Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is in the United States over the coming eight days and will be feted by President Donald Trump and other representatives of his right-wing administration.
Morrison will be the
first Australian prime minister to be treated to a state dinner by the US president in over a decade. He will also appear at various public events alongside Trump and other senior representatives of the administration. They will discuss Australia's stepped-up role in the US confrontation with China and Washington's advanced preparations for a war of aggression against Iran, along with how to best advance the interests of the corporate and financial elite of both countries.
The fate of Julian Assange, however an Australian citizen and journalist imprisoned in the United Kingdom at the behest of the Trump administration for exposing American war crimes,
will not feature among Morrison's scripted talking points.Jennifer Robinson, one of Assange's Australian lawyers, yesterday told the Special Broadcasting Corporation: "Prime Minister Morrison ought to be raising with President Trump his concern about an Australian citizen facing extradition to the United States for publishing truthful information."
Robinson's call will be ignored. Morrison last year rejected appeals from Pamela Anderson for his government to intervene in defence of Assange, instead directing frat-boy "humour" at the actress. When a reporter asked Morrison if he had raised the issue of Assange at the G20 summit in June, he simply responded with a smirk.
Morrison's refusal to defend the persecuted Australian publisher is of a piece with the abandonment of Assange by the entire political and media establishment as it has aligned ever more closely with US imperialism.
Comment: Having been denied bail, Julian waits in prison for his US extradition hearings next year. To add insult to injury, the UK has decided to make his confinement even more tortuous by
holding him in conditions 'worse than accused terrorists' to obstruct his ability to fight extradition.
Grayzone's Aaron Maté discusses the situation with Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief of Wikileaks:
Comment: The British media!
In reality, it is THEY who have acquired and actively used, for over a decade now, 'kompromat' against Prince Andrew.
The Daily Mail recently published footage of Andrew answering the front door to Epstein's mansion, with hotties coming and going. Who filmed this footage? Who sat on it for 9 years? Who chose to publish it now? And why?