https://sputnikglobe.com/20240625/assange-plea-deal-could-leave-dent-in-press-freedom-says-whistleblowers-friend-1119120733.html
Assange Plea Deal Could Leave 'Dent in Press Freedom' Says Whistleblower’s Friend
Assange Plea Deal Could Leave 'Dent in Press Freedom' Says Whistleblower’s Friend
Sputnik International
The plea deal for Julian Assange that allowed him to walk out of the UK prison “raises some serious concerns regarding the effects on the free press,” Andy Vermaut, Editor in Chief for Belgian Indegazette.be told Sputnik.
2024-06-25T17:19+0000
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'vault 7': wikileaks exposes cia's global covert hacking program in largest ever leak
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The plea deal for Julian Assange that allowed him to walk out of the UK prison “raises some serious concerns regarding the effects on the free press,” Andy Vermaut, Editor in Chief for Belgian Indegazette.be told Sputnik.If Assange is forced to agree to such things, it might end up “paving the way for future journalists and whistleblowers to be prosecuted,” Vermaut warned.Furthermore, the plea deal “can be portrayed as a shift towards the right and away from human rights and justice.”If this is a ploy by the Biden administration, it “may appeal to liberal voters and those who support civil liberties. But this could be counterproductive if it is perceived as a calculated move rather than a move towards the principle of justice,” said the pundit.Besides Biden hoping to gain political clout from the plea deal to “woo voters” ahead of the looming presidential debate with Trump, other “geopolitical factors” may have been at play, Vermaut speculated.'A Dent in Press Freedom'The fact that Assange has been obliged to plead guilty to something he didn't do may "make a dent in press freedom," Professor Stuart Rees, Australian academic, director of The Sydney Peace Foundation and and personal friend of Julian Assange, told Sputnik.He added that it is a reminder to journalists that "they should have stood up for Assange.” As for the timing of the move, he speculated:According to the pundit, “the Americans feared the embarrassment of their appeal for extradition being lost.”The academic doubted that the plea deal would boost president Biden’s chances that much in the upcoming election campaign debate with Trump, saying:Julian Assange left the UK's Belmarsh maximum security prison on June 24 having spent 1901 days there. After he was granted bail by the High Court in London, Assange boarded a plane and departed the UK. The plea hearing is expected to take place in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US Pacific territory.According to the whistleblower's wife, Stella, the deal involves her husband pleading guilty to a single charge that concerns the Espionage Act and obtaining and disclosing national defense information."The important thing here is that the deal involved time served, that if he signed it, he would be able to walk free," she told reporters.Assange had spent years fighting extradition to the United States which sought to prosecute him. In May 2019, the US government indicted Australian citizen Assange on 18 charges over WikiLeaks' publication of classified documents. Prosecutors claimed he “conspired” with US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to “hack” into a Pentagon computer.Bombshell WikiLeaks RevelationsA year after Julian Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006 the whistleblower site peeled back the curtain on operating procedures for the US' Camp Delta detention camp at its Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. The 238-page Army manual from 2003 revealed that the US military kept prisoners from Red Cross inspectors and held new prisoners in isolation for two weeks to make them more submissive.US Army Private First Class Chelsea Manning, an intelligence analyst in Iraq, provided WikiLeaks it in early 2010 with a wealth of incriminating material about US war crimes.Dubbed the "Collateral Murder" video, footage recorded by the gunsight of a US Apache helicopter released in April 2010 revealed its crew laughing as they murdered 18 Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters journalists in a 2007 Baghdad airstrike. The US military was shown to have lied about the incident to cover it up.75,000 Afghanistan war logs were published in July 2010. Disclosures revealed numerous friendly fire incidents in the country, and instances of the murder of Afghan civilians by US and allied forces.Dubbed the Iraq War logs, a trove of 391,832 secret reports were published in October 2010. The files detail at least 109,000 deaths in the Iraq war, including over 66,000 civilian deaths - more than the US previously acknowledged. Cases of torture and other abuses by coalition forces."Cablegate" refers to some 250.000 unredacted US diplomatic cables released in November 2010. Dating from December 1966 to February 2010, the cables included: shocking revelations about civilian deaths resulting from Washington’s military operations in the Middle East and Afghanistan; secret drone strikes in Yemen; unflattering comments about world leaders; proof of eavesdropping and efforts to collect "biographic and biometric" information of key UN officials, etc.The Guantanamo Files, made public in April 2011, featured 779 secret documents from the US detention camp. The leak laid bare evidence of widespread use of torture, and rampant mental illness at the facility caused by inhumane treatment. The data showed that over 150 innocent Afghan and Pakistani civilians were detained and abused for years without any charges.The ‘Global Intelligence Files’ related to Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (Stratfor) were published in 2012/ 2013. Over 5 million emails documented the "inner workings" and money laundering techniques of the private intelligence company that wielded a web of informers while advising US government agencies and corporations, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Defense Intelligence Agency.America’s global hacking activities were laid bare in February 2016. The US National Security Agency (NSA) was revealed to have been spying on world leaders, including then-UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, German chancellor of the time Angela Merkel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the last three French presidents.In the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election, WikiLeaks published 30,000 emails from then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's personal email account. Dating to her time as Secretary of State (2010–2014) they revealed her gross violation of State Department rules by using a private email server to receive emails potentially containing classified information. Further leaks pulled the veil off a DNC’s scheme to undercut Clinton's rival Bernie Sanders in the party nomination race. Clinton blamed her loss in the 2016 race on the leak. Insights into the fabricated "Russia hacking" hoax to allege collaboration between Donald Trump and Russia triggered an investigation by US Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. An ensuing report failed to find any evidence of Russia -Trump collusion peddled by the Hillary Clinton campaign.From 2015 to 2016 WikiLeaks published draft chapters of multinational trade agreements negotiated in secret by the US, EU, and South Pacific countries. The leak on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP), the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and the Trade in Services (TiSA) showed how corporate negotiators sought to influence two thirds of the global economy.In March 2017, WikiLeaks released leaks code-named "Vault 7." The huge document dump detailed how the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) resorted to sophisticated software tools and techniques to compromise smartphones, computers, for electronic surveillance and cyber warfare.
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Assange Plea Deal Could Leave 'Dent in Press Freedom' Says Whistleblower’s Friend
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was released from a UK prison earlier, with court documents revealing that he was expected to plead guilty to a US espionage charge as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors.
The
plea deal for Julian Assange that allowed him to walk out of the UK prison “
raises some serious concerns regarding the effects on the free press,”
Andy Vermaut, Editor in Chief for Belgian Indegazette.be
told Sputnik.
The plea bargain may require Assange to "compromise" or “give up some basic rights […] such as free speech, mobility, or ongoing monitoring, which can be regarded as concessions that erode the principles of press freedom,” said the human rights defender.
If Assange is forced to agree to such things, it might end up “paving the way for future journalists and whistleblowers to be prosecuted,” Vermaut warned.
Independent US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has strongly criticized the plea deal that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was forced to accept, describing it "bad news" and a “big blow to freedom of the press.
Furthermore, the plea deal “can be portrayed as a shift towards the right and away from human rights and justice.”
If this is a ploy by the Biden administration, it “may appeal to liberal voters and those who support civil liberties. But this could be counterproductive if it is perceived as a calculated move rather than a move towards the principle of justice,” said the pundit.
Besides Biden hoping to gain political clout from the plea deal to “
woo voters” ahead of the looming
presidential debate with Trump, other “geopolitical factors” may have been at play, Vermaut speculated.
“The US may be trying to prevent further deterioration of diplomatic relations and regain its position as a protector of the freedom of the press,” he said.
'A Dent in Press Freedom'
The fact that Assange has been obliged to plead guilty to something he didn't do may "make a dent in press freedom," Professor Stuart Rees, Australian academic, director of The Sydney Peace Foundation and and personal friend of Julian Assange, told Sputnik.
He added that it is a reminder to journalists that "they should have stood up for Assange.”
As for the timing of the move, he speculated:
“I think there was going to be an appeal against the extradition in the London courts, which looked to me and to others as though the Americans were going to lose that appeal.”
According to the pundit, “the Americans feared the embarrassment of their appeal for extradition being lost.”
The academic doubted that the plea deal would boost president Biden’s chances that much in the
upcoming election campaign debate with Trump, saying:
“I think, it'll be a ten minute wonder in terms of the debate, in terms of Biden's chances of being reelected. There are many more forces against Biden than a fair historical decision to allow Assad's to be free.”
Julian Assange left the UK's Belmarsh maximum security prison on June 24 having spent 1901 days there. After he was granted bail by the High Court in London, Assange boarded a plane and departed the UK. The plea hearing is expected to take place in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US Pacific territory.
According to the whistleblower's wife, Stella, the deal involves her husband pleading guilty to a single charge that concerns the Espionage Act and obtaining and disclosing national defense information.
"The important thing here is that the deal involved time served, that if he signed it, he would be able to walk free," she told reporters.
Assange had spent years
fighting extradition to the United States which sought to prosecute him. In May 2019, the US government indicted Australian citizen Assange on 18 charges over WikiLeaks' publication of classified documents. Prosecutors claimed he “
conspired” with US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to “
hack” into a Pentagon computer.
Bombshell WikiLeaks Revelations
A year after Julian Assange founded WikiLeaks in 2006 the whistleblower site peeled back the curtain on operating procedures for the US' Camp Delta detention camp at its Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. The 238-page Army manual from 2003 revealed that the US military kept prisoners from Red Cross inspectors and held new prisoners in isolation for two weeks to make them more submissive.
US Army Private First Class
Chelsea Manning, an intelligence analyst in Iraq, provided WikiLeaks it in early 2010 with a wealth of incriminating material about US war crimes.
Dubbed the
"Collateral Murder" video, footage recorded by the gunsight of a US Apache helicopter released in April 2010 revealed its crew laughing as they murdered 18 Iraqi civilians, including two Reuters journalists in a 2007 Baghdad airstrike. The US military was shown to have lied about the incident to cover it up.
75,000 Afghanistan war logs were published in July 2010. Disclosures revealed numerous friendly fire incidents in the country, and instances of the murder of Afghan civilians by US and allied forces.
Dubbed the
Iraq War logs, a trove of 391,832 secret reports were published in October 2010. The files detail at least 109,000 deaths in the Iraq war, including over 66,000 civilian deaths - more than the US previously acknowledged. Cases of
torture and other abuses by coalition forces.
28 November 2016, 11:41 GMT
"Cablegate" refers to some 250.000
unredacted US diplomatic cables released in November 2010. Dating from December 1966 to February 2010, the cables included: shocking revelations about civilian deaths resulting from Washington’s military operations in the Middle East and Afghanistan; secret drone strikes in Yemen; unflattering comments about world leaders; proof of eavesdropping and efforts to collect "biographic and biometric" information of key UN officials, etc.
The
Guantanamo Files, made public in April 2011, featured 779 secret documents from the US detention camp. The leak laid bare evidence of
widespread use of torture, and rampant mental illness at the facility caused by inhumane treatment. The data showed that over 150 innocent Afghan and Pakistani civilians were detained and abused for years without any charges.
22 January 2020, 03:32 GMT
The
‘Global Intelligence Files’ related to
Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (Stratfor) were published in 2012/ 2013. Over 5 million emails documented the "inner workings" and money laundering techniques of the
private intelligence company that wielded a web of informers while advising US government agencies and corporations, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Defense Intelligence Agency.
America’s
global hacking activities were laid bare in February 2016. The US National Security Agency (NSA) was revealed to have been
spying on world leaders, including then-UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, German chancellor of the time Angela Merkel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the last three French presidents.
In the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election, WikiLeaks published 30,000
emails from then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's personal email account. Dating to her time as Secretary of State (2010–2014) they revealed her gross violation of State Department rules by using a private email server to receive emails potentially containing classified information. Further leaks pulled the veil off a DNC’s scheme to undercut Clinton's rival Bernie Sanders in the party nomination race. Clinton blamed her loss in the 2016 race on the leak. Insights into the
fabricated "Russia hacking" hoax to allege collaboration between Donald Trump and Russia triggered an investigation by US Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. An ensuing report failed to find any evidence of
Russia -Trump collusion peddled by the Hillary Clinton campaign.
From 2015 to 2016 WikiLeaks published draft chapters of multinational trade agreements negotiated in secret by the US, EU, and South Pacific countries. The leak on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TTP), the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and the Trade in Services (TiSA) showed how corporate negotiators sought to influence two thirds of the global economy.
In March 2017, WikiLeaks released leaks code-named
"Vault 7." The huge document dump detailed how the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) resorted to sophisticated software tools and techniques
to compromise smartphones, computers, for electronic surveillance and cyber warfare.
