The Belmarsh Tribunal D.C. — The Case of Julian Assange

welcome to the belmarsh Tribunal I want to welcome all the people in this room a particularly significant room given that it was here almost exactly 13 years ago that Julian Assange released his collateral murder video of WikiLeaks I'll talk about that in a moment but thank you to all of you as well as all of the people who are viewing on the democracynow.org live stream people around the world I'm Amy Goodman host of democracy now which airs on 1500 public television and radio stations around the world and on the internet at democracynow.org it is absolutely critical that as journalists we speak out on this critical issue of press freedom the belmarsh tribunal it was convened by the progressive International and the wow Holland foundation and brought to you live by democracy Now The Bill Marsh tribunal sits for the fourth time today here in Washington D.C to hear testimony from a range of expert Witnesses from constitutional lawyers to Acclaim journalists whistleblowers human rights Defenders and a dad to the ongoing attack on press freedom and the First Amendment the Bill Marsh tribunal was inspired by the Nobel prize-winning British philosopher Bertrand Russell and the French philosopher Jean-Paul sart and Simone de Beauvoir and others it first the Tribunal was established in 1966 when representatives of 18 countries gathered to hold the United States accountable for war crimes in Vietnam in the absence of an international Authority to do so today the tribunal pursues Justice for the global campaign against the suppression of dissent and it pursues Justice for journalists who are imprisoned or persecuted Publishers whistleblowers who Dale dare to reveal the crimes of our governments from Ankara to Manila to Budapest to right here in the United States state actors are cracking down on journalists they're sources they're Publishers in a globally coordinated campaign to disrupt The public's access to information it's not just critical to talk about freedom of the press but it's critical to talk about the right of the public to have access to information that is why freedom of the press is so important a landmark case in this campaign is that of Julian Assange the publisher who founded Wikileaks exposed Crimes by the United States government and now faces 175 years in prison if extradited by Britain from the belmarsh prison where he is currently being held assange's case is the first time in history that a publisher has been indicted under the Espionage Act recently it was revealed the CIA had been spying illegally on Julian his lawyers and some members of this very Tribunal the CIA even plotted his assassination at the Ecuadorian Embassy under President Trump Julian Assange made one of the most explosive Revelations right here not only at the national Press Club but right here in this room and we will show images of his news conference in fact on Democracy Now we interviewed him the following morning right here at the national Press Club he released collateral murder what Wikileaks called this videotape which showed harrowing footage of a U.S Apache helicopter assassinating civilians and journalists in Iraq I want to talk about that moment that crime that was documented not by peace activists on the ground but by the military itself the footage coming from the Apache helicopter itself it was July 12 2007. an area of Baghdad called new Baghdad men were walking by below the helicopter unit they called back to base the soldiers in the Apache helicopter they weren't Rogue they asked for permission to engage and they opened fire they killed Iraqi civilians and two Reuters journalists nimir nor Eldin an up-and-coming 22 year old videographer and his driver the Iraqi uh Syed shama father of four Saeed didn't die immediately he was crawling away having been injured a white van pulls up a dad with his two kids taking them to school the uni the helicopter blows up the van as well as kill Saeed shama the kids are critically injured now I dare say this would never have happened if six months before in February of 2007 something that appeared in the Iraq War logs that Wikileaks released had been exposed at the time why standing up for press Freedom free flow of information is so important it was then that the same helicopter unit Apache unit flying overhead saw two men below they were putting up their hands in a surrender sign they called back to base they spoke to the lawyer and they got permission to attack and they killed them people gasp in this room as anyone would and if we knew that at the time if we had that information why it's so critical to have I dare say a an investigation would have been launched and what happened six months later in new Baghdad with that attack that Reuters had appealed for for years on the Freedom of Information Act to get that video to find out what happened to their staff and were denied I dare say that attack would not have happened because we would have known about it before that's why freedom of the press the free flow of information saves lives and that's what we're going to be talking about today uh President Joseph Biden has continued to enforce The Stance of the Trump Administration before him calling for assange's extradition U.S Congress and the White House otherwise have remained largely silent although though though belatedly the New York Times the guardian El Pais their Spiegel and Le Monde have called for the Biden Administration to drop the charges today we're going to hear from an illustrious group of people including the British parliamentarian Jeremy corbyn gnome [Applause] we'll be hearing in person and also in video going back and forth Noam Chomsky the Italian journalist Stefania um maoritsi Daniel olsberg the world's most famous whistleblower um the critically important Betty Metzger who exposed cointelpro I wonder if she was um doing this today if she would be in prison Steve donziger who knows about prison the U.S attorney and more but first i'm going to introduce the co-chair of today's panel stretchko Horvat [Applause] come on thanks a lot Amy it is a great honor to be here today at the national Press Club at the very place where a very courageous publisher one of the most courageous Publishers in the world and our contemporary history revealed American war crimes Wikileaks revealed war crimes and Julian Assange is for almost four years in prison in a prison which is called belmarsh prison while those who committed the war crimes are still free I come from a country which unfortunately had the experience of a bloody war namely X Yugoslavia and you know collateral murder was published in 2007 now it's 15 years it was published in 2010 but the atrocities happened in 2007 and now it's 15 years since that crime and I don't know whether anyone ended up in prison or if anyone was charged or convicted in X Yugoslavia 15 years after the war some war criminals actually were convicted some died in prison some are still free some are unfortunately still in power in the United States no one was convicted some died without being charged and convicted most of the war criminals of these war crimes which you could have seen in collateral murder and other publications of WikiLeaks are still free and others are powerful members of your Society and this is the reason why the Belmont tribunal is coming to Washington DC just two blocks away from the White House it's called belmarsh as you can imagine because we called it after the prison where Julian Assange is still being held we had several tribunals already one in London one in New York City members of the tribunal included Edward Snowden Another Hero Rafael Correa president Lula Janice varufakis and many others today we are here two blocks from the White House to focus on the crimes of the U.S government committed committed against the freedom of press against journalism against the First Amendment and against Julian Assange it is the first time that the publisher is being charged under this very anachronous anachronistic law namely the Espionage Act which comes as you know better than me from from 1917 you know which is a wartime document and you think your country is Progressive you know you still have a law which is like 100 more than 100 years old from the first World War I mean I have to say that as an outsider to this country is really it's as Berthoud brex said is very it's a country is said which needs Heroes and the United States is really sad if someone like me has to come from Croatia to talk about the first amendment it's it's [Applause] been targeted by the most powerful institutions in the world by American institutions by the CIA by the NSA and by the Pentagon who plotted to kill him or to kidnap him from British soil and after 12 years of persecution almost four years in prison of what the United Nations characterized as arbitrary detention he now faces 175 years in a supermax prison in the United States for what for publishing the truth for publishing facts about war crimes of your government for publishing the truth and secrets about the CIA program of surveillance of you my dear fellow American citizens so we are here today among other reasons to remind President Biden of what the presidential candidate Biden said in 2020 quote reporters Without Borders tell us that at least 360 people worldwide are currently imprisoned for their work in journalism we all stand in solidarity with these journalists for as Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1786 quote our Liberty depends on the freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost now I'm not really a big fan of Jefferson given the fact that the same guy you Americans celebrate even today owned more than 600 slaves and in the same way Jefferson was nominally opposed to slavery but only slaves President Biden is normally advocating freedom of press but at the same time continuing the persecution of Julian Assange today we gathered in Washington DC to demand President Biden to drop the charges against Julian Assange [Applause] if he really wants to protect freedom of press and the First Amendment in the meantime while Julian Assange is still in prison all major newspapers of the world have demanded the same to drop the charges the guardian the New York Times Spiegel el pay and LaMont all major human rights organizations demanded the same to drop the charges and even the United Nations called Julian Assange prolonged the tension torture I'm honored to be co-chairing today's tribunal with Amy Goodman a great source of inspiration and I'm happy to welcome all the members of our tribunal and you the audience who is here in a big number and everyone who is watching us today and by this I officially proclaim the tribunal launched thanks a lot we'll move right into the tribunal members Ben Weisner is the director of the ACLU speech privacy and Technology project he's been at the ACLU for 20 years has worked at the intersection of civil liberties and National Security Liber litigating numerous cases involving airport security policies government watchless surveillance practices targeted killing and torture he's testified before Congress as an adjunct professor at New York University School of Law and since 2013 Ben Weisner has been the Principal legal advisor to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden Ben [Applause] thank you Amy thank you friends for being here in this room today to talk about this most important case about a half a century ago in fact the very week that I was born just a few blocks from here the Supreme Court heard and then decided the case of the Pentagon papers and we'll all be hearing from the Pentagon papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg a little bit later this afternoon in the half century that has passed from then until that now there has been no greater threat to press freedom than United States versus Julian Assange and you'll hear quite a bit today about the freedom of the man uh my comments will be about the freedom of the press to fulfill its necessary constitutional role in any democracy 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 and this is vitally important remember without um sources like Chelsea Manning like Edward Snowden without Publishers like Wikileaks and the partners that it worked with to bring this information forward what would we have not have known just over the course of my career we would not have known that prisoners were tortured and sexually humiliated Abu grave we would not have known that the CIA set up an archipelago of dungeons where people were held incommunicado 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 news rooms uh around the country the lawyers for Publications are already assessing the risks of publishing certain information in a way that they never had before 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 was 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 uh and let me wrap up by saying that a country in which a publisher has been extradited and imprisoned for publishing truthful information will be a very different country than the one that we have lived in our whole lives and let's make sure that we do everything possible to make sure that we don't become that country thank you so much [Applause] 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 uh please Jeffrey join the stage thank you it is an absolute honor to be here uh today uh here at the Press Club or years ago my wife uh spoke on my behalf about the Injustice that happened uh to me 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 soul 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 in 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 Julian won't be afforded any so-called constitutional rights that I had what chance is he going to have to fight against these charges of violating the Espionage Act now when I think about how National Security dictated that I can be blatantly discriminated against it painfully reminds me of the horrors of slavery and the laws that were designed to preserve it when examining the Espionage Act and how it's being used it's not unreasonable to be reminded of the anti-literacy laws that were enforced during slavery in this country those laws were used to prevent educating slaves because of the fear that an educated slave population would threaten the nation's security keeping us uneducated and ignorant was a tenet of National Security then and we see the same thing with how the Espionage Act is being used now against whistleblowers and against Julian Assange truly the more things change the more they stay the same when we look at it the Espionage Act is no different than those anti-slavery laws they both represent and they are the very the very embodiment of white supremacism that has always been a part of the identity and governance of this country the Espionage Act has not been used to fight Espionage it's being used against whistleblowers and Julian Assange to keep the subjugated ignorant of its wrongdoings and illegalities in order to maintain its hold on Authority all in the name of National Security I mean think about it none of the Espionage Act prosecutions have or are even allowed to examine the truth of the matter brought to light by The Whistleblower the focus is always only on what was done for the sake of education and accountability the white slave owners knew the truth an educated slave won't be a slave for long that is what this Espionage Act is about what this endless persecution of Assange and whistleblowers everywhere has always been about all in the name again of National Security and thanks to complicity like from the United Kingdom who has been all too willing to serve Julian up to the U.S that same ideology is expanding beyond the bounds of slavery and fulmenting racial Discord in this country to reach perceived threats anywhere under perfidious claims of National Security I think a compelling that this tribunal is happening the same week that the nation celebrates the life and work of Dr Martin Luther King Jr when he said in the letter from a Birmingham Jail that one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws he was talking about laws like the Espionage Act thank you what makes the Espionage Act unjust is that it is not being used to protect this nation it does not apply to the power Brokers in this nation it is being used to keep us all slaves it is therefore an unjust law and should be disobeyed the most immediate and meaningful way this wrongful law can be disobeyed is by the release of Julian Assange the U.S government has already demonstrated a boundless intent to persecute those who dare reveal its transgressions and it won't end with Julian Assange free the man none of us will be free until he is released and the Espionage Act is abolished set the man free thank you [Applause] our next speaker by video is Katrina vandenhuvel Katrina is editorial director and publisher of the nation magazine and writes a weekly column in the Washington Post a frequent commentator on many networks including ABC MSNBC CNN PBS her articles have appeared in newspapers in this country and around the world the nation's journalism has been given many awards including those from the Society of professional journalists National magazine Awards this is Katrina Van Den hoopel honored to join today the publisher of the nation America's oldest weekly founded in 1865 by abolitionists committed to ending the scourge of slavery time and again since then writers for the nation have identified threats to privacy and Liberty the dangers of hypersecurity of surveillance long before they were acknowledged by the main remains Vigilant committed to keeping watch on the Watchers Patriot tears the secure Kratz those who worry more about National embarrassment than National Security we abide by the belief that holding government accountable is Central to the mission free and independent press and a true democracy our democracy is fragile today because as the nation has argued since its founding endless Wars do not contribute to healthy democracy there's a lot of talk today about the rules based order whose roles the rules that give us still preeminent endless Wars who believed were preeminent in a multi-polar world had the authority to lecture the world on issues of press freedom three successive Administrations in this country have mercilessly gone after United Assange persecution and prosecution of Assad undermined U.S efforts to promote the cause the Biden Administration if it's serious about its commitment to Media freedom in the world could lead by example [Music] it is not necessary to make Cassandra hero in order to vigorously oppose his prosecution it is necessary to reject the project assessor presidential Administration that if seen through to the conclusions at a Gravely dangerous precedent for prosecuting journalists and publishers I thought a good deal about the threats faced by journalism in the 21st there are many but few are so serious as the criminalization of speaking from the Power by the way those in power already know the truth and they often hide it from us Administration must end years of politically motivated prosecution of Assange I had long last dropping the charges against the criminalization of whistleblowers and investigative journalists have no place no democracy thank you [Applause] yeah that was a bit of a windy testimony but let me assure you that the Winds of Change are coming to Washington D.C [Applause] this 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 foreign and one of the major things this is going to be a narrow topic so um I hope you'll understand that this is not a massive defense of Julian but 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 I 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 uh 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 2000 um 17. um because that was the year that Pompeo came into Authority and pompeo's very first speech uh 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 um he allowed uh what happened to happen and his effect was so outrageous that he deserves to really suffer under this lawsuit and I don't know that he's going to suffer enough he was served in an embarrassing way and he was very unhappy about how he was served he was served publicly and we got footage of him being served and we were very thrilled about that um but this lawsuit is not only a lawsuit about how far that the government can go but it also is an example of what they have carried out against Julian all along the um the attitudes towards Julian the use of the press to indict him illegally the all of the things that the searches that have been done of his lawyers all of the actions that have been carried against him which were cointelpro actions that you'll hear about later on the cointelpro was used against Julian and he is and considered an enemy and treated as an enemy in the most where he hasn't created has not committed any crime the only thing he has done is reveal the truth and to have someone suffer and to treat someone so violently for telling the truth is really astounding and we hope that this lawsuit will reach out to uh people in this country and begin to explain to them what has been done to Julian Assange and um we hope that it will have an effect that a lawsuit cannot be brought then Julian will not be extradited and he will not be tried in this country and he will be freed because he should be thank you next up Stefania maurizi she's an investigative journalist currently contributing to the major Italian daily alfato cotidiano after working for the last 14 years for La Republica consistently rated among the top two Italian newspapers and for lespresso the most important Italian news magazine Stefania worked with Julian Assange and Wikileaks since 2009 teaming up with teams of international media to cover and investigate all Wikileaks secret documents from the secret files on the war in Afghanistan called The Afghan war logs to the U.S diplomacy cables cable gate from the files on the Guantanamo prisoners called gitmophiles on up to the most recent Revelations about the European military Mission Against boats traveling from Libya to Italy smuggling migrants and refugees and the Espionage activities against French and European League leaders by the National Security Agency her book is just out in English it's called secret power Wikileaks and its enemies this is Stefania [Applause] it is a great honor to be a member of this belmash tribunal as an investigative journalist I'm not here to make any Grand statement about this case I'm here to provide some solid evidence I would say forensic evidence of extremely suspicious facts about the persecution of Julian assangea WikiLeaks I have been there since the very beginning My First Media partnership with Louis clicks once in 2009 and since then I have worked on all their documentation I can assure you that this work hasn't gained me any powerful powerful friends in high in high places quite the opposite it it set me on a collision course with my former newspaper from muichaya to resign in order to keep doing my work on WikiLeaks what I have seen in the course of this on my journalistic work on this case has deeply Disturbed me I have been stunned by the state criminality documented in the files by the impunity that were criminals and torturers enjoy in our democracies I have been shocked that whistleblower and journalists who reveal war crimes do not have a place to hide in our Democratic societies from 2010 on Assange so every possible Refuge he shot himself in an embassy and sought protection in Asylum he knocked at the door of the United Nations working group he knocked the door at the U.N Special Report there on torture nothing and no one was able to prevent the ruin of his physical and mental health that is why I have engaged in a trench warfare I call trench warfare to unearth the truth about this case litigating an foi case in the United States in United Kingdom Sweden and Australia represented by seven lawyers because four governments not just denying me access to this documentation but they have used all legal resources and tactics to prevent me to access this documentation I'm sure you know that in the current attempt to extradite Julian Assange from the United Kingdom to the United States the U.S authorities are acting through a Public Authority British Public Authority called the crown prosecution service this is the very same Authority through which the Swedish prosecutors tried to extradite Julian Assange in connection with the rape allegations the Swedish allegations the Swedish investigation was dropped once and for all in 2019 after remaining in the preliminary stage for nine years with no charge whatsoever my F4i litigation has allowed the revealing that it was the crown prosecution service that trapped Julian Assange in a legal and diplomatic Quagmire which has kept him arbitrarily detained for a decade why did they provide This legal advice it was an advice that destroyed any chance of of justice for anyone it caused the British taxpayers 13.2 million pounds and it basically destroyed his health and his physical and mental health when I tried to dig into this I discovered incredible things like that the crown prosecution service destroyed key documents about the Swedish case why they did so they did it under when circular starmer was heading the crown prosecution service after I discovered this in November 2017. I shared this information with the guardian Pulitzer Prize Yuma mccaskill and we published this Revelation a month after these Revelations I went to the Embassy to discuss this with Juliana Sanchez well my I discovered that my my devices were secretly accessed my phone and screw and the SIM card distracted and our conversation recorded and so on nothing is normal in this case nothing is normal in the United States Australia and Sweden I have run up against the same pushback when last year I appealed to the Swedish parliamentary Ombudsman for an investigation into the highly anomalous handling of the documentation on the Julian Assange case the Parliamentary Ombudsman refused to open an investigation and refused to provide any explanation this month I discovered new information but I'm not allowed to discuss it publicly at this stage due to the ongoing litigation I want to close these remarks with an appeal to the American public and media I'm aware that you are dealing with so much right now but this case marks a point of no return for the United States and for our Democratic societies I come from a country Italy which invented fascism a few things Mark the sliding of a society into fascism than the destruction of freedom of the press and the destruction of the right of the public to know what our government does with our money and in our name in authoritarian Society you cannot reveal war crimes torture and state criminality at the highest level as Julian Assange did and remained free and safe they kill you in a democracy it must be possible this is why we must win this case and free Julian Assange there are only a few months left thank you [Applause] Stefania moritzi who is also one of my big heroes also she doesn't want to be characterized as a hero already mentioned Keir starmer luckily kirst armor is not with us today but we have the pure opposite of kirst armor 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 uh so it's my great pleasure to present Jeremy corbyn today in Washington DC 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 foreign what's Julian charged with telling the truth telling the truth all over the world about what governments do and what governments want to hide from I as an 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 but he's already 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 a way that desperate poor migrant people face dangers in the Mediterranean 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 paced 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 it's expedient and convenient 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 [Applause] thank you [Applause] our next speaker is the American human rights attorney Stephen donziger who was part of a team that won a historic 9.5 billion dollar judgment against Chevron Corporation [Applause] for polluting the Ecuador and Amazon in 2019 he was targeted in New York with the first corporate prosecution in the history of the United States overall he would serve 993 days under house arrest and in prison for a charge where the maximum sentence under law was 180 days Steven zanziger [Applause] foreign thank you Amy and Sharko and this wonderful panel you know half the battle when you sort of deal with the attacks and I and I don't mean to compare in any way my situation to the cruelty that Julian is enduring right now but half the battle is this you know it's it's the solidarity um there's so many people here when I was in those long you know this long period of detention that I never could have imagined would happen in this country because maybe I was a little naive um so many people came through for me and my family just like people were here today for Julian and I cannot tell you um how completely uplifting that was you know part of the challenge when truth tellers speak truth to these entrenched pools of power is how to turn the attacks into opportunities and as I sort of watch the trajectory of Julian's case and I really haven't dug into it very deeply until the last year or two by the way when I read a book by Nils Meltzer I don't know if you folks know the book former um un special repertoire and torture who is completely and meticulously documented that the U.S government narrative about Julian is a complete fraud it is a complete fraud from A to Z and Nils is not someone who comes at this from a movement perspective like he's a serious clinical lawyer and I would recommend by the way to all the journalists out there watching this that if you have doubts about Julian and if you have doubts about the case and if you've been sort of maybe a little bit taken with like well I don't know about that guy that you read Knowles's book because I can tell you as someone who you know represented indigenous people peoples in Ecuador for many many years against Chevron and for those who don't know um there's a bunch of stuff online but Chevron over a period of years through Texaco deliberately dumped billions of gallons of cancer-causing waste into the Amazon and you know I went down there was a young lawyer in 1993 um just like Julian started Wikileaks you know you start thinking hey man we can do these big things and make a big difference in the world and when you're a little too effective at what you do suddenly these entrenched interests of power whether they be you know in the National Security apparatus or the fossil fuel industry they figure out ways to just forget the rule of law you know the rule of law as is normally understood to be applied and I get the fact in this country we've had a lot of problems through history of not applying the rule of law not just recently but is normally understood the rule of law is not being applied to Julian's case it was not applied to my case I am the first person in U.S history the first lawyer ever to be detained pre-trial on a misdemeanor charge and my misdemeanor charge was that Chevron had figured out a way um to get a judge to order me to turn over my computer to their lawyers in the middle of the case with all this confidential information and when I appealed that order to a higher Court the judge charged you with criminal contempt of court he took his charges to the federal prosecutor in New York who refused to prosecute me and then the judge appointed a private corporate law firm to prosecute me in the name of the U.S government without disclosing the fact that that corporate law firm had Chevron as a client I was prosecuted in the name of the U.S government by a corporation and you know when I sort of go through the experience and I'm so happy to be through that piece of it although I'm still dealing with a lot from Chevron but I don't have my ankle bracelet and I look at what Julian is dealing with all I can say is it is absolutely vital that we understand the importance of joy and feeling all of our love and energy and that we continue to spread the word it is critical and I will say as I look at Julian I met Julian One Time by the way a few years ago on the Ecuadorian Embassy when he was there but there is something big happening whether he realizes it or not through the process of fighting for his freedom you know it is a process of Consciousness raising around the world it can be seen as an opportunity to strengthen our freedoms to strengthen freedom of the press as is happening and I just want to point out before closing that there is an increasing corporatization of these types of attacks happening in this country just this week just this week in the United States we had the first police killing of a climate activist in Atlanta I don't know if folks know about this cop city project and there are now 15 people by my count peaceful climate activists who have been charged with domestic terrorism in the United States of America we see in line three the protests in Minnesota the pipeline company pouring millions of dollars into public police to arrest protesters so whether it's the National Security State the fossil fuel industry or other elements of the corporate class we have a serious problem with our government in this country essentially being co-opted by elements that could give a damn about the freedom for the rest of us and a few blocks from here at the Supreme Court which by the way is meeting today to discuss whether they're going to take my appeal of my misdemeanor contempt conviction but that court if you really think about it has six justices now four of whom were appointed by presidents who did not win their elections they're unelected and they're making decisions about almost every critical issue related to the freedom for 330 million people including what happens by the way in Julian's case ultimately so we need to fight harder and I don't mean to be sort of you know leave a message of that would might demoralize people because whenever I'm asked to talk about my experience like the law students I'm like no no you can really do this work this work must be done and it must be done and as we see this increasing oppression we must continue to organize fight spread the word and really try to turn the resistance through giving us into opportunities to advance the cause of justice so I called on President Biden to step up come on this is ridiculous drop the charges and free jewelry of Assange thank you very much foreign unfortunately some people who are connected to WikiLeaks couldn't have been today with us I want to remind those 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 uh Christianson 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 uh Kristen hafenson is an Icelandic investigative journalist who became unfortunately because Julian Assange is in prison the editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks in 2018 recently together with Jose Farrell he was a part of a Wikileaks delegation who had a tour in Latin America and they visited five presidents of Brazil Colombia Bolivia Argentina and Mexico and all of those five presidents pledged that they will support the fight for the freedom of Julian Assange [Applause] so I'm really happy that today unfortunately not to the person but per video Christian raffinson will speak also but about that experience the story of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange has two main components two chapters both equally important one is about the Publications the most important journalistic work of this century the other chapter is about the reaction to this work and it is equally and revealing the explosive stories that emerged from the Publications more than a decade ago are well known war crimes killing squads human rights abuses in Iraq Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay the underbelly of U.S diplomacy in the Diplomatic cables released in 2010 and 11. the reaction site in The wikileak Saga is an ongoing one it is the story of how Empire is used all his might against one individual Julian Assange in an attempt to crush him silence him kill him his resistance has not yet brought him any justice but it has a late bear the raw elements of the empire the one that totally disregards the principles it so proudly preaches of Human Rights freedom of the press the rule of law the quest of brutal Revenge and the attempt to make an examples out of Julian the United States is willing to disregard and undermine the fragile system of international order it has blatantly dismissed to the United Nations findings in favor of our sons and thereby weakened two important human rights bodies one being the United Nations tribunal and arbitrary detention that often has successfully contributed to the release of politically persecuted dissidents the other body is United Nations special operator on torture who found in Julian's favor by disrespecting and dismissing these U.N mandates it undermines their ability to assist other politically persecuted and tortured individuals authoritarian regimes will simply say why should we abide by findings of these U.N institutions when the U.S the UK and Sweden totally disregarded similarly other multilateral bodies are disregarded to the European Council the European Parliament the OAS and on we can go so the Raging pursuit of Julian Assange stops at nothing including undermining fragile International illegal structures that have been built up over decades with great effort in an attempt to increase order on our planet in yassan's case the U.S and the UK are even violating their own bilateral treaty on extradition that treaty exempts extradition for political offenses despite this exemption the United States demands the extradition of Julian Assange on the basis of this treaty whilst at the same time accuse Assange of political offenses not only is espionage a pure form of political offense but the indictment against him is illitered with accusations of political motives it is true that assance is guilty of attempting to put an end to war crimes and Corruption by exposing it you could call that political but if it is truly a political crime it is a crime every decent journalist should be committing it is a journalistic duty and Julian is clearly guilty of Journalism and the evidence of fit are the dozens of wards he and the Wikileaks have received over the last decade in our Twisted World it has been decided by the Empire that exposing the truth is now considered a political crime the desire to make an example out of Assassins and sent a threatening signal to every journalist in the world is so excessive that the United States is ready to put in Jeopardy its press Freedom principles enshrined in the First Amendment now finally all major mainstream media in the U.S have seen the danger in the ensan's persecution to their own position and have raised concern so have all major press Freedom free speeds and civil liberties organizations in the United States and indeed in the world still the case is ongoing despite this the US is still demanding extradition from the United Kingdom and Julian is still in belmar's prison in April he will have spent four years there the longest serving remounted prisoner in the UK in latter times the attacks on Julian continue despite the fact that the indictment against him is totally inconsistent with newly introduced press guidelines of the United States Department of Justice these guidelines are de facto part of U.S law since November guidelines recognize the journalistic right to request receive receipt possess and publish classified government information in the public interest at least 17 out of the 18 counts in Julian's indictment are completely incompatible with these new guidelines Murray Garland's Department of Justice should be flooded with urgent demand to explain this obvious discrepancy already the persecution of sons has severely damaged the reputation of the United States the fact the U.S government is acting against its own principles the one they preach around the world has not gone unnoticed in recent weeks I've traveled to several Latin American countries and met 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 as to 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 Arceus the president of Bolivia who fully committed himself in support of Assange the same applied to the newly elected president of Brazil Lola 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 at 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 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 want to understand that this case is more than the battle for the freedom of one individual but a priority fight for underlying principles it was operator 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 weekly delegation earlier this month and assured us he would take the matter up personally with President Biden they met last week in Mexico City it is not just 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 Antonio panisi 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 we agree all those leaders are now pointing a finger at the Empire they are pointing out that the emperor is naked they are drawing attention to the naked brutality in your son's case and the underlying principles that are threatened and more world leaders will follow any message from the other states on Liberty peace human rights and press freedom is now measured against the Assange case and dismissed as Hollow and meaningless unless the bite Administration drops the charges against Julia before the turn of the century the U.S state Department used the term Rogue states to describe violent regimes with appalling human rights records the terminology was officially dropped at the beginning of this Century probably because many of the activities of United States in latter times have fallen under the criteria of a rogue State as defined in the 90s if there's any desire in the United States to regain a position of credibility in the international Arena that needs to be a multi-layered policy changes our priorities should be put on doing the right thing drop the charges against Julian Assange and the moment to do so is now [Applause] 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 foreign [Applause] who needed the the step um I'm jessalyn radak and um I represent whistleblowers and sources for a living basically um I have defended the most number of media sources in the U.S who have been investigated and charged under the Espionage Act defendants can't get a fair trial under this law in addition to the Espionage Act having no public interest defense these cases are plagued by secrecy and defined by kafka-esque features for example I have been shut out of my own clients unclassified hearings the parts of the hearings and trials that are public are often include code words and substitutions that make the proceedings very difficult for the public to understand in one case the government attempted to prevent defense attorneys from using the word whistleblower or the word newspaper the government routinely also uses classification rules to withhold exculpatory evidence from defendants in Chelsea Manning's case the government withheld a damage assessment showing that her disclosures caused no real harm to National Security she was facing 35 years in prison more recently most recently I represented and still represent Daniel Hale huge shout out to Daniel um I 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 his super max 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 earlier this year Daniel applied to be transferred to the type of treatment program he was recommended for at sentencing but in the case management unit where he's housed the counter-terrorism unit gets a veto over such therapeutic programs and his application was denied they still label him a threat Manning meaning even if Assange were to reach an acceptable plea agreement Daniel's case proves that the U.S government can still use a prison system to retaliate the way that they are currently using process as punishment while Den while Assange is in belmarsh Assange is under attack for publishing information in the public interest which is threat enough to the first amendment in and of itself but from my extensive experience fighting the injustices in cases brought under the Espionage Act it is abundantly clear that the Assange prosecution is also a threat to the most basic constitutional principles of fairness and due process these charges must be dropped immediately thank you [Applause] thanks a lot surprise surprise 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 uh so it's my big pleasure to present the one and only chip Gibbons uh policy director of the organization defending rights and descent [Applause] oh thank you so much for that uh introduction and thank you everyone who is coming as one of the few people in DC willing to talk about assange's case it gets very lonely but I'm very heartened and inspired to see all of you here today 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 say 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 as an aside I'd like to note the CMU much like belmarsh is associated with the war on terror when governments kill civilians not only is it not terrorism but when you expose Murder By government they treat you as the terrorist 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 I am here today to talk about Julian assange's case Assange is the persecution of Assange is part of a larger war on Truth Assange is a journalist and a publisher not a whistleblower or a source but the normalization of the use of the Espionage Act against whistleblowers paved the way for assange's unprecedented indictment my fellow witness jessalyn has long argued the war on whistleblowers was a back door war on journalism do you know who else agrees with this the U.S Army counterintelligence Center who in 2008 noted that the governments of North Korea Russia and Israel DC's favorite democracy had blocked the Wikileaks website but there was a better way to destroy them Expose and prosecute the whistleblowers and they use the phrase whistleblowers in this document they never do so publicly but they did so privately in this document to prosecute those whistleblowers to destroy Wiki leaks 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 and 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 by bringing an indictment under the Espionage Act the U.S government has endangered the first amendment's guarantee of press Freedom by applying the Espionage extraterritorially to a foreign National they jeopardize press Freedom globally it's also a war on everyone in this room's right to know the Supreme Court has long held the First Amendment also includes a right to receive information and ideas through its lawfare covert actions and propaganda campaigns the U.S US Government hopes to prevent Wikileaks from publishing thus the U.S government has engaged in the conspiracy to deprive the U.S people writ large of our First Amendment right to receive information and ideas they are seeking to Kill the Messenger in order to prevent all of us from getting the message and I know my time is up but I have my own message I'm sure there's someone from the J Edgar Hoover building which is just a few blocks down the street City in the audience somewhere so I want you to write this down and take this to your bosses we will free Julian we will free Daniel we will bring Edward home and you can put in my FBI file that I said back thank you very much thank you Kevin gastila is our next speaker journalist author who's worked extensively on U.S violations of civil liberties in particular on the cases of John kiriaku Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange she's managing editor of Shadow proof a press organization which exposes systemic abuses of power in government and business [Applause] thank you it's an honor to be here and be part of this really esteemed group of delegates and also this is a far better event than the Hayden Center event that was held back in December with some very unserious people including uh a brief appearance by Michael we still Secrets Hayden the political case against Julian Assange is primarily composed of a conspiracy theory that comes from the Central Intelligence Agency in April 2017 as we've been hearing in the first speech from CIA director Mike Pompeo he not only labeled Wikileaks a non-state hostile intelligence service but he also asserted Wikileaks directed Chelsea Manning in her theft of specific secret information part of my book guilty of Journalism the political case against Julian Assange focuses on unraveling this conspiracy Theory Manny was not directed by Wikileaks to make submissions she tried to share documents with the New York Times And The Washington Post she maintains Wikileaks was a last resort because the prestige media in the U.S failed her thanks to the work of Yahoo news reporters we now know that the label Pompeo affixed to WikiLeaks stemmed from CIA policy the CIA did not want a brief Congress or have President Donald Trump looped into their plans to Target Wikileaks With A disruption campaign they treated Wikileaks as a rival Spy Service as you just heard from Chip to mount offensive counterintelligence operations free of any oversight actions undertaken included the targeting of wikileaks's digital infrastructure agents had a green light to provoke quote internal disputes within the organization by planting damaging information they could steal the electronic devices of WikiLeaks staff the CIA also allegedly sketched out plans to kidnap or poison Assange much of the pressure campaign to force Assange out of the Ecuador embassy was carried out by Spanish security company called UC Global it's director David Morales has been accused of crimes in a Spanish court and this Arrangement formal or informal gave the CIA the ability to deny involvement which is typical just recall how the CIA developed arrangements with right wing and often violent Cuban Exile groups UC Global planted microphones in the embassy they targeted Stella Assange their baby and assange's attorneys there were audio and video feeds that kept them under constant surveillance and as Margaret counselor said people who came to visit the embassy had to hand over their Electronics which were then copied by people at these checkpoints dossiers were compiled on visitors when former CIA director Leon Panetta was asked by a German public broadcaster about the CIA backed operation he let out a belly laugh that doesn't surprise me that kind of thing goes on all the time and in the intelligence business the name of the game is to get information any way you can and I'm sure that's what was involved here for what it's worth the U.S justice department did not indict Assange after Manning was convicted in a U.S military Court martial CIA discussions about putting Assange on a rendition flight stirred Panic among senior officials in both the Trump Administration and justice department as the Yahoo news report indicated there were no charges under seal and if Assange was abducted as the CIA did with Khalid al-masri and Abu Omar there would be no legal basis to try them in the United States Justice Department officials accelerated the drafting of charges against Assange and by December 2017 within the first year of Trump's presidency the doj had a sealed indictment the cia's actions were motivated by revenge and they still are Wikileaks exposed their arsenal of cyber warfare capabilities through files published in March 2017. it was embarrassing for the CIA and by April they were hell-bent on neutralizing Assange one way or another going back to pompeo's April 2017 speech he said we have had administrations before that have been squeamish about going after these folks under some concept of this right to publish Pompeo proclaimed that Assange had no First Amendment freedom because he is not a U.S citizen the gloves were off we barely know the extent of the cia's operations against Assange and Wikileaks despite a lawsuit in the southern district of New York brought on behalf of attorneys and journalists allegedly targeted the U.S justice Department's prosecution along with the cia's influence over the Judiciary insurers that the full truth of their actions may not be known for several years or even multiple decades but what can be stated confidently largely as a result of the CIA Assange languishes in detention punished by a Draconian process that takes a greater toll on him every day and leaves other dissident journalists particularly foreign journalists fearing that they may be next if they follow assange's example and challenge the U.S national security State thank you [Applause] I encourage you all to check out Kevin's brilliant new book guilty of Journalism I don't know whether it's still it's here yet but there is another Incredible Book by Stefania marizi which you can buy after they went and she will be signing the books so this is just an Intermezzo before I present our next member of tribunal and just to say we have I think five more members of tribunal speaking and a little surprise at the very end before presenting uh our next speaker I want to be a bit personal namely I became father recently thanks a lot and at the same time my father my own father was in prison in Yugoslavia when I was born so with these two experiences I can only start imagining what the family of Julian Assange is going through his wife his children his mother his father and his brother so the next speaker uh I met the next speaker and the next member of tribunal who is unfortunate to not in person with us today when I visited Julian Assange at prison uh in I think it was November 2019. it was the first time I met John Shipton Julian's father and I must tell you that this man who went through hell similarly like his mother was much more calm than me when he was visiting uh when we were visiting the prison he was the one who was calming me down he was the one who was telling me how everything functions in that very dark place so I'm very honored to be presenting John Shipton to you today please take a look at his testimony [Applause] [Music] unbelievably we're now into the 14th year the persecution of publisher Julian Assange most striking is the ceaseless malicious abuse the hounding the constant hounding of Julian the Spears the unscrupulous calumonies lies that have characterized this 14 years the internal court cases the abuse of process the malicious application bureaucratic regulations the ceaseless application of the power of three states Swedish United Kingdom and the United States despite their constant adulation of theirselves then [Music] despite their constant crying from the rooftops about their Free Press about how the right to free speech is an artifact which they bring to the world despite all that they continue the persecution of journalists and publisher Julian Assange this forces us to contemplate the Magnificent gift the English-speaking people gave to the world civilizational gift of the due process between the state and the citizen due process came about 800 years ago from the from the brownie Mead placing between the people and the status Shield of laws through which the state must must relate to the people this great artifact has been abandoned ruined in the case of Julian Assange and it has now become persecution of doing has now become a global problem which the United Kingdom and its Judiciary and its Crown Prosecuting service and its Colonial and foreign office ignore to the detriment of their reputations and their relationships with other states in the world that where once they could say that we the United Kingdom are governed by laws from which we which we call the common law which goes upon precedent well these precedents they call the authorities in court cases these authorities they crashed they discarded in their Heist to hound a man Julian Assange who only ever spoke truthfully who only ever published accurately some form of malicious resentment of a state the United Kingdom another state the United States that it committed war crimes [Music] human rights abuses human rights crimes crimes against humanity crime against humanity is simply a crime against us our mothers and fathers our children and pointing out this allows these states to reform but in their pride and hubris they have decided not to use the Democratic process to reform themselves but use the Democratic process to deceive people and Hound close to death's door in dire circumstance publisher and journalist join as such so I believe that the work of the volunteers the supporters over the last four or five years have brought to an idea to an end point to such embarrassment for the United Kingdom the crown Prosecuting service and the English judiciary to a point of embarrassment where other states that once looked to the mother of parliaments the United Kingdom once looked as example to the United Kingdom and its Parliament and its laws now turn their face away in worry and in can attempt for this announcing to the world that theirs they'd have done in the United Kingdom and their Parliament that they are the leaders in free speech among the leaders in free speech among the leaders in the rights to publish among the leaders in advocating for journalism among the leaders in advocating that having an educated populace produces policy influences from the populist that guide the executive and the Parliament that is no longer the case all of us turn away and look to other states or other circumstances wherein we agitate wholeheartedly firmly in solidarity for Julian Assange as an icon of a Decay and as an of the application of laws an icon of persecution icon of righteous statements of accurate statements and of Steady Hand despite us being now in the 14th year of this prosecution persecution Tom interminable hounding scarless lies colonies mobbing there is a book by Professor Nils melzer which outlines in detail in quite readable language in English French German all of the abrogation of human rights abrogation of conventions of Asylum abrogation of due process and the collapse Equitable administration of the law into a decayed circumstance of malice bureaucratic malice judicial indifference due process ignorance we Julian's supporters Jillian's family are beginning to Prevail are beginning to see around the world in every European Parliament support for joy in Assange every civil Society of standing giving support all unions giving support in Australia we have a government which is elected on a platform which we characterize as a massage platform a massage election the government elected principally in we in our view principally on its stand for Julian Assange I say this to indicate the level of support worldwide in the western world in Middle East in India in Eurasia for Julian Assange together we have done this and together we will prevail in bringing about Julian's freedom thank you Julian's father 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 and humbled to be part of this panel that seeks Justice For Joy and 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 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 uh 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 oversight oversee the FBI they would exit 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 that 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 re released was that 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 expose 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 entailment 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 thanks a lot to Our member of tribunal Betty I think it was a very important testimony because it shows that there is a continuous persecution and oppression of dissent in this country and that those who are courageous enough to protest the measures of this government end up criminalized end up in prison end up in character assassination and so on 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] hi I'm John Olsteen one of the foundation stones of our former government here in the United States the democracy and our Republic it's our first amendment to the Constitution which forbids any law by Congress or the states are bridging freedom of speech or of the press along with frequent provision 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 singling out the press as protected by our freedom by the First Amendment and the British type official secret site criminalizes any or oil disclosure of information protected by the government the executive branch even disclosure to the public courts of the press or to the Congress the parliament is criminalized and subject to uh 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 and he cited in his opinion the company 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 7 000 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 in an effect violations of the Constitution treaties and in particular misleading congresses 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 secret sanct for disclosure to the public with no irrigation of my intentions there but simply that hold of doing that was a violation that was a dismissed on grounds of government criminality against me and there never has been a Supreme Court decision on whether the use of the Espionage Act as is now facing Julian Assange as a basis for an attempt to expedite him for Britain to the U.S was constitutional they've never received it even though there have been dozens of cases since then since my case in which the Act was used as if it were an official sequence act in effect making it a reliable substitute in withholding from the public any information the government doesn't want it to have which is an enormous amount of information up until Julian assange's indictment the act however had never been used as an official Secrets Act is against other than sources like myself who had a possession of information who disclose it to the publicly had never been used against a journalist like Julian Assange although in each case of course of such disclosures or leaks 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 journalists 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 Fellowship Constitution so we have a First Amendment Britain does not where Julian now is and they have an official Secrets act which we don't if we acquire that we give up the main result I would say if 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 maintain his vampire the American it's a major form in our change in our form of government fact is at the end has been outside it's even broader than the British official secret sector and that's why Congress any people in Congress who wanted to uphold a secrecy have given up trying to pass a formal official Secrets act they'd prefer the Espionage Act because the wording of that act so so far not used even against a journalist until Julian Assange and not used Beyond a journalist just someone who simply receives the information or possesses it maintains it without giving it to an authorized Authority that is covered by the language of the Espionage challenge that a year ago I released a tough secret document on the Taiwan streets crisis of 1958 that long ago in which the U.S came close to using nuclear weapons to uphold the protection of Taiwan from mainland China and if you wish is now a very much facing us this year and I challenge that as someone who had held that and refused to give it to authorized Authority for all these years in order to raising court for the first time whether one can take the plain language of the ESPN object as controlling as overruling basically the First Amendment to go further this year in connection with the attempt to extradite Journey massage I also reveal the fact that I had been as subject to indictment as Julian all this time since 2010 because I had possessed the information which he released to the newspapers before he did that he conveyed it to me before he did that as a backup to what he was doing for the Press in the plain language of the ACT then as someone who possessed that information and did not disclose it to an authorized person who retained it uh I like actually every reader of the times the New York Times the guardian El Pais uh livon who received and published that information every reader all over the world comes under the plain language of that act I'm in effect saying with Julian then I am prepared to face a test of that act going up to the Supreme Court if necessary and restoring our status as a republican I call on President Biden either to invite me almost or to drop this unconstitutional attempt to extradite Julian I wouldn't have to be extradited or to prosecute either of us in these courts that is really the only way for him to restore our status as a republican a democracy [Applause] thank you Dan Ellsberg before we turn to Noam 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 [Applause] thank you and what an honor to share the stage with people that you've grown up respecting your idols um so I'm not going to take more times I'm going to keep it very short I'm going to start with something that Julian Assange very famously said you have to start with the truth truth is the only way we can get anywhere without truth there is no reality there is no way for us to challenge the power and almost everybody who spoke here today spoke about this idea of truth because there are two things that are human to us truth the capacity to understand what is before us and our capacity to tell stories and pass it on truth is also our right to know without it there is no way for us to fight for the values we hold dear Freedom dignity and the moral equality of all people 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 over 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 his 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's 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 and I'm happy to read it one more time if you want I know what I'll read it one more time systematic violations of due process judicial bias manufactured evidence manipulated evidence constant surveillance defamation lies propaganda denial of basic dignity assassination attempts and threats 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 cultural 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 writers 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 I also happen to teach and when I teach young people today they do not know what happened after 9 11. they do not know what happened in Afghanistan and they do not know what happened in Iraq Syria Lebanon they don't know because we have forgotten to teach them and that is why truth is important that is why stories are important journalists are the most important people not because they are great because they create the footnotes of History lies starts Lies start war and silence enable impunity assange's persecution is a result of publishing truth about atrocities committed against innocent civilians in the name of freedom fundamental to upholding the moral equality of all people is our capacity to hold the state and the powerful accountable yet unfortunately the ability to systematically hold power accountable is being eroded every single moment and it's being Stripped Away even as I speak today I stand with my fellow members of the tribunal demanding the release of Julian Assange as we fight for his release we fight for journalists activists truth tellers and stand in unconditional solidarity with those fighting for freedom and dignity across the world thank you [Applause] foreign [Applause] we have a very short message by one of the most important living public intellectuals of United States Noam Chomsky [Applause] error message for today is quite simple pray Julian Assange Assange has been indicted under the Espionage Act that's another shameful chapter in its sorted 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 the Julian Assange has already suffered the targets of the indictment however reach far beyond their immediate victim they 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 or under harsh attack in these tribal days it'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 I have never heard Noam Chomsky be so concise and as we begin to wrap up I'll be even shorter the ballroom here at the national Press Club is packed over 5 000 people are watching online you can get the link of this whole event at democracynow.org spread it far and wide go to where the silence is and say something [Applause] don't worry it won't be a long speech I just want to thank all the members of the tribunal today thanks a lot for being with us today I also want to thank uh especially Amy and Dennis behind the camera and the team of democracy Now [Applause] I also want to thank all our partners the list is very long so I won't name all of them but I want to especially thank the wow Holland Foundation I also want to thank the national Press Club for hosting us and I want to thank all our volunteers for making this possible what are our next steps today we provided convincing testimonies and convincing evidence on the case of Julian Assange and now it's up to the Biden Administration to drop the charges but it's also up to all of you here in the room and outside of the room to take this further and to make pressure as much as possible towards the Biden Administration we at the progressive International together with our partners in March are coming to Sydney with another Belmont tribunal so watch out and I want to close this Tribunal with the words of someone who is silence I want to close this tribunal with the words of the man himself Julian Assange because I think it's a beautiful description of this tribunal of everyone who is here with us today quote if we can live only once then let it be a daring Adventure that draws on all our powers let it be with similar types whose hearts and heads we may be proud of these people here these people here in the room let our grandchildren Delight to find the start of our stories in their ears but the endings all around in their wandering eyes Julian Assange and now for the very end a little surprised by our common friend Roger Waters a song which was specially recorded for Julian Assange and this occasion thanks a lot everyone for being with us today free Julian Assange and Julian Assange will be free this year Galaxy [Music] foreign [Music] can you tell a Greenfield from a cold Steve wave a smile from a veil do you think you can tell did they get you to trade Your Heroes for ghosts hot ashes trees from Caprice cold comfort for Change and did you exchange [Music] a cage [Music] foreign [Music] year after you [Music] running off and all the same old ground what have we found [Music] I wish that you would [Music] be were here and then open the same old ground but every time [Music] and I wish that you would [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

Channel: Democracy Now!

Views: 1,482,654

Keywords: Democracy Now, Amy Goodman, News, Politics, democracynow, Independent Media, Breaking News, World News, Julian Assange, Belmarsh Tribunal, WikiLeaks, belmarsh prison, progressive international

Id: j_QqpYATupw

Length: 147min 3sec (8823 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 20 2023