In June 2022, when the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that it was considering “tough measures” against American media in response to U.S. restrictions on Russian media, the U.S. State Department said the Kremlin was “carrying out an all-out attack on the media.” '' he complained weakly. Freedom, access to information, and truth. ”
This kind of hypocrisy was nothing new. After all, the country that calls itself the world's greatest democracy has long made it clear that fundamental rights and freedoms are something only its enemies must abide by. In shameless double standards, the United States can make a fuss over political prisoners in Cuba while at the same time operating illegal American prisons in occupied Cuban territory, or calling China a “spy balloon” while simultaneously It will be possible to spy on other countries. planet.
And on Wednesday, February 21, as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange completed his final legal attempt to avoid extradition to the United States, he announced that the country's own “attacks'' were once again on full display.
If extradited, Australian-born Assange faces up to 175 years in prison on spying charges, but he also comes from a country with an extensive history of illegal espionage against its own citizens. They are quite wealthy. In fact, Assange's only “crime” was using WikiLeaks to expose the truth about U.S. military crimes, such as the infamous “collateral murder” video released in 2010.
The video footage, dating back to 2007, shows the massacre of more than a dozen people in Baghdad by jaunty American soldiers in a helicopter who saw no need to hide the extent of the massacre.
Among the Iraqis killed were two employees of the Reuters news agency. Talk about attacks on freedom of the press.
The United States claims that Assange actively endangered the lives of innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere by publishing such content. However, as I have previously pointed out, one surefire way to avoid endangering innocent lives in such locations would be to refrain from bombing them in the first place.
Indeed, it is no secret that the United States has killed large numbers of civilians in many countries, but the official narrative is that all killings are ultimately in the name of freedom, democracy, and other noble causes. It is still alleged that it was carried out under the. It's not for sport or entertainment, as Collateral Murder suggests.
So why such exaggerated pretense and extreme slander of the person of Julian Assange in order to maintain secrecy?
After all, the United States cannot afford to have its global veneer of good deeds challenged too persistently or thoroughly. Because too much “access to information and truth” would soften America's alibi for wreaking havoc around the world. Regardless of the final outcome, America's long war against Assange has already set a terrible precedent in terms of press freedom and other essential freedoms.
Indeed, Assange's calculated physical and mental destruction is aimed at deterring other publishers and journalists from criminal truth-seeking, just as the United States is effectively committed to classifying reality itself. It is said that To this end, Mr. Assange has been held at Belmarsh Prison in south-east London for the past five years pending his extradition to the United States, where the British government remains faithful to its long-running efforts to bring about his death. It has been proven that he is complicit.
Shortly after Assange was arrested and imprisoned in 2019, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Meltzer, said the man's life was at risk and that he would be subject to “prolonged psychological torture. He warned that he was exhibiting all the typical symptoms.
Meltzer, now a professor of international law at the University of Glasgow, also said at the time: These crimes continue to face impunity. ”
Maybe Meltzer should have been in jail too?
And now, as Assange's extradition fight draws to a close, the United States may finally be able to kill this emissary, not figuratively, but definitively. His wife, Stella Assange, recently told reporters: “If he is extradited, he will die.”
But the persecution and torture of Julian Assange also amounts to a death sentence for any approximation of democracy and justice in the United States, whose Constitution supposedly enshrines freedom of speech and press.
In any case, injustice has already won a major victory due to US corporate media's chronic under-coverage of the Assange trial, which National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden described as “the most important press freedom case in the world.” Contains.
In other words, this should be big news for the news industry itself. But erasing the truth is another way to kill the truth – and in that regard, Julian Assange is already dead.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial stance of Al Jazeera.
