GaslightingAssange Part 21: Courtroom Chaos in Britain
Bumbling Idiots or Calculated Cruelty under the Guise of Casual Dating
Assange attended a chaotic case hearing this morning by videolink at Belmarsh prison. The video booth could best be described as “ABC”: Already Been Contaminated. His time in the booth was longer than necessary because the US prosecutor did not show up, feigned that she thought it was scheduled for the afternoon, offered to drive to the court in person (30 min. which often translates into 60 min when you include parking, toilet break, finding one’s keys) and ended up in a conference call by phone.
There are multiple threads on twitter which describe the circus atmosphere, incompetence, delays, technical glitches, and the refusal of more media reporters to attend in person. Most importantly, the fact that the US is telling a British judge that it should allow it to improvise the case, 2 days after the full defence arguments were submitted to the court, even though the deadline for submitting new paperwork re: charges / indictment was 14 months ago. Essentially, the prosecution is pretending to be a “bad student” in class: poor attendance, disorganized, not handing in assignments on time, not punctual and fumbling to “get there as soon as I can”, all the while knowing that “putting on this act” is not bumbling incompetence but blatant GaslightingAssange to achieve the following goals:
Frustrate the defence team — they are punctual, show up at the right time, right place with their “homework done”, ready to proceed
Bait and switch the defence team’s arguments — US prosecutors are blatantly cheating, not playing by the the rules, improvising their case after looking over the defence team’s excellent homework already submitted. Problem students in a ghetto school.
Delay the Extradition hearing until after the US Elections in November, until Trump either loses (but does not concede) or wins; either way it is bad news for Julian Assange.
Boss the British Judge around, like they are in charge of both the UK courts and US prosecution. They are. We already know UK are corrupt and excluded Assange from justice.
Frustrate supporters, frustrate reporters, limit attendance, limit witnesses and human rights organizations who are monitoring proceedings. Test everyones’ patience to the limit.
Putting people on hold while they listen to “muzac” (hold music) is fitting for what the US and the UK are doing: They are delaying, picking a morose and cruel soundtrack for people to endure while they fumble and bumble and pervert and dominate the proceedings of an international case of historic significance. eg. Feeling suicidal? Please hold. Feeling frustrated? Please hold. Muzac, muzac, we appreciate your patience, please hold… Feeling anxious as you are sitting in an ABC videoconferencing booth at Belmarsh? Please hold. Worried about catching COVID while you are stuck in the booth with horrible or no ventilation with a screaming prisoner out in adjacent hallway? Please hold. Feeling suicidal? Frustrated? Confused? Exhausted? Please hold. Terrified? Please hold. Can’t talk to your lawyers while the clock ticks down toward your worst nightmare? Please hold. Hold my beer.
Britain is doing the US a big favour: Hold my beer until we can “outflank”, (cf. Paul Close UK CPS) the defence of Julian Assange.
The US must not be allowed to improvise the case and pretend to be disorganized (when we know how organized they really are and have had 10 yrs to prepare for this extradition case, with an army of lawyers, technicians, psychologists and politicians to pursue and prosecute Assange).
All of these strategies are GaslightingAssange. Think of a bad boyfriend /girlfriend / partner /employer: Excuses, excuses, excuses…. you finally communicate with them, they read everything and listen to everything then use it against you. The whole ambivalent, “Are you done yet?” , then they take everything you just said or typed and use it against you. They spy on you. Make plans to meet up with you then cancel or are ridiculously late. They leave you waiting at coffee shops (or ABC video booths), delay, wonder why you are frustrated, but are thrilled that you are frustrated, try to renegotiate the “rules” of civility (or due process, court proceedings), try to shut out all your friends from defending or supporting you… “Oh, sorry I’m late. I must have got the wrong date. Oh, wrong time? Sorry. Be there soon! Muah!”
It is awful.
Watch John Shipton, Assange’s father, who attended the hearing. (transcript)
“The prosecution is making every effort to ensure that the hearing on Sept. 7 doesn’t go ahead and the hearing is delayed until after the American election.
So when a new administration will be in power and they will able to put energy and effort and time into the further persecution of Julian.
But we hope that the court will rule that this is another abuse of practice and the hearing go ahead on the 7th of September.”
Every time there is a court hearing, the actual process is used as a twisted opportunity to psychologically torture Julian Assange, his family, partner, supporters and defence team of lawyers. It is rancid. It is torture. The US prosecutors appear to be very casual and sloppy about the AssangeCase but they are lazar focussed, aggressive and deploying strategic military precision. Today’s court hearing was akin to a bad date. A casual date.
Good summary of a reporter who attended court this morning. Read and This.
I will update this later with more tweets. For now do a few Twitter searchers under:
Assange
JulianAssange
SaveJulian