Julian assange

Sunday

Juan P. Villasmil

Should presidential candidates pledge to free Assange?

Washington, DC WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a hero to libertarians. As is Ross Ulbricht, the founder of now-defunct Silk Road, an internet marketplace where you could buy lots of shady things. Where some see traitors and criminals, many libertarians see truth-seeking rebels, courageously engaged in a war against Big Government, defying unjust mandates. This was particularly apparent at the 2024 Libertarian National Convention in Washington, DC, this weekend. In an email sent to press by organizers, “Free Ross Ulbricht” and “Free Julian Assange” were ranked the top topics for Donald Trump’s speech Saturday — over “End the Fed" and other popular slogans.

donald trump libertarian assange

Tuesday

Slavoj Zizek

Why Julian Assange is hated

The British High Court ruled on Friday that Julian Assange can be extradited from the UK to the US. The US thus won its appeal against a January UK court ruling that he could not be extradited due to concerns over his mental health. This latest twist in the endless Assange saga is just the culmination of the long and slow well-orchestrated campaign of character assassination that reached the lowest level imaginable with unverified rumors that Ecuadorians in their London embassy wanted to get rid of him because of his bad smell and dirty clothes.

assange

Monday

Phoebe Greenwood

Will the right save Julian Assange?

In late 2018, Nils Melzer, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Torture, was contacted by lawyers representing WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, asking him to intervene on their client’s behalf. ‘I was like, “No. Not this guy. Isn’t this the rapist hacker guy?”’ Melzer recalls. He ignored the email. Three months later, the lawyers contacted him again, this time warning that Assange’s extradition to the US — where he faces 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act for obtaining and publishing secret military and diplomatic documents — could be imminent.

assange

Tuesday

Jack Hunter

Trump might be Edward Snowden’s last chance at freedom

There was speculation that more pardons could be on the horizon after President Trump recently pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Some members of Congress are encouraging Trump to grant the boldest clemency currently being discussed: NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard tweeted on November 27, one day after the Flynn announcement, '@realDonaldTrump Since you’re giving pardons to people, please consider pardoning those who, at great personal sacrifice, exposed the deception and criminality of those in the deep state.' Her tweet linked back to a post from October promoting her legislation that would drop US charges against both Snowden and Wikileaks’s Julian Assange.

snowden

Tuesday

Amber Duke

The Russia probe was mishandled worse than anyone could have imagined

It’s been over three years since the FBI first launched its investigation into an alleged conspiracy between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government, and yet we’re still learning just how badly our intelligence agencies bungled Crossfire Hurricane. The president and his allies have been arguing since the probe went public that it was all a ‘witch hunt’ designed to put a stop to or delegitimize his electoral victory. Subsequently released details about the investigation seemed to track with that theory: Inspector General Michael Horowitz, for example, chided the FBI in a December report for failing to fulfill its full obligations when seeking FISA warrants against former Trump campaign official Carter Page. Sens.

George Papadopoulos

Monday

Slavoj Zizek

Free Julian Assange — his fate is inextricably tied to our own

I visited Julian Assange in Belmarsh prison on November 21. One small detail, insignificant in itself, did strike me as emblematic of how prisons function with regards to welfare and human rights. All the guards were very kind and repeatedly emphasized that everything they do is for our own good. For example, Assange is in solitary confinement 23 hours per day. He has to eat all his meals alone in his cell, and when he is allowed out for an hour he can’t meet other prisoners. The communication with a guard who accompanies him is reduced to a minimum. Why such severe treatment since he is now just in protective custody? (He served his prison time and he is only there to prevent him escaping extradition.

julian assange

Saturday

Caroline McCarthy

Who counts as a journalist, anyway?

As a young journalist in the mid-2000s, there was the occasional circumstance where I was asked to ‘prove it’: upon showing up to a news event I was covering, whoever ran check-in insisted that I show some press credentials. You know, those badges you see on episodes of Law & Order to denote that someone’s a reporter. (More often than not, the guest star probably holds it up and indignantly yells ‘Press!’ in order to enter a crime scene.) Working for a digital-first outlet – CNET Networks, later acquired by CBS – I never had anything like it except maybe business cards. To me, it seemed like an antiquated request; to the people checking my legitimacy, it was an obvious question.

journalist

Tuesday

Slavoj Zizek

In defense of treason

The recent G20 meeting in Osaka and its surrounding events provide a sad view of the emerging New World Order: Trump exchanging love messages with Kim Jong-un and inviting him to the White House, Putin jovially clapping hands with Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and so on, with Merkel and Tusk, the two voices of old European reason, marginalized and mostly ignored. This NWO is very tolerant: they all respect each other, no one is imposing on others imperialist Eurocentrist notions like women’s rights. This new spirit is best encapsulated by the interview Putin gave to the Financial Times on the eve of the Osaka summit, in which he, as expected, lambasted the ‘liberal idea’ claiming that it ‘outlived its purpose.

treason

Friday

Michael Tracey

The soiling of Julian Assange

Here’s an intense irony for you. The journalistic activity for which Julian Assange has been indicted in the Eastern District of Virginia led to the exposure of blatant American war crimes and official deceit in Iraq: the very war Donald J. Trump vociferously decried during his successful presidential campaign. Over and over again in 2016, Trump lamented ‘Iraqi kids blown to pieces’ and pilloried Hillary Clinton for backing the invasion. And yet now, by seeking the extradition and prosecution of Assange on charges that stem directly from the revelation of those crimes, Trump has chosen to shunt all this aside and do the bidding of his besmirched GOP predecessor, George W. Bush.

assange