Assange Case Reflections 2020: A New Phase of Psychological Tumult Ahead
A few afterthoughts, in no particular order, on the UK Court Hearings concerning the US’s pursuit to extradite Julian Assange
WELL-DESERVED KUDOS
Firstly, the Defence team was exceptional. Stunning work even though you were blindsided on Day 1 (new superceding indictment was allowed to progress, despite it being 13 months late in submission) and have had extremely limited access to your client. Huge respect.
COVID
Assange has been in maximum security for a year and a half, with over 6 months of COVID infection risk. Britain will likely experience a second wave of COVID, it will hit the jails in the later Fall and Winter season. It is miraculous that Assange has not contracted COVID thus far. We will see if spending 3 + weeks in the fish tank (glass box) in court, the many transfers in and out of police vans and security checks effectively prevented him from contracting COVID.
If he contracts COVID, post court hearings, he will likely die — I can’t imagine Britain permitting him to be transferred to a UK hospital for life saving medical procedures. If he dies, the saga ends, right?
Wrong.
THIS. COULD. HAVE. BEEN. PREVENTED.
Aside from the fact that I discovered and wrote about UK corruption in his Case back in 2012 (Assange Exclusion Clause) and Wikileaks editor Kristinn Hrafnsson refuses to educate the public about it, Assange’s arbitrary detention and extradition trial could have been prevented.
ASSANGE HAS BEEN AT THE MERCY OF THE MEDIA FOR OVER A DECADE
If the media had been completely mute on the Assange case for the last 10 years, that may have prevented the assault on his character, reputation and the international gaslighting of his case. Instead, the media became the medium for ongoing psychological torture and the promulgation of lies. He was never charged with sexual assault. That was a lie. He was not in self-imposed exile in Ecuador’s embassy. He was kettled by police on the authority of the UK government. He did not avoid facing UK justice, he submitted to UK authorities Dec. 7, 2010 and since then has been arbitrarily detained. He placed his trust in British democracy and that has literally put his life in peril. British emails clearly indicate his UK Supreme Court trial was rigged against him. He did not waste tax payers’ money; the UK government ordered his kettling, elaborate surveillance, snatch /grab teams and wasted the public’s purse. He was never a “fugitive”; he is and was a political refugee who received asylum in an embassy to protect his life and limited liberty.
The Assange case would be so much clearer if the media had been on mute, rather than repeating lie after lie after degrading lie.
CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR
This past week, the court heard the grim details of Assange’s mental health, noting that the worst period of a depressive state was last November/ December 2019. Today we learned that he will be held on remand, without bail, for an additional 3 months before hearing the UK judge’s decision on whether or not to extradite him to his worst adversary, the US. It’s noteworthy that he will have to summon all of his strength and will to live during this period so he does not sink into the “dark place” he was in last year. He needs our attention and advocacy urgently. Assange is likely being manipulated (emotionally and physically) into another spell of severe depression and suicidal ideation, by design. It’s called strategic incapacitation. It may kill him. Those who have arbitrarily detained him know that he will ruminate on his case and assess the prognosis for justice in UK and US courts. It will lead to panic and possibly despair. Picture it:
Assange will be alone in a prison cell this Christmas Eve, Christmas morning, Christmas day and Christmas evening. He will be alone in the week leading up to the New Year, 2021. He is tough enough to be able to endure it and his ability to participate in cultural holidays has been curtailed for years already. It will be just another day, with a little more exposure to a killer virus, and the noise bombardment, stinky mattress, indigestible non-nutrient food, cold and damp air and sleep deprivation will continue. He will not be able to access his lawyers for private defence meetings or phone calls. Santa will not bring him a functioning computer without the typing keys glued down. Santa will not bring him extra time out of his cell. Santa will not bring him a television with a remote control.
Santa will not give him the freedom to hug his own sons on Christmas morning, or a hot mug of tea or the companionship of his family.
Conversely, Boris Johnson, his partner Carrie Symonds and young son Wilfred will have a splendid, cozy, comfortable and posh Christmas, even if there is a second wave of COVID in Britain. Boris will appear on video and media to give a Christmas message, the Queen will do the same, they will busy themselves in the next months shopping in stores or online, wrapping presents, planning menus, doing videoconferencing on functional devices, walking outside in the fresh air and send out photos of their adorable selves in Christmas cards. There will be lots of talk of Peace on Earth and Goodwill toward everyone, but the hypocrisy of putting a man in Belmarsh, away from his family, without access to the persons and tools he requires to defend himself against an army of US adversaries, employees and contractors will forever heckle their empty words and gestures.
If you want Peace On Earth, free Assange who has exposed what War is.
If you want Goodwill toward man, woman and children, then free Assange who helped record the actual deaths of individuals who perished under the military might of the United States in foreign countries, along with its allies.
If you want what is good, true, right and just, then free Assange who is the voice of the migrant children, grandfathers, grandmothers and extended families who have been forced to relocate from war zones.
Don’t get out on social media, tv or radio and feed the world empty rhetoric about how you want Peace on Earth when you insist on detaining Julian Assange and possibly extraditing him to a human mausoleum. Just don’t.
There is more to write, but I need to decompress.
PLEASE…
Do what you can to support his defence fund.
Demand that media organizations defend Julian Assange who is at their mercy.
Also, remember Jamal Khashoggi, an award winning journalist, who was brutally murdered by his Saudi adversaries Oct. 2, 2018. Tomorrow marks 2 years since that gruesome event.
Don’t let Julian Assange dissolve or disappear into the bellows of a US Supermax prison. Don’t let him succeed on any suicidal ideation. He needs us now. Fight for him.
Assange must be allowed bail, under house arrest. He is no danger to society.
Thank you.
I dedicate this R.E.M. song to Julian Assange: Hold On. (Everybody Hurts)
Jude