Julian Assange should be free to go where he wants.
As we start 2015 I think a very major priority for anyone who seeks justice is to end of the harassment of the Australian whistleblower and founder of WikiLeaks.
The Ecuadorian Embassy in London is just around the corner from the super-rich people’s department store, Harrods, and has been Julian’s home for the past two and a half years. He cannot safely venture on to the street outside as it is crawling with police who are under orders to grab him as soon as he steps outside.
What, pray, is the nature of Julian Assange’s crime? He has spoken the truth to power, and power does not like it, might be one answer.
Last week, I decided to write to Home Secretary Theresa May to protest this appalling, ongoing situation:
The Home Secretary
Theresa May
The Home Office
2 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DF
Thursday 8th January 2015
Dear Mrs May
I am absolutely disgusted by the continuing harassment of WikiLeaks editor and founder Julian Assange who has lived as a virtual prisoner in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for the last two and a half years having committed no crime.
His only misdemeanour in the eyes of the establishment is to have told the truth which of course is something the rich and the powerful cannot handle. His shocking revelation of the video `Collateral Murder` shows the contempt that the US and indeed British military have for International Law.
I would repeat that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was and is a crime against humanity as it was unprovoked and based on a tissue of lies about non-existent weapons of mass destruction. It might also be noted that some 11 (almost 12) years after the unprovoked attack on Iraq the electricity and water supplies have not been restored to the great majority of the Iraqi people. Where are the $150 billion a year oil revenues going to? Into the pockets of a corrupt kleptocracy, no doubt. The unprovoked attack on Iraq has created millions of refugees; may I ask what is the British Government doing to help this awful situation that their criminal acts helped to create in the first place?
I was both dismayed and disgusted by the recent revelations about the CIA torture programme in which Britain played a supporting role.
American lawyer Marjorie Cohn writes: “Reading the 499-page torture report just released by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was a disgusting experience. Even after many years of writing books and articles about the Bush torture policy, I was unprepared for the atrocious pattern of crimes our government committed against other human beings in our name.
“One of the most hideous techniques the CIA plied on detainees was called “rectal rehydration” or “rectal feeding” without medical necessity – a sanitized description of rape by a foreign object. A concoction of pureed “hummus, pasta with sauce, nuts and raisins” was forced into the rectum of one detainee. Another was subjected to “rectal rehydration” to establish the interrogator’s “total control over the detainee.” This constitutes illegal, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and a humiliating outrage upon personal dignity.”
The executive summary of the torture report was made public, but the 6,700-page report remains classified. The summary depicts the CIA at best as Keystone cops, at worst as pathological, lying, sadistic war criminals. The CIA lied repeatedly about the effectiveness of the torture and cruel treatment. Interrogations of detainees were much more brutal than the CIA represented to government officials and the American public.
Bush’s CIA directors George Tenet, Porter Goss and Michael Hayden should be charged with crimes, along with their minions who carried out the torture.” `
The CIA and their British counterparts are a bunch of disgusting perverts and war criminals who ought to be behind bars.
Julian Assange is a good man whose only `crime` was to have exposed the lies and evil wrongdoing of the elites in the USA and in Britain. He should not be penalised for telling the truth.
I maintain that he should be allowed to leave The Ecuadorian Embassy and given safe passage to any country of his choice. Tony Blair and George Bush should be put on trial as the war criminals they are.
As a final thought, when are we ever going to see the Chilcot report? It has been held up for years after it cost many millions of pounds of public money to fund. What on Earth is the Government so afraid of that the report will reveal? Something horrendous like the truth either in whole or at least in part?
Yours Sincerely, Paul O’Hanlon
End the persecution of Julian Assange.
IMAGE: Jukian Assange and WikiLeaks (Via haak78/Shutterstock.com)