Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday insisted that his government was taking a “firm” stand against the US persecution of WikiLeaks founder and Australian citizen Julian Assange.
During a recent visit to Australia, Secretary of State Antony Blinken rejected concerns raised by his Australian counterpart about Assange, who faces up to 175 years in prison for exposing US war crimes if extradited to the US.
Albanese told reporters on Tuesday that the US case against Julian Assange “has gone on for too long. Enough is enough.” He said Blinken’s public comments about Assange echo what US officials have said privately about the WikiLeaks founder. “We remain very firm in our view and our representations to the American government and we will continue to do so,” Albanese added.
While insisting his government has been firm on the issue, the US pursuit of Assange has not impacted US-Australian military ties. During Blinken’s visit to Australia, the two countries announced several measures to increase the US’s military footprint in the country, which is part of Washington’s preparations for a future war with China in the region.
“Each day the US administration ignores the Australian public on Julian’s freedom, it becomes clearer and clearer Australia’s true standing in the alliance,” Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, said last week, according to AP.
Assange is currently being held in London’s Belmarsh Prison, awaiting the decision of another appeal his legal team filed against the UK decision to extradite him to the US. He’s been indicted under the Espionage Act by the US Justice Department related to documents WikiLeaks published that it received from former Army Private Chelsea Manning. Assange obtained the material using standard journalistic practices, and if he is convicted in the US, it would set a grave precedent for press freedom.
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS=FREEDOM OF PEOPLE.
Welcome back, Donna! Missed you!
Don;t forget freedom to get incinerated to cement American hegemony over China. And FREEDOM OF THE PRESS=FREEDOM OF PEOPLE… Which people are you talking about?????? If you are talking about the Chinese, let them decide on what and how much freedoms they need.and want, not
worth fighting for someones else’s freedoms which they may not want. I’m an American, so I have no real dog in any Pacific fight and don’t want to see the world destroyed over any non- existential issues…!!!!! Or any issues thet can be negotiated.
They are free to write what the CIA tells them to. /s
Finally, the Australian government was silent on Assange for far too long, while caving to American pressure on everything else. Locking up journalists who expose war crimes is the worst hypocrisy of the “freedom” loving Empire. Free Assange now!
They are saying things, but not doing things.
“‘We remain very firm in our view and our representations to the American government and we will continue to do so,’ Albanese added.” …But very politely and I’m confident after Blinken left. (Sarcasm)
This reminds me of how the US bitches about Israel while sending them their annual $4 billion and covering for their atrocities at the UN.
Exactly!
it’s all a PR show…! Where was the Mr PM all these years…?! in a coma…?!
Free Assange Now…!
Free Asange and PLEASE free US from the crazy idea we must go to war with China =. It would be the end of life as we know it and most likely ALL OF US HERE ON EARTH…
US “national security” claims about Assange, ignoring Australia’s expressed concerns, is a small piece of a larger picture of American manipulation of Australia using such claims.
The US is pushing Australia to see China as a long term threat. The reality is the opposite. China is leaving Australia, not pushing in towards Australia. Its exports have already dropped off, and will drop further.
China is opening its interior to overland access to the ores and other resources of Central Asia (and maybe North Korea too), for things it had been getting from Australia.
It could get them cheaper in Central Asia, closer to home, much closer to the developing regions in the Chinese interior. That is the future of further Chinese development, which will be in China’s interior.
Its existing coastal regions will be tying back into its own interior as the new 400 million plus consumers for the products of that coastal industry, supplying those now being brought out of poverty.
China is not pushing out toward Australia. That is fantasy, manipulation by American neocons convinced by their own invented hype that everything is about US dominance.
Great points! Thank you, Mark! I wish more people would read your posts.
Oh yeah, sure. You been shirt-fronting them Yanks on everything. On Fail35, attack subs, joint military drills. You go, boy!
???????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Just a lil sarcasm toward Aussi leadership
Australian Prime Minister Albanese insisted that his government was taking a “firm” stand against the US persecution of Australian citizen Julian Assange
hey Aussies your backbone is showing!
Assange is currently being held in London’s Belmarsh Prison
oh no wonder – it is easy to be defiant when it is out of your hands entirely.
so why haven’t the Limeys simply handed Assange over to uncle sam.
what if the entire Assange dilemma is just a made-up theater.
what did he even do wrong? oh he is an Australian citizen who founded wikiLeaks which published a series of leaks from US army intelligence. so basically he embarrassed uncle sam.
but it’s not as if he took 33 boxes of classified US documents with him on his way out the door and then refused to give them back and showing it to his pals all the while lying about it and then his daughter and her husband take a trip to Saudi and return with approx $2 billion – that would be some actual treason, wouldn’t it.
If this PM is serious about Assange he needs to beef up his stand with some quid pro quo to show that his words are not empty gripes.. GET RID OF THAT CRAZY.ALBATROSS B4 HE GETS RID OF YOU IN A WAR WITH CHINA THAT COULD DESTROY AUSTRAILA AND KILL HALF OF YOUR PEOPLE OR MORE… WHY NOT BE NEUTRAL and take no existential CHANCES???
That sub deal will not make you safe, But increase your danger a hundred fold. It’s all about money and making some very rich and adding to your taxes while setting you up for war with China and their super nukes!!!!!!!!! For GOD’S SAKE, GET REAL, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO GAIN, BUT TO BECOME A TARGET AND EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE TO LOSE… HOW DID THEY SELL THIS ABSOULYELY CRAZY AND DANGEROUS MADNESS…???? IF THOSE SUBS HAVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS, YOU WILL BECOME A TARGET ESPECIALLY ON THE DAY THEY ARRIVE AND A TARGET TILL THE DAY THEY LEAVE…!!!!!
WHAT’s Australia thinking for taking hostile attitude towards China? All that Pacific vastness and “Can’t they all just get along?” as Rodney King pointed out…????? Australia is a non-nuclear bomb power, so it represents no real threat to China. So why would they want to join those who are talking about and getting ready for war with China..???? Does Australia really want to risk war with China for some abstruse freedoms for them????? Think how much damage war with China could do to Austraila and wouldn’t it be better to be a good neighbor to encourage their better selves than a possibly nuclear war to force China to do what?????
Nothing is as ludicrous as the notion that US National Security is in danger when its war crimes are exposed. There are far too many members of the legal profession involved in DC politics.
It’s not a government of laws, which in principle every citizen should be able to comprehend. Rather, it’s a government of lawyers who craft laws that no one else can understand.
In this particular instance, the decision to punish Assange is that he demonstrated clearly that the US government is corrupt at the core, and this is his only sin. National Security has not a damned thing to do with it.
So did he DEMAND the return of the US political hostage or no military build up or spy business in Australia?
Is he sending government officials to the UK demanding they turn over Assange?
So much surface theater, no scruples, no testicular fortitude. Just hot air. So many horrific things are done in the name of the bullsh!t US national security; Security of secret lies, corruption, crimes.