LALIT Joins Call to End Extradition of Julian Assange and for Press Freedom
25.01.2023
LALIT joins the famous “Pentagon Papers” whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who exposed the truth behind the Vietnam War, and all the other leading journalists, attorneys and human rights defenders in a call on the Biden administration to drop its extradition proceedings and indictment against journalist and WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange.
As well as the US state inflicting punishment for over 12 years now on the very man who told truth to power, and who was courageous enough to place so many hideous war-crimes in the public domain, this same state is, by means of this case against Assange, posing a serious threat to the future of all journalism worldwide. Press freedom is under threat.
We, in LALIT, also note that Julian Assange has already faced “torture”, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture in his measured report.
LALIT is somewhat shocked at the lack of public support for Julian Assange from the Mauritian press with its 250-year long history and its wide breadth of experience, and from individual journalists. In the face of this timidity or even cowardice, or sometimes even silence, we called, in an Open Letter in 2021, on the Press and journalists to take a public stand. We again do so.
The newspapers that originally published simultaneously with Wikileaks documents leaked by brave whistleblower Chelsea Manning, The Guardian, the New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, and El País two months ago came together to publicly oppose plans to charge Assange.
“Publishing is not a crime,” the five newspapers said, calling the continued prosecution a direct attack on media freedom. We call on the Mauritian Press, either one-by-one or collectively to join this call, and for individual journalists to take a public stand, just as we, in LALIT, have consistently done.
As Daniel Ellsberg, the hero of Vietnam war journalism, put it, “Every empire requires secrecy to cloak its acts of violence that maintain it as an empire.” He was testifying during the Belmarsh Tribunal held on 20 January at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. The Tribunal, which was also on-line, takes its name from the high-security Belmarsh Prison in London, where Assange is imprisoned and has been for nearly four years now, fighting extradition to the United States. The Belmarsh Tribunal was inspired by the Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre tribunal on the Vietnam War. LALIT members have attended parts of the Tribunal on-line.
Assange is charged with violations of the U.S. Espionage Act for exposing evidence of U.S. war crimes and he faces up to the ridiculous sentence of 175 years in prison, if convicted. One of the things he exposed by publishing the confidential cables of US ambassadors was how the British State had set up a “Marine Protected Area” around Chagos as a ploy to pre-empt the issue of sovereignty and the return of Chagossians to their home islands, the Outer Islands of the Republic of Mauritius. The UK and USA did this so as to extend their control over Diego Garcia because the USA has a secretive base there, on which illegal prisoners were rendered and tortured, and from which illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been waged. Even the NGO Greenpeace fell into the trap of supporting this absurd “Marine Park” ruse set up by Britain on another country’s territory and next door to the hideous pollution of a nuclear military base on Diego Garcia!
Assange also exposed war crimes like the shooting of nine civilians in Baghdad, including a Reuters employee, from a USA Apache helicopter, as well as other war crimes in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He exposed the contents of the horrendous routine “Manual” for maltreating prisoners held in Guantanamo, a part of Cuba illegally occupied by the USA military. In the manual, for example, it instructs on how officials should intentionally bar access by some prisoners to the Red Cross, in defiance of all law.
Assange also published communications between the Pentagon, FBI, FEMA and New York Police Department in the 24 hours before the Twin Towers acts of terrorism, information that helps us all understand what happened and how it was used as a “cause” or pretext for war.
Full Text of Letter of Support from Five Newspapers
For our readers, we also publish the full letter of support for Julian Assange sent by the big media organisations to the Biden Administration at the end of last year:
Title: “Publishing is not a crime: The US government should end its prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing secrets”
Text: “Twelve years ago, on November 28th 2010, our five international media outlets – the New York Times, the Guardian, Le Monde, El País and Der Spiegel – published a series of revelations in cooperation with WikiLeaks that made the headlines around the globe.
“‘Cablegate’, a set of 251,000 confidential cables from the US state department, disclosed corruption, diplomatic scandals and spy affairs on an international scale.
“In the words of the New York Times, the documents told ‘the unvarnished story of how the government makes its biggest decisions, the decisions that cost the country most heavily in lives and money’. Even now in 2022, journalists and historians continue to publish new revelations, using the unique trove of documents.
“For Julian Assange, publisher of WikiLeaks, the publication of ‘Cablegate’ and several other related leaks had the most severe consequences. On [April 11th] 2019, Assange was arrested in London on a US arrest warrant, and has now been held for three and a half years in a high-security British prison usually used for terrorists and members of organised crime groups. He faces extradition to the US and a sentence of up to 175 years in an American maximum-security prison.
“This group of editors and publishers, all of whom had worked with Assange, felt the need to publicly criticize his conduct in 2011 when unredacted copies of the cables were released, and some of us are concerned about the allegations in the indictment that he attempted to aid in computer intrusion of a classified database. But we come together now to express our grave concerns about the continued prosecution of Julian Assange for obtaining and publishing classified materials.
“The Obama-Biden administration, in office during the WikiLeaks publication in 2010, refrained from indicting Assange, explaining that they would have had to indict journalists from major news outlets too. Their position placed a premium on press freedom, despite its uncomfortable consequences. Under Donald Trump however, the position changed. The DoJ [Department of Justice] relied on an old law, the Espionage Act of 1917 (designed to prosecute potential spies during world war one), which has never been used to prosecute a publisher or broadcaster.
“This indictment sets a dangerous precedent, and threatens to undermine America’s first amendment and the freedom of the press.
“Obtaining and disclosing sensitive information when necessary in the public interest is a core part of the daily work of journalists. If that work is criminalized, our public discourse and our democracies are made significantly weaker.
“Twelve years after the publication of ‘Cablegate’, it is time for the US government to end its prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing secrets.
“Publishing is not a crime.
“The editors and publishers of:
“The New York Times
“The Guardian
“Le Monde
“Der Spiegel
“El País
“Footnote added 29 November 2022: Julian Assange was arrested on 11 April 2019, not 12 April 2019 as the letter originally stated.”
