Free Julian Assange: Noam Chomsky, Dan Ellsberg & Jeremy Corbyn Lead Call at Belmarsh Tribunal

[Music] welcome to democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman former British labor leader Jeremy Corbin Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and famed linguist and dissident Noam Chomsky joined others earlier this year calling on President Biden to drop charges against Julian Assange the WikiLeaks founder has been languishing for over four years in the harsh belmarsh prison in London while appealing extradition to the United States if he's extradited tried and convicted Julian Assange faces up to 175 years in jail for violating the U.S Espionage Act for publishing documents that expose U.S war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan in January Noam Chomsky Dan Ellsberg and Jeremy corbyn all took part in the belmarsh tribunal held at the national Press Club in Washington D.C the tribunal was organized by the progressive International and the wow Holland Foundation I co-chaired the tribunal with the Croatian philosopher and activist strechko Horvat today we spend the hour airing excerpts of the belmarsh tribunal we begin with Ben Weisner of the American civil liberties Union he's the lead attorney for NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden no government in any kind of system will voluntarily disclose its own crimes for that we need Brave sources who have first-hand evidence and we need a free press and brave Publishers who are willing to bring this information to the people to whom it belongs now in this case the government characterizes that collaboration between a courageous source and a courageous publisher as a conspiracy of course it was a conspiracy good investigative journalism is always a conspiracy it's a conspiracy to end the Monopoly on information that governments control and to give people the seat at the table that they must have in order for us to be able to judge powerful people and hold them accountable but this is the first time as you've heard already today under the century long history of the Espionage Act that the government has charged this kind of collaboration as a criminal conspiracy uh and and this is vitally important remember without um sources like Chelsea Manning like Edward Snowden without Publishers like Wiki weeks and the partners that it worked with to bring this information forward what would we have not have known uh just over the course of my career we would not have known that prisoners were tortured and sexually humiliated at Abu grave we would not have known that the CIA set up an archipelago of dungeons where people were held in communicato and subjected to barbaric treatment we wouldn't have known that any innocent person ever died in a drone strike we wouldn't have known that governments developed and deployed systems of mass surveillance without the consent or knowledge of the public these are all things that governments classified at the absolute highest level of secrecy and yet can anyone really say that the public in a democracy doesn't have a right to know or a need to know any of the things that I have just said uh if this prosecution goes forward and ends in conviction it will be a very dark day for press freedom in the United States the prosecution has already had a chilling effect in newsrooms around the country the lawyers for Publications are already assessing the risks of publishing certain information in a way that they never had before uh but let's not just focus on the threat to press freedom in the United States because this is an attack on press Freedom globally and that's because the United States is advancing what I think is really the extraordinary claim that it can impose U.S criminal secrecy laws on a foreign publisher who is publishing outside the United States let's think about that for a second let's Linger on that for a second this is opening an incredible Pandora's Box every country has secrecy laws some countries have very Draconian secrecy laws if those countries try to extradite New York Times reporters and Publishers to those countries for publishing their secrets we would cry foul and rightly so does this Administration want to be the first to establish the global precedent that countries can demand the extradition of foreign reporters and Publishers for violating their own laws I I truly hope not it is my great pleasure to announce the next speaker Jeffrey Sterling who is an American lawyer and former CIA employee who was arrested charged and convicted of violating the Espionage Act please Jeffrey join the stage um I spent two and a half years in prison after being wrongfully convicted on no evidence of violating the Espionage Act it was a travesty of a trial and that sentence was held up as a shining example of the reasonableness and fairness that Julian Assange will face being tried here for violating that same Espionage Act I remained sickened to this day that my persecution was held up as The Benchmark of what Julian Assange is going to face in trial here of course the benchmarks they did not talk about include my experience fighting against the Espionage Act a biased criminal justice system and the realities of being behind bars here in the United States I can tell you that any claims of fair or Humane treatment in store for Julian Assange here within our criminal justice system and prisons or outright lies but I would like to focus on the law that Julian Assange is supposedly violated first and foremost it is virtually impossible to defend against the Espionage Act truth is no defense in fact any defense related to truth will be prohibited in addition he won't have access to any of the so-called evidence used against him and to make it even more difficult the government doesn't have to show any harm it is a law and prosecution in which the government says what it wants it's a because we say so law not to be questioned not to be challenged the trial will be nothing more than an affirmation and continuation of the character assassination that the government has launched against Julian Assange from the moment that he spoke up so but what are we really talking about here I mean what is this law the Espionage Act that he's accused of violating and that I was accused of violating you know we're led to believe that Julian and other whistleblowers are threats to the National Security of this country hence being charged with violating the Espionage Act but I'm living proof of what national security actually means here in the United States here's a real Benchmark they don't tell you about in my example I sued the CIA for racial discrimination because they said I was too big and black to serve my country according to the government in that instance and upheld by the same courts that they're intending to try Julian Assange was that a black man fighting for his constitutional rights is a threat to National Security not a surprise really one of the original and enduring threats to the National Security of this country is and has always been African Americans and to punish me as an African-American for having the audacity to sue the CIA I was falsely accused of and put on trial for violating the national act the Espionage Act and by default our national security the only evidence needed to convince me was the color of my skin [Applause] who's our next member of tribunal Margaret Kunstler the legendary American civil rights attorney who has spent her whole career providing support and protecting the rights of activists she was the co-chair of the Belmont tribunal together with me in New York City but this time she's coming to this stage to this room to Washington DC as a witness to speak about the lawsuit against the CIA please Margaret join us [Applause] well I'm not only deeply involved in this lawsuit as a witness but I am deeply involved in this lawsuit as a plaintiff and there are many people who um perhaps who are not with us today who would be very happy to hear that the name of the lawsuit was counselor against Pompeo this is a a lawsuit that we hope will in fact be one of the major ingredients about why the United States cannot try Julian in this country they cannot try Julian in this country because they've overdone their misconduct they've engaged in the level of misconduct in interfering in the defense of Julian Assange that cannot be tolerated and it's brought in this country so that people can understand just the tip of the iceberg about what is has been done to Julian Assange the actions that have been taken against him here lawyers doctors and um other professionals who visited Julian Assange were their conversations were recorded but more than that their equipment was taken their telephones and their computers and they were gone through now this started happening in 2017. before that we had thought that the surveillance of the embassy was to protect Julian but we found out through a lawsuit that was brought in Spain that starting in 1970 in 2017 the lawsuit had completely the type of surveillance that was going on had completely changed and now the surveillance was on a level that has been unheard of in this country and unheard of anywhere in the world that you would record and take information about conversations about what plans were being drawn up about specifically about the health of Julian and about what was going to be the defensive trial now you're not allowed to do this this absolutely violates the the concept of Justice in this country and um what caused this how did how did we reach this level of hatred of disobeyance of law when it comes to Julian Assange well it's significant that it began in uh 2017 because that was the year that Pompeo came into Authority and pompeo's very first speech was that he considered Julian and Wikileaks a non-state hostile intelligence agency now to say that was an explanation that Julian had no rights left to him that they could go in they could kill him anything they wanted to do was fair game and that is something that uh is so astounding to our level of understanding of Justice in this country that that was the cause of this lawsuit this is democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman as we return to the tribunal held in January at the national Press Club I chaired the proceedings with the Croatian philosopher and activist stretchko Horvath with us the British politician former labor party a former labor party leader a great friend of ours a member of the progressive International and a vocal supporter of Julian Assange if he was prime minister of the United Kingdom today perhaps Julian Assange would have been free already [Applause] but it's never too late so it's my great pleasure to present Jeremy corbyn today in Washington DC foreign thank you thank you strecko and thank you Amy for presiding over today's event in this amazing setting of The National Press Club where Julian Assange revealed uncomfortable truths to the world about the murder the murder of innocent civilians in Iraq by specific military orders to do so knowing full well they were breaking the law graduate telling the truth telling the truth all over the world about what governments do and what governments want to hide from I as elected politician I'm very well aware that elected politicians don't like being questioned on the decisions that they make but it's fundamental to a Democratic Society that they are constantly under surveillance and under question they're very keen on putting everybody else under surveillance their decisions should be under surveillance at the same time [Applause] and so Julian published through WikiLeaks huge volumes of information he went to extraordinary lengths to anonymize the sources and protect the sources at the same time he was extremely responsible in his journalistic approach to this and the way his character has been denigrated all over the world is a shame and a disgrace he's threatened with the Espionage Act the Espionage Act for somebody who revealed truths and if he arrives in this country and is put on trial here which I hope he never is and I hope he never does would then face a 175 year sentence it is in effect a death sentence and he would be left for the rest of his life in a Maximum Security Prison in the most appalling conditions he's being held in Her Majesty's prison his Majesty's prison belmarsh in southeast London I've visited that prison on previous occasions to visit prisoners there it is an awful place it is a brutal place it is a place devoid of humanity and he is stuck there not a convicted criminal but a remand prisoner who is potentially awaiting trial he's the only one in that category in that in that particular prison now he is accused and Wikileaks are accused of damaging the interests of the U.S government of the British government of the French government and actually if you plow through the tens of thousands of documents there you'll find they're pretty embarrassing that pretty well every government in the world including as a matter of fact the government of Russia as well because Julian wanted the truth out about what powerful Nations do to people without power who are victims of their exercise of that power so he also exposed the way that desperate poor migrant people face dangers in the Mediterranean in the English Channel and so many other places and so our plea is here today about support for Julian but I say this to journalists who may be watching this around the world you might say well okay that's a sign that's different that's the way sorry it's not it's you as a journalist because if Julian Assange ends up in a Maximum Security Prison in the United States for the rest of his life every other journalist around the world will think oh should I really report this information I've been given should I really speak out about this denial of Human Rights and miscarriage of Justice in any country around the world because the long run the long arm of the United States Espionage might reach me and an extradition treaty might put me in that same prison and around the world there are sadly hundreds of very brave and Brilliant journalists who've lost their lives trying to expose the truth so today here in the National Press Club we're speaking up for journalists real journalists all over the world who want to expose the truth that we are better informed and democracy functions better as a result now as I said I'm an elected politician and what worries me is the Silence of so many fellow elected politicians around the world so my plea here today is this you have been elected by an electoral Democratic process the people who elected you Pace their faith and their trust in you to speak up for them and their democracy your silence makes it worse for Julian your silence makes it worse for democracy as a whole and so when we surrounded the UK Parliament the British Parliament the houses of Parliament with a chain of people thousands of people in support of Julian we were demonstrating our wish that our Parliament speaks up in the same way some politicians in a number of countries have spoken up but I appeal to elected politicians in the United States speak up to defend democracy speak up against the powers of the Espionage Act and speak up for Julian Assange because our human rights are under Threat all over the world the rollback of the advances of the universal Declaration of Human Rights the European Declaration of Human Rights European convention on human rights and many others are under threat at the present time our actions around the world in support of Julian in support of the right to know can and I believe will change the course of what's going on so let's get a message out here today from this National Press Club in Washington we are bearing witness to a travesty of Justice to an abuse of human rights to a denial of freedom of somebody who bravely put himself on the line that we all might know that the innocent died in Abu grave the innocent died in Afghanistan the innocent are dying in the Mediterranean and Innocents die all over the world where unwatched unaccountable Powers decide its expedience and convenience to kill people who get in the way of whatever grand scheme they've got we say no that's why we are demanding Justice for Julian Assange hear the call let's free Julian Assange and we will all be safer as a result of that thank you very much thank you unfortunately some people who are connected to WikiLeaks couldn't have been today with us I want to remind of two names particularly who were beside Julian Assange working on the leaks and analyzing all these secret documents who are still not allowed to come to the United States because they would probably end up in Virginia or in a high security prison one name is Sarah Harrison and the other name is Jacob Applebaum we were supposed to have Christians having son with us today but he was advised by his lawyers not to travel to the United States similar to some other members of the tribunal who didn't arrive today so much about the United States again Christian is an Icelandic investigative journalist who became unfortunately because Julian Assange is in prison the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks in 2018. in recent weeks I've traveled to several Latin American countries and my presidents who are very concerned about the precedent set in the Assange case after meeting President Alberto Fernandez of Argentina and his vice president Christina de kishner they both sided with yassan's campaign urging the Biden Administration to drop the charges against him argentinians asked two others in the region no fully wealthy capability of the CIA in planning kidnapping or killing of individuals as we now know the agency was plotting against Julian in 2017. I met Louis RC the president of Bolivia who fully committed himself in support of Assange the same applied to the newly elected president of Brazil Lula da Silva who understands better than most the nature of the loafer against Julian having himself spent more than 500 Days in prison because of such a law firm a loafer where it is well documented that the U.S Department of Justice was involved president Lula assured me that the fight to end the Injustice entailed in the Assange case would be a priority in his foreign policy I got the same strong support from Gustavo Petro president of Colombia who called for Julian's release and the end of the persecution lastly I met Andreas Manuel Lopez operator president of Mexico who has been constant supporter of Julian and one who understands that this case is more than the battle for the freedom of one individual but a priority fight for underlying principles it was oprador who said that if Julian is extradited to the United States the Statue of Liberty should be dismantled and returned to the Friends the Mexican president received Us in the Wikileaks delegation earlier this month and assured us he would take the matter up personally with President Biden they met last week in Mexico City the political leaders of every major country South of the Border of the United States that now recognize the gravity of Julian's case as Anthony albanesi Prime Minister of Australia has recently added his voice to the demand for Julian's freedom he said in the Australian Parliament that enough is enough and we agree our next speaker is jessalyn radak human rights attorney renowned for her work protecting whistleblowers and journalists while working at the justice department and she disclosed the FBI committed ethics violations and their interrogation of John Walker Lynn among her many roles jessalyn is the Director of National Security and human rights at exposed facts [Applause] I'm jessalyn radak and um I represent whistleblowers and sources for a living basically I have defended the most number of media sources in the U.S who have been investigated and charged under the Espionage Act most recently I represented and still represent Daniel Hale cute huge shout out to Daniel I know he's paying attention to this but basically Daniel had to navigate an Espionage Act prosecution in the most conservative federal court in the country the exact same court where Assange is indicted in front of the same judge Daniel is a veteran of the U.S Air Force who participated in the U.S drone assassination program after leaving the air force he became an outspoken opponent of the US's targeted killing program he basically called out and informed the public about targeting ineffectiveness and Casualty casualties and consistently exaggerating the accuracy of drone strikes and Under reporting civilian deaths Daniel's house was searched in 2014. like Julian Assange he lived under a Sword of Damocles for a better part of his adult life in May 2019 he was finally arrested and indicted on allegations that he disclosed classified documents to the U.S military's clandestine drone program believed to have been the source material for a series in The Intercept called the Drone papers Daniel pleaded guilty to a single count under the Espionage Act and was sentenced to 45 months in prison I think his case is oppression warning of how an Espionage Act case against Assange would proceed bear with me at sentencing the judge recommended he recognized that Daniel was a whistleblower and recommended that he be placed in a minimum security medical prison but the Bureau of Prisons instead sent him to an orwellian Communications management unit nicknamed gitmo North there are only two such facilities in this country created in the aftermath of 9 11 they were intended to house terrorists Daniel is a pacifist with no priors until recently he has been housed in this special prison with The Merchant of death Victor boot who was recently released so when the U.S gives assurances that Assange won't be put in a supermax don't be fooled because he'll end up in a far worse place one of these communications management units in the CMU Daniel is far more isolated from his support network unable to receive the medical and psychological care he so desperately needs and has more restrictions on his Communications reading materials and visitors with other people than anyone on death row there are a few people in Washington DC who were not afraid to talk about Julian Assange all these years and our next member of tribunal is one of them so it's my big pleasure to present the one and only chip Gibbons policy director of the organization defending rights and descent thank you [Applause] I want to start by acknowledging three people who cannot be here today one is Julian Assange who is imprisoned in a dungeon called belmarsh the second is Daniel Hale who is currently being held in a Communications management unit I've been told that Daniel watches democracy now which is streaming this Daniel if you can hear this I want to save on behalf of everyone in this room you have our solidarity never let them break your spirit a better world is Possible only because of people like you and the third person who can't be here is of course Edward Snowden who exposed that our government was lying to us about how they were spying on us and for this patriotic Act was driven into Exile while the lying spies continue to enjoy lucrative careers with war profiteers and cable news programs and you have to ask yourself do they view those as two different jobs because after all someone has to sell the wars that line their pockets the U.S government knows like we know that without sources there is no journalism but the U.S government is no longer content with merely going after the sources they have made Assange the first person ever indicted under the Espionage Act for the crime of publishing truthful information make no mistake the attempts to silence Assange is part of a larger War to silence those who expose the crimes of Empire militarism and the U.S national security State and it's not just a legal War involving a prosecution but an extra legal War involving covert action and propaganda while the U.S security state is cloaked in secrecy there have been a steady trickle of Revelations about the three-letter agencies war on WikiLeaks the NSA added Assange to their man hunting database the CIA plotted to kidnap and maybe even kill Assange various agencies sought to get around rules protecting press Freedom by arguing Wikileaks were not journalists the NSA discussed the idea of declaring Wikileaks a malicious foreign actor the FBI and the CIA demanded a personal audience with Barack Obama to persuade him that rules protecting press Freedom should not apply to WikiLeaks as Wikileaks should instead be classified as information Brokers I'm not showed an information broker is I don't think the CIA and the FBI know either but finally they invented the term hostile non-state intelligence agency to allow the CIA to engage in offensive counterintelligence against Wikileaks something previously reserved only for rival spy agencies and requires even less oversight and there's very little oversight over the CIA over CIA covert action the U.S government's legal and extra legal war on Wikileaks is a war on journalism itself this is democracy Now democracynow.org The War and Peace report I'm Amy Goodman as we return now to the belmarsh tribunal in Washington D.C on the case of Julian Assange it was held in January at the national Press Club I co-chaired the proceedings with the Croatian philosopher and activist strechko Horvat and now to Betty Metzger as a reporter for the Washington Post in 1971 she was one of the only journalists willing to cover leaked documents exposing FBI crimes including surveillance of students of academics of anti-war and civil rights activists one of the stolen files revealed the existence of one of the FBI's illegal programs cointelpro the counter-intelligence program under J Edgar Hoover she's the former chair of the Department of Journalism at San Francisco State University and the author of the burglary the discovery of J Edgar Hoover's secret FBI Betty Metzger [Applause] I'm honored and unhumbled to be part of this panel that seeks Justice for Julian Assange sorely needed I'm here with a case study something that I think shows very clearly the great importance of protecting whistleblowers and the necessity of a free press and it is the story of the people uh the impact of the people who burglarized an FBI office in 1971 and then stole every file in the office and made them public I've worked with them twice when I didn't know them and they sent files to me back in 1971 and then when I worked on the book when they revealed their identity even though the FBI had at that time the largest search that they had ever had and didn't find the burglars that came out in 2014. um these are eight people were outside whistleblowers they were average citizens though they did extraordinary things in fact they called themselves a Citizens commission to investigate the FBI they had decided that because Congress and the executive branch had never carried out responsibility to over sorry oversee the FBI they would exact oversight as Citizens in order to get documentary evidence of whether the government was suppressing dissent and they made the decision to do this after thinking very seriously about it three of them have very young children and they realized that if con rested and convicted they could serve many years in prison but they thought it was so important to uncover what this hidden all-powerful agency was doing that they decided to break into an office they use tools quite different from what the tools of today's whistleblowers instead of multiple thumb drives or fast spaces on the internet their tools were a crowbar a carjack large suitcases flashlights and getaway cars and eventually copiers but their motivation their motivation was the same as the motivation of other whistleblowers get important information to the public about injustices being done secretly by the government they found what they were looking for evidence of massive suppression of dissent but they also found and I should say it's important and this was 52 years ago and nobody prior to that was writing about anything about intelligence agencies it was assumed both by the government by congress the people who should have had oversight and by journalists that they had an obligation to keep let those agencies keep their secrets there was no accountability in the files that these people released was it one thing was a shocking policy enhance the paranoia get the point across there's an agent behind every mailbox they also found campus employees were hired as FBI informers and to inform on students and faculty and every black student on at least one campus in the Philadelphia area was under FBI surveillance they also found that Hoover operated a massive stasi-like program throughout the country against black Americans every agent in the country was forced to participate and had to hire an Informer to create files on black people to be black in Hoover's bind was to be dangerous and therefore subject to surveillance by the FBI they also discovered that Hoover maintained a security index an ever-expanding list of people believed by Hoover to be subversive and who were to be secretly detained by the FBI during a national emergency calls for Congressional investigation of Hoover and FBI died less than two months after the burglary Congress had no appetite for this but thanks to NBC reporter Carl Stern a congressional investigation later became imperative without Carl's determined effort to find out what cointelpro was those Bureau operations regarded eventually as the worst might never have been revealed Carl would like to have been here with us today and I wish he could have been but he has a very serious case of coven as a result of his successful lawsuit in December 1973. journalists were now armed with the stated purpose of cointelpro to secretly exposed disrupt and neutralize political movements and they began requesting cointelpro files and they started pouring out the public now learned for the first time that the FBI conducted Lawless operations that range from crude to cruel to life-threatening and murder prostitutes known to be have venereal disease were hired to infect campus activists FBI informers were coached to give false testimony against innocent people people known to be innocent to the person testifying testimony that led to convictions and decades in prison for the falsely accused most of them black people a plot was designed to cause Martin Luther King to commit suicide and murder an FBI Informer provided the Chicago Police with the crucial information that made it possible for police to shoot Fred Hampton did as he slept in January 1975 thanks to all this information that came out both the house and the Senate opened investigations of FBI and all entails intelligence agencies it was the first time Congress had done such a thing at hearings High FBI officials testified under oath that Bureau officials had never considered the legality or ethics of cointelpro or any other operations these hearings and the reforms the Senators successfully recommended would not have happened without whistleblowers who risked their freedom and a free press that reported their important Revelations and ultimately a Congress that finally was willing to act including establishing permanent intelligence oversight committees and strengthening the Freedom of Information Act all of these reforms as probably everybody in the room knows have been battered and bruised at various times since then but they exist and they are still valuable it was Joe Biden's Congress that put in place the reforms that flowed from the media burglary the Biden Administration surely knows from the very important Revelations made by whistleblowers in the past that this source of crucial information must not only not be threatened but must be protected to continue the prosecution of Mr Assange under the Espionage Act of 1917 could not only continue Mr assandja's imprisonment for decades it also could in violation of the Constitution got the First Amendment rights of journalists a radical result that surely neither President Biden nor attorney general Garland wants to have as their legacy thank you so the next speaker at this tribunal and we have three more left thanks a lot for the patience of all of you is one of the most famous whistleblowers not in U.S history but in global history and it's my great honor to present him today Daniel Ellsberg [Applause] one of the foundation stones of our former government here in the United States the democracy and a republic it's our first amendment to the Constitution which forbids any law by Congress or the States abridging freedom of speech or of the press along with freedom of religion and of assembly that has precluded the passage of a British type official Secrets Act which most countries have almost no other country has a law of singling out the press as protected by our freedom by the First Amendment and the British type official Secrets act which criminalizes any or oil disclosure of information protected by the government by the executive branch even disclosure to the public courts of the press or to the Congress or Parliament criminalized and subject to prison we've never had such an act because of our first amendment in fact one was almost inadvertently passed by Congress in the year 2000 but it was vetoed by President Clinton as a clear-cut violation of the First Amendment he cited in his opinion and accompanying that some of the opinions in the Pentagon papers case of half a century ago that had resulted from my disclosure of information that I had authorized possession of as a contractor to the government at that time seven thousand pages of top secret documents about the history of U.S decision making in Vietnam which disclosed a repeated sequence by four different presidents of lies and an effect violations of the Constitution treaties and in particular misleading Congress is the costs for War I was facing 115 years in prison but not for an official Secrets act which we don't have it was an experiment by President Nixon to use our Espionage Act which had always been directed and intended for use against spies giving information secretly to a foreign government especially in time of War had never been used as it was by Nixon in my case as and substitute for an official Secrets act for disclosure to the public up until the dream Sanchez's indictment the act however had never been used as an official Secrets Act is against other than sources like oneself who had a possession of information who disclose it to the publicly had never been used against the journalists like Julian Assange although in each case of course of such disclosures or leagues a some form of medium was involved many many people get involved in that but they had never been indicted for that before actually if you're going to use the act against the journalist in blatant violation of the first amendment's denial of congress's ability to criminalize acts by journalists by the Press the first amendment is essentially gone as I say we're almost the first to have it we fought a war of independence and a fellowship Constitution so we have First Amendment Britain does not aware Julie now is and they have an official Secrets act which we don't if we acquire that we give up the main results I would say is that war of independence in the sense that we would are no longer really a republic or a Democrat we have monarchical powers Imperial Powers formally and every Empire requires secrecy to cloak its acts of violence that maintainers vampire the American it's a major form in our change in our form of government okay [Applause] thank you Dan Ellsberg before we turn to gnome Chomsky attorney suchitra vijayan is formally worked for the United Nations war crimes tribunals in Yugoslavia and Rwanda she is founder now of the polis project a new york-based research and journalism organization supporting civil resistance around the world foreign [Applause] the persecution of Julian Assange is not just about First Amendment it's not just about the freedom of press it goes to the heart of the crisis of citizenship the rapid erosion of civil liberties in the hand of deeply authoritarian democracies in the West we need to name the Beast we have to start calling Western liberal democracies what they are they are deeply authoritarian totalitarian with deep lines of fascist ideologies that get implemented not today but for many many years cruelizing descent persecuting dissidents political trials imprisoning journalists in high security prisons and treating them as terrorists are not new these are part of the long established strategies of State Terror throughout history the US government has incarcerated its political opponents black activists students labor organizations writers intellectuals anti-war activists protesters the list is long today the U.S considers its most dangerous enemies those who challenge its abuse of power and expose its crimes both at home and abroad Assange is a political prisoner he is a dissident of the West his crime exposing brutal acts of violence abuse of power and about the crimes against innocent civilians for this every legality deception and Malice has been deployed against him systematic violations of due process judicial bias manipulated and manufactured evidence constant surveillance defamation lies propaganda denial of basic dignity assassination attempts and threats just let that sink in but why is Assange a threat I came of age in the age of after the aftermath of 9 11. in the past 20 years we witnessed a proliferation of militarized borders camps and castle citizenships as a young lawyer I worked providing legal aid for Iraqi refugees in Cairo during this time we served over 800 families hundreds of legal summaries that I wrote were not just about Asylum petitions or resettlement requests these were also biographies of a destruction of a nation and its people Imperial violence Unleashed on them torture death mutilation rapes disappearances in 2010 Wikileaks posted classified U.S military videos depicting the killing of dozens of unarmed Iraqis including two Reuters journalists the release confirmed what many of us had already known the war in Afghanistan was no different Orwell wrote the frightening thing about totalitarianism is not that it commits atrocities but that it attacks the concept of objective truth it claims to control the past as well as the future [Applause] last but not least we have a very short message by one of the most important living public intellectuals of United States Noam Chomsky [Applause] for today is quite simple free Julian Assange Assange has been indicted under the Espionage Act that's another shameful chapter and it's sort of history from its Origins should be strickened from the books the ACT has no place in a free and Democratic Society we should perhaps not be surprised that the ACT is now being used to punish the exercise of Journalism letting citizens know what is being done in their name it's an unforgivable assault against the Majesty of the state the crime of the indictment under this disgraceful legislation is compounded by the years of imprisonment and torture that Julian Assange has already suffered the targets of the indictment however reach far beyond their immediate victim the rich in fact to all of us who hope to understand what is happening in the world and to the journalism profession whose task it is to perform this essential service in a democratic order those who seek to perform this honorable task are under harsh attack in these scribble days that's more reason to assure the attack on journalism will not be joined by the most powerful state in human history in short free Julian Assange without further unconscionable delay

Channel: Democracy Now!

Views: 204,025

Keywords:

Id: 4G9IMOOOz2M

Length: 54min 38sec (3278 seconds)

Published: Mon May 29 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Something_Wicked_627]

Julian Assange faces questions on links to Russia from Reddit users

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jan/11/julian-assange-accused-of-dodging-queries-on-reddit-livestream