Last
week, rallies in support of Julian Assange were held around the
world. We participated in two #AssangeUnity events seeking to
#FreeAssange in Washington, DC. This is the beginning of a new phase
of the campaign to stop the persecution of Julian Assange and allow
him to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in London without the threat of
being arrested in the UK or facing prosecution by the United States.
by
Kevin Zeese - Margaret Flowers
Part
3 - Assange character assassination and embassy imprisonment
Julian
Assange made powerful enemies in governments around the world,
corporate media, and big business because he burst false narratives
with the truth. As a result, governments fought back, including the
United States, Great Britain, and Sweden, which has led to Assange
being trapped in the embassy of Ecuador in London for six years.
The root
of the incarceration were allegations in Sweden. Sweden’s charges
against Assange were initially dropped by the chief prosecutor, two
weeks later they found a prosecutor to pursue a rape investigation.
One of the women had CIA connections and bragged about her
relationship with Assange in tweets she tried to erase. She even
published a 7-step program for legal revenge against lovers. The
actions of the women do not seem to show rape or any kind of abuse.
One woman held a party with him after the encounter and another went
out to eat with him. In November 2016, Assange was interviewed by
Swedish prosecutors for four hours at the Ecuadorian embassy. In
December 2016, Assange published tweets showing his innocence and the
sex was consensual. Without making a statement on Assange’s guilt,
the Swedish investigators dropped the charges in May 2017. The
statute of limitations for Swedish charges will be up in 2020.
As John
Pilger pointed out, “Katrin Axelsson and Lisa Longstaff of Women
Against Rape summed it up when they wrote, ‘The allegations against
[Assange] are a smokescreen behind which a number of governments are
trying to clamp down on WikiLeaks for having audaciously revealed to
the public their secret planning of wars and occupations with their
attendant rape, murder, and destruction… The authorities care so
little about violence against women that they manipulate rape
allegations at will.’”
Assange
is still trapped in the embassy as he would be arrested for violating
his bail six years ago. But, the real threat to Assange is the
possibility of a secret indictment against him in the United States
for espionage. US and British officials have refused to tell
Assange’s lawyers whether there was a sealed indictment or a sealed
extradition order against him. Former CIA Director, now Secretary of
State, Mike Pompeo has described WikiLeaks as a non-state hostile
intelligence service and described his actions as not protected by
the First Amendment. In April 2017, CNN reported, “US
authorities have prepared charges to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange.” The Obama Justice Department
determined it would be difficult to bring charges against Assange
because WikiLeaks wasn’t alone in publishing documents stolen by
Manning but the Trump DOJ believes he could be charged as an
accomplice with Edward Snowden.
When the
president campaigned, Trump said he loved WikiLeaks and regularly
touted their disclosures. But, in April 2017, Attorney General Jeff
Sessions said that Assange’s arrest is a “priority.”
Source,
links:
Related:
Urgent
message to Bernie and Jeremy: the time has come to support Julian
Assange clearly and openly!
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