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The Assange Arrest: You Have the Right to Remain Silent
• https://consortiumnews.comThe arrest of Julian Assange was an act of revenge by the U.S. government that strikes at the heart of journalism, writes Pepe Escobar.
The date – April 11, 2019 – will live in infamy in the annals of Western "values" and "freedom of expression." The image is stark. A handcuffed journalist and publisher dragged out by force from the inside of an embassy, clutching a Gore Vidal book, the "History of the U.S. National Security State."
The mechanism is brutal. WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange was arrested because the United States demanded this from the Tory British government, which for its part meekly claimed it did not pressure Ecuador to revoke Assange's asylum.
The U.S. magically erases Ecuador's financial troubles, ordering the IMF to release a providential $4.2-billion loan. Immediately after, Ecuadorian diplomats "invite" the London Metropolitan Police to come inside their embassy to arrest their long-term guest.
Let's cut to the chase. Julian Assange is not a U.S. citizen, he's an Australian. WikiLeaks is not a U.S.-based media organization. If the US government gets Assange extradited, prosecuted and incarcerated, it will legitimize its right to go after anyone, anyhow, anywhere, anytime.
Call it The Killing of Journalism.
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1 Comments in Response to The Assange Arrest: You Have the Right to Remain Silent
All this talk only serves to hide the real defense. In the States, you have the right to a common law trial in a court of record, a trial by jury. Drop the attorney. You don't need him. Simply require that your accuser take the oath/affirmation, get on the stand, and testify to how you harmed him, show the harm, and prove it was you. You have the right to face your accuser and cross examine him. On the indictment, your accuser is somebody named THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Will this guy ever take the oath/affirmation and get on the stand and speak "viva voce" into the record? Government lost from the start. Why do we keep on preaching politics without this simple answer? But if we expand this answer, we can take down all the tyrants in government. The only bad part is that all the small-media complainers won't have anything to complain about any longer.