The US Department of Justice has presented the press with a new indictment against Julian Assange, the creator of WikiLeaks, who has been imprisoned for many years. The Americans are demanding his extradition from England to the United States, where he will face the wrong court and hundreds of years in prison for revealing the crimes of the American administration to the world. The case of his extradition has been progressing shakyly and swiftly for many months, and judge Ms. Baraitser stubbornly refuses to release him from prison on bail. Now, with a new indictment, this process is likely to drag on.
However, contrary to all norms of justice, the Ministry of Justice didn’t even send a new document to the English court or to Assange’s advocates - only to the press. So this is not so much a new word in the accusation, as the next press release of the Ministry of Justice, the WikiLeaks headquarters said. There are no new documents or new charges, but there are many allegations for which there is no evidence. And on this shaky foundation, the Justice Department is demanding the extradition of one of England’s most brilliant journalists and publishers.
Now Americans say that Julian Assange collaborated with hacker groups that revealed the darkest secrets of American authorities. As is customary in such cases, they mention Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia: it was he who inspired these secret groups to find out how the headquarters of the Democratic Party cheated, circling Senator Sanders’s finger and helping Hillary Clinton.
The new charge says that in 2010, Assange gained unauthorized access to the government’s computer system of NATO. In 2012, Assange allegedly contacted the leader of the hacker group LulzSec (who had been working with the FBI at that time) and provided a list of targets for hacking LulzSec: the CIA, NSA, or TheNew York Times. WikiLeaks received and published emails found when hacking the mail of an American advisory company (apparently Stratfor, which was called the shadow CIA). The hacking was allegedly carried out by Anonymous and an affiliate with LulzSec hacker.
The prosecution has many wonderful details. Of course, they are not proven in court, but Assange’s alleged achievements can be proud of, not shy of.
He saved Edward Snowden when he was in Hong Kong and threatened with extradition to the United States. Allegedly Assange sent his employee, who was able to catch Snowden and fly with him to Moscow. They were going to continue the flight to Venezuela via Cuba, but at that moment the USA canceled Snowden's passport, and he had to apply for asylum in Russia (he received it after some time).
Assange, the prosecution said, from 2009 to 2015 was in contact with young idealistic hackers who extracted secret and top-secret information and transmitted it to the public through WikiLeaks. Thus, the secrets of the Guantanamo prisoners, bank files and other secret archives were obtained.
Not once did Julian Assange try to sell the documents received or make money on them - he did everything so that the public could find out what the secret organizations were actually preparing. He was a people's spy - he spied for the people and in the name of the people.
Assange, the prosecution said, revealed the secrets of the American occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, the secrets are so gloomy that it cost the International Criminal Court to deal with them closely, as the United States seized his property and accounts and took away his visas, as we reported recently.
How can the people find out the truth if the newspapers of the West fulfill the order of their special services and the international justice agencies are neutralized?
WikiLeaks Assange suggested the answer - hack secret archives and put them on the network in the public domain. This was a radical step, compelled by the absolutely lawless actions of the USA and the timidity of the media.
The indictment also contains a story about Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning), who obtained the most important documents for the WikiLeaks from the archives of the Pentagon and the State Department. This brave man spent many years in solitary confinement in CIA prisons, was released - and was again arrested to force him to testify against Assange.
In England, there are growing votes for the liberation of Assange. Demonstrations take place every week, people demand: "Freedom to Assange!" Journalists and politicians are calling for America to refuse and to release the brave Julian into the wild, until he was swept by the steep slides of British prisons. And he is urgently needed - who else will get the original documents and reveal to us the conspiracy that financial movers and manipulators wove long before our days?
The next Friday, Julian's birthday, he will turn 49 years old. I was at his birthday nine years ago in a castle in East Anglia, where he was under house arrest. No one thought that even nine years later he would not be released. Happy Birthday, Julian! See you soon!
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.