Be wary of what Washington offers in negotiations at the best of times. The empire gives and takes when it can; the hegemon proffers and in equal measure and withdraws offers it deems fit. This is all well known to the legal team of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, who, the Wall Street Journal “exclusively” reveals, is in ongoing negotiations with US Justice Department officials on a possible plea deal.
As things stand, the US Department of Justice is determined to get its mitts on Assange on the dubious strength of 18 charges, 17 confected from the brutal Espionage Act of 1917. Any conviction from these charges risks a 175-year jail term, effectively constituting a death sentence for the Australian publisher.
The war time statute, which was intended to curb free speech and muzzle the press for the duration of the First World War, was assailed by Wisconsin Republican Senator Robert La Follette as a rotten device that impaired “the right of the people to discuss the war in all its phases.” It was exactly in time of war that the citizen “be more alert to the preservation of his right to control his government. He must be most watchful of the encroachment of the military upon the civil power.” And that encroachment is all the more pressing, given the Act’s repurposing as a weapon against leakers and publishers of national security material. In its most obscene incarnation, it has become the US government’s political spear against a non-US national who published US classified documents outside the United States.
The plea deal idea is not new. In August last year, the Sydney Morning Herald pounced upon comments from US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy that a “resolution” to the Assange imbroglio might be on the table. “There is a way to resolve it,” the ambassador suggested at the time. Any such resolution could involve a reduction of any charges in favour of a guilty plea, subject to finalisation by the Department of Justice. Her remarks were heavily caveated: this was more a matter for the DOJ than the State Department or any other agency. “So it’s not really a diplomatic issue, but I think there absolutely could be a resolution.”
The WSJ now reports that officials from the DOJ and Assange’s legal team “have had preliminary discussions in recent months about what a plea deal could look like to end the lengthy legal drama.” These talks “remain in flux” and “could fizzle.” Redundantly, the Journal reports that any such agreement “would require approval at the highest levels of the Justice Department.”
Barry Pollack, one of Assange’s legal representatives, has not been given any indication that the department would, as such, accept the deal, a point he reiterated to Consortium News: “[W]e have been given no indication that the Department of Justice intends to resolve the case.”
One floated possibility would be a guilty plea on a charge of mishandling classified documents, which would be classed as a misdemeanour. Doing so would take some of the sting out of the indictment, which is currently thick with felonies and one conspiracy charge of computer intrusion. “Under the deal, Assange could potentially enter that plea remotely, without setting foot in the US.” Speculation from the paper follows. “The time he has spent behind bars in London would count toward any US sentence, and he would be likely to be free to leave prison shortly after any deal has concluded.”
With little basis for the claim, the report lightly declares that the failure of plea talks would not necessarily be a bad thing for Assange. He could still “be sent to the US for trial”, where “he may not stay for long, given the Australia pledge.” The pledge in question is part of a series of highly questionable assurances given to the UK government that Assange’s carceral conditions would not include detention in the supermax ADX Florence facility, the imposition of notorious Special Administrative Measures, and the provision of appropriate healthcare. Were he to receive a sentence, it would be open to him to apply and serve its balance in Australia. But all such undertakings have been given on condition that they can be broken, and transfer deals between the US and other countries have been plagued by delays, inconsistencies, and bad faith.
The dangers and opportunities to Assange have been bundled together, a sniff of an idea rather than a formulation of a concrete deal. And deals can be broken. It is hard to imagine that Assange would not be expected to board a flight bound for the United States, even if he could make his plea remotely. Constitutional attorney Bruce Afran, in an interview with CN Live! last August, suggested that a plea, taken internationally, was “not barred by any laws. If all parties consent to it, then the court has jurisdiction.” Yes, but what then?
In any event, once on US soil, there is nothing stopping a grand volte face, that nasty legal practice of tagging on new charges that would carry even more onerous penalties. It should be never forgotten that Assange would be delivered up to a country whose authorities had contemplated, at points, abduction, illegal rendition, and assassination.
Either way, the current process is one of gradual judicial and penal assassination, conducted through prolonged proceedings that continue to assail the publisher’s health even as he stays confined to Belmarsh Prison. (Assange awaits the UK High Court’s decision on whether he will be granted leave to appeal the extradition order from the Home Office.) The concerns will be how to spare WikiLeaks founder further punishment while still forcing Washington to concede defeat in its quest to jail a publisher. That quest, unfortunately, remains an ongoing one.
[textblock style=”7″]
Like what we do at The AIMN?
You’ll like it even more knowing that your donation will help us to keep up the good fight.
Chuck in a few bucks and see just how far it goes!
Your contribution to help with the running costs of this site will be gratefully accepted.
You can donate through PayPal or credit card via the button below, or donate via bank transfer: BSB: 062500; A/c no: 10495969
[/textblock]
The first sentence of this article says all we need to know about the Seppos. DO NOT TRUST AMERICA TO DO THE RIGHT THING! They are not our ‘friends’, our government is nothing but puppets to the Great Satan puppet master and will bow to their wishes every time. Completely spineless!
The USA is treacherous, selfish, ignorant, unyielding, sharp/blunt to suit, acrobatic and devious, plus your own entries here. Ask observers of history, especially in relation to Central America, Philippines, Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Cuba, Haiti, and so many others, with murder, intrusion, mass destruction, impovershment and occupation notable features. Trumpy bumpy rubbish is a tiny symptom of deep inadequacies, for the nation is made of “pioneers”, including the scraps, rubbish, offcuts, outcasts, fleeing religion, taxes, military duties, families, service. To tell the truth at the wrong time to “wrong” outlets is criminal there, and the spirit of saintly ones, J Edgar Hoover, Mc Carthy, Kissinger, Gingrich, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Capone and friends, Ponzi and followers, the excruciating Bushes, Trump, indicates a deep incurable sickness.
I am a bit disappointed that this country is incapable of dreaming up some rarely used piece of OUR law in order to slam US Ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy, into Pentonville because she is giving info to OUR enemy.
We could then commence some lengthy prisoner swap deal, that only WE know is never going to happen.
The deal could require the spies in Pine Gap to vacate the premises because they are certainly up to no good, and affect our security far more than the notion of invaders suddenly pouring over our horizon.
Of course they could just class her as “expendable” which is something they do on a regular basis.
But at least we tried to get some form of justice, which is lacking in the deplorables..
It is clear the USA want’s to perpetrate any war crime as it sees fit and and keep it silent if it possibly can. And wants the world to realise this. One has to wonder what other clandestine travesties, war crimes, etc. has it committed without anyone yet knowing?
Having just watched the three series of the ABC production Total Control, a fictional albeit entirely credible rendering of the machinations within the Canberra political universe, I’m reminded of a scene from the first of the three series where the Australian prime minister meets with the US Secretary of State in regard to a USA proposal to establish a military base in outback Qld.
She, the PM, voices her concerns about the timing of the proposal in the context of other domestic political matters. The Secretary of State’s response is, in effect, that the United States doesn’t give a rat’s arse about Australia and its issues, they want the base established and expect Australia to fall in line without objection.
It’s often noted that art imitates reality. Case in point. The hegemon does what it wishes, and all others can go f^ck themselves. As noted by many others on this site, the dissonance on display in that country indicates, as PP noted, a deep incurable sickness.
America is like a virus of the world,it infects everything it touches,its nation is based on lies and greed,and don’t give a dam about anyone or country including there own citizens.They should never ever be trusted to do the right think,they are war mongers and have been since there conception.The only thing that is understandable to them is financial pain, and its on its way to them in bucket loads,there money printing press has been running hot for quite some time now,printing there worthless dollar,and as many countries start to move away from the financial grip of America to a much more open and freer world economy,countries like Australia and Briton are quite happy to go down with the American sinking ship.Australia has never had any strong leaders,and i certainly don’t see that happening in the future,so i would not pin any hope on the Australian government for any kind of help,even if you are a free person,which can change at any time depending on a request from the Americans.We are not a sovereign county and probably will never be.
The land of the free and the home of the brave …. ha ha ha ha haar, what utter nonsense. The despicable ode ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ is about nothing but fear, dread and war, extolled through a fluttering symbol that alternatively half conceals and half discloses. And short of any wisdom or learning has the nation trust only in god, and conquer as a must when the cause is just …. as reckoned by god.
Yes, a despicable ode, that is silent on matters of the nature of the land, extols the quest for power whilst standing in blood and the havoc of war and confusion of battle. In its entirety subverting the normal processes of learning and acquiring of wisdom.
First and increasingly adopted by the minions of militarism, all those within and arriving at America’s shores were met with and encouraged into the mindset contained within the ode. It became America’s modus operandi. So after the Great War, wealth, power and control hungry politicians decided it would be the most perfect embedment into the national psyche to suit their purposes. So it became America’s motif, National Anthem and mindscape of paranoia and corruption.
After more than 40 years of its infection, at the peace and love gathering at Woodstock, 1969, Jimi Hendrix’ magnificent aural rendition of the ‘Star Spangled Banner’ bought the brutal reality of the despicable ode and its infection upon the nation and its m.o. wrought against the world. It brought the crowd of half a million to a stunned silence of realization.
Yet 50 years on, despite the introduction of many good laws of modernity, politicians and corporations of the hegemony maintain with guile, the brutality and mindscape of paranoia and corruption embedded in the National Anthem. They forsake learning and wisdom, national and global wellbeing for a havoc ridden, confused population, wreckage, and the intractable siege of their hegemon.
As they have forsaken other means, it seems that the bankruptcy of their resources, their land and their coffers is bringing them to brook. In the meantime everyone pays a price for their stupidity.
Douglas Pritchard,
The last/only? time Australia even considered the idea of shutting down Pine Gap resulted in regime change.
Simon Birmingham, coalition spokesman on foreign affairs, has come out today (Thursday 27 June) on behalf of the coalition to complain that Julian Assange should not have been granted any greater assistance than Chinese/Australian dual citizens charged with crimes in China, in particular Birmingham cited Yang Hengjun.
Yang Hengjun has been detained for almost five years in China on espionage allegations. Yang Hengjun is a Chinese citizen and an Australian Citizen but China does not recognise dual citizenship. Yang Hengjun is being held in China based on allegations that he engaged in espionage in China.
Julian Assange is an Australian citizen who was alleged to have engaged in national security and espionage issues that impacted on the US. Assange did not commit the alleged crime (s) in the US but was being sought to be extradited to the US to undergo trial in the US. Yet, had he gone on trial in the US he would not have been guaranteed the protections of the US Constitution on free speech and freedom of the press available to all US citizens, because he was not a US citizen – a classic Catch 22.
There are significant differences.
Welcome home Mr Assange.
‘Fishnets’ Downer, the plum-voiced former Australian LNP apparatchik now domiciled in Britain from where he assiduously courts favours as a Conservative sycophant within the self-entitled political set that have brought that country to its knees via their disastrous mismanagement over the last 14 years had nothing positive to say in regard to Assange’s release.
The man has no shame; no surprises here on that account, it would seem that to be shameless is a default requirement for anyone who hitches their star to the conservative side of politics, whether here in Australia or elsewhere.
Downer, as if we need reminding, was the architect of the conspiracy to bug the newly-minted East Timorese government’s office when they were engaged in negotiations over the asset split with respect to the Timor Gap’s petroleum and hydrocarbon resources. De facto, he could be considered a criminal on that basis. Perhaps the USA could consider issuing a warrant for his arrest given that the current federal government shows little inclination to punish this foolish hypocritical wretch?
Fine, he’s been detained long enough, but let’s remember –
* Assange had Clinton’s emails for many months and chose to publish the most damaging of them on the eve of the 2016 presidential election. His strategy helped Trump into the Whitehouse.
* Clinton’s emails were most likely hacked by the Russian intelligence service
* Wikileaks was offered a huge amount of material in 2014, that was damaging to the Kremlin and their actions in Ukraine. Wikileaks declined to publish it.
* Assange’s much lauded father , John Shipton, attended an Aussie Cossack rally that included fascists, anti vaxers. He wore the Z symbol.
* Assange isn’t a hero of free speech, he is a selective manipulator of information and a Trump enabler.
And AC, he didn’t even have the decency to use a pseudonym!
AC, it’s difficult to see how your reference to John Shipton has any relevance to Julian Assange, in the context of your comments. Anyone who’s being paying any attention to the Assange saga is likely to be familiar with his father’s name and his understandable advocacy for the release of his son.
To shoot the son you criticise the father?
So Shipton attended an Aussie Cossack rally! So what? What is it about the Cossacks that you find disturbing, or at least worth mentioning in your post in classic red herring fashion? He wore a Z symbol. Again, so what? Are you aware that the original intent of that symbol was to signify victory, as in …Z meant Za pobedu (“for victory”)? Victory for John Shipton surely meant nothing more than his son’s freedom.
I’d suggest that if he is much lauded, it’s because he had the strength and willingness to stand up for Julian despite the combined forces of American and British government’s wishing to lock him away. One would hope that you’d demonstrate a similar integrity were you in the same position.
Assange may be criticised for certain of his actions, but I’d argue that on balance Wikileaks was less a force for evil than its obverse, shining as it did light into places that were dark by design of operatives who wished to conceal wrongdoings such as war crimes and other instances of malfeasance.
A Commentator, tend to agree, onshore media and Assange supporters have averted their gaze from events and evidence pre Trump election 2016, well documented by Mueller Report and Senate Intelligence Committee on the Trump Campaign (see Mother Jones, Tampere University’s Russian Disinfo team Vatnik Soup, UK investigative ByLine Times etc.).
One can only assume that Assange had been used by various players e.g. some suggest the much earlier document dumps had the hallmarks of FSB/GRU modus operandi all over them i.e. lots of stuff, but very little was useful, then only proved what many knew or suspected, and shock horror, allies conducting espionage on each other (see Oz – Timor Leste)…….
His father is an interesting character, re-entered Julian’s life, with others met (Putin’s ally) Syria’s Assad and appears to be a bona fide faux anti-imperialist ‘tankie’?
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/dec/30/wikileaks-party-members-reported-to-have-met-high-ranking-syrian-officials
However, good timing for Assange to be back in Oz as one of the people who visited him in the Ecuadorian Embassy, Nigel Farage (allegedly handed over a USB with DNC emails, provided by..?), is back in the news with his claims of Russia being provoked by Ukraine, NATO and of course the EU…
One would not be surprised if Assange can be linked organically by one or two ‘cutouts’ via the latter, and same ecosystem as Downer, Abbott et al.; remember the gin tonic Downer had in a London bar with Trump campaign’s George Papadopoulos and the confusion around that ‘event’, which followed…
Lowy Interpreter Flitton (Sep ’22): ‘Downer, Turnbull, Trump and a poke in the Five Eyes. Just a diplomat doing his job? A new book puts the spotlight
back on Australia, Russia and interference in the US election.’
https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/downer-turnbull-trump-poke-five-eyes
I posted this earlier as a quote from Julian Assange as I was led to believe, but did a quick check just in time and found that was actually from Teddy Roosevelt.
But a valuable quote is valuable no matter what the source, so here it is with correct attribution.
“In Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress you may recall the description of the Man with the Muck-rake, the man who could look no way but downward, with the muckrake in his hand; who was offered a celestial crown for his muck-rake, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, but continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor…the Man with the Muck-rake is set forth as the example of him whose vision is fixed on carnal instead of on spiritual things.
Yet he also typifies the man who in this life consistently refuses to see aught that is lofty, and fixes his eyes with solemn intentness only on that which is vile and debasing.
Now, it is very necessary that we should not flinch from seeing what is s vile and debasing. There is filth on the floor, and it must be scraped up with the muck-rake; and there are times and places where this service is the most needed of all the services that can be performed.
But the man who never does anything else, who never thinks or speaks or writes save of his feats with the muck-rake, speedily becomes, not a help to society, not an incitement to good, but one of the most potent forces for evil. There are, in the body politic, economic, and social, many and grave evils, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them. There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil man, whether politician or business man, every evil practice, whether in politics, in business, or in social life. I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform, or in book, magazine, or newspaper, with merciless severity makes such attack, provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful…”
So I have a question for the two despicables who attempted a put-down of Assange. The Man with the Muck-rake from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress — is that you?