LUMPENPROLETARIAT—The ongoing subversion of the rule of law, and of international law, raises many questions we must deal with, as a society, if we hope to understand our changing society and practice healthy civic engagement. 

If Julian Assange is not a U.S. citizen, nor has ever been, how does the U.S. have legal jurisdiction to attempt to extradite him?  Will the U.S. government be able to extradite anyone from anywhere on trumped up charges from now on?  How does the U.S. even have legal jurisdiction in a court of law in the City of London, or anywhere around the world?  As former ambassador, historian, and humanitarian Craig Murray pointed out in a statement outside the Old Bailey, at the conclusion of the Assange extradition hearing on Friday, October 2, 2020:

CRAIG MURRAY: “We also have a situation where, at the time he did this publishing, Julian Assange was nowhere near the United States. The United States is claiming a universal jurisdiction to swoop down anywhere in the world and destroy the life of anybody, who publishes things, it does not want revealed. And this ridiculous claim of universal jurisdiction should not be accepted.”

cf. “Craig Murray…” by Don’t Extradite Assange Campaign, https://youtu.be/KwGa1OYXnII

Could all of this unprecedented subversion of the rule of law have anything to do with the inordinate number of U.S. military bases all around the world?  Is this a new level of U.S. imperialism?  Will all of this lead to increased authoritarianism?

Craig Murray seemed to speak on mic, after an incredibly powerful and compelling, yet concise, statement by Richard Medhurst, echoing some of his points about subversion of the rule of law and abuses of power by the U.S. government.

It seems the British Empire gave birth to a monster in the U.S. Empire.  Doesn’t it?  Today, the younger empire bosses around the elder empire.  The inquisition of Julian Assange by the U.S. in the U.K. is an example of this.  Abuse of power must be exposed and arrested, not the journalists reporting on those abuses.

Messina

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CRAIG MURRAY:  “In following these days of trial, we’ve heard a huge amount of detail, that has demolished the prosecution arguments day after day after day.  Let’s step back now, at the end, and take a view of the larger picture of what is happening here.

“Julian Assange has been suffering terrible deprivation of liberty.  He’s been suffering conditions amounting to torture.  His ordeal goes on and on and on, and all because he published the truth.

“There is no allegation in that courtroom, that anything he published was a lie.  Everything he published was true.  And much of that truth revealed terrible crimes, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and lies and corruption by government.  And not one of the people, who committed those war crimes is on trial anywhere.

“Instead, we have the man, who had the courage to reveal those war crimes, is the one whose liberty is at stake.  And that is not right.  And the world must say that is not right.

“We also have a situation where, at the time he did this publishing, Julian Assange was nowhere near the United States.  The United States is claiming a universal jurisdiction to swoop down anywhere in the world and destroy the life of anybody, who publishes things, it does not want revealed.  And this ridiculous claim of universal jurisdiction should not be accepted or tolerated for a moment in British court, let alone granted all the panoply of justice, so-called, which is defending this indefensible situation.

“We’ve also seen the United States government is prosecuting—argue in terms, argued directly that the First Amendment does not protect journalists.  They have argued in detail that the Pentagon Papers judgment would not say The New York Times could not have been prosecuted under the Espionage Act.

“They are claiming the right to prosecute for espionage any journalist, anywhere in the world, who reveals national security information.  And national security information about a state, which constantly invades other states, is information, which is necessary to the liberty of everyone.

“We have been here.  We have seen the law fighting in the halls of justice.  We have seen the activists fighting outside.  And this campaign will go on because the campaign for Julian’s freedom is the campaign for the freedom of everyone!”

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Meanwhile, back in the USA, there appears to be little-to-no awareness of the plight of Julian Assange, nor of the attacks being made against our modern hopes for democracy and human liberty. 

Instead, there’s a growing trend of pseudo civil war, which is acting as a surrogate for electioneering, and in which pro-Trump types are galloping around American streets in pickup trucks with lift kits, waving flags and spraying mace at their political opponents, like burning torches and crosses on horseback in the olden days.  Today, pro-Trump types are often trying to trample, literally and figuratively, the First Amendment rights of their political opponents, such as Black Lives Matter (BLM) and other liberal, or left-of-center political groups.  Followers of right-wing YouTube channels, such as Lasse Burholt, openly advocate violence against Black Lives Matter protestors in their comments section.  And they cheer when any pro-Trump type attacks, verbally or physically, any political opponent.  Usually, as these videos and news clips reveal, the police often acquiesce in violence against BLM and others, looking the other way, or arresting the assault victim, as in the example of Dominique Alexander in Dallas, Texas, who was assaulted by “security” at a pro-Trump rally.  On the other hand, it seems we rarely hear of BLM “security” securing pro-Trump type saboteurs.  In the case of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year old vigilante, who went out to “defend” businesses from BLM protestors with an assault rifle, and has now been charged with killing two protestors, was shown in videos to be given kudos and water bottles from approving cops rolling by in tank-like vehicles.

Our nation is in the grips of a strange mass hysteria, whereby Trump Nation perceive themselves to be facing an existential threat, which must be fought back tooth and nail.  Anything which doesn’t reek of red meat issues, or rhetoric designed to inflame a political base, is disregarded by the corporate media.  People on the right of the political spectrum seem to be under the impression, that we risk facing some sort of authoritarianism, if Biden wins the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election.  Others elsewhere on the political spectrum argue that we risk facing some sort of authoritarianism, if Trump wins.  But the entire nation seems to be in agreement on one thing, as talking heads on corporate media have been saying recently: Our nation has not been this divided since the Civil War.

And, as Americans argue identity politics and resuscitate zombie culture wars, their government is waging a war against free speech and the freedom of the press, the only profession explicitly protected in the U.S. Constitution.

In her famous 2007 book, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, Naomi Wolf describes a number of steps, which nations have historically taken to close their open societies.  One of those steps is to target key individuals.  Julian Assange is clearly one of those key individuals, which authoritarian types of governments like to smash, smear, discredit, or marginalize, an individual, who practiced journalism, and in so doing exposed crimes of state.

Another step to close an open society and usher in authoritarianism, described in The End of America, is to cast criticism as “espionage” and dissent as “treason”. This is exactly what we have witnessed thus far in the Julian Assange extradition hearing, and will likely continue to witness as events unfold. Yet, here we have former ambassodor Craig Murray pointing out that in this inquisition of Julian Assange, the U.S. government is arguing the U.S. Constitution does not protect journalists. If this is true, and the U.S. government is making such arguments, as Craig Murray is reporting, then the prosecutors are gaslighting the whole world, behind closed doors, in a sham trial, against one of the most important whistleblowers of our generation.

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Thanks to J Mc on YouTube for sharing a transcript draft in the comments section of the video cited above, upon which this transcript is based.

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[4 OCT 2020]
[Last modified at 12:32 PDT on 4 OCT 2020]