VICTIM OF MAJOR POLITICAL CHICANERY: by Joe Van Langenberg
Despite been demonised, dehumanised, belittled and made a victim of major political chicanery, merely for upholding the sacrosanct tenets of cherished democracy, Founder of Wikileaks and valued member of the prestigious Fourth Estate Julian Assange, has soldiered on with the minimum of fuss or froth.
Gaining sanctuary in the Ecuadorean Embassy back in June of 2012, Julian Assange clung to the hope that the United States will not pursue its demand to have him extradited to the U.S. to face charges of compromising highly classified information, by allegedly leaking documents relating to the goings-on in Afghanistan and Iraq; in addition to exposing highly charged diplomatic cables; some of which were reportedly encrypted..
Whether these claims can be given any credence, or whether they have been a matter of conjecture, remain anyone’s wild guess.
After been holed up within the confines of the Ecuadorean Embassy, which is believed to have been relatively spacious, seperation from his wife and children, compromised not only his physical and mental well-being; but also took its toll on him emotionally and otherwise.
Finally on April 11.2019, seven years after securing sanctuary in the aforesaid embassy, Uncle Sam decided the time was opportune to switch gears, by surreptitiously hatching a characteristically crafty plan in connivance with the British police, to arrest Mr Assange.
What followed was Assange being inhumanely dragged out of the embassy like a common criminal, screaming and shouting like a lamb being led against its will to the slaughter.
This in itself was a flagrant violation of the code of basic decency and human rights. At this point in time, Julian Assange finds himself locked up in London’s maximum security Belmarsh Prison; one which according to reliable sources, has a soiled, murky and highly questionable track record, that has been known to break down the toughest of the tough Hitherto, every appeal submitted by Assange’s legal team has come to nought. And this setback seems to be paving the way for Julian’s extradition to the U.S. to face a plethora of charges including treason; the same of which carries 175 years in prison.
By virtue of the fact that Mr Assange happens to be an Australian citizen, it is incumbent on Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, to waste no time in bringing an end to the incarceration of Julian Assange, whose dignity, independence and peace of mind, have been so unfairly, unjustly and obscenely taken away Mr Albanese needs to draw U.S.President Joe Biden’s kind attention to the release of former Intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, released in 2017 by then U.S. President Barack Obama, who commuted her sentence for leaking classified information, the exact same charge that has been preferred against Mr Assange.
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The release of Australian David Mathew Hicks who attended al-Queda’s Farouk training camp in Afghanistan, even meeting up with its leader Osama Bin Laden back in 2001 and who was held at the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention camp from 2002-2007, was finally released and returned to Australia, to serve out the remaining nine months of a suspended sentence, under a control order, on December 29.2007 in Adelaide’s Yatala Labour Prison.
His lawyer Colonel Morris Davis is on record as having said that David Hicks’ prosecution came about, as a consequence of political meddling from both former U.S. president George W Bush and then Australian prime minister John Howard, two architects of the “Coalition of the Willing” who illegally invaded Iraq back in 2003; leaving the nation in tatters.
Providing consular assistance to Julian Assange is cold comfort. What he needs is to be released from the shackles of injustice.
Julian needs to be with his wife and young children, whom he has been seperated from, for over a decade. Consular assistance and empty rhetoric ring hollow and meaningless, during trying and troubled times, when happiness and peace of mind need to be the sine quo non.. Over to you Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
