I fear for Julian Assange's safety and for the safety of all defenders of freedom. Julian Assange is not going to be allowed to slip through the grasp of the Empire's fist. He will be sent to Sweden and from there to some secluded torture chamber. When we are done with Julian Assange will there be journalists brave enough to call out the sins of our Empire?
By the time the Empire's Media finishes turning Julian Assange into a monster Terrorist, will we shed a single tear for his crumpled corpse?
History will remember this as a Time of Greatest Disgrace.
I weep for Julian Assange. But what can I do?
All I can do is ask that we all fix Julian Assange firmly in our minds as the hero he is, before his name is turned into a curse.
Carl Jarvis
----- Original Message -----From: S. KashdanSent: Thursday, May 31, 2012 7:55 PMSubject: John Pilger: Why the Assange Case Is ImportantWhy the Assange Case Is Important
interview with John Pilger
By Dagens Nyheter
Truthout, Wednesday, May 30, 2012
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/9476-john-pilger-why-the-assange-case-is-important'tmpl=component&print=1
On 30 May, Britain's Supreme Court turned down the final appeal of Julian
Assange against his extradition to Sweden. In an unprecedented move, the
court gave the defense team of the WikiLeaks editor permission to re-apply
to the court in two weeks' time. On the eve of the judgment, Sweden's
leading morning newspaper, Dagens Nyheter, known as DN, interviewed
investigative journalist John Pilger, who has closely followed the Assange
case. The following is the complete text of the interview, of which only a
fraction was published in Sweden.
Dagens Nyheter: Julian Assange has been fighting extradition to Sweden at a
number of British courts. Why do you think it is important he wins?
John Pilger: Because the attempt to extradite Assange is unjust and
political. I have read almost every scrap of evidence in this case and it's
clear, in terms of natural justice, that no crime was committed. The case
would not have got this far had it not been for the intervention of Claes
Borgstrom, a politician who saw an opportunity when the Stockholm prosecutor
threw out almost all the police allegations. Borgstrom was then in the
middle of an election campaign. When asked why the case was proceeding when
both women had said that the sex had been consensual with Assange, he
replied, Ah, but they're not lawyers. If the Supreme Court in London
rejects Assange's appeal, the one hope is the independence of the Swedish
courts. However, as the London Independent has revealed, Sweden and the US
have already begun talks on Assange's temporary surrender to the US where he
faces concocted charges and the prospect of unlimited solitary confinement.
And for what? For telling epic truths. Every Swede who cares about justice
and the reputation of his or her society should care deeply about this.
Dagens Nyheter: You have said that Julian Assange's human rights have been
breached. In what way?
John Pilger: One of the most fundamental human rights that of the
presumption of innocence has been breached over and over again in Assange's
case. Convicted of no crime, he has been the object of character
assassination--perfidious and inhuman and highly political smear, of which
the evidence is voluminous. This is what Britain's most distinguished and
experienced human rights lawyer, Gareth Peirce, has written Given the extent
of the public discussion, frequently on the basis of entirely false
assumptions... it is very hard to preserve for [Assange] any presumption of
innocence. He has now hanging over him not one but two Damocles swords of
potential extradition to two different jurisdictions in turn for two
different alleged crimes, neither of which are crimes in his own country.
[And] his personal safety has become at risk in circumstances that are
highly politically charged.
Dagens Nyheter: You, as well as Julian Assange, don't seem to have
confidence in the Swedish judicial system. Why not?
John Pilger: It's difficult to have confidence in a prosecutorial system
that is so contradictory and flagrantly uses the media to achieve its aims.
Whether or not the Supreme Court in London find for or against Assange, the
fact that this case has reached the highest court in this country is itself
a condemnation of the competence and motivation of those so eager to
incarcerate him, having already had plenty of opportunity to question him
properly. What a waste all this is.
Dagens Nyheter: If Julian Assange is innocent, as he says, would it not have
been better if he had gone to Stockholm to sort things out?
John Pilger: Assange tried to sort things out, as you put it. Right from
the beginning, he offered repeatedly to be questioned first in Sweden, then
in the UK. He sought and received permission to leave Sweden which makes a
nonsense of the claim that he has avoided questioning. The prosecutor who
has since pursued him has refused to give any explanation about why she will
not use standard procedures, which Sweden and the UK have signed up to.
Dagens Nyheter: IF the Supreme Court decides that Julian Assange can be
extradited to Sweden, what consequent risks do you see for him?
John Pilger: First, I would draw on my regard for ordinary Swedes' sense of
fairness and justice. Alas, overshadowing that is a Swedish elite that has
forged sinister and obsequious links with Washington. These powerful people
have every reason to see Julian Assange as a threat. For one thing, their
vaunted reputation for neutrality has been repeatedly exposed as a sham in
US cables leaked by WikiLeaks. One cable revealed that the extent of
[Sweden's military and intelligence] co-operation [with NATO] is not widely
known and unless kept secret would open up the government to domestic
criticism. Another was entitled WikiLeaks puts neutrality in the dustbin of
history. Don't the Swedish public have a right to know what the powerful
say in private in their name?
Dagens Nyheter is Sweden's leading and largest morning daily newspaper, with
a circulation of some 380,000. It's conservative.
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