Free Assange

 

Three men, Edward Snowdon, Julian Assange, Daniel Ellsberg have paid dearly for speaking truth to power. Their statues stood in front of the UN in Geneva and the three-legged chair which will stand until all nations sign an anti-land mine and anti-cluster bombs. Out of the 164 countries who have signed, the U.S. and Russia have not.

Biden said, according to the BBC and France24, that he is considering dropping charges against Julian Assange, based on a request of the Australian Prime Minister. 

Assange, 52, a journalist, is guilty of speaking truth to power. From June 2012, he was a captive, first voluntarily with asylum in the Ecuadoran embassy where he had been made a citizen. 

He was forcibly removed and then imprisoned by the British government  awaiting various court rulings to extradite him to the U.S. where he faces up to several lifetimes in prison for violating the Espionage Act when Wikileaks, of which he is publisher, put online a video of U.S. troops shooting unarmed civilians in Iraq, a war crime.

Several major publications picked up the story including The Guardian and New York Times. They have never been charged with espionage.

When Assange was in Geneva in 2010 to speak at the UN and at the Swiss Press Club, I wanted to see him.

I did not have press credentials, although I was a financial journalist with a weekly newsletter directed at Canadian co-operatives -- so I made one and sealed it in plastic.

The guard at the press club gate was dubious as he examined it much too carefully.

"Please," I begged in French. "My boss will kill me if I don't get this story."

He told me to check with the next guard inside the gate, who was talking as I walked by. I made it inside the building.

The Swiss Press Club was in a mansion. The room where the press conference was to be held has a chandelier that merits being in a château with its crystal decoration. Large wall mirrors on each side create a chandelier that reflects light into infinity. 

The reflection could be a symbol of a truth that has no end.

Inside the room was crowded with reporters, some of whom I recognized from the local news. I found a seat.

Assange talked mostly about his work, reporting news from Africa and how his organization worked.

Assange was besieged with questions. I did not ask the questions I wanted to. The other reporters were there legitimately with editors waiting for their stories.

The session ended. As Assange left, I stopped him. We exchanged a few words. 

I didn't get to ask what I wanted. "Aren't you afraid for your life?" 

No one knew what lay ahead for him. A fake accusation of rape, years of voluntary imprisonment in an embassy, an assination attempt, forcible removal from the embassy, court hearings in the UK, bad conditions of imprisonment in an unsavory UK jail.

Every journalist who reports the truth should be afraid. Every non journalist should be afraid that a country as powerful as the U.S. can arrest you for breaking one of its laws even though you were never in the country whose laws you were said to break. 

Assange has paid a high price for speaking truth to power as a legitimate news person. It is time to drop the charges and let him go home to Australia.