Walking stiffly, largely distracted, and struggling to focus on the bare essentials, US President Joe Biden was keeping company with his Japanese counterpart, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, when asked the question. It concerned what he was doing regarding Australia’s request that the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange be returned to Australia.
Assange, who has spent five tormenting years in Belmarsh Prison in London, is battling extradition to the US on 18 charges, 17 tenuously and dangerously based on the US Espionage Act of 1917.
The words that followed from the near mummified defender of the Free World were short, yet bright enough for the publisher’s supporters. “We’re considering it.” No details were supplied.
To these barest of crumbs came this reaction from from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on ABC’s News Breakfast: “We have raised on behalf of Mr Assange, Australia’s national interest, that enough is enough, that this needs to be brought to a conclusion, and we’ve raised it at each level of government in every possible way.” When pressed on whether this was merely an afterthought from the president, Albanese responded with the usual acknowledgments: the case was complex, and responsibility lay with the US Department of Justice.
One of Assange’s lawyers, the relentless Jennifer Robinson, told Sky News Australia of her encouragement at Biden’s “response, this is what we have been asking for over five years. Since 2010 we’ve been saying this is a dangerous precedent that’s being set. So, we certainly hope it was a serious remark and the US will act on it.” Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, also told Sky News that the statement was significant while WikiLeaks editor-in-chief, Kristinn Hrafnsson thought the utterance “extraordinary”, cautiously hoping “to see in the coming days” whether “clarification of what this means” would be offered by “those in power” and the press corps.
The campaign to free Assange has burgeoned with admirable ferocity. The transformation of the WikiLeaks founder from eccentric, renegade cyber thief deserving punishment to prosecuted and persecuted scribbler and political prisoner has been astonishing.
The boggling legal process has also been shown up as woefully inadequate and scandalous, a form of long-term torture via judicial torment and deprivation. The current ludicrous pitstop entails waiting for a UK Court of Appeal decision as to whether Assange will be granted leave for a full reconsideration of his case, including the merits of the extradition order itself.
The March 26 Court of Appeal decision refused to entertain the glaringly obvious features of the case: that Assange is being prosecuted for his political views, that due process is bound to be denied in a country whose authorities have contemplated his abduction and murder, and that he risks being sentenced for conduct he is not charged with “based on evidence he will not see and which may have been unlawfully obtained.” The refusal to entertain such material as the Yahoo News article from September 2021 outlining the views of intelligence officials on kidnapping and assassination options again cast the entire affair in a poor light.
Even if Assange is granted a full hearing, it is not clear whether the court will go so far as to accept the arguments. The judges have already nobbled the case by offering US prosecutors the chance to offer undertakings, none of which would or could be binding on the DOJ or any US judge hearing the case. Extradition, in other words, is likely to be approved if Assange is “permitted to rely on the First Amendment”, “is not prejudiced at trial (including sentence) by reason of his nationality” and that he “is afforded the same First Amendment protection as a United States citizen, and that the death penalty not be imposed.” These conditions, on the face of it, look absurd in their naïve presumption.
Whether Biden’s latest casual spray lends any credibility to a change of heart remains to be seen. In December 2010, when Vice President in the Obama administration, Biden described Assange as a “high-tech terrorist” for disclosing State Department cables. He failed to identify any parallels with previous cases of disclosures such as the Pentagon papers.
Craig Murray, former British diplomat and Assange confidant, adds a note of cautious sobriety to the recent offering from the president: “I’m not going to get too hopeful immediately on a few words out of the mouth of Biden, because there has been no previous indication, nothing from the Justice Department so far to indicate any easing up.”
For all that, it may well be that the current administration, facing a relentless publicity campaign from human rights organisations, newspapers, legal and medical professionals, not to mention pressure from both his own party in Congress and Republicans, is finally yielding. Caution, however, is the order of the day, and nothing should be read or considered in earnest till signatures are inked and dried. We are quite a way off from that.
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For a bloke that probably needs constant reminders of who he is and what he’s supposed to do and say in the following hour or two,I doubt he’d even remember the question five minutes later.People are grasping at straws in the hope that some nebulous resolution might materialise.There are plenty of figures in the spook fraternity and the military brass that would be soiling their trousers at the very thought of Assange going free.Truth is never welcome in those circles.
J Biden now is rather like a stick insect trying to fit in and fill out Gina Rinehart’s overcoat, not likely. The president cannot fill the presidency and I would judge that no president has done it well since FDR. For one thing, the candidates have declined in quality, from such as Reagan to Bush the shrub, and to Trump, a skidmark. Partly this is because of increasng complexity and the receding of the goal, for one can hardly get a decent minister for any small portfolio. Today’s world has a few kings that are laughably irrelevant, some popes of no presence, some presidents of vomitous vulturing and little service, officials who take the pay, their main activity, media owners who befoul more than just a pot or bowl, so, where do we go, the plain foik? (to buggery???)
It’s dragged on way too long so for dogs sake let Assange go!
‘Merica the Great, Land of the Free! Hah! Whoever thought that punchline up oughta get a Hershey Bar for being the best bullshit artist. Phil Pryor is correct, again. Who followed FDR? Truman, who dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese to scare off the Russians… that worked well, didn’t it? Eisenhower & Kennedy.. yeh nah, coulda been great, Kennedy being an adulterous playboy didn’t help his cause but he was better than many others both before & after, Johnson Nixon Ford Carter Reagan… crooks, spivs, warmongers, duds, liars, old Bush beholden to Big Corporate ‘Merica, Clinton a compromised individual fond of flopping it out for female fondling, Obama a massive disappointment, a tool of the system who turned him into a lapdog executive assassin and warmonger. A sick & sorry history of how ‘Merican politics fails the people time & again. And will continue to do so as it wends its sorry way into the future.
Binoy’s opener, “Walking stiffly, largely distracted, and struggling to focus on the bare essentials”… probably a function of Genocide Joe’s having to wear an adult diaper filled with poop and intestinal mucus, struggling to appear as if everything’s ok.
Why so much focus on Biden’s supposed physical and mental degeneration instead of Trump’s? The latter can’t even utter a single coherent sentence, but Biden’s Strate of the Union address was fire.
Slag him off for his support of the Palestinian genocide all you want, but the personal attacks are pure bullshit.
Unlikely that Biden – and certainly NOT the irrational political psychopath, Donald Trump – will EVER let Assange get away with America’s “trumped up” charges against Assange and Wikileaks for exposing the “uncomfortable truth” about America’s ongoing complicity in vile diversionary wars, genocidal war crimes (particularly the deluded support the hideous Israeli war criminal, Ben Netanyahu, is currently getting from obscenely wealthy Jews living in New York, Los Angeles (Hollywood), Phladephia and Chicago) and other unspeakably vile acts of bible-thumping hypocrisy! America is up to its red neck in shameful acts of war – like George W Bush’s ILLEGAL invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq which achieved absolutely NOTHING but the complete destabilisation of the middle east and ended up with America (and their sycophantic allies, including Australia) cowardly fleeing Afghanistan but allowing that nation (especially defenceless women) to continue an absolutely hellish life in domestic imprisonment under the insane inhumane misogynistic boot of the testosterone-driven male-supremacists in the primitiveTaliban who smugly bragged: “America may have all the supercilious excuses, bombs and power, but WE have all the TIME in the world!” …. sadly, history will show that the monstrous Taliban were right in this regard. The one thing the Taliban proved is that the most primitive, backward and regressive nations on earth are ALL patriarchal!
As a result, the world DESPERATELY needs an impartial, over-seeing body like Wikileaks to expose the hypocrisy, illegal invasions and war crimes of powerful nations, like America and Russia, who see themselves as being ABOVE justifiable condemnation. The wikipedia Link below outlines the war crimes committed by America. Although Wikileaks has no connection to Wikipedia, such articles that expose America’s hypocrisy is just another example of WHY America wants Julian Assange and Wikileaks silenced and muzzled ….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_war_crimes
There remains the Presidential Pardon normally issued when the incumbent President is leaving office but not necessarily always the case. Biden could issue a pardon when he is re-elected or if he loses office in November.
Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning on leaving office, thus granting Manning freedom.
Barack Obama Pardoned 1927 , Trump 237, Joe Biden so far 11 excluding the 6,500 pardoned for simple possession of marijuana.
Terrence:
Wouldn’t Assange have to be convicted for that option to apply?
leefe
Good point : the US department of Justice notes that :
It would be highly unusual, but there have been a few cases where people who had not been charged with a crime were pardoned, including President Gerald Ford’s pardon of President Richard Nixon after Watergate, President Jimmy Carter’s pardon of Vietnam draft dodgers and President George H.W. Bush’s pardon of Caspar Weinberger. President Donald J. Trump pardoned Joseph Arpaio and others after they were charged and convicted, but prior to sentencing. See Pardons Granted by President Donald Trump (justice.gov)
I know some Australians are shocked to learn that Assange is not a supporter of the left nor a liberal democrat, you can link him to Tony Abbott’s ecosystem? His father is a curious character who parachuted back into his life, once famous; would be more interesting to hear Assange ‘sing’ in court name some names (Trump-Russian grifters), and get some plea/sentence deal to return to Oz.
However, he clearly shows signs of narcissism and implicit lack of empathy for collateral damage caused, especially starting with change from Wikileaks I going off piste to WL II with the latter, according to US based journalists inc Corn of Mother Jones, becoming a ‘Russian cut out’ (frustrated watching WL I materials being used by media, but not monetised a la his then credo of it being free and open source).
According to David Leigh and Luke Harding in their history of Wikileaks, this is where the cleavage begins:
‘A report told that the leaks put hundreds of Afghans at risk for fighting against the Taliban. To this, Assange commented that “Well, they’re informants,” continuing that “So, if they get killed, they’ve got it coming to them. They deserve it’ (The Guardian)
https://vatniksoup.com/images/twitter/GG8NVuZWsAAkqOU.png
Corn in Mother Jones on Russian Trump influence and Assnage liaising with Farage & Stone:
‘In 2016, he collaborated with the Russian attack on the US election to help Trump win. As has been detailed by several government investigations—including in special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report and in a bipartisan report issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee last year…It sought to weaponize the information pilfered by Vladimir Putin’s operatives to cause harm to candidate Hillary Clinton, whom Assange and WikiLeaks had disparaged as a “sadistic sociopath” and a threat to the world. (“We believe it would be much better for [the] GOP to win,” WikiLeaks had tweeted.)’
Nice one while Ukraine, EU, Democrats, UK Remainers (vs Brexit) etc. are still paying for it and watching this Russian-Trump-GOP-Koch-Fox influence and games in the House on aid…. of late many in the GOP are claiming in Rolling Stone:
‘GOP Rep. Turner: Republicans Have ‘Uttered’ Russian Propaganda ‘on the House Floor’. The congressman said it is “absolutely true” that Russia’s anti-Ukraine messaging has “infected” his party’s base’
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/turner-republicans-uttered-russian-propaganda-house-floor-1235000251/
Comes full circle when on the same side e.g. Koch’s Heritage’s now has open antipathy towards Ukraine and any aid, partnered with Danube Institute in Budapest, where in two weeks an Anglo guest, Fox Board member, UK Trade Advisor and Koch GWPF UK member will present at the same and also attend CPAC event, Tony Abbott.
Weird parallel universes….
Andrew Smith says in regard to public perceptions of Julian Assange; “Weird parallel universes…”
What’s actually weird is that Andrew Smith believes everything that comes of of US Senate Intelligence Committee investigations, and believes everything written by that loyal servant of the US mainstream media, David Corn. That has to be the definition of gullible.
And because Andrew has a liking for character assassination, as in repeating alleged comments by Assange, which even if true are irrelevant to his predicament, we see this from Wikipedia, an account of Corn’s darker side, also irrelevant, but right up Andrew’s alley.
“On Nov. 7, 2017, Politico reported that Mother Jones magazine’s editor and chief executive acknowledged “that they [had] investigated… Corn for inappropriate workplace behavior three years ago” and as a result, ended up “warning him about touching female staffers and insensitive descriptions of sexual violence”. After additional new complaints, however Mother Jones editors said they would now probe the new allegations as well: One woman who worked with Corn “expressed concerns [he].. made ‘rape jokes’, regularly gave [several women] unwelcome shoulder rubs and engaged in uninvited touching of their legs, arms, backs, and waists”. Another woman claimed that Corn “came up behind me and put his hands and arms around my body in a way that felt sexual and domineering”. After Corn promised to “do better and “make sure that it didn’t happen again”, there have been no new allegations, and the magazine determined that no further action was warranted.”
Guilt by association and character assassination are favourite tools of Andrew Smith. They are a pathetic means by which to analyse issues of global importance. I’m more than a little ashamed that I had to participate in such a way to illustrate my point.
I agree with the comments up to before Andrew Smith’s loose allegations.
Many years ago in Oz, at a couple of parties, through friends of mine, I met and conversed with Julian. They had known him since days of being college buddies. Two of those friends, who were professional IT folk, said that Julian was a ‘freak’ computer / IT genius.
Julian was certainly a startling character of substantial presence, folks would stop and gawk as he entered a room. He certainly exhibited substantial intelligence, but I found him to be quite shy and enigmatic. After Julian stayed with Geoffrey Robinson and Kathy Lette in London, Kathy Lette revealed that Julian had been officially diagnosed with autism – his unusual persona now made sense to me.
After at least a decade and a half of Britain and America’s extrajudicial manoeuvres and legal jiggery-pokery against Julian, it appears they are running out of political obscurantism and sleights of hand available to keep him locked up. For a while now it seems that they have been in a juggling patsy to wind the matter down so that the nuances and matters of legal substance are so entangled that neither of them can be challenged or left red-faced.
Biden’s statement is a sign, but of what I wouldn’t be so sure. This is a matter of time, and Britain and America for the time being have all the keys.