Julian Assange: The Trial of The Century

Although Julian Assange has committed no crimes and is not charged with any, he has been held in London’s Belmarsh Prison since 2019 under conditions which a UN investigator described as “torture”. What is he being punished for? For publishing the truth about US war crimes in the Middle East during the endless “War on Terror”.

Julian’s life depends on his winning his fight against extradition to the US where he faces 175 years in jail although he is not a US citizen. Julian’s wife Stella says if Julian is placed in the isolation the US government threatens to him with, he will be driven to commit suicide.

The Danger of Ignoring Julian Assange

Julian Assange has a long, complicated past. But regardless of what you think of him and what he did, you should care about what happens to him. Here’s why.

Check out two very solid documentaries on Assange for a deeper understanding of him as a person: – Risk (2016), by Laura Poitras (we used a little footage from that doc in the intro) – We Steal Secrets (2013), by Alex Gibney This legal analysis from RCFP was really helpful in understand the indictment and its implication: https://www.rcfp.org/may-2019-assange…

Pressure continues to build against the unjust and extraordinary incarceration of Julian Assange for publishing. Julian Assange’s wife Stella spoke to The James Kennedy Podcast about his persecution and the latest positive developments. Speaking about how the case against her husband has profound dangers for wider society, Mrs. Assange said: “This is an enormous attack on all our rights, on the public’s right to know the truth, on the press right to publish it, and on us as a society to be able to hold government accountable.

You can listen to the whole hour-long show here: #36 – Stella Assange – Free Julian Assange

JULIAN ASSANGE WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Secrets from inside the embassy | 60 Minutes Australia

The Case of Julian Assange

Join the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security as we host a discussion about the case of Julian Assange, founder of WikilLeaks.

Our panel includes: Holden Triplett, a veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and recent Director for Counterintelligence on the National Security Council; Barry Pollack, a renowned US criminal defense attorney representing Mr. Assange; Gabe Rottman, Director of the Technology and Press Freedom Project at the Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press; and Mark Zaid, a private US attorney specializing in national security law, freedom of speech constitutional claims, and governmental accountability. Sasha Ingber, national security correspondent at Newsy, soon to be Scripps News, moderates the conversation.

After many years ensconced at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and later in British custody, engaged in a protracted legal and appeals process with UK governmental and judicial authorities, Julian Assange in coming weeks or months may find himself on an airplane headed to the United States to face charges he conspired to receive, obtained, and distributed national defense information, much of it classified, and conspired to commit computer intrusions. If convicted of these charges,

Assange could find himself facing decades in US prison. His indictment also has raised questions about the Espionage Act of 1917, one of the laws under which he’s being prosecuted, concerns about the case’s potential impact on freedom of the press, and how technological changes impinge on both. We look at all of this and more!

WikiLeaks Truths Humiliated Mike Pompeo and CIA

Mike Pompeo served as Director of the CIA from 2017-2018 and as Secretary of State from 2018-2021. CIA officials under Trump discussed assassinating Julian Assange – report says:

The discussions on kidnapping or killing Assange took place in 2017, Yahoo News reported, when the fugitive Australian activist was entering his fifth year sheltering in the Ecuadorian embassy. The then CIA director, Mike Pompeo, and his top officials were furious about WikiLeaks’ publication of “Vault 7”, a set of CIA hacking tools, a breach which the agency deemed to be the biggest data loss in its history.

Pompeo and the CIA leadership “were completely detached from reality because they were so embarrassed about Vault 7”, Yahoo cites a former Trump national security official as saying. “They were seeing blood.” Some senior officials inside the CIA and the Trump administration went as far as to request “sketches” or “options” for killing Assange. “There seemed to be no boundaries,” a former senior counterterrorist official was quoted as saying. The CIA declined to comment. The kidnapping or murder of a civilian accused of publishing leaked documents, with no connection to terrorism, would have triggered global outrage.

Pompeo raised eyebrows in 2017 by referring to WikiLeaks as a “non-state hostile intelligence service”. The Yahoo report said that it was a significant designation, as it implied a green light for a more aggressive approach to the pro-transparency group by CIA operatives, who could treat it as an enemy espionage organization.

Barry Pollack, Assange’s US lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment, but told Yahoo News:

“As an American citizen, I find it absolutely outrageous that our government would be contemplating kidnapping or assassinating somebody without any judicial process simply because he had published truthful information. My hope and expectation is that the UK courts will consider this information and it will further bolster its decision not to extradite to the US,” he added.

Ron Paul Interviews Julian Assange: “The CIA Has Been Deeply Humiliated”

PRITI PATEL WAS PART OF CIA-LINKED LOBBY GROUP WITH HUSBAND OF ASSANGE JUDGE 3/29/22 reports:

Home Secretary Priti Patel, who will soon decide whether to extradite Julian Assange to the US, has been a political adviser to – and been funded by – a right-wing lobby group which has attacked Assange in the British media for a decade…. After the UK Supreme Court said this month it was refusing to hear Assange’s appeal of a High Court decision against him, the WikiLeaks founder’s fate now lies in Patel’s hands. He faces life in prison in the US.

Home secretary Priti Patel to decide whether to extradite Assange reported on 4/20/22

A London court has approved the extradition of WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange to the US to face hacking and espionage charges. The home secretary, Priti Patel, will now decide whether Assange should stand trial in the US, where he faces a maximum sentence of 175 years.

Spanish Court Summons Mike Pompeo over CIA Plot to Kidnap or Kill Julian Assange

A Spanish court has reportedly summoned former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to testify about a secret U.S. plot to kidnap or assassinate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, according to a report in the Spanish newspaper ABC. The Spanish court is probing the activity of UC Global, a Spanish security firm accused of spying on Assange while he was living in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he had political asylum. The news comes as British Home Secretary Priti Patel is expected to decide soon whether Assange should be extradited to the United States to face charges for publishing classified information about U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Pompeo took the extraordinary step of going to London to meet with Priti Patel before she decided on Julian’s case:

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel, who approved extraditing #Assange to the US on 17 June, brags about the Home Office today hosting Mike Pompeo, who tasked CIA assassination plans of Julian while he was Trump's CIA Chief. https://t.co/xfeVJsA3BD

— Stella Assange #FreeAssangeNOW (@Stella_Assange) June 30, 2022

PRITI PATEL APPROVES THE EXTRADITION OF JULIAN ASSANGE 7/1/22

The UK Home Secretary, Priti Patel, approves the decision to extradite the world-famous journalist Julian Assange to the United States. The ever-loyal Free Julian Assange protesters hire an open-top bus, emblazon it with signage, and take a tour of London to raise awareness of the ongoing state abuse of Assange.

Pompeo Served With Lawsuit

Priti Patel resigns as Home Secretary

Priti Patel has resigned as Home Secretary. It comes just hours before Liz Truss enters Downing Street as the country’s new Prime Minister.

CIA sued over alleged spying on lawyers, journalists who met Assange

A group of journalists and lawyers sued the CIA and its former director Mike Pompeo over allegations the intelligence agency spied on them when they visited WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during his stay in Ecuador’s embassy in London. The lawsuit said that CIA under Pompeo violated the privacy rights of those American journalists and lawyers by allegedly spying on them. The plaintiffs include journalists Charles Glass and John Goetz and attorneys Margaret Kunstler and Deborah Hrbek, who have represented Assange.

“The United States Constitution shields American citizens from U.S. government overreach even when the activities take place in a foreign embassy in a foreign country,” said Richard Roth, the lead attorney representing the plaintiffs. The CIA, which declined to comment on the lawsuit, is prohibited from collecting intelligence on U.S. citizens, although several lawmakers have alleged that the agency maintains a secret repository of Americans’ communications data.

Assange has appealed to the High Court in London to block his extradition to the United States to face criminal charges in a legal battle that has dragged on for more than a decade. read more Monday’s lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The filing said the journalists and lawyers were required to surrender their electronic devices to Undercover Global S.L., a private security company which at the time provided security to the embassy, before their visits to Assange. The lawsuit alleged the company copied that information and provided it to the CIA, which was then headed by Pompeo.

Mike Pompeo Served With Lawsuit While Filming Green Screen Video 11/3/22

CIA spying on Assange “illegally” swept up US lawyers, journalists: Lawsuit

CIA surveillance of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange while he was sheltering in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London included recording his conversations with American lawyers, journalists and doctors, and copying private data from visitors’ phones and other devices, violating constitutional protections, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

The suit – filed on behalf of four Americans who visited Assange – seeks damages personally from then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo for violating the plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. The suit also seeks damages against a Spanish security firm contracted to protect the embassy, and its CEO, alleging that they abused their position to illegally spy on visitors and passed on the surveillance data they collected to the CIA, which is also named a defendant in the suit.

Legal experts, including a former senior intelligence official, told Newsweek that the allegations in the lawsuit, if proven, show the CIA crossed lines drawn to protect American citizens from surveillance by overzealous intelligence agencies….”As a criminal attorney, I don’t think that there’s anything worse than your opposition listening in on what your plans are, what you intend to do, on your conversations. It’s a terrible thing,” said the lead plaintiff, attorney Margaret Kunstler, a member of Assange’s U.S. legal team. “It’s gross misconduct,” she added, “I don’t understand how the CIA … could think that they could do this. It’s so outrageous that it’s beyond my comprehension.”

New York-based attorney Richard Roth, who filed the suit, said, “This was outrageous and inappropriate conduct by the government. It violated the most profound privacy rights” of the plaintiffs and others who visited Assange in the embassy.

The dark truths WikiLeaks revealed

From backroom deals between Hillary Clinton and Goldman Sachs to US covert operations in Haiti, Tunisia, Italy and beyond, WikiLeaks revealed the dark underbelly of US power. Author and journalist Stefania Maurizi joins The Chris Hedges Report to share her insider perspective on one of the century’s biggest stories, as well as her encyclopedic knowledge of the horrific truths revealed in WikiLeaks’ hundreds of thousands of leaked files.

Frost over the World – Julian Assange

Guilty of Journalism

The video discusses the book Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case against Julian Assange by Kevin Gosztola which can be pre-ordered now and will be available on Amazon on February 28, 2023.

The author says Assange is likely to be tried in the US this year or next. He wrote the book to help more Americans understand the critical importance of the case for press freedom and democracy.

Amazon Description

From an acclaimed independent journalist, this carefully-documented analysis of the government’s case against Julian Assange and its implications for press freedom acts as a crucial, compelling guidebook to Assange’s upcoming trial.

The legal action against Julian Assange is poised to culminate in a trial in the United States in 2023, and this book will help the public understand the proceedings. The establishment media’s coverage of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s extradition case has focused on his deteriorating health and what CBS News called his “secret family,” but most of this coverage failed to detail the complex issues at stake against Assange. Guilty of Journalism outlines how WikiLeaks exposed the reality of American wars, the United States government’s unprecedented indictment against Assange as a publisher, and the media’s role in persuading the public to “shoot the messenger.”

This new book by Kevin Gosztola, who has spent the last decade covering Assange, WikiLeaks, and the wider war on whistleblowers, tells the full story based on testimony from dozens of witnesses. It examines abuses of power by the CIA and the FBI, including a spying operation that targeted Assange’s family, lawyers, and doctors. Guilty of Journalism offers a balanced and comprehensive perspective on all the events leading up to what press freedom advocates have called the trial of the century.

Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case against Julian Assange

by Kevin Gosztola

Julian Assange and the war on whistleblowers w/Kevin Gosztola | The Chris Hedges Report

13 years ago WikiLeaks pulled back the curtain on a host of documented US government crimes. This year, Julian Assange is expected to stand trial. His case is emblematic of how far the US government will go to hide the truth. Kevin Gosztola is the managing editor of Shadowproof, where he writes The Dissenter. He is the author of Truth and Consequences: The U.S. vs. Bradley Manning.

JULIAN ASSANGE WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Secrets from inside the embassy | 60 Minutes Australia

Secret Power: WikiLeaks and Its Enemies

The dark truths WikiLeaks revealed w/Stefania Maurizi | The Chris Hedges Report

From backroom deals between Hillary Clinton and Goldman Sachs to US covert operations in Haiti, Tunisia, Italy and beyond, WikiLeaks revealed the dark underbelly of US power. Author and journalist Stefania Maurizi joins The Chris Hedges Report to share her insider perspective on one of the century’s biggest stories, as well as her encyclopedic knowledge of the horrific truths revealed in WikiLeaks’ hundreds of thousands of leaked files. Stefania Maurizi is an investigative journalist with Il Fatto Quotidiano, and the author of Secret Power: WikiLeaks and Its Enemies.

Amazon Description

An uncovering of the terrifying depths of authoritarian power that hide behind the infamous story of WikiLeaks

*Winner of the European Award for Investigative And Judicial Journalism 2021*
*Winner of the Premio Alessandro Leogrande Award for Investigative Journalism 2022*
*Winner of the Premio Angelo Vassallo Award 2022*

‘I want to live in a society where secret power is accountable to the law and to public opinion for its atrocities, where it is the war criminals who go to jail, not those who have the conscience and courage to expose them.’ It is 2008, and Stefania Maurizi, an investigative journalist with a growing interest in cryptography, starts looking into the little-known organisation WikiLeaks. Through hushed meetings, encrypted files and explosive documents, what she discovers sets her on a life-long journey that takes her deep into the realm of secret power.

Working closely with WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange and his organisation for her newspaper, Maurizi has spent over a decade investigating state criminality protected by thick layers of secrecy, while also embarking on a solitary trench warfare to unearth the facts underpinning the cruel persecution of Assange and WikiLeaks. With complex and disturbing insights, Maurizi’s tireless journalism exposes atrocities, the shameful treatment of Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, on up to the present persecution of WikiLeaks: a terrifying web of impunity and cover-ups. At the heart of the book is the brutality of secret power and the unbearable price paid by Julian Assange, WikiLeaks and truthtellers.

Secret Power: WikiLeaks and Its Enemies

by Stefania Maurizi

Jeremy Corbyn on Freeing Julian Assange, the Working Class, Brazil, Peru & Ending Ukraine War

In Washington, D.C., human rights and free speech advocates gather today for the Belmarsh Tribunal, focused on the imprisonment of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Assange has been languishing for close to four years in the harsh Belmarsh prison in London while appealing extradition to the United States on espionage charges.

If convicted, Assange could face up to 175 years in jail for publishing documents that exposed war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Five major news organizations that once partnered with WikiLeaks recently called on the Biden administration to drop charges against Assange. We speak to British MP and former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is in Washington, D.C., to participate in the Belmarsh Tribunal, about Assange and freedom of the press. We also cover the state of leftism around the globe, from labor rights in the U.K. and Europe to the war in Ukraine, to political unrest in Brazil and Peru.

The Belmarsh Tribunal D.C.: The Case of Julian Assange

Free Julian Assange: Noam Chomsky, Dan Ellsberg & Jeremy Corbyn Lead Call at Belmarsh Tribunal

Former British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, famed linguist and dissident Noam Chomsky and others gave testimony Friday at the Belmarsh Tribunal in Washington, D.C., calling on President Biden to drop charges against Julian Assange. The WikiLeaks founder has been languishing for close to four years in the harsh Belmarsh prison in London while appealing extradition to the United States.

If convicted in the United States, Julian Assange could face up to 175 years in jail for violating the U.S. Espionage Act for publishing documents that exposed U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Friday’s event was held at the National Press Club and co-chaired by Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman.

We spend the hour featuring compelling excerpts from the proceedings. To watch the full two-and-a-half-hour livestream of the Belmarsh Tribunal, visit this link: https://youtu.be/j_QqpYATupw

The must-see Belmarsh Tribunal aired live from Washington on January 20. Inspired by the Russell-Sartre Tribunals of the Vietnam War, the Belmarsh Tribunal brings together a range of expert witnesses — from constitutional lawyers, to acclaimed journalists and human rights defenders — to explore evidence of the attack on the free press that Julian Assange’s case represents.

Some of those who will be appearing include Stella Assange and WikiLeaks’ Kristinn Hrafnsson as well as Amy Goodman, Srećko Horvat, Daniel Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Corbyn, Stefania Maurizi, Ben Wizner, Renata Ávila, Jeffrey Sterling Lawyer, Steven Donziger and many more.

Margaret Kunstler, a member of Assange’s U.S. legal team, points out in the video below that the US turned against Assange in 2017 when Pompeo became Director of the CIA. She explains that in Pompeo’s very first speech, he characterized Wikileaks as a “non-state hostile intelligence agency”. Pompeo authorized violations of Juluan’s rights which resulted in a lawsuit.

Kevin Gosztola, author of Guilty of Journalism: The Political Case against Julian Assange, spoke at the tribunal. Stefania Maurizi’s book Secret Power: WikiLeaks and Its Enemies was available at the tribunal.

The Belmarsh Tribunal D.C. — The Case of Julian Assange

On January 20, 2023, Democracy Now! is livestreaming the Belmarsh Tribunal from Washington, D.C. The event will feature expert testimony from journalists, whistleblowers, lawyers, publishers, and parliamentarians on assaults to press freedom and the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Democracy Now!’s Amy Goodman and Srecko Horvat, the co-founder of DiEM25, will chair the tribunal, which is being organized by Progressive International and the Wau Holland Foundation.

Night Carnival For Julian Assange: February 11

On Saturday, February 11, the Night Carnival for Julian Assange takes place meeting at Lincoln’s Inn Fields (nearest tube Holborn) at 4pm — then marching to the Emmanuel Centre (just around the corner from Parliament), where a rally will be held. Speakers will include Stella Assange, Kristinn Hrafnsson, and more. The Night Carnival will include giant puppets, street performers, sound systems, and bands.

More details here: https://dontextraditeassange.com/events/night-carnival-for-assange/

Tickets for the rally: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/emmanuel-centre-rally-tickets-474199803377

WikiLeaks Editor-In-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson and Joseph Farrell (Ambassador) continued their outreach in Latin America meeting recently with the President of Mexico López Obrador. The Mexican President raised the issue of Julian Assange at a recent trilateral summit with Joe Biden, and used his daily briefing on Tuesday to highlight his continuing “unjust detention.”