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Defending rights and dissent on Julian Assange indictment

Independent UN rights experts on Thursday said the arrest of Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange by police in the United Kingdom after the Ecuadorian Government decided to stop granting him asylum in their London embassy, exposed him to “ the risk of serious human rights violations ” if extradited to the United States. These views are consistent with a series of actions and statements by the UN which has sided with Assange throughout this threat of prosecution and his nearly seven years as a refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy. Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial executions, Agnes Callamard, said “ expelling Assange from the Embassy ” and allowing his arrest, it had taken Mr. Assange “ one step closer to extradition. ” She added that the UK had now arbitrarily-detained the controversial anti-secrecy journalist and campaigner, “ possibly endangering his life. ” The UN independent expert on the right to privacy, Joe Cannataci, issued a statement following

11η Απριλίου: Η ημέρα που οι ΗΠΑ συνέλαβαν … τη δημοσιογραφία

Λίγες εικόνες θα μπορούσαν να συνοψίσουν το επίπεδο των δημοκρατικών θεσμών και της ελευθερίας του Τύπου στις κοινωνίες της Δύσης, όσο τα πρώτα πλάνα από τη σύλληψη του συν-δημιουργού του Wikileaks, Τζούλιαν Ασάνζ. Άρης Χατζηστεφάνου Εμφανώς καταβεβλημένος από τα προβλήματα υγείας που αντιμετωπίζει (για τα οποία η πρεσβεία του Ισημερινού του αρνούνταν θεραπεία σε μια νέα μορφή βασανιστηρίων) και κάτωχρος από τη σχεδόν ολοκληρωτική έλλειψη επαφής με τον ήλιο, ο Ασάνζ κρατούσε στα χέρια του ένα βιβλίο που αποκαλύπτει τις πραγματικές ισορροπίες δυνάμεων στο εσωτερικό του αμερικανικού κράτους: Το περίφημο History of the National Security State , στο οποίο ο Αμερικανός διανοούμενος, Γκορ Βιντάλ, εξέταζε τη διαπλοκή του στρατιωτικο-βιομηχανικού συμπλέγματος, για το οποίο μιλούσε ο πρόεδρος Αϊζενχάουερ, με το βαθύ κράτος των μυστικών υπηρεσιών. Λίγα λεπτά αργότερα, η Σκότλαντ Γιάρντ ανακοίνωνε και επισήμως πως η σύλληψη έγινε για λογαριασμό των Ηνωμένων Πολιτε

Ο Julian Assange δεν πρέπει να εκδοθεί στις ΗΠΑ

Μετά την ανακοίνωση της σύλληψης του Julian Assange και του αιτήματος έκδοσης στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, ο Massimo Moratti, Αναπληρωτής Διευθυντής Έρευνας της Ευρώπης στην Διεθνή Αμνηστία, δήλωσε: « Η Διεθνής Αμνηστία καλεί το Ηνωμένο Βασίλειο να αρνηθεί να εκδώσει ή να στείλει με οποιονδήποτε άλλο τρόπο τον Julian Assange στις ΗΠΑ, όπου υπάρχει πραγματικός κίνδυνος να αντιμετωπίσει παραβιάσεις των ανθρωπίνων δικαιωμάτων, συμπεριλαμβανομένων των συνθηκών κράτησης που θα παραβίαζαν την απόλυτη απαγόρευση των βασανιστηρίων και άλλων μορφών κακομεταχείρισης, και μιας άδικης δίκης που θα μπορούσε να ακολουθηθεί από πιθανή εκτέλεση, λόγω του έργου του με το Wikileaks. » « Γνωρίζουμε τις κατηγορίες για βιασμό και άλλη σεξουαλική βία εναντίον του Julian Assange, οι οποίες πρέπει να διερευνηθούν δεόντως ,κατά τρόπο που να σέβεται τα δικαιώματα τόσο των καταγγελλόντων όσο και του κατηγορούμενου, και να προσαχθεί στη δικαιοσύνη αν υπάρχουν επαρκή αποδεικτικά στοιχεία εν

Libya’s incoming strongman Haftar will send the oil out to Europe—and keep its migrants in

European values are fairly clear: they want oil to travel northward, not people. Haftar, at the cost of the Libyans themselves, will make that happen. by Vijay Prashad You can well imagine the tension when Libya’s beleaguered Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj met with the UN envoy Ghassan Salamé in his office in Tripoli on Monday morning. Not far away, in the south of Libya’s capital, the troops of the Libyan National Army led by General Khalifa Haftar had made rapid advances. They had taken the shell of Tripoli International Airport and had made a dash toward the road that links Libya to Tunisia. Haftar’s troops, well-armed and well-disciplined, had moved northward toward the Ain-Zara neighborhood. On Monday, Haftar’s air force bombed the only working airport in Tripoli—at Mitiga. The United Nations wanted to let al-Serraj know that it would not abandon him. Part 1 - Khalifa Haftar It’s hard to follow the ins and outs of Libyan politics, particularly given the fragmenta

The weaponising of antisemitism

The smears against Corbyn and the left are part of a concerted effort to undermine a potential left government and must be opposed by Alex Snowdon Part 2 - Opposition to Israel is not antisemitic One thing that the sustained attacks on both sides of the Atlantic have in common is the question of Israel. Ilhan Omar faced a backlash due to comments she made about Aipac, the American umbrella group for pro-Israel lobbying campaigns, and its influence on US politics, and for wider criticisms of the Netanyahu government and Israeli abuses of Palestinians’ human rights. Last summer’s furore over alleged antisemitism in the Labour Party pivoted around how to define antisemitism. There was a major campaign to force the party to adopt the full definition, including very controversial examples relating to Israel, proposed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). The IHRA code was subsequently adopted by the Labour Party’s national executive committ

Solidarity, survival and sabotage: reconstructing the history of the blackouts tormenting Venezuela

While Venezuela’s government and the Chavista movement proclaimed victory over the worst blackouts to plague the country, Washington’s coup masters have promised more darkness until their goals are complete. by Misión Verdad Part 6 - The harsh consequences of the blackout and Guaidó’s destabilization plan The blackouts caused serious discomfort and inconvenience for most Venezuelans. But they also prompted a striking show of resilience, as citizens came together to defy the attempts to destabilize their society. National media outlets like El Universal and El Correo del Orinoco reported through their social media platforms that the traffic system of Caracas had collapsed due mainly to the interruption of electric power during peak hours. The operations of the Caracas Metro were stopped and the population had to travel by foot or by other means in order to get home on March 7. The loss of electricity led to the collapse of the electronic payment platforms and their

UN rapporteur: US sanctions on Venezuela are ‘blunt’ way to engineer regime change, causing blanket starvation

US sanctions against Venezuela are like “going into microsurgery with a kitchen knife” and are holding an entire population hostage, the UN special rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures told The Grayzone. by Michael Selby-Green Part 3 - Sanctions as Washington’s replacement for military intervention On 28 January US secretary of state Mike Pompeo defended the measures implemented against PDVSA. He said: “ These new sanctions do not target the innocent people of Venezuela and will not prohibit humanitarian assistance including the provision of medicine and medical devices, which are desperately needed after years of economic destruction under Maduro’s rule. ” “ The United States will continue to take concrete and forceful action against those who oppose the peaceful restoration of democracy in Venezuela. ” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has also criticised the Venezuelan government.

Arrest of Julian Assange: the last remaining leaf of the fascist neoliberal regime drops - we are now at war

globinfo freexchange What other proof would you need to convince yourself that we already live under a global-scale fascist regime whose headquarters are located in the US evil empire? This is a war against real journalism. It is a direct threat against all the independent media with real journalists who expose the war crimes of the empire and its allies. After this, expect an ongoing, brutal hunt against every real journalist who will attempt to report the truth, contrary the corporate PR parrots of the mainstream media - the golden operatives of the establishment, who faithfully stick to the script. The utter joke of 'anti-establishment' Donald Trump collapsed from his first day in the US presidency, but now, its repulsive ugliness has been revealed gloriously. While Donnie was actually praising WikiLeaks before his election, he now said that " I know nothing about Wikileaks. It's not my thing ". "I know nothing about Wikileaks. It'

Assange arrest: the turning point is here — don’t let them win

Will we wait until they come for us because our homes are built atop resources they wish to plunder, because we shared information online they found objectionable, because we dared to question why madmen are in control of our country and much of the world? by Whitney Webb This morning, the London-based branch of Empire made good on its threat and boldly moved to begin dismantling the vestiges of democracy and press freedom that still remain, vestiges that have allowed people throughout the Western world to pretend that their government and politicians still respect their rights and the rule of law. Julian Assange, the man who has helped expose a litany of crimes and the in-your-face corruption of the world’s most powerful people and governments, was pulled from the embassy of the country where he not only holds citizenship but had been granted asylum. The dangerous precedents Assange’s arrest has set — not just for journalism, but also for national so

When 'Call of Duty' predicted the US sabotage against Venezuela's electric power system

A producer for Venezuela-based news outlet Telesur tweeted a video showing clips from the 2013 game ‘Call of Duty: Ghosts' which appear to foreshadow massive electricity blackouts which left Venezuela’s capital city Caracas in almost total darkness in March. In 2013, Call Of Duty featured Caracas as the site of its war scene in Venezuela—a first-person shooter game which also depicted the Guri Hydroelectric Dam. Part of the "mission" is to install a virus in the electrical system to generate a Blackout. pic.twitter.com/QJnC1ROMr4 — Camila (@camilateleSUR) April 9, 2019 In the game, US special forces are seen on a “mission” to cause a blackout by installing a virus onto a computer at the Guri Hydroelectric Dam — the very same location where a major failure caused the recent blackouts, which the Venezuelan government blamed on the US. The game's creator said in 2014 that the Activision publishing company brought in "outside