Youāve given me feeble analogies and āhe isnāt a journalist because, feelingsā. Iāve given you examples of other highly credentialled journalists agreeing that heās a journalist, Iāve given you a quote from a High Court judge in the UK labelling him as a journalist and Iāve also pointed out the numerous journalism awards that Assange has won over the last decade. Iāve also pointed out that Wikileaks and Assangeās activities are core to the essence of journalism. Your protestations donāt change that fact.
Publishers are core to journalism.
Which he is.
I donāt hold much truck with journalists awards as proof of the status of journalist credentials ( think Caroline Wilson ) but his lawyers seem to be staking their their legal grounds that the charges - however framed - are unconstitutional in respect of freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
Some of the WIkileakes publications ex posed the indiscriminate attacks on civilians, what gets less aired are US domestic charges against decorated senior Seals for directly targetting civilians - arising from testimony from a juniior Seal whistleblower who who had the might of the military against him - together with the code of not dobbing in the service which employs you.
Such persons are rare and very brave and it is more usual that a deep throat will assist in exposing underlying immoralities in government.
The work of journalists in the Pentagon Papers exposed the illigeal practices of the US Administration of the times and the lengths that it would go to to flout the law to stay in power.
There is also the issue whether the military should be beyond the reach of law. The US will not accept the jursidiction of the International Criminal Court over its military for actions which might be mandated/ tolerated by Government but which would be otherwise be inconsistent with US law .
Itās bigger than journalism and goes to US society.
What an interesting point of view ?
I would argue that reporting of fact gives us some guide to making life decisions but there are also a lot more important things to guide us along.
Nothing ever posted by Wikileaks has influenced any of my life decisions, except that Mannings hack on troop data in Afghanistan and the subsequent posting by Assange made it allegedly more dangerous for my Son when he was there with ADF. So it caused my family unnecessary grief.
If you look at The Age Newspaper, you will find far more commentary ( just opinions ) than actual news. They are hardly Journalists, more like fiction writers.
If Julian A gets extradited to the USA, he will never see the light of day again.
Over-reaction.
If guilty he would get no more than Manning and probably serve it in Australia.
How could you possibly think that when Australian citizens who had done nothing wrong were secretly renditioned to Guantanamo to be tortured there, with the Howard govt turning a blind eye to it?
Manning is back in jail semi permanently after refusing to appear before a secret grand jury.
The arrangement with Hicks was heavily negotiated , with Hicks agreeing to voluntary imprisonment in Australia ( Hicks had not committed any crime under Australian law). It suited the US to get him out of Guantanamo. There are different factors at play for Assange.
US recourse to the Espionage Act can be used to prevent public information - about actions which could be otherwise unlawful - which should not be secret. It is a different matter from military secrets.
Thatās shocking in of itself. Her treatment has been disgusting.
Youāre an absolute dreamer on this. The U.S will make sure he never sees the light of day. Both Dems. and Repubs. want him very, very badly.
One can think Assange is the most partisan, stinky, unethical person to live (all of these are typical smears and untrue) but the lack of due process heās received and the highly politicised nature of his current plight really undermines any argument that heāll get any sort of fair hearing.
His arrest when UK police entered into the Ecuador embassy, smashed a raft of international laws. Ecuador had cancelled his political asylum and citizenship with zero due process, completely against the Ecuadorian constitution. Under ānormalā circumstances, the U.K would have had to apply to Ecuador to extradite Assange to the U.K, the arrest was in fact, a de facto extradition. Under normal circumstances, Assange would have been able to contest the stripping of his protected status + citizenship.
The UN (OHCHR) has TWICE came out and said Assange has been arbitrarily detained by the U.K which has been wilfully ignored, showing the U.K to be in contempt with international law. Even now, Assange his held in high security Belmarsh prison as if he were convincted for a serious criminal offence. The 50 week sentence received is absolutely disproportionate for the minor offence of skipping bail, especially in the context that this was done to gain political asylum. This treatment contravenes the principles of necessity and proportionality per human rights standards.
If you think Assange is going to get fair hearings - youāre deluded.
Manning was sentenced by a Military Court to 35 years. He was lucky to escape the death penalty after charges of aiding the enemy were dropped. Obama commuted it to 7 years. I donāt know whether penalties in a civilian court would be higher or lower.
Manning had an obligation under the Geneva Convention to report war crimes. Under a just system she would never have had to serve time.
Not so. Treaties bind government signatories and individuals can only act through their government signatories. The US is not a signatory to all instrruments of the many Geneva Conventions in existence, or in some cases it has reservations on certain provisions.
Assange is just a sideshow for the USA. They donāt really give a ā ā ā ā ā about him, they would rather it just all disappear.
And no matter what you say, he will not be extradited to USA without a massive court fight.
They should just deport the turd back here now and cut his web access, and make him live in Melton working as a school crossing person. That is punishment enough.
He was obligated under both the Geneva Convention and the US Army Field Manual. Section 499 āEvery violation of the law of war is a war crimeā; Section 27-10 āmaltreatment of dead bodiesā is a war crime and Section 27-1 enshrines the āobligation to report all violations of the law of warā.
Manning explained how she had gone up the chain of command and asked them to investigate the āCollateral Murderā video but was refused.
What pissses me off about the Assange witch hunt is that the US were committing crimes against humanity, yet it is the head of the whistle-blower organisation that will get jailed for (probably) life. There is no need for the whistle-blower if the US gov stops killing innocent people, not as an occasional one-off error, but in the normal course of their military and security operations.
The US argues that complete transparency is dangerous. Of course it is, and that is why wikileaksā releases are redacted. But given the amount of data they receive, and their complete lack of adequate funding, because there are not enough people that will screw up the rest of their lives for the cause of exposing corrupt governments, working for fark-all remuneration.
If we were an enlightened society weād say thanks Julian, but your organisation needs some serious increases in staffing levels so the redacting process is more efficient and doesnāt endanger innocent people.
Instead they go to war against him. Assange is not the problem, corrupt governments are, yet the media which they control focus on Assange being flawed and narcissistic, engaging in a puerile argument as to his job description, and a gullible public are duped by the diversion.
Iāve said this before, if we lived in a just and free society, Assange and Manning would be walking around freely universally recognised as heroes whilst Bush, Blair, Cheney, Kissinger et al would be rotting in prison somewhere.
Itās funny how the political and media elites have managed to turn this into Assangeās āpersonalityā or his āhygieneā or āhow he treats his catā, anything except talking about all the important and monumental ā ā ā ā that Wikileaks has uncovered. Itās a shame that most people are so easily propagandised because if the media were actually being the fourth estate and working for the people, they would be calling for large scale mobilisation in defence of Assange.
USA is a democracy and the majority of its people support its actions, just like the majority in Australia supported Howard and our part in Iraq and subsequent conflicts.
Doesnāt make it right, but calling for Bush etc to rot in jail is just nonsense.