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Assange to plead guilty to one charge of espionage and return home to Australia after decades fighting US extradition

Renegades vs NWO
#1

Finally some good news:

AlJazeera’s take:

"WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been freed from prison in the United Kingdom and is on his way home to Australia after agreeing to plead guilty to a single charge of breaching the espionage law in the United States.

Assange, 52, will plead guilty to one count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US national defence documents, according to a filing in the US District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.
He was freed from the UK’s high-security Belmarsh prison on Monday and taken to the airport whre he flew out of the country. Assange will appear at a court in Saipan, a US Pacific territory at 9am on Wednesday (23:00 GMT on Tuesday) where he will be sentenced to 62 months of time already served.

“Julian Assange is free,” Wikileaks said in a statement posted on X.

“He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there. He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stanstead airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK.”

“Julian is free!!!” wife Stella wrote on X. “Words cannot express our immense gratitude to YOU – yes, YOU, who have all mobilised for years and years to make this come true. THANK YOU. tHANK YOU, THANK YOU.”

cheers

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#2

Omg. What great news to wake up to!

#3

Great news, assuming the US will not now do the even-dirtier.

Overshadows for now the issues which remain unresolved. There will be no so sanctions against conniving western governments* carrying out rigged and abusive (il)legal processes until stopped, it seems, by the political cost mounting through international opposition.
And Assange has of course still served a severe sentence. The deterrent to misguided journalists who have slipped through the net and who still believe in something called the public interest is established. Assange’s profile and level of support was eventually enough to blunt the full force of US power, but this would likely not be the case for lesser lights.

#4

I vote that the 5 filters box of hallmarked tissues goes to the BBC, who seem to have their presenters primed to sniff at the people that Assange allegedly (ie alleged by the US, who admitted they had no evidence of anyone harmed) ‘put at risk’ by the release of the identifying information.
Apart from anything else, the identifying information was released by the Guardian, which published the password to the information.

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#5

The BBC, in the interests of balance, has rounded up some hostile to Assange.
You know, some liberal minded folk like Mike Pence and hawkish people in five eyes countries…

Julian Assange - campaigner or attention seeker?

(This crude and inane personal sleight against someone who has paid such a heavy price really takes the Bbiscuit…)

Mike Pence

The ex-VP accused Assange of endangering the lives of US troopsImage caption:
The ex-VP accused Assange of endangering the lives of US troops
(Got to say the important things twice)

Former US Vice President Mike Pence has strongly criticised Assange’s plea deal, calling it a “miscarriage of justice”, adding that he should have “been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law”.

In a post on X, he said

: “There should be no plea deals to avoid prison for anyone that endangers the… national security of the United States. Ever.”

‘Just because he’s Australian, doesn’t mean he’s a good bloke’

We earlier brought you some reaction from the Australian public to Julian Assange’s release, which was largely positive.

Now let’s bring you a different persepctive (sic, meant to be per-septic?
But they already brought us Mike Pence…)

Former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer says “most people” in Australia do not see Assange as a journalist.

“We can now… say he was guilty of a very serious offence," he tells the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

“Most people in Australia would agree it’s not appropriate to steal national security information and publish it - governments have to have some degree of privacy in their communications."

He adds: “I don’t think many Australians have sympathy for him. Just because he’s Australian doesn’t mean he’s a good bloke.”

(On page 2 of the BBC report:)

Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani tells the BBC he is “shocked” that a plea deal has been arranged for Julian Assange.

“These type of time-served deals don’t happen," Rahmani says, adding that credit was due to the Wikileaks founder and his lawyers for holding out for so long.

He adds that Assange being let off with what will be perceived as a slap on the wrist after such serious leaks of classified documents will likely be a “head-scratcher” for many Americans.

The US government has continued to argue that the leaks put people’s lives at risk.
(The important things have to be on every page)

#6

hmm… just noticed where Saipan is… An easy pick up for any US special forces in Guam. Hoping I’m being overly paranoid.

saipan

#7

It’s a pretty weird arrangement.
And according to Assange’s campaigners he will have to pay $500,000 for the cost of the two flights. A half million dollar fine, which I suppose will fall on his supporters.

Still, as long as the plane out doesn’t fly over Portmeirion…

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#8

I seem to recall justice was administered over the internet during “covid” - I would have thought it was easy enough to present at any UK court and conduct the proceedings over the internet and release him in London forthwith, n’est-ce pas!?

This is even more logical given that the US is exercising a so-called right to extend its borders to any country in the world - although of course under International law it is universally accepted that prosecution of journalists are political prosecutions with which no court should cooperate.
The $1million sting in the tail is just xxxxing typical!

cheers

1 Like
#9

You would think everything’s OK now. I’m sure we can all forgive & forget the evil bastards whose documented exploits triggered the disgusting persecution of some bloody brave and honest people. (Who remembers Manning?). Are we now supposed to give a free pass to the dirty treacherous Guardian and its bottom-feeding stenographers, all the murder-loving politicians in the US & UK, their tools in Sweden, the slimy thug Starmer, the lying lawyers?

Anyway, This business looks dodgy to me, I don’t think anyone should be celebrating yet. And if it does result in a ‘free’ Assange would that not lend credence to the idea that the whole thing was a publicity diversion from the facts of US/NATO mass killings which have been carrying on unopposed by anyone of comparable reach since before the Assange affair blew up?

The media will have (are having) a ball with this just as they are being allowed to have a ball with Mujahed Abadi (for a day or two) instead of reporting the genocide. Ffs, the Israelis have been doing this in their West Bank incursions for at least 2 decades.

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#10

I sent off a small contribution with this message:

“Every citizen of Sweden, UK and the USA should make a contribution to express our support and thanks to you for your work and perseverence and to apologise for the disgraceful behaviour of our Governments, our Court appointees involved in your detention and torture, our security services and our mainstream media. Live free Julian , all the best to you and your family.”

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/free-julian-assange

At the end of the day we all failed to stop the insanity of our institutions even though we have all spoken out in solidarity with Julian.

UK voters have an opportunity to poke both Tory and Labour in the eye for their Assange policies by voting for the parties and independents of peace if they are standing in our areas.

cheers

2 Likes
#11

Injustice has still won but humanity blunted its most obvious edges.
Maybe the obligatory chorus of fake approval will strike some genuine chords in some, just as with Israel’s vicious assaults on Gaza. Like, you can do anything you want, but you can’t do … that.

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#12

Hi folks, I see that through Gofund they have raised over US $560,000 so they’ve covered the plane costs within 2 days - their aim is to add more to help towards JA’s recovery.

cheers