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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
November/December 2020 49
Q
UEENSLANDBORN JULIAN Assane
() founded Wikileaks in . Four
years later it published several hue
and devastatin leaks provided by
US Army intellience analyst Chelsea
Manning, includin: the Afghanistan war logs,
the Iraq war logs and Cablegate. Wikileaks nota-
bly published 250,000 redacted documents and
footage of US troops in an Apache Helicopter
gleefully shooting dead what turned out to be two
Reuters employees and Iraqi civilians fleeing in
Baghdad (Collateral Murder video). Evidence of
torture of Guantanamo Bay detainees also cre-
ated shockwaves, as did revelations of Hilary
Clinton’s entanglement with Wall Street and mili-
tary regimes.
The model of public-interest publishing pio
-
neered by Wikileaks, which facilitated anony-
mous submission of classified material and
organised collaborative reporting across juris
-
dictions, is now widely practised in mainstream
media. The threatened indictment of Assange,
symbol of press freedom, puts all investigative
journalism on trial.
Critics of Wikileaks’ releases included Julia
Gillard, then Australian Prime Minister, who
said they were illegal, and the then US Vice-
President, Joe Biden, who significantly called As
-
sange a terrorist. In 2017 then-CIA director Mike
Pompeo declared that Wikileaks was a “hostile
intelligence service” aided by Russia.
Accolades
On the other hand, Julian Assange was named
Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2010, and
then awarded the Martha Gelhorn Prize in Eng
-
land and the Walkley, an Australian Pulitzer Prize
equivalent. However, the US Justice Department
embarked on a mission to criminalise him and
his associates.
Swedish rape allegations
As Assange kept slipping through his pursu-
ers’ fingers, new jeopardy swooped in 2011 from
Sweden where, surviving largely without a fixed
address, Assange had been spending much of
his time. He was recalled there for questioning
about two women’s accusations of sexual as
-
sault. He agreed to travel from his temporary
UK base to answer the charges on condition the
Swedish government promised not to extradite
him onwards to America.
Assange seeks asylum
Refused these terms, and after exhausting
British legal options, in 2012 Assange sought
asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
In 2016, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention upheld Assange’s plea as eligible,
supported by various statements including one
signed by 500 high-profile figures from more
than 60 countries. Nothing changed. His house-
arrest-like limbo lasted until 11 April 2019 when
he was handed over to police.
On 20 February 2019, the International Mone
-
tary Fund had given Ecuador a $4.2 billion finan-
cial package subject to Washington’s approval.
Within days, Wikileaks’ prize source, Chelsea
Manning, was subpoenaed to inform on As
-
sange, and punished for non-co-operation by a
month in almost total solitary confinement, dur
-
ing which time Ecuadorian president Moreno,
formerly a fan, came out against Wikileaks.
With Assange firmly in the clutches of Anglo-
American law enforcement, the Swedish sexual
assault charges were finally dropped.
Assange jailed
After the police arrest, Assange appeared at
Westminster Magistrates’ Court. The District
Judge remanded him to Belmarsh maximum
security prison until 2 May 2019, when another
Judge at Southwark Crown Court sentenced him
to fifty weeks in jail for violating his 2012 bail
conditions.
Handled like a violent criminal, Assange was
held in an isolation cell and denied virtually all
contact with other prisoners, visitors and his le
-
gal representation. Reports of his deteriorating
mental and physical health spread.
US indictment
The US government launched a criminal in-
vestigation into WikiLeaks and is now seeking
Assange’s extradition from the UK. He faces one
charge of conspiracy and 17 charges of espio
-
nage.
On 11 April 2019, the US District Court for the
Eastern District of Virginia unsealed a 2018 in
-
dictment charging Assange with conspiring to
commit computer intrusions by assisting Chelsea
Manning with breaking a US-government pass
-
word. Having, under extradition rules, only a 60-
day window from the date of Assange’s arrest in
London to add more charges, the US Department
of Justice unveiled a further seventeen criminal
charges against Assange on 23 May 2019, alleg
-
ing he contravened the Espionage Act of 1917
by publishing the names of classified sources
and conspired with and assisted Manning in
obtaining access to classified information. The
Assange’s
extradition,
for conspiracy
and espionage,
unlawfully
political
By Caroline Hurley
London extradition hearing was the
last stand of either Wikileaks founder
or Western Intelligence Imperialism,
and awaits January decision
Assnge leving the Ecudorin Embssy in London, April 2019
MEDIA
50 November/December 2020
eighteen charges mean a potential cumulative
175 years in prison on conviction.
The US-UK extradition treaty cited in the de
-
mand that Assange be handed over explicitly
forbids political extraditions - and the US gov
-
ernment itself had designated him a political
actor in 2010.
Human Rights Watch and others condemned
the move as a regulatory weapon of mass de
-
struction aimed at journalists, whistle-blowers
and other truth-tellers.
Pariah
Assange remains a controversial figure, due
mainly to allegations about his temperament
and conduct, to the sexual assault allegations
and to his alleged support for Donald Trump
during the 2016 US Presidential Election when
WikiLeaks released documents from the Demo
-
cratic National Committee (DNC) showing that it
favoured Hillary Clinton and had tried to subvert
Bernie Sanders. In 2018, Special Counsel Robert
Mueller charged twelve Russian intelligence of
-
ficers with computer hacking and working with
WikiLeaks and other organisations to dissemi
-
nate the documents but Assange said that the
Russian government was not the source of the
DNC documents. In 2019 CNN reported that
Assange had used the Ecuadorian embassy to
meddle in the 2016 election.
Perhaps partly because of this record, the me
-
dia internationally went cold on Julian Assange.
The BBC’s website covered the hearings in just
four – unquestioning - pieces.
The Logistics of the hearing
The extradition hearing began at Woolwich
Crown Court on 24 February 2020 but was largely
adjourned until 7 September. Consortium News
and Courage Foundation supplied coverage
daily; Counterpunch and Defend Wikileaks did
frequently. Even The Guardian engaged though
not enough to impress demonstrators outside
its oces or signatories of a petition complain
-
ing it profited from publishing his leaks yet did
not cover the extradition hearing every day one
of many leading news outlets, including the Bu-
reau of Investigative Journalism that had exten-
sively exploited Wikileaks files.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) was the only
NGO permitted court access. A crowd of hun
-
dreds gathered outside the Old Bailey as the
case began - speakers included Wikileaks’ Edi
-
tor Kristinn Hrafnsson, journalist John Pilger, art-
ist Vivienne Westwood and Assange’s dad John
Shipton.
Judge Vanessa Baraitser revoked video ac
-
cess to prominent Assange supporters; and
Assange’s capacity to attend his own trial was
severely curtailed by his confinement in a
sound-resistant glass box by which he was sepa
-
rated from the courtroom. Most of the evidence
was given remotely.
Inside the Old Bailey, the court heard from
witness after witness about the importance of
the information that Wikileaks revealed: the ex
-
posure of crimes and torture by the US and its
allies in the post-9/11 wars.
The evidence
It was not a normal trial. Usually a witness
stands up in court, gives their evidence, and is
cross-examined. In this hearing, the presiding
district judge, Vanessa Baraitser, had ruled that
evidence would be presented through witness
statements.
Strangely, a witness was only heard from if
the US Government wanted to challenge the evi
-
dence being presented.
John Pilger described the proceedings: “The
prevailing atmosphere has been shocking. I
say that without hesitation; I have sat in many
courts and seldom known such a corruption
of due process — this is due revenge. Put
-
ting aside the ritual associated with “British
justice”, at times it has been evocative of a
Stalinist show trial”.
Here, in the interests of defending democracy,
are the most important evidential contributions.
The Witnesses
The UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture,
Nils Melzer note, that “the case is a battle over
press freedom, the rule of law and the future
of democracy, none of which can coexist with
secrecy”.
Daniel Ellsberg, the former US marine who
leaked the ‘Pentagon Papers’, which helped
to end the Vietnam War by revealing just how
the American people had been lied to over the
course of the conflict, claimed that, when he
worked at the top level of the American Govern-
ment, accounts of war crimes in Vietnam were
held at the highest level of secrecy, with only a
few people having access to the information.
In this case, he testified, the accounts leaked
by Wikileaks were held on a computer system
that could be accessed by more than 100,000
people whose failure to complain he described
as a sign that “torture and assassination have
been normalised”.
Journalism historian and ex-CNN reporter Dr
Mark Feldstein asserted that Assange was a jour
-
nalist though not an objective one. He noted,
despite the emphasis of some lawyers and of
Donald Trump, that in fact in any event the ben
-
efits of the US Constitution’s First Amendment
protections for Free Expression extend “equal
treatment for all speakers...who use mass com
-
munications technology, whether or not they are
members of the press [as an] industry”.
Emeritus Professor of Peace Studies Dr Paul
Rogers praised Assange’s dedication to account
-
ability and transparency – an apparent ongoing
challenge to administrations with other priori
-
ties.
Australian Phillip Adams, whose regularly
updated Change.org petition to free Assange
obtained over half a million names, claimed
somewhat wishfully: “We have a safety net strat
-
egy with Queen Elizabeth II for a Royal Pardon
if extradition is determined and we have now
established a valid case for the International
Criminal Court to investigate this United Nations
Special Rapporteur on Torture verified case of
psychological torturing of Julian Assange”.
Der Spiegel journalist John Goetz emphasised
the extreme measures Assange took to ensure
no one was harmed, including retaining 15,000
documents, and redacting sensitive names.
A statement submitted from Cryptome.org
host John Young confirmed that Assange was not
responsible for releasing unredacted sensitive
material such as remains posted on Cryptome’s
site, its removal never requested by US authori
-
ties.
Der Freitag publisher Jakob Augstein testified
that the unredacted Cablegate files he released
came from Openleaks mirrors and not Wikileaks.
Co-founder of NGO Iraq Body Count John Slo
-
boda validated Wikileaks’ high data protection
standards while acknowledging its Iraq War
Logs as the “single largest contribution to public
knowledge about civilian casualties in Iraq”. Re
-
vealing 15,000 extra casualties possibly played
“the most important role in catalysing public
Wikileaks notably published 250,000
redacted documents and footage of US
troops in an Apache Helicopter gleefully
shooting dead what turned out to be two
Reuters employees.
The US-UK extradition
treaty cited in the demand
that Assange be handed
over explicitly forbids
political extraditions - the
US government itself had
designated him a political
actor in 2010.
November/December 2020 51
opposition” to war there
and in Afghanistan.
Human rights historian
and attorney Carey Shenk
-
man attacked the Espionage
Act 1917 for being a divisive
tool to silence dissent, and
for omitting a public interest
defence.
London barrister Jennifer
Robinson gave evidence
of a visit to the Ecuadorian
Embassy by Congressman
Dana Rohrabacher, who,
representing Trump, spoke
of brokering a pardon for
Assange if he confided his
sources for 2016 Democratic
National Committee leaks. Assange refused but
the oer clearly re-armed the political nature
of his incrimination.
German citizen Khalid El-Masri gave evidence
about how Wikileaks undermined US pressure
on the German state not to arrest the thirteen
CIA agents involved in his rendition and ex
-
treme torture in a black site. He had relied on
cables Wikileaks published to win his case at
the European Court of Human Rights.
Dean Yates from Reuters praised Wikileaks
for countering US lies about the wrongful vio
-
lent possibly war-crime deaths in Baghdad of
his two colleagues in July 2007.
Conservative journalist Cassandra Fairbanks
recounted her horror on learning that her meet
-
ing with Assange in the Ecuadorian Embassy
was secretly recorded, and that his eviction
and arrest by British police were being negoti
-
ated between Ambassador Richard Grenell and
Trump fixer Arthur Schwartz, who was heard
saying Assange’s arrest was planned based on
direct “orders from the president”.
Several days’ medical evidence included a
diagnosis by Dr Michael Kopelman, Emeritus
Professor of Neuropsychiatry at King’s College
London of Assange’s severe depression and
Asperger’s syndrome. Kopelman concluded
that he is “as certain as a psychiatrist ever can
be that, in the event of imminent extradition,”
along with long-term harsh isolation in North
American custody, Assange “would indeed find
a way to commit suicide”.
Former US Marines judge advocate Yancey
Ellis asserted that if extradited, Assange would
be held in extremely-controlled Belmarsh-like
conditions, probably at Alexandria Detention
Center in Virginia, contradicting assurances of
some minimal freedoms made by the prosecu
-
tion’s witness US attorney Gordon Kromberg.
Agreeing with Ellis was founder of Virgin
-
ian Justice Advocacy Group Joel Sickler, who
explained supermax jail cells are only “about
the size of a parking space”, making commu
-
nication with fellow prisoners or anyone impos-
sible, while access to legal
aid for appeals and to basic
healthcare is sorely deficient
despite provisions pledged in
theory by the Bureau of Pris
-
ons (BOP).
Maureen Baird, a former US
prison warden outlined the
nature of Special Administra
-
tive Measures which top up
ordinary prison conditions
for the likes of Assange with
extreme gagging restrictions
and other degrading inhu
-
mane deprivations that rule
out therapeutic activities and
render victims incommuni
-
cado and hopeless. Challeng-
ing SAMs was totally futile: in
her twenty years’ experience,
Baird never witnessed one
removed but rather, a number
extended.
Substantiating this real
-
ity came evidence from US
Attorney Lindsay Lewis con
-
cerning her client Abu Ham-
za, who was placed under a
SAM on extradition from the
U. K. to the U. S. eight years
ago, despite promises to the
contrary and his severe dis
-
abilities. Grievances about
this enforced alienation were
without redress. Like Baird,
Lewis knew of no instance of
an inmate getting a SAM revoked through the
Administrative Remedy process.
That torture system contravenes Article 15
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
“I am uncertain how the BOP has been able to
continue with these types of isolation units,
given all the studies, reports and findings of the
horrific physical and psychological eects they
have on inmates,” said Baird.
Two statements were admitted from two
anonymous former employees of UC Global, a
private security firm hired to spy on Assange in
the Ecuadorian Embassy following approaches
from US intelligence ocials. According to El
Pais, UC Global Director David Morales secured
a contract in Las Vegas with a company em
-
ployed by Trump financier Sheldon Adelson to
transmit recordings to the CIA. The witnesses
said serious consideration was given to how,
mimicking the Kremlin, they could kidnap As
-
sange and even poison him.
Defence lawyer Mark Summers passed on a
message from Assange’s lawyer Gareth Pierce
protesting about the chilling eect on her
team’s legal defence when they discovered
that conversations between them and their cli
-
ent had been bugged.
Other Support
Outside the court setting, former President
of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wrote a
letter to The Guardian and libertarian former
US Republican Presidential candidate Ron
Paul wrote on the website of his own institute
that The War on Assange is a War on Truth,
noting that “to get around the First Amend
-
ment’s guarantee of freedom of the press,
Assange’s tormentors simply claim that he is
not a journalist”.
In a critical and unexpected shift towards
the end of the hearing, Judge Baraitser ac
-
knowledged the case’s political motivation.
She announced she would deliver her rul
-
ing on 4 January 2021. That is after the US
election but before a new administration
takes oce.
Pilger stated: ‘I have sat in
many courts and seldom
known such a corruption
of due process — this is
due revenge, evocative of a
Stalinist show trial’.
The gleeful killing of journlist, nd
others, leked by Wikileks
