© Radio La PrimerísimaJohn Pilger
The Australian government has an obligation to free Julian Assange, John Pilger told a rally in Sydney on June 16, marking Assange's six years' confinement in the Ecuadorean embassy in London.
The persecution of Julian Assange must end. Or it will end in tragedy. The Australian government and prime minister Malcolm Turnbull have an historic opportunity to decide which it will be. They can remain silent, for which history will be unforgiving. Or they can
act in the interests of justice and humanity and bring this remarkable Australian citizen home.
Assange does not ask for special treatment.
The government has clear diplomatic and moral obligations to protect Australian citizens abroad from gross injustice: in Julian's case, from a gross miscarriage of justice and the extreme danger that await him
should he walk out of the Ecuadorean embassy in London unprotected.We know from the Chelsea Manning case what he can expect if a U.S. extradition warrant is successful - a United Nations Special Rapporteur called it torture.
I know Julian Assange well; I regard him as a close friend, a person of extraordinary resilience and courage. I have watched a tsunami of lies and smear engulf him, endlessly, vindictively, perfidiously; and I know why they smear him.
In 2008, a plan to destroy both WikiLeaks and Assange was laid out in a top secret document dated 8 March, 2008. The authors were the Cyber Counter-intelligence Assessments Branch of the U.S. Defence Department. They described in detail how important it was to destroy the "feeling of trust" that is WikiLeaks' "centre of gravity".
This would be achieved, they wrote, with threats of "exposure [and] criminal prosecution" and a unrelenting assault on reputation. The aim was to silence and criminalise WikiLeaks and its editor and publisher.
It was as if they planned a war on a single human being and on the very principle of freedom of speech.
Comment: The difference between Truthslayers and Truthsayers: The difficulty and courage of remaining uncompromised - come what may. Proclivity: guessing about 1,000,000 to 1.
UPDATE: Pilger
addresses a rally in Sydney, Australia, to mark Julian Assange's six years' confinement in the Ecuadorean embassy in London.
Comment: Meanwhile, in America: