Assange’s Freedom: A Victory and a Call for JusticeAssange’s Freedom: A Victory and a Call for Justice Julian Assange’s release from imprisonment is a significant victory in the fight against imperial repression. The plea deal he struck will not establish legal precedents detrimental to journalists, according to experts. This triumph, however, does not erase the egregious abuses Assange endured or diminish the damage inflicted on global journalism by targeting him as an example. True justice would demand a full pardon, substantial compensation, and legal policy changes to prevent similar persecution in the future. It would entail prosecution of war criminals exposed by Assange and those involved in destroying his life. Australia should extend a hero’s welcome and critically examine its relationship with the United States. Mainstream media outlets should apologize for their complicity in Assange’s persecution, and the reputations of those who smeared him should be shattered. While this victory is a cause for celebration, the fight for global justice continues. The empire remains a threat to whistleblowers and those exposing its crimes. Despite the ongoing struggle, this small victory provides a glimmer of hope. It reminds us that resistance and perseverance can overcome tyranny. The fight continues, and we must never forget the trials and sacrifices made by those who dare to challenge power and expose the truth.
June 27, 2024
DHAKA – Julian Assange is free. At the time of writing, he is en route to Australia from the Northern Mariana Islands, a remote US territory in the western Pacific Ocean, after striking a plea deal with the US government that will see him sentenced to a term of imprisonment in Belmarsh Prison. Importantly, according to experts I saw react to this astonishing new development, it does not appear that his plea deal will set new legal precedents that will harm journalists in the future. Joe Lauria reports the following for Consortium News:
“Bruce Afran, a U.S. constitutional attorney, told Consortium News that a plea deal does not set a legal precedent. Therefore, Assange’s deal would not put journalists at risk of being prosecuted in the future for accepting and publishing classified information from a source, because Assange agrees to such a charge.”
I obviously feel very strongly about all of this, having followed this important case so closely for so long and putting so much work into writing it. There is a lot of work to be done in our collective fight to free the world from the clutches of the Imperial killing machine, but I am overjoyed for Assange and his family, and it feels good to have a solid victory in this fight .
However, none of this undoes the unforgivable abuses that the empire has caused through its persecution of Julian Assange, nor does it reverse the global damage done by making him a public example of what happens to a journalist which tells uncomfortable truths about the most powerful government in the world.
So even though Assange is free, we cannot rightly say that justice has been done.
Justice would look like Assange being given a full and unconditional pardon and millions of dollars in compensation from the US government for the torment they inflicted on him through his captivity in Belmarsh from 2019, his de facto captivity in the Ecuadorian embassy from 2012, and his prison sentence and house arrest from 2010.
Justice would look like the US would make concrete legal and policy changes that would guarantee that Washington could never again use its global power and influence to destroy the life of a foreign journalist for reporting inconvenient facts, and issue a formal apology to Julian Assange and his family.
Justice would look like arresting and prosecuting the people whose war crimes Assange exposed, and arresting and prosecuting anyone who helped ruin their lives for exposing those crimes. This would include a slew of government officials and officials in numerous countries, and multiple U.S. presidents.
Justice, upon its arrival, would look like a hero’s welcome and a hero’s honor from Australia, and a serious review of Canberra’s subservient relationship with Washington.
Justice would look like a formal apology to Assange and his family from the editors of all mainstream press outlets that authorized his brutal persecution – including and especially The Guardian – and the complete destruction of the reputation of every unscrupulous ‘press titee’ who helped smear him over the years.
If these things were to happen, we might be able to say that some measure of justice has been served. As it stands, all we have is the cessation of a single act of depravity by an empire. We all still live under a global power structure that has shown the entire world that it will destroy your life if you expose its criminality, and then stand back and proudly call it justice.
So personally, I think I’ll just take this one little victory. There is still so much to do, and negligibly little time to do it.
The fight continues.
