Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has expressed frustration over the Biden administration’s efforts to convict WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, an Australian citizen.
“There is nothing to be served by his ongoing incarceration,” Albanese said Friday while in the UK. The Australian leader noted Assange had already spent years incarcerated, as he has been held in London’s Belmarsh Prison since April 2019 and had been confined to the Ecuadorian embassy before that.
“I just say that enough is enough,” he said. “I know it’s frustrating, I share the frustration. I can’t do more than make very clear what my position is, and the US administration is certainly very aware of what the Australian government’s position is.”
Last November, Albanese said he personally asked the US government to drop the charges against Assange, who is facing up to 175 years in prison if convicted for publishing information that revealed US war crimes. The Biden administration has been under increasing pressure to end its attempt to extradite Assange from the UK but shows no sign it will change course.
On May 3, which marked World Press Freedom Day, the State Department refused to acknowledge that Assange was a journalist and backed the charges against him for the first time. Previously, the State Department would not comment on the case.
A group of House Democrats led by Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) recently sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging him to drop the charges against Assange. The WikiLeaks founder used standard journalistic practices to obtain the information he published, and the lawmakers warned of the precedent his conviction could set.
“The prosecution of Mr. Assange, if successful, not only sets a legal precedent whereby journalists or publishers can be prosecuted, but a political one as well. In the future, The New York Times or Washington Post could be prosecuted when they publish important stories based on classified information,” the lawmakers said.
Well the simple answer to that is tell the yanks if they don`t release Assange they can pack up their 18 military bases and F off.
18?
Seriously
Tell them that anyway.
Yes, tell them that anyway! (said the same thing out loud before I read your reply above!! It was really weird, too! : > )
Don’t be fooled by Albanese. He’s a weak, mediocre man with the spine of a jellyfish.
He couldn’t care less about Julian.
Big words are his thing. Lots of hot air. I believe my American friends have coined a useful term for his like, ‘retard’.
Sorry I have that wrong, the word may be ‘blowhard’.
Anyway, if Albanese truly wanted Assange back home in Australia, he would have demanded it as a precondition of AUKUS.
But of course he didn’t. He just rolled over like the coward he is.
Freedom of the press has gone the way of the dodo bird. May 3 is World Press Freedom Day & the US doesn’t live up to its ideals. Albanese is not that much better than Morrison, he should shut down US Bases & withdraw from AUKUS & end support for America’s wars, aid to Israel, Saudi Arabia & Ukraine.
The US is showing its true colors… What happened to Liberty, Fraternity and on and on?…………………………………………………..
They clearly feel they have to publicly continue torturing him in order to keep the press in line. Afraid all the glossy news presenters and cute morning show football players will become an SNL joke, unable longer to sustain the noble lie in the teeth of a crashing economy.
SNL is a one sided comedy show. If it were true to reality, it would parody both sides.
How do you mean? Parody Assange and his family??
I’m not sure what to think because Assange is both a publisher and a hacker. Freedom of the Press should protect him from prosecution for publishing Cablegate. But hacking into the cables themselves to get the information that was published is a crime, even for a journalist. Right?
WRONG, Manning gave Assange the cables and he was able to see this information because of his active duty clearances. No hacking needed…!!!!!
The press today is ‘free’ to report the state’s propaganda and lies. That’s the new ‘freedom’ of the press.
Assange’s predicament has nothing to do with hacking.
Stop making things up.
You’re not reading it right. Hacking means exposing information harmful to the imperial regime. Journalism means pandering and glorifying the imperial regime and condemning enemies of the regime.
They have new word definitions.
Reminds me of the new definition for the word vaccine! Seriously.
Free Julian Assange!
I didn’t make anything up. And you haven’t said what you think is the reason for his predicament.
Hacking into a system to expose a crime is not a crime, rather an awakening…!
The STATE determines what is and isn’t a crime, not you or I.
Who hacked what?
It’s my impression, from the linked Wikipedia article, that Assange provided Chelsea Manning with hacking tools that were used to discover the passwords of files that contained, among other things, top secret diplomatic communications. But I am not certain I’ve got it right.
See the section entitled “Manning Leaks”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange
Manning had full and unrestricted access so there was no need to hack.
Wikipedia?
How many times has that page been edited and by whom?
“How many times has that page been edited and by whom?”
There’s a tab you can click on to find out, right there on the page.
I’m quite aware of that – I’ll avoid wiki ever since I discovered that absolutely anyone can make edits and sometimes these are not just edits but discredits to the original version.
For example – remember George Galloway’s page being edited by the mysterious Phillip Cross?
It was a nasty affair.
The Philip Cross Affair [CM]
Yes, because we only want establishment-approved editors to control what we read, right?
I imagine any author would not appreciate a complete stranger to edit their work when they’re not invited to do so, specially when the edits are negative as was the case with Philip Cross who appeared to be working overtime during the holiday season.
The thing about Wiki is that absolutely anyone Like Philip Cross was able to do edit the page that George Galloway’s had created which was not appreciated.
George Galloway was quite upset about it all – however in the end he got even.
“I imagine”
Yes, I’m well aware of that.
Imagination is a great thing for e.g. writing fiction.
That’s one of the reasons why I’ll pass on Wikipedia.
Back to the topic of this article.
Everything that has been published by Wikileaks is 100% truth.
People love to bash Wikipedia. But the articles there are always well documented with links to original source material. Given Assange’s long history of hacking and the fact that A.G. Holder took the evidence to a Grand Jury, I’m inclined to think he did more than report the news.
Duane Angell – If you really believe all that then you really haven’t got a clue as to what is the truth.
Everything that’s been published by Wikileaks is 100% true.
All the material was provided by whistle-blowers.
The Wikileaks revelations have exposed numerous war crimes committed by the US.
Crimes that ought to be investigated.
You however have decided that the publisher of those revelations has committed a crime and are slandering the most brilliant journalist of our time.
You failed to provide verifiable evidence for your fact free claims and don’t expect me to do your homework for you by linking to a discredited source such as Wiki.
You more than appear to be on the wrong side of history.
Free Assange !!!!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ec5c38e4fdf4a8999c789e41cba5082fd8441aef1df54e2090c169acf1d9fe06.jpg
You’re not familiar with the Philip Cross affair.
In short, someone, a well known public figure created a wiki page only to have Mr Cross editing the page beyond recognition and without being invited to do so.
This is the problem with wikipedia – anyone is able to destroy someone else reputation and their writings.
The Philip Cross Affair CM]
I will keep this in mind. You can’t be too skeptical these days.
Wikipedia is not recommended for doing research.
If you’re going to do research on the web You’ll have to find a source that’s independent and trustworthy – it can take years – I suggest finding at least one trustworthy independent investigative journalist who is free to tell it like it is and stay clear of the MSM.
As I said, Wikipedia consistently provides extensive documentation in the form of links to back up their articles. For example, the 16-page article contains 626 footnotes/links.
I don’t consider them to be 100% accurate. But they do exercise discipline over the process. And they do solicit edits from people like you.
But they don’t do the important part: Telling him only what he wants to hear.
Free Assange Now…!
He committed the unpardonable sin: he embarrassed the political establishment and exposed them for what they are to the people. But, hey people, there’s nothing to be done since the state has the full force of the means of coercion at their disposal to do anything they want to punish those who cross their red lines; that’s what Assange did.
Australia is just another lap dog of Wash. Caitlin Johnstone keeps up on all the BS coming out of Canberra at: https://caitlinjohnstone.com/
Somewhat. It’s a tier one vassal state. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3a38790eba95dc31cc0a9bb33fcb81c160d1337fae9aa3016ff03de15e3e2f7c.jpg
As an Australian I can truly say our nation has no backbone
It’s the politicians who are spineless sellouts like they are just about everywhere, perhaps you meant that the people could be doing more?
Same goes for the European elites.
Australia could simply threaten to close all US spy bases in exchange for dropping all charges against Julian Assange’s.
Then there’s RFK’s jr election campaign promise that he will pardon Assange when elected – which might be too late.
I did not hear that RFK, Jr promised that! MSM does nothing but label him as an anti vax lunatic.
And I do agree that it could be too late. It’s a disgrace what happened to Assange.
I hope that perhaps one day you become good at researching stuff on the web – [It’s really easy and you don’t need the MSM.]
I don’t follow MSM as a rule….which is hard to avoid when I am out during the day on appointments. I simply had not heard that RFK, Jr had promised to free Assange….and MSM is labelling him an antivaxer and little else. Not sure what you misunderstood??
He promised to pardon Julian Assange if elected.
How did you go with the podcasts, have you found a way to listen to them while you’re out and about?
Nah, and I admit I am far behind lately. Just too much going on in my life at the moment but probably why I am hearing so much MSM? I did save your instructions (thanks) but just haven’t had a chance to settle in…I stay off the phone when I am out…thanks for asking.
Nobody needs the mainstream corporate media–turn it off and your brain turns back on.
Hey Sherlock long time no see.
Indido the MSM is functions as a propaganda outlet for government which functions as an extension of the oligarchy.
Lot of other things that effect the brain – good clean water becomes essential
Some reports about plastics in rain water or even near the edge of the polar icecap
Hello Southern. Been messing around on Twitter a lot lately–I finally gave in and signed up.
It’s interesting. Like Disqus but much more immediate, though the character limit is frustrating sometimes. Not for the faint-hearted either–currently infested with deluded NAFO-Nazi war-pigs, for instance–but if your fiercely skeptical and you now how to navigate around the crud that people puke up, it can be a grapevine to getting at facts about what’s going on in the world. Scott Horton and Antiwar have accounts there that I follow, among others. I’ve only encountered Disqus vets DHFabian and iowablackbird there.
Glad to see you’re still kicking here. And glad to see TUSAgain still at it too.
Hey there Sherlock! Glad to see you : > )
Greetings TUS! Good to see you still kickin’.
Aloha Sherlock! Been looking for you! I am working on updating (or dumping and starting over) with my current but unused twitter acct! It’s been dormant (and in a different name with my old avatar that drifted over into my google account)….Not sure how to update but just started to work on that (and everything else, hehe) Just starting to get my feet wet but am so glad you showed up….really!
I don’t have a lot of time so I’m listening to lot of selected podcast, call it the lazy way to stay up to date I’m also reading from substack which has quickly surpassed my expectations.
Same here. I work a lot but my work is pretty much solitary, so indie podcasts are the primary way I stay informed: Jimmy Dore, Aaron Mate and Katie Halper’s Useful Idiots shows, Halper’s own show, Greenwald, the folks at Revolutionary Blackout Network and Sabby Sabs, Convo Couch, Scott Horton’s interviews, Gray Zone and Consortium News shows, Russell Brand and Lee Camp, Richard Wolff, occasionally Kim Iverson’s show, George Galloway’s show, and a handful of others–lately I’ve begun listening to some of RFK Jr.’s stuff archived on Spotify. Gone are the days when I religiously listened to/watched Democracy Now! every weekday.
Lots of stuff on Substack–both audio-visual and text–though I’ve only dipped into it. Most of the stuff I listen to is available on Rumble, which has less advertising than YouTube.
RT also has a 24/7 English-language feed available only–so far as I know–on Rumble, and they also post shorter clips there. Of course there is a slant, but they aren’t the heavily-censored propaganda outlet that projecting U. S. corporatist xenophobes would like us to believe they are. No mainstream U. S. media covers stuff on Palestine or Julian Assange–RT does.
Quite few names that are familiar and some that I shall have to explore, In return I’ll suggest ”the Last American Vagabond” and I since I devour podcats faster they I find really good ones I’m also into unearthing some old stuff like from Guns and Butter.
Good podcats don’t have adverts – when I hear adverts I lose interest real quick – Uk Colunm is real good but when I download them they have an advert – but not when live streaming.
As we might say in Deutschland, Biden ist ein Arschloch.
DON’ BE STUPID, JUST TELL BIDEN UNLESS ASSANGE IS RELEASED THERE WILL BE NO SUB DEAL PERIOD…..!!!!!
It would be the best thing that could have happened to Australia… It would end Australia’s friction with China. China is not looking for trouble, but the U.S. is. The Neocon Biden administration is seeking to thwart China. Those are fighting words. You run too fast for me tom win, so I am going to block you to hold you back from winning…. There is no way for a non-nuclear bomb state o win a war against any nuclear bomb state except in fever dreams…!!!!!