A high powered legal team had their last throw of the dice in London this week to stop the British government’s extradition of Assange to the United States. Regardless of the outcome in the courts, there is little hope for Julian Assange.
Sadly the Americans are not going to let him go. As Scott Ludlam testified to the Belmarsh Tribunal the US government has “calculated to wear him and his supporters down in an endless cycle of appeals and counter appeals (where) the prosecution gets what it wants, no matter the result.”
Last week his supporters turned out in Meanjin (Brisbane) and, after 10 years of organising solidarity actions, they are exhausted. Attempts by Julian’s father, John Shipton, to dissuade Joe Biden to let Assange go have failed. So Assange’s freedom relies heavily on a legal rather than a political strategy.
However Assange’s legal defence rests on thin grounds – fear by the judiciary that Assange will commit suicide in the US. High Court Judges are not concerned about that. Judicial concern is purely superficial. They must not look beholden to government, regardless of which one, British or United States. The letter of the law is paramount.
During the extradition trial, the US government lawyers won all the legal arguments, save one, itself not strictly a matter of law, the threat of suicide.
Julian, his father, mother, wife and family will pay a heavy price for the Wikileak’d Iraqi war logs and the Collateral Murder video. And let’s not forget Chelsea Manning. Or the million dead in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We publish this report (by request) about the United States’ High Court Appeal compiled by Bay FM Community Newsroom, on 29th October 2021. Thanks go to the anchor, Mia Armitage, and Julian’s dad, John Shipton. Shipton is in London for the US government’s High Court appeal against the decision not to allow the extradition. He talks with Dr John Jiggens in the interview that follows.
We have also received reports of a quite different tribunal organized by the Progressive International. The so-called Belmarsh tribunal is modelled on the People’s tribunal, held in Sweden in 1966. The latter was convened by prominent philosophers, Bertrand Russell and Jean Paul Sartre. Rob Osborne reports on this citizens’ tribunal examining the War on Terror, which was also in London for the appeal. The report features Tariq Ali, John Shipton, and Ewan MacAskill.
Not that dissimilar to Wikileaks, the People’s tribunal exposed American war crimes in Vietnam. On this occasion Russell and Sartre are replaced by writers, Tariq Ali and Ewen MacAskill.
Petition
There is a petition to Free Julian signed by 653,602 people. All the members of the AUKUS agreement have ignored this large number of petitioners, forcing people to question the democratic system itself. The petition is appropriately named The British Legal System is on Trial … If they Extradite, Assange=Democracy is Dead Please sign it if you wish to stay informed. Also share with your friends and colleagues.
Metrics
The petition put together by Phillip Adams is currently running at 30 signatures per hour; that’s about 720 per day. Adams says that there was a mass mail-out to “the 652,000 signatories at about 9:50am Brisbane time on 31 October ’21. T Note this (the email list) is now the largest daily news article distribution service in Australia.”
At this rate, hopefully the petition may have 1,000,000 signatures by the time the appeal decision is handed down by the High Court in London.
More at https://workersbushtelegraph.com.au/2021/10/30/belmarsh-tribunal-supports-julian-assange/
