That thing about the meek inheriting the earth? It's just something they made
up to make all the powerless people who were being exploited and starved to
death, to accept their fate passively.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2019 3:56 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: Book Review: The Trials of Julian Assange
You know, I don't really hold out much hope for the Human Race. Oh, I'll stand
by my convictions, and I'll do what I can to encourage others to stand up
against our mean spirited Masters, but over and over we see from our history
that ugly, corrupt, coarse Controllers rise to the top while they grind
innocent faces with their hobnail boots.
Where oh where is that Earth that the Meek will inherit?
Carl Jarvis
On 12/3/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I've been hearing about this book and I'd look for it on Bookshare if
I hadn't read and heard so much about the case, much of it from
contributors to the book. As a matter of fact, I was just listening to
John Pilger on Flashpoints, providing the latest information, that
many physicians have written a letter to the court, indicating their
belief that Julian may soon die if he isn't transferred to a medical
facility. And Pilger has been going over the history of what has been
done to Assenge, once again. Consortium News streams an online
gathering of Julian's supporters every week also. And I watched part
of a video of a gathering in London where his supporters spoke. It
sounded like there was a large, enthusiastic audience. But apparently, none
of this matters. The US will kill him, one way or another.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Roger Loran
Bailey (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2019 1:39 PM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Book Review: The Trials of Julian Assange
Socialist Action / 1 day ago
By MICHAEL STEVEN SMITH
Book Review: In Defense of Julian Assange Edited by Tariq Ali and
Margaret Kuntsler Paperback, First Edition, 320 pages Published 2019
by OR Books
Whistle-blowing, truth-telling journalist and WikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange now sits in solitary confinement in London‘s infamous Belmarsh
prison. The Trump administration has asked that he be extradited to
Virginia for trial as a spy.
The just-published book In Defense of Julian Assange demonstrates
convincingly that what is at stake in his upcoming trial is the future
of free journalism, here and abroad. It is edited by British socialist
scholar and writer Tariq Ali and civil rights attorney Margaret Kuntsler.
Assange is an Australian citizen. He never set foot in the United
States. He never published untruthful materials. Yet the Trump
administration wants to reach across the ocean, have him extradited to
the United States, try him and put him in solitary in a
maximum-security prison for the rest of his life. If the government
can get away with this, it will have established a precedent that
could lead to the destruction of free journalism. It is the most significant
challenge to a free press in our lifetimes.
Assange faces a 175-year sentence under the century-old Espionage Act,
passed during World War I to be used against spies. He is charged with
conspiring with Chelsea Manning to publish the Iraq War Logs, the
Afghanistan War Logs, and State Department cables that embarrassed U.S.
diplomats around the world and helped spark a 2011 revolt in Tunisia
that was the beginning of the Arab Spring.
Former CIA director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has
called WikiLeaks a “non-state intelligence service.” Hillary Clinton
wanted Assange assassinated by drone. The United Nations special
rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer recently visited him in prison and
concluded that he was being tortured. When he last appeared in court,
he was incoherent and couldn’t remember his name or date of birth.
Julian Assange is not getting the support he needs. Too many
progressive-minded people have been taken in by government propaganda
about him. He detests Hillary Clinton, but many people think he
supported Trump in the last election. In truth, Assange said it’s “a
choice between cholera and gonorrhea.” He insists he did not
collaborate with Russia to help Trump and rape charges against him in
Sweden have been dropped by the prosecutor in that case.
The great human rights attorney and president of the Center for
Constitutional Rights Michael Ratner represented Assange, who was his
last client. Michael died in 2016. Heidi Boghosian, myself and Michael
used to record our WBAI radio show Law And Disorder in the ante-room
outside of Michael’s office in the basement of his home in the Village.
Assange would often call. Michael had a secure encrypted telephone
installed to speak with Assange who had received political asylum in
the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
We knew what the United States would do if it got its hands on him.
Michael wrote at the time that “if there is one take away from the
shared experience in truth-telling and courage, it is a note of
extreme
caution: never doubt the mendacity and cruelty of the state. It will
make pariahs and outcasts of those who will someday be recognized as
heroes.“
The United States claims the right to snatch Assange up in England and
drag him into court in the Eastern District of Virginia where the
evidence he needs to use in his defense will be barred and where the
bar for conviction is low.
Three years after the Bush administration commenced the illegal,
catastrophic war against Iraq, Assange launched WikiLeaks in 2006. A
computer genius, Assange devised a way for publishers to receive
leaked materials anonymously. That year, he published his first
bombshell, a shocking video obtained from whistleblower Chelsea
Manning who was then in the military.
The video showed U.S. soldiers in a helicopter committing a war crime,
gunning down and executing almost a dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians in
the streets of Baghdad, including several children and two Reuters
journalists.
The soldiers can be heard chuckling about it. A photo of the murders
is shown on In Defense’s cover.
The video, which offered an unvarnished glimpse into the casual
brutality and racism of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, made headlines
around the world, much to the chagrin of U.S. leaders. More
embarrassing leaks followed, and the government undertook a years-long
campaign to close down WikiLeaks.
It has successfully poisoned a lot of people’s minds against Assange,
first smearing him as a rapist and then a Trump supporter responsible
for Hillary Clinton’s defeat. The editors write of a decade-long
character assassination
campaign: “The US espionage indictment against Assange shows that he
has been the victim of psychological operation warfare — rumor,
dis-information, and false news — designed to destroy his reputation
and defame his character.“
The people at the helm of the U.S. disinformation and propaganda
machine figured character assassination is just as effective as a
bullet to the back of the head. The smears against him are blown out
of the water in this book.
In Defense is being published by OR Books at the initiative of its
co-founder and editor Colin Robinson and with the support of the
Courage Foundation. It consists of a powerful introduction by the
editors followed by 38 essays, many of them commissioned for the book.
Some of the authors — Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Matt Taibbi — are
well known and all are knowledgeable. Jen Robinson the London human
rights barrister is currently Julian’s attorney. She contributes an
essay. So does Ai Weiwei, the internationally-acclaimed Chinese
contemporary artist, activist and dissident, who visited Julian in
prison, and Margaret Kimberly, an editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda
Report.
The editors wisely chose to include the indictment of Julian Assange.
Reading it is chilling. The 18-count indictment includes conspiracy to
receive national defense information, obtaining national defense
information, disclosure of national defense information, and computer
intrusion. None of it has anything to do with Sweden, rape charges or
the last U.S. election.
Until now it has been legal for a publisher to publish truthful
information no matter how she or he got it. (Chelsea Manning sits in
jail as of this writing because she will not give further testimony to
a grand jury on the subject. She had previously served seven years in
prison after pleading guilty to furnishing materials to WikiLeaks.)
That was the precedent set in
1971 in the famous New York Times case when Daniel Ellsberg gave the
Pentagon papers to the newspaper and they published it showing the
criminality of the war in Vietnam. Attorney Jim Goodale was the chief
attorney for the Times back then. He is a vigorous supporter of Assange.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has promised he would deny the U.S.
request for Assange’s extradition if elected prime minister on Dec. 12.
His shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said in Parliament on the day
of Assange’s arrest that it was his “whistle-blowing activity
[against] illegal wars, mass murder, murder of civilians and
corruption on a grand scale that has put Julian Assange in the crosshairs of
the U.S.
administration.”
In a letter from his highly restrictive confinement in Belmarsh
Prison, Assange wrote on May 13, 2019: “I am unbroken, albeit
literally surrounded by murderers, but the days when 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. I am defenseless
and I am counting on you and others of good character to save my life…
Truth, ultimately, is all we have.“
(You can purchase “In Defense of Julian Assange” at orbooks.com. All
royalties go to The Courage Foundation which supports Assange and
others like him.)
Reprinted with permission from The Indypendent, NYC’s radical newspaper.
Share:
Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on
Facebook (Opens in new window) Click to email this to a friend (Opens
in new
window)
December 2, 2019 in Uncategorized.
Related posts
Free Julian Assange! Defend freedom of the press!
Chelsea Manning jailed — again
Bradley Manning convicted of espionage
Post navigation
← Millions support Rodney Reed’s right to a new trial
Search for articles
Search
Get Involved!
Donate to help support our work
Get email updates
Join Socialist Action
Social Media
View socialistactionusa’s profile on Facebook View SocialistActUS’s
profile on Twitter
Subscribe to Our Newspaper
Newspaper Archives
Newspaper Archives Select Month December 2019 (2) November 2019 (6)
October
2019 (7) September 2019 (12) August 2019 (14) July 2019 (10) June
2019
(14) May 2019 (12) April 2019 (12) March 2019 (13) February 2019
(10) January 2019 (16) December 2018 (12) November 2018
(15) October 2018 (10) September 2018 (8) August 2018 (12) July
2018
(13) June 2018 (11) May 2018 (19) April 2018 (15) March 2018 (17)
February 2018 (14) January 2018 (13) December 2017 (13) November
2017 (13) October 2017 (16) September 2017 (15) August 2017 (16)
July
2017 (17) June 2017 (16) May 2017 (17) April 2017 (14) March 2017
(13) February 2017 (19) January 2017 (13) December 2016 (12)
November
2016 (19) October 2016 (12) September 2016 (10) August 2016 (10)
July
2016 (14) June 2016 (14) May 2016 (9) April 2016 (12) March
2016 (14) February 2016 (8) January 2016 (11) December 2015 (11)
November 2015 (9) October 2015 (8) September 2015 (10) August 2015
(7) July 2015 (13) June 2015 (9) May 2015 (10) April 2015 (12)
March
2015 (9) February 2015 (11) January 2015 (10) December 2014 (12)
November 2014 (11) October 2014 (9) September 2014 (6) August 2014
(10) July 2014 (11) June 2014 (10) May 2014 (11) April 2014 (10)
March
2014 (9) February 2014 (11) January 2014 (11) December 2013
(10) November 2013 (11) October 2013 (17) September 2013 (13)
August
2013 (10) July 2013 (11) June 2013 (15) May 2013 (14) April 2013
(14) March 2013 (12) February 2013 (10) January 2013 (17) December
2012 (7) November 2012 (8) October 2012 (19) September 2012 (2)
August
2012 (27) July 2012 (18) June 2012 (3) May 2012 (19) April
2012 (14) March 2012 (17) February 2012 (19) January 2012 (17)
December
2011 (3) November 2011 (33) October 2011 (14) September
2011 (13) August 2011 (34) July 2011 (24) June 2011 (19) May 2011
(19) April 2011 (15) March 2011 (15) February 2011 (15) January
2011
(15) December 2010 (17) November 2010 (1) October 2010 (6)
September
2010 (3) August 2010 (8) July 2010 (7) June 2010 (2) May 2010
(10) April 2010 (3) March 2010 (8) February 2010 (3) January 2010
(9) December
2009 (6) November 2009 (5) October 2009 (16) September 2009
(3) August 2009 (2) July 2009 (5) June 2009 (2) May 2009 (7) April
2009 (6) March 2009 (16) February 2009 (9) January 2009 (10)
December
2008 (11) November 2008 (8) October 2008 (16) September 2008 (14)
August
2008 (18) July 2008 (12) June 2008 (3) May 2008 (2) April
2008 (3) March 2008 (14) February 2008 (11) January 2008 (11)
December
2007 (8) November 2007 (1) July 2007 (1) June 2007 (1) April 2007
(1) March 2007 (1) February 2007 (3) December 2006 (11) November
2006 (11) October 2006 (13) September 2006 (15) August 2006
(11) July 2006 (18) June 2006 (7) May 2006 (14) April 2006 (6)
March
2006 (14) February 2006 (5) January 2006 (2) December 2005 (9)
November
2005 (8) October 2005 (13) September 2005 (12) August 2005
(9) July 2005 (16) June 2005 (16) May 2005 (16) April 2005 (12)
March
2005 (14) February 2005 (19) January 2005 (15) December 2004
(14) November 2002 (17) October 2002 (19) September 2002 (22)
August
2002 (21) July 2002 (15) May 2002 (21) April 2002 (21) February
2002 (15) January 2002 (15) December 2001 (17) October 2001 (24)
September 2001 (18) July 2001 (19) June 2001 (18) October 2000
(17) September 2000 (21) August 2000 (19) July 2000 (16) June 2000
(26) May
2000 (21) April 2000 (22) March 2000 (28) February 2000 (18)
January
2000 (20) December 1999 (20) November 1999 (26) October 1999
(25) September 1999 (18) August 1999 (40) July 1999 (38) June 1999
(24) May 1999 (27) April 1999 (25) March 1999 (26) February 1999
(29) January 1999 (24) July 1998 (12)
Upcoming Events
No upcoming events
Follow
--
___
Carl Sagan
“Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an
open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or
somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the
literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings
involved?”
― Carl Sagan
