Is there a Shred of Humanity in Britain? Will it Grant Bail to Assange? Prognosis for Justice and Human Rights for Julian Assange in the UK
The optimist in me brings me to this keyboard. The visionary in me brings some pessimistic but realistic truths. I’ll be blunt. It’s an extension of my “Don’t wait for an In Memoriam Moment” to defend Assange post and meant to provoke action. After reading this post, people will have an aversion to the horror of Assange’s arbitrarily detention against the expressed decision of the United Nations, a group of medical professionals, international lawyers, human rights groups, global citizens and people like me who care about the trajectory of human civilisation.
Assange’s next opportunity to defend himself in a UK court is May 18th, 2020. A lot can happen between now and then. He could die of medical neglect and sustained, sadistic torture meted out by British security personnel at Belmarsh Maximum Security prison on UK soil. He could die of COVID-19 but the death will not be attributed to anything more than that. The fact that he is a victim of arbitrary detention, intense psychological distress from torture, public humiliation, media lies, extreme surveillance and the equivalent of being put in a straight-jacket as far as legal defence, will all be overlooked. The Brits will blame it on COVID- 19. Even though Britain has administered injustice, torture and bias against him, it will deny its role in his death, which will amount to murder with intent. The UK has been put on notice, in writing, numerous times. If Assange dies in UK custody it is not plausible, nor deniable, that they did not understand the gravity of his circumstances.
The entire UK legal process has been inequitable. If we don’t caffinate the next 54 days with focussed media attention, the inequity will escalate because Assange’s access to lawyers, the internet, his own records /notes/ electronic files from when he was in Ecuador’s embassy where everything was stolen and handed over to the US — these are all severely restricted or impossible to reference. He is under surveillance. His defence documents were confiscated during the first phase of the US Extradition hearing and likely copied for the opposing side, the US. It is inequitable and designed to subjugate Assange.
Assange may not be alive to attend the next portion of the US Extradition. If he is alive, it will be a miracle. If alive, he will attend a court attached to a maximum security prison, accessed through tunnels, have his buttocks spread, foreskin examined, mouth and throat inspected and then be paraded into the equivalent of a fish tank “dock”, away from his defence lawyers, in earshot of US lawyers and UK/US contracted security guards as a spectator in his own perilous and political case.
It’s a given that he will be exhausted both mentally and physically. It’s a given that no-touch torture methods perfected by the US and shared with UK guards/security personnel are being administered at the behest of Gina Haspel, director of the C.I.A., who is also an enthusiastic promoter of torture. Gina and the CIA are experts at touch and “no-touch” torture techniques including waterboarding, body slamming into walls, noise shock, frequent flyers (sleep deprivation), isolation, dietary manipulation / anal rape (rectal feeding) psychological pressuring and other unauthorised sadistic practices which, when done over a prolonged, sustained period with increasing intensity on a person who is arbitrarily detained lead a human to collapse. That’s the goal.
There are two women assigned to oversee the next chapter of Assange’s delivery unto the US: UK Judge Emma Arbuthnot who has a bone to pick with Assange personally; and CIA Director Gina Haspel, who also has a bone to pick with him personally. Both have classic conflicts of interest in his case. Go back and read the hyperlinks later. As chief of the CIA, Haspel would also want to punish Assange and Wikileaks for the Vault 7 disclosures.
It’s a given that between now and May, Assange will be deprived of sleep. Therefore, when he finally arrives at court, flanked by security guards, likely late, he will be paraded into the fish tank where there is a nice, long, cushioned bench and a court room that will be very quiet and acoustically muted. He will just want to lie down and sleep. Every cell in his body has needed sleep, decent food, movement/exercise and medical attention. His nervous system has been in overdrive for a decade. So, during the most important days of his approaching future, he will probably be fighting the physiological need for sleep. Just like a person on a subway after a long day or week at work who nods off to sleep on their way home. Assange is heavily medicated, (to preserve his life), and these medications create somulence as a side effect. If Emma and Gina had their way, Assange may as well put on some nice pajamas, bring a pillow and snore through May into June this year. Their oversight and administration of court and prison conditions since his abduction from the embassy has exacerbated his prolonged /ongoing torture. It aims to put Assange in a state of learned helplessness, which is the ultimate psychological goal of torture. Because Assange will be held in a bulletproof dock, the glass dampens the sounds in the court room. The fish tank has the acoustics of a “Cry Room” in a church. It is designed to mute the noise or crying of children but allow the families the ability to participate in the religious service. Most cry rooms have adequate audio speakers installed. Assange will not have that luxury. When he used headphones on the final day of the hearing last month, it made the acoustics worse. All the murmured voices of an under-spoken judge (Baraister, Arbuthnot’s understudy) and US prosecutors who refuse to speak into microphones, all become his “bedtime story”, which will also be his nightmare.
Night night Julian. You’ve had a long morning. You’ve been up since 5 am, got dressed, undressed, dressed and undressed, herded into various rooms and holding cells, are probably quite hungry and dehydrated, and your meds have hopefully kicked in by now… You just lie down over there in the cozy fish tank and we’ll take care of everything. Good boy. Go lie down.
By design, Assange would be unable to concentrate or actively engage with his defence team. It would also be done to shame or humiliate him and render him a sleeping trophy in a trophy case, unable to dynamically participate in his own defence. A partial solution to this would be to hire a sign language interpreter so at least he could get a sense of what is being discussed. But that is not enough to level the playing field and provide a fair hearing.
Therefore, the UK must permit him to sit beside his legal team, out of the dock, or move the hearing to a larger venue (either in downtown London at West Magistrates Court or a different courtroom at Woolwich). If the UK insists that Assange be placed in the dock/ cry room / fish tank / trophy case, then it must ensure that audio problems and etiquette (ie. directions to US prosecutors to speak into microphones) be heeded. If not, Assange’s defence team must file a Contempt of Court complaint against the UK to challenge the Gaslighting of Assange, the Gaslighting of themselves, along with the media and public.
Both Gina Haspel and Judge Emma Arbuthnot want to see how far they can push-the-envelope for outrageous departures of fairness into blatant abuse-of-power in the same way that domestic violence abusers do. They do it for the power buzz. They do it for an audience. Then they deny what they are doing, have done and intend to do so they can continue doing it. It is Gaslighting; both of Assange himself but also his legal team and supporters. How much will they tolerate? Push harder. Now how much will they tolerate? Read Chris Hedges on the “Coming Show Trial of Julian Assange”.
For instance, it’s almost been a year since the UN Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer made a clinical assessment of Assange’s case. He attended Belmarsh on May 9th, 2019 with two medical doctors then wrote an extensive report and series of follow up letters to the countries involved in Assange’s torture. He has been gaslit. That’s the short version. I hope Melzer reminds the world of this in the coming days, prior to the next court hearing. It is important to “call out” abusers, name the abusive behaviour and try to prevent it from happening in a new iteration.
Assange’s life may end very soon. His potential exposure to COVID-19 is increased every day he is in Belmarsh prison, on remand, and not on bail. It’s not OK that he is in prison, uncharged, unable to adequately defend himself. He’s sleep deprived, with insane restrictions on legal access and ability to research or process his own case.
Assange is heavily medicated due to the extreme, prolonged and sadistic conditions he has to endure daily, all the while ruminating on the legitimate fear of being sent to the US for publishing the exact same information that the New York Times, Der Speigel, The Guardian, El Pais and Le Monde published. It’s not OK for the UK and US to amplify this psychological pressure. Time is ticking.
It’s not OK that Arbuthnot is the UK Judge in charge of the case but using understudies (Michael Snow, Deborah Taylor, Vanessa Baraister) to carry out her abusive gaslighting tactics to obliterate any possibility of a fair hearing. So far, every hearing has been prejudicially skewed against Assange. Michael Snow scolded Assange’s defence team for making it public knowledge that Arbuthnot has a massive conflict-of-interest.
It’s not OK that Assange is put in a cry room / fish tank/ trophy case away from his lawyers. He should be out beside his legal team, able to participate dynamically. It’s not OK that Assange is in Belmarsh, with an increased exposure to COVID-19 and may die. He should be released on bail in the lead up to his next hearing. Please take a nanosecond to sign this petition now.
It’s not OK that the UK has designated a small court room with inadequate audio equipment and lack of space for the press or public for an international case of global importance.
It’s not OK for a certain law to be applied to Assange for US Extradition, but then have that same law edited on the fly in court to exclude him from protections that are outlined by it. The GaslightingAssange point is this: The US + UK can’t say two contradictory things about the Treaty. If the US-UK say it’s not “in play”, then it’s game over (hockey analogy). If the US-UK say it’s in play, Assange is entitled to protections outlined therein. The UK along with the US are concocting sub-rules and fudging the truth about the legal basis of any Assange extradition. They are distorting the force of the Treaty, manipulating how it should or should not be applied and feel entitled to improvise during the court hearing. The non-sensical nature of these contortions is the GaslightingAssange and Team.
(Side note: At Guantanamo Bay detention empire, detainees were put through a “frequent flyers” ordeal where they were moved every 3 hrs or less to disrupt their ability to rest or sleep. They were exposed to aggressive dogs, running chain saws and even shackled in stress positions with headphones that blasted music into their heads for hours, on repeat to disrupt their nervous systems, hearing acuity and drive them crazy. Anything to “soften them up” before an interrogation or court hearing). This is happening to Assange but uses different psychological pressures. The UK and US are amping up his terror of being extradited and withholding access to persons and tools he requires to defend himself. It’s not OK.
All of it is not OK. All of it is evidence of asymmetric power being used to crush an innocent man. The entire process of the US Extradition has been an elaborate form of interrogation and gaslighting of both Assange and his legal team. According to the CIA, interrogation (torture) takes precedence over preventative emergency medical procedures.
And. “[…] regardless which disposition option we follow however, and especially in light of the planned psychological pressure techniques to be implemented, we need to get reasonable assurances that [Terrorist suspect] will remain in isolation and incommunicado for the remainder of his life.”
The truth is: Assange’s physical ability to cope with 10 years of torture has led to a gravely compromised immune system, nervous system, a chronic lung condition and some permanent organ damage. He may succumb to COVID-19. Or suicide. Or malnutrition. Or self-imposed hunger striking. It’s his fault. He’s the villain. Not Britain. Not the USA. Not Ecuador. Not Sweden. Blame the victim.
My intuition and research into CIA cover-ups tell me that UK and US lawyers are, at this moment, emailing or meeting each other to write drafts of a pre-fabricated UK Coroner’s report in the event that Assange dies prior to the upcoming US Extradition hearing. How can any medical doctor justify his neglect, torture and life-threatening exposure to COVID-19? They can’t. So that will be left to the lawyers and politicians to figure out pre and post-mortem.
“The hand of ‘democracy’ squeezes the throat of freedom,” ~ Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign affairs ministry regarding the arrest of Julian Assange by UK police.
The media will report it like this:
Assange, 48 years old, wearing a light knit blue jumper with matching socks in loose fitting cargo pants was found dead in his partially isolated messy cell this morning by prison guards. His hair was unbrushed. His teeth were unbrushed. There were no feces on the wall. During this time of public health emergency, an inquiry into his unfortunate death is not feasible. His body will be repatriated to Australia where his family can mourn, but not have contact with his physical body, nor hold a funeral service due to COVID-19 transmission threat and the need to socially distance. His body will likely be cremated and scattered across the ocean. Just like Osama Bin Laden.
It’s a nightmare bedtime story. The End.