Comments 1 - 21 of 21 Search these comments
WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange to be freed after pleading guilty to US espionage charge
Deal will end imprisonment in Britain and allow him to return home to Australia, ending 14-year legal odyssey
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is due to plead guilty on Wednesday to violating US espionage law, in a deal that will end his imprisonment in Britain and allow him to return home to Australia, ending a 14-year legal odyssey.
Assange (52) has agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents, according to filings in the US district court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
He is due to be sentenced to 62 months of time already served at a hearing in Saipan at 9am local time on Wednesday. The island in the Pacific was chosen due to Assange’s opposition to travelling to the mainland US and for its proximity to Australia, prosecutors said.
Mr Assange left Belmarsh prison in the UK on Monday before being bailed by the UK High Court and boarding a flight that afternoon, WikiLeaks said in a statement posted on social media platform X.
plead guilty on Wednesday to violating US espionage law, in a deal that will end his imprisonment in Britain
Maybe the people in charge of the wikileaks documents should be the ones in jail? Accountability much?
Bradley Manning, the US soldier who gave the info to Assange and Wikileaks, was pardoned by Obama.
In the last four years of our Orwellian New Abnormal, the following thought’s occurred to me countless times:
What the world desperately needs is far more brave whistleblowers. What we need is an active and robust WikiLeaks … or far more organizations that perform the vital work of WikiLeaks.
The reasons this has not occurred are, of course, obvious.
The main reason is that the people who could disclose important information about government or Deep State crimes are simply terrified to do this. ...
A few details of the Assange saga should not be forgotten
Before writing this story, I refreshed my memory regarding the details of the Assange saga.
I was reminded that Mike Pompeo, the former U.S. Secretary of State and CIA director, once seriously considered a plot to assassinate Assange.
So did Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State.
According to this Substack review, “Hillary Clinton, one of the worst warmongers in the history of America, proposed to use Barrack Hussein Obama’s favorite illicit assassination method for Assange.
“‘Can’t we just drone this guy?’ Clinton openly inquired, offering a simple remedy to silence Assange and smother WikiLeaks via a planned military drone strike, according to State Department Sources …”
Hillary was no fan of Assange because it was WikiLeaks that revealed her sycophants conspired with the Democratic Party (via Clintonian “dirty tricks”) to ensure her nomination.
WikiLeaks went a Leak Too Far when the organization published videos showing that U.S. Army helicopters killed many innocent Iraqi civilians - including several International journalists - in one of our nation’s wars to “protect democracy.”
The organization also published reports of torture and mistreatment of prisoners and documented revelations showing how the massive U.S. Intelligence Community was spying on, potentially, millions of citizens. ...
I think I understand why many Americans view Assange as either a villain or simply prefer to not think about what’s been done to this man.
Every WikiLeak revelation supports the conclusion that America might not be the force for “freedom” most Americans grew up thinking our nation was.
For most people, the thought that “Maybe we aren’t the Good Guys after all” is intolerable medicine. ...
The Washington Post tells us that “Democracy dies in darkness” and yet The Post was more than content with Julian Assange languishing in a dark prison cell the rest of his life. That is, The Post never used its considerable editorial influence to free the man who had shed the most light on the true nature of our leadership organizations.
Ninety-nine point-nine percent of the country’s activist celebrities were conspicuously silent about the deplorable treatment of Julian Assange (or Ed Snowden or Chelsey Manning or any person who disagreed with Anthony Fauci).
The best-known defenders of Julian Assange were the lead singer of Pink Floyd and an actress who once starred in “Bay Watch.”
One has to ask where Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Bono, Jane Fonda and Robert DeNiro were when Assange was in a British prison? They certainly weren’t outside his prison cell protesting. ...
“So while Assange may be free, we cannot rightly say that justice has been done.
“Justice would look like Assange being granted a full and unconditional pardon and receiving millions of dollars in compensation from the US government for the torment they put him through by his imprisonment in Belmarsh beginning in 2019, his de facto imprisonment in the Ecuadorian embassy beginning in 2012, and his jailing and house arrest beginning in 2010.
“Justice would look like the US making concrete legal and policy changes guaranteeing that Washington could never again use its globe-spanning power and influence to destroy the life of a foreign journalist for reporting inconvenient facts about it, and issuing a formal apology to Julian Assange and his family.
“Justice would look like the arrest and prosecution of the people whose war crimes Assange exposed, and the arrest and prosecution of everyone who helped ruin his life for exposing those crimes. This would include a whole host of government operatives and officials across numerous countries, and multiple US presidents …”
There should be no plea deals to avoid prison for anyone that endangers the security of our military or the national security of the United States. Ever.
Patrick says
plead guilty on Wednesday to violating US espionage law, in a deal that will end his imprisonment in Britain
Wow, Biden knows his back is against the wall. Bold move. Doesn't move the needle though come November. Everyone knew that tracks this stuff knew Trump would do it if in office. Kind of a nothing burger really.
Haven't followed the story hard, but the guy shouldn't have been locked up for something so trivial. Maybe the people in charge of the wikileaks documents should be the ones in jail? Accountability much?
Patrick says
plead guilty on Wednesday to violating US espionage law, in a deal that will end his imprisonment in Britain
Wow, Biden knows his back is against the wall. Bold move. Doesn't move the needle though come November. Everyone knew that tracks this stuff knew Trump would do it if in office. Kind of a nothing burger really.
Haven't followed the story hard, but the guy shouldn't have been locked up for something so trivial. Maybe the people in charge of the wikileaks documents should be the ones in jail? Accountability much?
https://x.com/Stella_Assange/status/1805393089819033890
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/25/julian-assange-is-free-wikileaks-founder-freed-in-deal-with-us