes against journalists, they’re the ones that are still free!”
John derided the media’s fraudulent Russia-gate scandal, which has been used to paint Assange as an agent of Putin. “It’s McCarthyism,” he said. “Ever since the Mueller report came out, instead of letting it die and accepting it, they’ve ramped it up. The anti-Russia rhetoric is so stupid. And now the focus is on Venezuela, and they’re being targeted with lies.”
Referring to the role of the corporate press in facilitating the attacks on Assange and on democratic rights, he said, “The fact that the main stream media is not even defending their own jobs… I thought, maybe, since it’s their jobs on the line, they’d do something, but they’re going along with it.
“It’s imperative that we don’t lie down on this, that we stand up for what’s right and for Julian Assange.”
Steve, a trucker from New York State and another member of the Steering Committee of the Coalition of Rank-and-File Committees, said that Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning and “all class-war prisoners should be freed immediately, and the international working class should unite to gain their freedom.” He continued: “The facts of their cases are clear to workers everywhere who can see the unfairness and persecution that Assange and all the whistleblowers have endured for exposing the crimes of powerful officials.
“The persecution of these courageous people is an effort to suppress and intimidate those who seek to uncover the serious violations of those in power. The working class, the main defenders of democratic rights, are becoming aware that basic democratic freedoms are under attack.”
He added that the ruling class “lives in fear of a social revolution,” as shown by “the militarization of the police, Supreme Court rulings defending the death penalty, the frame-ups and jailing for life of the Maruti Suzuki workers in India, and the police suppression of workers’ struggles in Matamoros, Mexico.”
Steve concluded: “It is now up to the working class to organize rank-and-file committees independent of the trade unions that will link up with workers internationally in order to defend our democratic rights and free class prisoners like Assange and Manning. The wealthy and powerful, represented by the Democrats and Republicans, are tearing up those rights to maintain their grip on power, as dissent to their rule grows due to the vast social inequality produced by capitalism.”
Supporters protesting outside Belmarsh prison speak out in defense of Julian Assange
Sylv is from London and has been protesting outside the Ecuadorian embassy for several years in defence of Julian Assange.
She said, “It is a shame what happened and a real disgrace what the British government and Ecuadorian government are trying to do. They don’t care about human rights and they are breaking the law. And [Assange] is not even breaking the law and he ends up in prison so this is a huge injustice.”
Sylv said she became interested in Julian Assange and WikiLeaks because of “[w]hat they publish and why they publish it and because they uncover government secrets and we have the right know what is going on. We pay taxes and we have the right to know where the money goes.”
She thought the WikiLeaks’ publication of material from the US Democratic National Committee [DNC] was important “because no one is questioning what was published and no one is questioning Hillary Clinton and the DNC itself. Everyone was saying straight away where did you get it from and who is the source? Straight away they are questioning the journalist. Why is no one paying attention to what was published—the criminal activities of Hillary Clinton and her gang. No one is questioning it and she is freely walking.”
Sylv
Sylv made a homemade placard for the rally reading, “The UK has no sovereignty. The UK must resist this attempt by the Trump administration!—Free Assange!”
She explained that these were the words that Assange said when he was being dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy by police on Thursday. “I found it very powerful when Julian was taken out and they were important words that he was saying. Even though he was being taken away, he was still fighting, and he was still strong. He has not given up, he is resilient and that is what we need to be. He has always been here for us and we have to be here for him. He has risked his life and for a person to do something like that is a beautiful thing to do. It is very sad about where he is now.”
Asked about the implications for democratic rights of Assange’s seizure in the middle of London--the home of the Magna Carta and parliament--Sylv said, “That is disgusting. You cannot trust your own government. You cannot really trust the Australian government because they took his passport away. Imagine if this happened to you or me or anyone?”
“There is no democracy if you are doing this to a publisher or a journalist. They [the governments involved] are just hypocrites and liars and they are the ones breaking the law and they are the one who need to be behind bars.”
Asked her views on the importance of international solidarity in defence of Assange, she said, “They [people internationally] definitely should be out there, at the US embassies, UK embassies, Australian Embassies. It can happen to any journalist. It happened in Malta with [investigative journalist] Daphne[Caruana Galizi]. She was killed because she uncovered the dirty government secrets, the same in Slovakia with Ján Kuciak, it can happen everywhere, it happened in Brazil.”
In relation to the role of the Labour Party refusing to demand Assange’s freedom, Sylv said, “They are not doing much either. They are trying to silence him, too. There is a power against us and there needs to be a massive change that needs to happen for humanity.
“I want everyone to fight for Julian Assange, I want everyone to be out there and to be vocal and not to hide. Don’t trust the mainstream media and their propaganda.”
Carolina Graterol
Carolina Graterol, a documentary filmmaker, is a foreign correspondent for BBC World Service (Spanish section) and Telesur.
She said, “I am here with all my friends and activists to complain and denounce the imprisoning of Julian Assange and the possibility that he is extradited to the United States. We are opposing this measure. We think this is an affront against freedom of expression. Freedom of the world depends on Assange’s case.
“We know that the government of this country is colluding with [US President] Trump to send Julian Assange to United States, sadly. Seventy members of parliament were in favour of retention of Julian Assange and they are hoping that he gets extradited. We need to denounce and fight against the breaking of the international law. The human rights of Julian Assange have been violated.
“Our society needs to know the truth, how our governments work. Crimes have been committed by our government. Their credibility is seriously being damaged. Journalists around the world are in danger.”
Graterol noted that Labour Party Shadow Home Secretary “Dianne Abbott made a passionate speech in the parliament in favour of Julian Assange,” but added, “We need to wonder about some MPs of the Labour Party, what kind of line they have… Sadly, at this moment, the conservatives of the Labour Party [who have written a letter to Home Secretary Sajid Javid backing Assange’s extradition to Sweden] have a united group. But I think the majority of the people believe in justice and they are on the side of Julian Assange.
“There are a lot of events happening around the world, not just in the UK, in defence of Assange. There are petitions going around social media, gathering lots of signatures against his extradition. We have been protesting for nearly nine years in front of the Ecuadorian Embassy and there are many more people campaigning for his freedom.”
Sadie
Sadie, 25, from Matlock, is a jewelry design student. She had learned about Assange’s courageous stand through designer Vivienne Westwood, a well-known supporter of the WikiLeaks founder.
“Julian Assange is a truth speaker and all he did was publish information about government corruption, war crimes, torture and it’s illegal to arrest him. It’s against human rights. It’s more of a dictatorship government.
“I was reading a magazine yesterday, the media just slurred him [Assange], they all make him out to be a horrible person. They said he was bullying people in the embassy, he was really dirty. I think it’s all b.s., it’s more like they bullied him. He was doing the right thing, standing up for people, and especially with those videos [Collateral Murder video] he was showing the Iraqi people their history, why their families have been killed, unlawfully just ploughing down civilians and children in the street when they were doing nothing wrong.
“If he goes to America he could get life imprisonment or the death penalty, and all he’s trying to do is protect people and show them the truth of what’s happening. All the media are against him. I think he thought England was the only country that was going to help him… The US is after him and Ecuador helped him until it changed direction.
“It’s a scary thought that the government is against you… but we need everyone to open their eyes and realise there is a massive problem. Take climate change, it’s caused by capitalism. The people in Africa and the poorer countries, they’ll be hit first.
“Dianne Abbott made a really good speech [after Assange was seized] and they slated her. All he did was speak the truth about government corruption and this is what happens when you stand up.
“The problems in this country are the same in every single country.”
Dominic, 19, is an economics student at Kingston upon Thames University. He attended the protest with his younger brother Matthew.
He said, “I’ve spent the last few days outside the Ecuadorian embassy. I’ve been outside the Westminster Magistrate’s Court and now here outside Belmarsh prison. Julian Assange has published the most important journalistic documents of the last few decades. We all remember the Collateral Murder video and the documents of the Iraq and Afghan wars that revealed how they [US and UK] killed hundreds of thousands of civilians unnecessarily. We’re here to protest Assange being persecuted for that incredibly important journalistic work.
“They’ve come down on him hard because he’s the most effective journalist in the last few decades. He’s published concrete documents, none of which have been refuted. They’ve published thousands of them and none of which have shown to be false.
“The UK government want to hand him over to the US to be tortured, abused and debased possibly for decades.
“The rule of law doesn’t protect the people the state want to persecute, it doesn’t protect independent journalists, the rule of law is only for the rich. The rich believe they can get away with taking all the money, and we have to get the rich scared again so they’ll need to redistribute the wealth.”
(CNSNews.com) – While some U.S. lawmakers on both sides of aisle welcomed news of the arrest in London of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) said that the arrest sends a message to every American: “Be quiet, toe the line, otherwise there will be consequences.”
“This is a threat to journalists, but it’s also something that threatens every American,” she told MSNBC, “because the message that we are getting, that the American people are getting by what’s happened here today is, you know: Be quiet, toe the line, otherwise there will be consequences.”
In an earlier appearance on CNN, Gabbard characterized Assange’s arrest as “some form of retaliation” by a government unhappy with information being released that it does not want made public.
Gabbard, an Iraq war vet, argued that “so much of the information that has been released [by WikiLeaks] has informed the American people about actions that were taking place that they should be aware of.”
“So really I think what’s happening here is, unfortunately, it is uh, some form of retaliation coming from the government, saying, ‘Hey, this is what happens when you release information that we don’t want you to release.’”
The U.S. is seeking Assange’s extradition from Britain to face charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, relating to alleged attempts to crack a password and so help former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to hack into a classified computer at the Pentagon.
An indictment unsealed Thursday noted that in 2010 and 2011 WikiLeaks published online hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents downloaded by Manning, including reports dealing with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and 250,000 diplomatic cables.
Gabbard told CNN that while the specific hacking allegation facing Assange should be settled in a court of law, “there’s a bigger issue at play here.”
“There’s a reason why the Obama administration chose not to extradite and prosecute Assange, because they understood the danger – they understood the danger of the government coming in and controlling essentially what information is and is not being released.”
By contrast, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) – also a U.S. Army veteran, with combat service in both Iraq and Afghanistan – welcomed the arrest.
“Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning endangered the lives of American troops in a time of war,” he tweeted. “Since Assange is used to living inside, I’m sure he’ll be prepared for federal prison.”
A similar view came from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who said he had never regarded Assange as a hero.
“His actions – releasing classified information – put our troops at risk and jeopardized the lives of those who helped us in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Graham commented in a tweet.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, WikiLeaks published thousands of stolen emails from the Democratic National Committee and from Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. The U.S. intelligence community accused Russia of being behind their theft and release.
Responding to the arrest, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) alluded to that episode.
“Now that Julian Assange has been arrested, I hope he will soon be held to account for his meddling in our elections on behalf of [President Vladimir] Putin and the Russian government,” Schumer tweeted.
“I think the guy is just somebody who uses national security information to create chaos and harm and essentially promote the interests of Russia, a dictatorship that squashes dissent,” CBS-affiliated WDBJ television quoted Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) as telling Virginia reporters. Stop the extraordinary rendition of Julian Assange!
The attempt by the British, Ecuadorian and US governments to force the removal of journalist and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States is an antidemocratic conspiracy and a brazen violation of international law.
While the US government presents the process against Assange as an extradition, the difference between an extradition and an extraordinary rendition—in which a state carries out an extrajudicial abduction for the purpose of arbitrary detention, torture, and summary punishment—is being effectively obliterated.
The US government is, in effect, applying a similar method to Assange as it used against those it has subjected to extraordinary rendition during the “war on terror.” Since 2001, the CIA has abducted hundreds of people, bound them up, flown them across the world to secret CIA “black site” dungeons and subjected them to harsh interrogation and torture. Once the government gets its hands on Assange, it is questionable whether he will ever be seen again.
The process has been accompanied by a campaign of media vilification that seems to have no restraint. Its aim is to transform Assange into a monster so that he can be deprived of his rights.
What the endless media reports ignore is that Assange has exposed imperialist crimes in wars that killed millions of civilians and thousands of US soldiers. He has brought to light horrific crimes that the government and corporate media conspired to keep secret.
While watching the news personalities slander the persecuted journalist and late-night show hosts subject him to degraded and scatological mockery, one wishes to stick a bar of soap in each of their mouths.
The US, British and Ecuadorian government claim that Assange’s extradition is proper because the US is indicting the whistleblower only on a single charge of attempting to help Chelsea Manning bypass a password. But in the aftermath of Assange’s arrest, the corporate press and politicians have contradicted the official explanation, letting slip the real reason the US wants custody over Assange.
The Washington Post's editorial board wrote: “Mr. Assange’s transfer to US custody, followed possibly by additional Russia-related charges or his conversion into a cooperating witness, could be the key to learning more about Russian intelligence’s efforts to undermine democracy in the West. Certainly he is long overdue for personal accountability.”
The New York Times said, “Once in the United States, moreover, he could become a useful source on how Russia orchestrated its attacks on the Clinton campaign.”
After British police dragged Assange out of the Ecuadorian embassy, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer tweeted, “Now that Julian Assange has been arrested, I hope he will soon be held to account for his meddling in our elections on behalf of Putin and the Russian government.” The Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Eliot Engel tweeted that Assange “time after time compromised the national security of the United States and our allies by publicly releasing classified government documents and confidential materials related to our 2016 presidential election.”
These statements show that the extradition proceedings are being conducted under false pretenses. The single public charge is a cover. The government is planning to interrogate Assange, compel him to provide testimony and further prosecute him for exposing US war crimes. In the words of Democratic Senator Joe Manchin: “He is our property and we can get the facts and the truth from him.”
Assange has no obligation to provide the government with any testimony because he has the Fifth Amendment right not to testify against himself. The media and politicians’ statements beg the question: How does the government plan to “get the facts” from him? What harsh measures, practiced in the prisons of Abu Gharaib and Bagram Air Force Base, will be brought to bear?
The proceedings in the days since Assange’s arrest show the type of treatment he will receive in any legal proceeding.
The British government, on the invite of Ecuadorian President and imperialist lackey Lenin Moreno, blatantly violated the principle of consular sanctuary by dragging Assange from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. This exposes the statements of the US and British governments admonishing the Saudi government for murdering Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi embassy in Istanbul, Turkey last year as thoroughly hypocritical.
On Thursday, the British district judge who heard Assange’s bail request mocked him and laughed when Assange’s lawyers requested a fair hearing. “His assertion that he has not had a fair hearing is laughable,” said judge Michael Snow. “And his behavior is that of a narcissist who cannot get beyond his own selfish interests.” Assange has been sent to Belmarsh, a maximum security prison for terrorists and other high-risk detainees, where half of all prisoners are allowed to leave their cells for only two hours a week.
There is no question that Assange will be denied the right to a fair trial in the US, where the entire political and media establishment has already pronounced his guilt. In whatever “trial” takes place, Assange’s lawyers will be regularly denied the right to review evidence against their client on the grounds that it is “classified” for “national security” purposes.
The conspiracy against Assange confirms the absence of any constituency for the defense of democratic rights in the ruling class.
To the leaders of the democratic revolutions of the 18th century, the practices now called extraordinary rendition recalled the dark and crowded dungeons of Charles I and Louis XVI, filled with political prisoners. The bourgeois revolutions in France and the United States abolished arbitrary detention and torture as the hated method of political reaction, upholding the right of due process, habeas corpus, and freedom from cruel and unusual punishment. Under international law today, extraordinary rendition is a crime against humanity according to the Nuremberg principles.
If the ruling class can conduct this operation against Assange without any opposition from the political or media establishment, then any crime is possible. All the while, “left” figures like Jeremy Corbyn go along with the lie, absolving themselves of any responsibility.
As for the British government, its brutal handling of Assange contrasts with its response to Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who fought an extradition request after Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon attempted to prosecute Pinochet in Spain for mass murder. In 2000, the Labour government of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair refused to extradite Pinochet and ordered his release from house arrest at his mansion in Surrey.
"The attempted trial of an accused in the condition diagnosed in Senator Pinochet on the charges which have been made against him in this case could not be a fair trial in any country and would violate Article Six of the European Convention on Human Rights," the Home Office wrote at the time.
While the dictator Pinochet murdered and tortured thousands of workers and socialists after taking power in the September 11, 1973 coup, Julian Assange published evidence of US war crimes. He is hated by the international ruling class because he has done significant damage to the interests of imperialism.
The seven years since Assange was forced to seek refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy have seen the reemergence of the class struggle on an international scale. It is this powerful social force—the working class—that must be mobilized to defend democratic rights and secure the liberation of class-war prisoners like Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden and Julian Assange.
"So what’s going on here? A couple of things. First, Julian Assange embarrassed virtually everyone in power in Washington. He published documents that undermined the official story on the Iraq War and Afghanistan. He got Debbie Wasserman-Schultz fired from the DNC. He humiliated Hillary Clinton by showing that the Democratic primaries were, in fact, rigged. Pretty much everyone in Washington has reason to hate Julian Assange." TUCKER CARLSON
Tucker Carlson: Julian Assange’s ‘Real Sin’ Was Preventing Hillary Clinton Presidency
Fox News host Tucker Carlson published an op-ed recently in which he states that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s true sin was stopping Hillary Clinton from becoming President.
In an op-ed titled “Assange’s real sin was preventing Hillary Clinton from becoming president,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson states that the true reason that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is being targeted is that he prevented Hillary Clinton from becoming President of the United States. In the op-ed Carlson defends Assange’s actions and instead points to Bradley Manning as the source of U.S. security leaks.
In the op-ed, Carlson writes:
If you watched a lot of the coverage of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s arrest on television Thursday, you likely came away with the understanding that he is some kind of Russian spy who is in trouble because he stole classified documents from the U.S. government. That is not true. It’s factually incorrect, and saying so is not a defense of Assange. We’re not here to promote him or excuse any number of things he said over the years that we disagree with quite a lot.
But just so it’s clear, whatever his sins, Assange did not steal documents from the United States government. He did not hack the DNC servers. He didn’t break into John Podesta’s Gmail account. There is no proof that he is working for the Russian government or ever has worked for the Russian government. Assange has never been charged with any of that and wasn’t on Thursday, no matter what they tell you.
If you’re upset about the theft of classified documents from the U.S. government — and there is reason to be — we already know who did that. A 22- year-old Army private named Bradley Manning, now called Chelsea Manning. In 2013, Manning pleaded guilty to stealing secret material and got 35 years in prison for it. Shortly after that, President Obama commuted Manning’s sentence. This allowed Manning to leave jail decades early, go back on television as a commentator, and then run for political office.
Carlson asks, why make such a huge deal over Assange when many other worse criminals have faced far less scrutiny:
So what’s going on here? A couple of things. First, Julian Assange embarrassed virtually everyone in power in Washington. He published documents that undermined the official story on the Iraq War and Afghanistan. He got Debbie Wasserman-Schultz fired from the DNC. He humiliated Hillary Clinton by showing that the Democratic primaries were, in fact, rigged. Pretty much everyone in Washington has reason to hate Julian Assange.
Rather than just admit that straightforwardly – that he made us look like buffoons, so now we’re sending him to prison — instead, they’re denouncing him as, you guessed it, a Russian agent. “Justice should come to Julian Assange for his role in Russian meddling in our election and the sooner the better,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
Okay, so once again, just to be totally clear, no one has ever shown that Julian Assange is a Russian agent. The indictment against him does not say that; t doesn’t mention Russia at all. But that has not stopped virtually every politician in Washington from repeating Senator Blumenthal’s line, including many Republicans. Robert Mueller nearly killed the Russia collusion hoax. Julian Assange is allowing them to keep it alive.
Carlson suggests that the reason to punished Julian Assange is Hillary Clinton:
So why all the hostility to Julian Assange? Assange’s real sin was preventing Hillary Clinton from becoming president. Former Democratic staffer and current CNN anchor Jim Sciutto explained it this way: “He is central to several cases. He is central to Russian interference in the election. The U.S. intelligence views him as a middleman, a cutout that he was in effect part of this interference. He’s central to questions about what the Trump administration or Trump campaign, I should say, knew prior to the release of those materials, right? What were the communications between Roger Stone, et cetera? It’s possible that this has something President Trump himself is not particularly excited about.”
It’s remarkable to watch this. It’s bewildering, actually. There was a time, not so long ago, really, when reporters didn’t applaud the arrest of other journalists for publishing information.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolanor email him at lnolan@breitbart.com
Hillary Clinton on Assange Arrest: He‘s the ‘Only Foreigner’ Trump Welcomes to the U.S.
Failed 2016 Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reacted on Thursday to the dramatic arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange with a dig at the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Appearing at the Beacon Theater in New York City, the former Secretary of State said Assange must “answer for what he has done.” Earlier Thursday, the WikiLeaks chief was arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London and charged by the U.S. for conspiring with convicted intelligence leaker Chelsea Manning to illegally access a classified Department of Defense computer.
The arrest occurred after Ecuador revoked the 47-year-old Australian native’s political asylum, which allowed him to reside at the embassy for nearly seven years.
“The bottom line is that he has to answer for what he has done, at least as it has been charged,” Clinton said, before adding, “I do think it’s a little ironic that he’s the only foreigner this administration would welcome to the United States.”
In the lead up to the 2016 election, WikiLeaks released thousands of emails belonging to Clinton’s presidential campaign chairman John Podesta and the Democrat National Committee.
President Donald Trump downplayed any personal interest in Assange’s arrest, telling reporters in the Oval Office that the high-profile case was “not my thing.”
“I know nothing about Wikileaks. It’s not my thing,” the president said when pressed on his repeated praise of the organization during the election.
“I know nothing really about it – it’s not my deal in life,” he added.
While the president was none too interested in Assange, some former members of Clinton Inc. celebrated his arrest.
Former Clinton aide and Center for American Progress president reacted to Assange’s arrest by accusing him of “fascist behavior” and “undermin[ing] democracy.”
There are many cultists on this site, but the Assange cultists are the worst. Assange was the agent of a proto fascist state, Russia, to undermine democracy. That is fascist behavior. Anyone on the left should abhor what he did. Not celebrate it.
Prominent WikiLeaks supporter Somerset Bean speaks out in defence of Assange
Somerset Bean, a prominent WikiLeaks supporter and graphic designer, attended an urgent rally held by the Socialist Equality Party (Australia) in Melbourne last Friday, opposing the illegal expulsion of Julian Assange from Ecuador's London embassy and his arrest by the British police the night before.
Somerset Bean
Bean, who lives in Britain, has been a supporter of WikiLeaks for almost a decade. He has produced hundreds of poster and leaflet designs advertising protests, rallies and vigils in defence of Assange. Bean met with Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy on a number of occasions.
Comments he gave following the Melbourne rally, were prominently featured in a report on the protest by the Age, one of the city’s most widely-read daily newspapers.
Bean spoke to the WSWS over the weekend.
Asked about his response to Assange’s arrest, Bean stated: “With Julian Assange’s illegal expulsion from the Ecuadorian embassy and arrest by the UK, a blatant and disturbing escalation of the US government’s assault on the right to publish truthful information occurred.
“The actual scene of the arrest shocked me more than I had anticipated, having followed the case closely for years. It was so blatantly in contravention of the right to asylum, and of many international treaties the UK is signed up to.
“And yet the governments of Ecuador, the UK and the US conspired to make it happen, brutal and in broad daylight for the world to see. Clearly the powers-that-be want to use the persecution of a successful and effective publisher as a warning to us all not to challenge their power and their crimes.
“I attended the protest because silence is tantamount to complicity. I’ve also been wearing my ‘Free Assange’ t-shirt around the city and getting some really supportive responses.
“The [Melbourne] rally was small but spirited. I’m sure it would have been larger with more time and resources to publicise it. And also were it not for the relentless character assassination of Assange over nearly a decade which so many involved in left politics in particular have fallen for. There was plenty of righteous anger, and we also need to celebrate our solidarity, our common interests, and our creativity in creating an alternative to the rotten status quo.
“The role of the British and Australian governments is, not surprisingly, shameful. These are governments who cause misery and suffering on an industrial scale. The former illegally detained Assange for nearly a decade, holding him for the US. The latter encouraged that persecution by feigning ‘consular assistance’ whilst abandoning an Australian citizen.
“There is a sliver of hope with Jeremy Corbyn and his Labour supporters, but on the whole they have been silent or hopelessly misinformed at best, and openly hostile to Assange at worst. A strong statement by Corbyn and Diane Abbott has now been diluted by Corbyn’s spurious claims relating to the completely corrupted allegations of sexual assault. In opposition at least, when pushed, Corbyn acquiesces, a dangerous strategy if he is truly interested in challenging the status quo and the entrenched British establishment.”
Bean explained that he had begun supporting Assange around 10 years ago, “when I first heard Julian giving a presentation about his thinking behind the concept of WikiLeaks. Having been politically inactive for many years, I realised that here was something with powerful potential to be a catalyst for systemic change by exposing the truth of our supposedly ‘free world.’ I decided to support with the skills I had available.”
Asked about his encounters with Assange, Bean said, “Unfortunately I was unable to visit through most of last year due to the tight restrictions placed upon Assange by the new US-aligned Ecuadorian government. But even before that, when Julian was able to speak to the public, conduct his work from the embassy, and engage with regular visitors, the conditions were virtually intolerable. No sunlight or necessary medical care for nearly seven years in what is basically a small apartment/office.
“Julian Assange operates from a position of compassion and intelligence, and maintains a sharp sense of humour. He always has some new insight, perspective and/or knowledge to impart. He is also dedicated to the mission of WikiLeaks and obviously has a remarkably resilient character. If there’s a battle with Empire to be had, Julian needs no encouragement to step up and make a principled and impactful stand. He lives and breathes it.”
Bean concluded: “We must not keep quiet, for that is the end game of the psychopaths who rise to the top in our societies, where wealth is power. We need to organise and mobilise in our workplaces, our places of study and in our communities both online and offline, bypassing the ever-more powerful censorship algorithms.
“Everyone has some skill or passion that they can use to contribute to defending Julian Assange and a truly free press, and to promote the work of WikiLeaks.
“We must speak out about and support the principled dedication of whistleblowers such as Chelsea Manning, as solidarity nurtures courage, and courage is indeed contagious. And we need to continue to disseminate the brutal and deceitful workings of power that WikiLeaks' publications have exposed, to inspire others to act.”
Sylv
Carolina Graterol
Sadie
Somerset Bean
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