A win for Assange – WHAT?

Are people so beaten down and driven into confusion that Staying in Jail, Having another chance at another Court Case, is widely considered a win for Assange?  Yes, I know he is not sent to the US, but this is a fop, a charade, it is foolish and silly.  It is what you give to a child to bribe the little one to stop whining.  It is false.  Nothing has changed and the power is still where the power was before these two judges said that Assange could have another go at an appeal. How can we rejoice and say thank-you to our jailers and those that keep us in bondage?

There are a few journalists who see this in the same way, unfortunately, these are not ones that I am well acquainted with.

This is a good article from Thomas Fazi, who says very clearly that the “New court ruling is no ‘victory’ for Julian Assange.”  It keeps him in legal limbo and Belmarsh Prison.

I found the Fazi article a good and solid history.

It’s worth recalling that Assange has been held without trial in the maximum-security Belmarsh Prison — and subjected to “prolonged psychological torture”, according to a UN report — for more than five years, despite being technically innocent before British law. Before that, he spent seven years in self-exile in London’s Ecuadorian Embassy to avoid being extradited to America, where he had good reason to believe he wouldn’t be given a fair trial — a fear subsequent events would prove justified.

Assange has now been subjected to relentless legal persecution by some of the world’s most powerful governments, primarily the US and UK, for 14 years. These state authorities, including their judicial branches, have had no qualms about disregarding fundamental principles of due process in their effort to crush Assange (including “proactive manipulation of evidence”).

The truth is that there is no plausible case against Assange. The Americans’ case rests on two main pillars. Firstly, that his work does not fall under the protection of the First Amendment because he didn’t limit himself to receiving and publishing classified documents but allegedly “went beyond that” by actively seeking classified information, as well as helping Chelsea Manning and others to hack into Government computers. The second is that Assange and WikiLeaks damaged national security and intelligence services and “created a grave and imminent risk” for US sources and informants. Both claims, however, have been thoroughly refuted.

What Assange is being punished for is obvious to everyone: having exposed crimes committed at the highest level of the US state, including war crimes, civilian massacres, torture, illegal “renditions”, mass surveillance programmes, political scandals, pressure on foreign governments and widespread corruption. The US can’t let go that unpunished — not least to ensure that no other journalist dares to follow in his steps.

Let us know to understand that these, that handed out this “victory”, are the captors of Julian Assange and therefore the captors of all of us. Know what Stockholm Syndrome looks like!