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LUMPENPROLETARIAT—Below is our transcript of the public statement made by Richard Medhurst outside of the Old Bailey about the Julian Assange extradition hearing on Friday, October 2, 2020:

RICHARD MEDHURST: “The lack of access to journalists during this extradition trial is an abomination.  The lack of media attention is an abomination, even—not just among corporate media—but also independent news media. Some of them, even putting out statements saying that: Oh, where’s the attention on the Assange trial? And criticizing them, and then continuing not to cover the Assange hearing.

“This is an attack on press freedoms.  It’s an attack on whatever semblance of justice the UK system has. It’s a violation of EU law.  It’s a violation of UK law, US law, international law.

“And it’s a fucking abomination that we have Julian Assange put on trial for exposing war crimes.  We have Chelsea Manning that’s been tortured and then thrown back in jail for exposing war crimes, for uncovering mass graves of 15,000 Iraqis.  And the people, who committed these war crimes—Tony Blair, George Bush, Jack Straw—they’re all gone—Paul Wolfowitz, Don Rumsfeld.  We didn’t even hear their names once inside this goddamn courtroom. 

“You know, this might be the City of London.  But it’s the United States, that’s holding the gavel.  They’re the ones running this show.  And this is disgusting.

“And everything, that WikiLeaks did, and everything Julian Assange did, these were valid acts of anti-imperialism.  And they need to be portrayed as such.  And we need to recall the real crimes, that they exposed here.

“It’s not just an attack on the freedom of the press.  It’s an attack on the very lives of people, that are bombed everyday, the people that are killed every day.  We talk about them, like they’re ants or something.  This is unacceptable. 

“And they wanna make us feel sorry for imaginary informants, that were never hurt. And the United States, by its own admission, told us that no one was ever harmed by Wikileaks.  So, what’s going on here?

“This is a disgusting violation of Julian Assange’s human rights. This is a disgusting violation of journalistic freedoms and the freedom of the press.  And it’s an absolute mockery of any kind of semblance of justice in this country.  Thank you.”

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During the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, post-9/11, the US imperial military along with its minions, including the UK, committed war crimes. Julian Assange helped report these crimes exposed by video evidence provided by whistleblower Chelsea Manning. For these acts of humanitarian and anti-imperialist intervention, the US empire is extraditing Julian Assange to punish him, inquisition style, and make an example of him to anyone else, who has the nerve to engage in journalism, which exposes imperialism and war crimes.

Today, in 2020, we are witnessing the final step listed in Naomi Wolf’s 2007 book, The End of America, about the steps historically taken by nations in the past to close an open society, to go from a free society to a totalitarian society.

This final step described by Naomi Wolf is to subvert the rule of law. That is exactly what the US/NATO Empire is doing to international law right now with its inquisition of Julian Assange, as we’re distracted in the US by neocivil war, killer cops, racist thugs, plandemic authoritarianism, and economic collapse.

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[3 OCT 2020]

[Last modified at 10:16 PDT on 3 OCT 2020]