“Shock and Horror”: Roger Waters on Assange, Western media bias and US politics

- How do you feel about the fact that the British authorities refused to show leniency in relation to Assange?

“I am shocked and terrified at the same time.” Hearings in this court a couple of days ago looked like some kind of nightmare. When this happens in an English court, I feel ashamed that I am English.

I can’t believe that they are doing this. As you know, the extradition agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom does not apply to any political crimes or claims. So I don’t know on what other basis the British authorities want to extradite Assange.

But it’s clear that this is all rigged and they are trying their best to kill him. The situation with Julian Assange becomes a warning to other journalists: if you tell the truth, especially about the authorities, we will get to you. Here is the message here.

- Here (in Great Britain. - RT ) this was not even mentioned in the evening news.

- I was there on the second of October - on a small stage, together with John Pilger (Australian film director, journalist) - and sang my song Wish You Were Here (“It’s a pity that you are not here”), and then he made a speech. John also made a very good speech to the people who gathered there (there were about a thousand of them). And Julian’s brother turned to them. But the Western media did not say anything about this, although the protest was serious. He was completely ignored. So yes, the point of view we see here is very one-sided ...

As for the information from the campaign on its denigrating, there is nothing substantial in all of this. His cat, the accusations in Sweden, blah blah blah, fifth to tenth ... We see a smokescreen here, the purpose of which is to divert our attention from the following fact: the United States government is trying to plant him so that (as I said) before scare death all the other journalists who could potentially tell the truth about war crimes and other things that our governments dislike.

They want all this to remain a secret. And Assange is one of the most important people who publish information (I must say that it is extremely small, and therefore he is so dear to us all), people who are ready to take risks associated with covering the realities of our lives, about which the people have the right to know. They apply the most severe punishment they can. Punishment for the fact that he went beyond the limits of what is permitted, performing his work as a journalist.

“You mentioned that the Ministry of the Interior had John Pilger with you.” He also visited our program, and it was noticeable that he was shocked by the appearance of Julian Assange ... You said that it seems to you that they are going to kill him.

“Yes, they are killing him.” I did not attend a recent meeting, but I read the Craig Murray countdown dedicated to this. So Murray was shocked by what he saw. They are friends, pretty close friends. According to him, Assange lost about fifteen kilograms. He is balding at an alarming rate. But what is even more frightening is that even when he was simply asked to give his name and so on, he answered with great difficulty. Obviously, they gave him some drugs and in general it is not known what else they did ... For sure, we know one thing: they keep him in solitary confinement. He is in the cell 23 hours a day. I read the reports and it says that Assange has all the symptoms of a man who has been regularly tortured for months.

And he really looks like a man who blinks from daylight, getting out of some dungeon where he was tortured for months. It can be seen that he is very weak. And a real threat loomed over him: they could put an end to him even before the extradition hearing. But the very fact that such hearings are scheduled is disgusting, inconceivably simple.

The idea that we, in the UK, the rule of law, now begin to seem absurd. It was as if there had never been a Magna Carta. Everything says this: the courts and the law in general are just a tool in the hands of the people (whoever they are) who rule us. In this case, it is the government of the United States of America. That's why they were in court, pulled Vanessa Baraitser by the strings - and she reacted like a puppet, did and said everything that they wanted from her. She was pushed by his name there, James Lewis, who represented the government of the United States ... In our court! In our capital, in our country ...

We have become so obsequious lackeys of the empire of the United States of America that we allow such things. And at the same time there is no mass indignation, people do not take to the streets. But even when some do come out, as I and John Pilger did three weeks ago, not a single newspaper mentions this, not a single TV channel either on this or the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Neither in the United Kingdom nor in the United States. In general, I must say that Orwell and Huxley were constantly arguing among themselves over whose vision is closest to the reality of a future dystopia. I think that we now have a lot from both of them.

Big brother, the nightmare of the Orwellian dystopia - that’s what we are now witnessing, including at the court hearing on October 22. As for Huxley ... One has only to look outside and you will see the walking dead, people in headphones who are listening. God knows what. They don’t know at all, our governments are killing this journalist, and we go further in our headphones ... I say “headphones”. But actually it’s like a “catfish”. IPhone is a catfish, a drug. That's what opium is for the people now - the habit of pressing virtual buttons on the smartphone screen while we wander somewhere, thoughtlessly, insensitively and indifferently. We spend our whole lives in this way and allow such garbage to happen on our behalf in our courts, which do not care about our law, which should belong to us, the people, but, alas, does not belong.

- Bernie Sanders runs for US presidency in the 2020 election. On Twitter, you opposed his position on Venezuela, and I want to note that the EU still recognizes her as the leader of Juan Guaido. So, Sanders recently said that if he were president, he would not have prosecuted whistleblowers under the 1917 Spying Act. Is this a ray of hope?

- Any departure from the current situation is already good. I do not particularly believe in the Democratic Party of the United States, but at the same time I have high hopes for a number of young women congressmen. Sanders is now officially supported by Alexandria Okasio-Cortes. 2020 will be a landmark year in American politics, and you see, it affects every one of us. Exactly. And the US foreign policy is affecting everyone in the world, and now it is extremely negative. But if the US government becomes more progressive, they can begin to influence the world positively.

I'm sure Sanders is a good person. When I scolded him for Venezuela, it was all about the fact that he repeated the constantly sounding attitudes of the leading media that Maduro is a dictator and Guaido is a shining light. And all that sort of thing. Full nonsense, which has been demonstrated and that we all now know. That is, Sanders simply showed ignorance, not bothering to find time to talk with people on the ground and find out what is really happening in Venezuela and how its citizens really relate to the Bolivarian revolution and the legacy of Hugo Chavez. And they relate with great love. Let's not forget: before that they had a post-colonial system that divided people into rich and slaves.

- The Wikileaks website revealed a lot of information about lies from the powerful in Latin America and published Clinton’s correspondence, which shows how Sanders’s attempt to run for president in 2016 was thrown under the knife. Now the Russian asset, according to Clinton, is candidate Tulsi Gabbard. Indeed? Is Gabbard a “Russian asset”? Is Assange a “Russian asset”? Are you a “Russian asset”? What is going on?

- It's just rubbish. The whole scandal about the “Russian trace” was absurd from beginning to end. The idea that some government, another state may interfere in the course of elections abroad. Of course, such an intervention is happening! Look at the history of the United States over the past hundred years: they only did that they interfered in the affairs of other states - often simply committing murders, or using force, or buying someone! As everyone knows: the best way to subjugate a people is to lend it money.

Calling Russia the enemy of America is the very distracting maneuver that Hillary Clinton and the other war-racers both in the Democratic and Republican Parties need so much. It is necessary for the American people not to think and say: “Wait a minute! The gap between those of us who need help, medical services and so on, and multimillionaires who live some kind of sky-high life, is completely unacceptable. "

- Back to Julian Assange. You do not plan to write to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and, perhaps, get him to not give Assange to the United States?

- Boris Johnson? Are you joking? Last year, I actually wrote - when I tried to rescue children from the Rog camp in northeastern Syria. And in the end I managed to do it! So, I wrote to the Foreign Minister - at that time he was Jeremy Hunt - and he did not even answer me. This looks, of course, extremely strange, because when you think about the Government of the United Kingdom, you expect that the Foreign Minister at least has an office where the secretary is sitting, who can answer: “Dear Mr. Waters! Thanks for your letter. But would you not go ... ”- well, anything. But I didn’t even get such an answer.

Boris Johnson - unless it can be turned into a photo shoot beneficial to his image - will not pay any attention either to my opinion or to the opinion of anyone about anything.

It must be remembered that Johnson is a graduate of Eaton. They are taught at school that they are special, exceptional, and that their moral duty is to lead, because, firstly, they are leaders by birth (otherwise they would not have studied at Eton), and secondly, they are trained to rule, and now it is their duty. And I'm sure that Boris Johnson believes in all this nonsense. He’s just a jester, and I won’t waste time trying to convey something to him.

See the full version of the interview on the RTD website.