Trump's charges against Assange are historic attack on press freedoms - media and Obama helped set the stage
WikiLeaks publisher and political prisoner Julian Assange is facing 17 charges under the United States Espionage Act — a draconian law that was written during World War I to imprison leftists who spoke out against the mass slaughter.
How fitting, then, that 100 years later, this same ruthless statute is being used to muzzle the man who has done more than any other person alive to expose the misdeeds of the US national security state.
How fitting, then, that 100 years later, this same ruthless statute is being used to muzzle the man who has done more than any other person alive to expose the misdeeds of the US national security state.
In its relentless assault on civil liberties, the Donald Trump administration has the dubious distinction of breaking two records at once: Indicting a journalist under the Espionage Act for the first time, and indicting a non-US citizen.
It is far from hyperbole to say that the US government’s campaign against Julian Assange is one of the gravest threats to press freedoms in modern history.
“This is madness,” wrote Wikileaks in response to the news of the indictment. “It is the end of national security journalism and the first amendment.”
It is far from hyperbole to say that the US government’s campaign against Julian Assange is one of the gravest threats to press freedoms in modern history.
“This is madness,” wrote Wikileaks in response to the news of the indictment. “It is the end of national security journalism and the first amendment.”
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has declared multiple times that Assange has been unjustly detained for the past seven years, and must be freed and given compensation.
But now, the journalist could languish in an American dungeon for several lifetimes.
“The war on Julian Assange is now a war on all,” cautioned renowned journalist John Pilger. “The target today is Assange. Tomorrow it will be you on the New York Times, you on the BBC. Modern fascism is breaking cover.”
But now, the journalist could languish in an American dungeon for several lifetimes.
“The war on Julian Assange is now a war on all,” cautioned renowned journalist John Pilger. “The target today is Assange. Tomorrow it will be you on the New York Times, you on the BBC. Modern fascism is breaking cover.”
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This assault on civil liberties began with George W. Bush and his fake “war on terror.” Barack Obama then expanded the crackdown by using the Espionage Act to charge more whistleblowers who leaked information to journalists than all previous presidents combined.
Journalist James Risen, who was himself a target of this Obama administration repression, wrote in The New York Times in 2016, “If Donald J. Trump decides as president to throw a whistle-blower in jail for trying to talk to a reporter … he will have one man to thank for bequeathing him such expansive power: Barack Obama.”
Put more simply, this authoritarianism is bipartisan.
Journalist James Risen, who was himself a target of this Obama administration repression, wrote in The New York Times in 2016, “If Donald J. Trump decides as president to throw a whistle-blower in jail for trying to talk to a reporter … he will have one man to thank for bequeathing him such expansive power: Barack Obama.”
Put more simply, this authoritarianism is bipartisan.
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