Julian Assange speaks as a free man

Julian AssangeI covered this in my notes at the time but it’s really worth repeating and celebrating that Julian Assange didn’t rot to death in a prison. It’s honestly the best news we’ve had at an international level. He wrote about it at the time in the article ‘I’m Free Because I Pled Guilty to Journalism’ by Julian Assange (Scheer Post). In the article, he took time to point out that, despite his 14 years of imprisonment, he’d gotten off comparatively easy, citing the plight of Joshua Schulte.

“In February this year, the alleged source of some of our C.I.A. revelations, former C.I.A. officer Joshua Schulte, was sentenced to 40 years in prison under conditions of extreme isolation. His windows are blacked out and a white noise machine plays 24 hours a day over his door so that he cannot even shout through it. These conditions are more severe than those found in Guantanamo Bay.”

This is how the elites punish disobedience: with extrajudicial and contra-constitutional torture, cruel and unusual. There are only the elites who wield extrajudicial power and the rest of us. The rest of us are arrayed against them; do not let them divide and conquer.

“If the situation were not already bad enough, in my case, the U.S. government asserted a dangerous, dangerous new global legal position. Only U.S. citizens have free speech rights. Europeans and other nationalities do not have free speech rights, but the U.S. claims its Espionage Act still applies to them, regardless of where they are. So Europeans in Europe must obey the U.S. secrecy law with no defenses at all.”

The following video isn’t very tightly edited at all but it has a good presentation by Assange as well as a quite-lengthy question-and-answer session. Assange begins speaking at about 28:30 or so.

LIVE: Julian Assange speaks at the Council of Europe | REUTERS by Reuters (YouTube)

I’ve included several transcripts of the parts I found the most moving or interesting below.[1]

At 01:25:00,

“The US-UK Expedition treaty is one-sided. Nine times more people are extradited to the United States from the UK than the other way around. The protections for US citizens being extradited to the UK are stronger. There is no need to show a primary case or reasonable suspicion, even when the United States seeks to extradite from the UK. It’s an allegation-extradition system. The allegation is alleged; you do not even have a chance to argue that it is not true. All the arguments are based simply upon: ‘is it the right person? Does it breach human rights?’ That’s it.

“That said, I do not think in any way that UK judges are compelled to extradite most people, and particularly journalists, to the United States. Some judges in the UK found in my favor at different stages in that process. Other judges did not. But all judges, whether they are finding in my favor or not, in the United Kingdom, showed extraordinary deference to the United States, engaged in astonishing intellectual back-flips to allow the United States to have its way on my extradition and, in relation to setting precedence that occurred in my case more broadly.

“That’s, to my mind, a function of the selection of UK judges, the narrow section of British Society from which they come, their deep engagement with the UK establishment, and the UK establishment’s deep engagement with the United States. Whether that’s in the intelligence sector, BAE—which is now the largest arms [actually] the largest manufacturer in the United Kingdom—a weapons company—BP, Shell, and some of the major banks. The United Kingdom’s establishment is made up out of people who have benefited from that system for a long period of time. And almost all judges are from it. They don’t need to be told explicitly what to do. They understand what is good for that cohort and what is good for that cohort is keeping a good relationship with the United States government.”

At 01:40:00,

“I was a computer scientist / programmer from a young age, studied mathematics and physics, … cryptography.”

He’s singing my song.

Man, am I just so happy to see this guy out of prison, still alive, still cogent, still incisive, seemingly mentally well and balanced, strong, and still fighting the good fight.

He concluded with:

“Just a few final words. In 2010, I was living in Paris. I went to the United Kingdom and never came back until now. It’s good to be back. It’s good to be amongst people who, as we say in Australia, who give a damn. It’s good to be amongst friends. And I would just like to thank all the people who have fought for my liberation and who have understood importantly that my liberation was coupled to their own liberation. That the basic fundamental liberties, which sustain us all, have to be fought for, and that, when one of us falls through the cracks, soon enough, those cracks will widen and take the rest of us down. So, thank you for your thoughts, your courage in this and other settings, and keep up the fight. Thank you.”

How eloquent.

What a refreshingly happy end to this chapter. The Empire did not get its way. He lives. He speaks. He is loved.[2]