Paul Craig Roberts – ‘We Must Act Now to Save Julian Assange & the Rule of Law’

CROSSROADS: Paul Craig Roberts – ‘We Must Act Now to Save Julian Assange & the Rule of Law’

The Smoking Man 

Source – paulcraigroberts.org
– “…A United Nations expert in torture diagnosis has in the past week issued a stark warning that Australian whistleblower Julian Assange is in danger of dying from extreme prison conditions in Britain…If we cannot save Julian Assange, we cannot save ourselves”
We must act now to save Julian Assange and the Rule of Law – By Paul Craig Roberts
UPDATE:
At the present time, currently 4PM US East Coast time on October 28, 2019, there are at this minute 4,792 readers in 81 countries reading my website, http://www.paulcraigroberts.org
During October, a quarter of a million people have made a half million visits to this website. These are only the visits to this website. The number does not include the visits to my columns carried on scores of other websites both in English and in Foreign translation where my writings are republished.
(Also Read: UN Envoy Issues Grim Warning Over Assange’s Life @ https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/un-envoy-issues-grim-warning-over-assanges-life)
Yet, in the past two days as of 4pm today, only 450 people have signed the petition to free Julian Assange from his unlawful imprisonment that is posted on my website.
Surely my readers can do better than that.
If we cannot save Julian Assange, we cannot save ourselves.
The reason that the US Constitution protects free speech and press freedom is to ensure that government can be held accountable. In Assange’s persecution, this protection is being broken. If the Anglo-American attack on Assange succeeds, law will cease to serve as a shield of the people and become a weapon in the hands of government.
We will have descended into the Age of Tyranny.
For Julian Assange’s sake, and for your sakes and mine, go sign the petition: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/10/27/85082/
Dear Readers: If the millions who read my website will sign this petition with their name and their country, you will have made an effort to save Julian Assange from death at the hands of the Anglo-American criminal gang who are determined to remove the accountability of government to law and to the people. The continued existence of a rule of law in the Western World and of government accountable to law depends on our ability to defend and free Julian Assange.
If you value civil liberty, go to my website—www.paulcraigroberts.org —click “contact,” put “petition to save Julian Assange” in the
“your subject” line, and in your message, copy and past the petition below.
If we cannot save Julian Assange, we cannot save ourselves.
To her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II
To the House of Lords
To the House of Commons
We the undersigned respectfully call on the appropriate authorities of the United Kingdom to immediately release Julian Assange, citizen of Australia and Ecuador, from Belmarsh prison where he is being unjustly and cruelly incarcerated.
Julian Assange is not charged with any crime or even misdemeanor in Britain, and has fully served his sentence for his single offense: jumping bail to avoid extradition to the United States via Sweden. He was not and is not charged for any crime in Sweden.
The sole charges against him originate in the United States, on purely political grounds, aimed at punishing Julian Assange for publication of accurate information provided by informed sources. This is a regular practice of all mainstream media, which now shamefully fail to speak out in defense of Mr. Assange, even when they published exactly the same information that he did.
It is quite clear that in their current treatment of Julian Assange, the United Kingdom is debasing itself as a mere instrument of political repression exercised by the United States. Our confidence in the judicial system and in the media is very seriously shaken.
Your Majesty, Members of Parliament,
The current imprisonment of Julian Assange is a blot on the nation’s judicial system, a disgrace to British decency. This scandal may be largely hidden today but will surely emerge in history unless measures are taken immediately by the highest representatives of the British people to correct this major injustice.
We appeal to your sense of justice and of national honor to uphold the best traditions of British democracy and respect for human rights by immediately freeing Julian Assange.
Respectfully,
Related…
This Shows How Impotent Western Peoples Are—They Cannot Even Save the Journalist Who Told Them the Truth
For nearly a decade the United States has been pursuing and persecuting Julian Assange in collaboration with three vassal states, aided and abetted by mainstream media. That appalling spectacle has been accompanied by a steady stream of eloquent denunciations and growing demands for Julian’s liberation.
The legal and moral grounds for all those demands and denunciations are indisputable. And yet he remains in prison under false pretexts, with no prospect of liberation in sight.
How is that possible? Because forces hostile to Julian Assange and what he represents have gained control of the institutions and superior resources of the collaborating governments. They have done so by means of ”democratic” elections which legitimise their control and — in the absence of any substantial opposition — ignore legal and ethical constraints on their conduct. In all of this, the complicity of the mainstream media has been essential.
A not-so-modest proposal
It is or should be obvious by now that Julian’s freedom is very unlikely to be won by appeals to reason and expressions of moral sentiment — no matter how often they are repeated and how widely they may be shared — as long as they remain disparate and unorganized, as they have been thus far. That is why I have proposed* the following:
• a global campaign dedicated to the release of Julian Assange from captivity, with an appropriate title such as ”Assange Freedom Now!”
• a qualified and influential steering committee to lead and legitimise the campaign.
• an adequately staffed and funded campaign headquarters, presumably in London but possibly elsewhere, to carry out tasks including:
Create and constantly maintain an attractive, easily read and technically efficient website to provide continual and authoritative reports on Julian’s current situation and related matters, correct errors in other media, answer reader enquiries, etc.
Develop and maintain a comprehensive list of solidarity groups around the world, document their actions, respond to their requests for information and guidance, etc.
Help plan, co-ordinate and execute major actions.
Indifferent response
In the two weeks that have passed since it was made, the response to that proposal has been less than overwhelming.
Two individuals have offered to help implement it. A few others have expressed approval but argued that it would be too difficult or take too long. Still others have explained that they want to do something, anything, without delay in order to vent their anger and frustration.
But the main response has been no response.
Instead, there has been more of the same, including several admirable initiatives involving a great deal of hard work and dedication. It goes without saying that I devoutly hope that they succeed in their variously expressed purpose of securing Julian’s freedom. It is extremely unlikely that they will.
One reason for that is reflected in the experience of two similar initiatives. Today, the author of one wrote of the other: ”This is completely different from my letter.… It started with my letter and got completely changed. Mine was against imprisonment, this is against extradition. Both are necessary but not the same. There is certainly a lack of coordination.”
There is indeed a lack of coordination, but I have found it extremely difficult to persuade others that overcoming that lack is of the highest priority. Very few have even been willing to discuss the issue.
And so it continues, with no one discernibly in charge of Julian’s struggle for freedom and very few who seem to believe that there ought to be, while millions of Julian’s supporters around the world remain uninformed and unorganised.
Apart from writing this memorandum, I lack the means to alter that perplexing and perturbing state of affairs. I can only hope that others with more power and greater resources will choose to do so
A final observation: As things now stand, Julian’s best hope may be for the Labour Party to win enough votes in the forthcoming U.K. election to form the next government. Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has condemned the current government’s treatment of Julian and has declared his intention to release him from prison if elected. Although it is conceivable that he might then change his mind or feel compelled to change his policy, there are ample grounds to trust Mr. Corbyn in this matter. I therefore urge that every possible effort be made to ensure that he becomes the next prime minister.
Al Burke
6 November 2019
References
OHCHR, “UN expert on torture sounds alarm again that Julian Assange’s life may be at risk”
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25249&LangID=E
John Pilger, “Did this happen in the home of Magna Carta?”
http://johnpilger.com/articles/did-this-happen-in-the-home-of-magna-carta-
Fidel Narvaez & Stefania Maurizi, ” “I Was Fired for Helping Julian Assange, and I Have No Regrets”
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/10/julian-assange-fidel-narvaez-ecuador-moreno
Craig Murray, ”Assange in Court”
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/category/uncategorized/
*Al Burke, “Liberating Assange: A woeful lack of leadership”
http://www.nnn.se/nordic/assange/lead-lack.pdf
—
_________________________
Al Burke
E-mail: editor@nnn.se
Internet: http://www.nnn.se
Tel. +46/(0)8 – 731 9200
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We must act now to save Julian Assange and the Rule of Law

https://rielpolitik.com/2019/11/12/crossroads-paul-craig-roberts-we-must-act-now-to-save-julian-assange-the-rule-of-law/

Thanks to: https://rielpolitik.com