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Title: Hey Trump: Remember Wikileaks?
Source:
Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity
URL Source: http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archive ... /hey-trump-remember-wikileaks/
Published: Jun 3, 2019
Author: Ron Paul
Post Date: 2019-06-04 06:52:30 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 764
Comments: 2
Last week in an episode of my daily Ron Paul Liberty Report we discussed whether the US and British government were actually trying to kill jailed Wikileaks publisher Julian Assange. More than seven years ago Assange was granted asylum from the government of Ecuador over fears that espionage charges were being prepared against him by Washington. He spent those years in a small room in the Ecuadorian embassy in London without sunlight. Without fresh air. Without exercise. Without medical treatment.
Assange’s critics mocked him for entering the embassy, saying his fear that the US government would indict him was paranoia. Then the US-controlled International Monetary Fund dangled a four billion dollar loan in front of Ecuadorian president Lenin Moreno (elected in 2017, replacing the president who granted him asylum), and Moreno eagerly handed Assange over to British authorities who the same day hauled him before the court to answer for skipping bail. No medical examination after what was seven years of house arrest. Straight to court. He was sentenced to 50 weeks – the maximum sentence.
And what happened while he was serving time in the notorious Belmarsh prison? The Trump Administration decided to go where the Obama Administration before him did not dare to tread: he was indicted on 17 counts under the US Espionage Act and now faces 170 years in prison – or worse – once the formality of his extradition hearing is over. He faces life in prison for acting as a journalist – publishing information about the US government that is clearly in the public interest.
But do they really want to put him up on trial?
When US citizen Otto Warmbier died in a wretched North Korean prison cell after being denied proper medical treatment, the western world was disgusted by Pyongyang’s disregard for basic human rights. Now we have Julian Assange reportedly too sick to even appear by video at his own court hearings. UN Special Rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer has investigated the treatment of Assange over the past nine years and has determined that the journalist has been the “victim of brutal psychological torture.”
UN investigator Melzer concluded, “In 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution I have never seen a group of democratic States ganging up to deliberately isolate, demonize, and abuse a single individual for such a long time and with so little regard for human dignity and the rule of law.”
Governments hate it when the truth is told about them. They prefer to kill the messenger than face the message.
Judge Andrew Napolitano wrote last week that, “the whole purpose of the First Amendment…is to promote and provoke open, wide, robust political debate about the policies of the government.”
We need to understand that it is our First Amendment that is on trial right there along with Assange. The Obama Administration – no defenders of civil liberties – wanted to prosecute Assange but determined that his “crime” was the same kind of journalism that the US mainstream media engages in every day.
Let’s hope President Trump recovers from his amnesia – on the campaign trail he praised Wikileaks more than 100 times but now claims to know nothing about them – and orders his Attorney General to stand down. Assange deserves our gratitude, not a lifetime in prison.
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#1. To: Deckard (#0)
(Edited)
Free Julian Assange! WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange’s health is deteriorating in a British prison, but the journalist was able to get a letter out to the public. In the war on freedom of speech, Assange is asking everyone else who stands against corruption to take his place and keep speaking truth to power. I received a letter from Julian #Assange https://t.co/ckRfg3ngOp via @YouTube— Gordon Dimmack (@GordonDimmack) May 24, 2019
#2. To: Hondo68 (#1)
If Trump is serious about Free Speech, he needs to pardon Assange NOW! Trump seems to forget all of the DNC emails downloaded to WikiLeaks that helped his campaign immensely. But as we all know - Trump is just a puppet whose strings are pulled by Pompeo and Bolton. on the campaign trail he praised Wikileaks more than 100 times but now claims to know nothing about them Selective amnesia or just more lies from the Prevaricator in Chief? Good grief, he denies his lies even when caught lying on tape. Trump denies he called Meghan Markle 'nasty' despite audio of remark
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In The War On Free Speech, Assange Says: “Everyone Else Must Take My Place”
“Julian’s case is of major historic significance. It will be remembered as the worst attack on press freedom in our time,” said WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, Kristinn Hrafnsson, urging people everywhere to oppose their politicians, courts, police, and prisons from being abused to “leave this black stain on history.”
In a handwritten letter from Belmarsh prison, Assange says he is being denied a chance to defend himself and that elements (government officials) in the United States “hate truth, liberty, and justice.” Assange says that the U.S. government wants him extradited and dead for telling the public the horrifying truth about their government.
The letter was sent to independent British journalist Gordon Dimmack, according to an article by RT. It was dated May 13 – ten days before the U.S. announced 17 additional charges under the Espionage Act against the jailed whistleblower. In light of the new indictment, Dimmack read out the letter in a YouTube video. A photo of the handwritten note was soon posted online as well.I am defenseless. I am unbroken, albeit literally surrounded by murderers, but, the days where I could read and speak and organize to defend myself, my ideals, and my people are over until I am free! Everyone else must take my place.
The US government, or rather, those regrettable elements in it that hate truth, liberty and justice, want to cheat their way into my extradition and death, rather than letting the public hear the truth, for which I have won the highest awards in journalism and have been nominated 7 times for the Nobel Peace Prize. Truth, ultimately, is all we have. –Julian Assange, handwritten letter
“Assange’s health situation on Friday was such that it was not possible to conduct a normal conversation with him,”his lawyer Per Samuelson told reporters after visiting Belmarsh. The quote was barely reported on in Sweden, let alone elsewhere. The media has already taken sides and it’s against free speech.
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