Global Protest –Feb. 24, 2020- NYC
“Don’t Extradite Assange!”
Julian Assange founder of WikiLeaks
Hosted by NYC Free Assange and Big Apple Coffee Party
Big Apple Coffee Party; Veterans for Peace; Glen Ford, Executive Director, Black Agenda Report; Joel Kupferman, Director Environmental Justice Initiative; Haiti Liberté; Manhattan Green Party; Socialist Action; Margaret Kimberley, Editor of Black Agenda Report; Courage Foundation; Freedom Socialist Party; Cuba Si; Rev. Juan Carlos Ruiz, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church; Larry Hamm, activist.
Join us in the worldwide Global Protest.
Join us in solidarity with NYC Free Assange
The potential chilling effect on journalists, and others, who expose official wrongdoing by publishing information disclosed to them by credible sources, could have a profound impact on the public’s right-to-know what their government is up to.
Video – Part 1 – as the protestors were setting up microphone and banners outside the British Consulate
Video Part 2- Margaret Kunstler, civil rights lawyer and co-editor of “In Defense of Julian Assange“.
“Margaret Ratner Kunstler … in 2015 and 2016, helped Assange plan his legal strategy and arrange media appearances … a 2017 direct message from Assange’s Twitter account to Donald Trump Jr., identified Kunstler as a person to contact at WikiLeaks … this has caused consternation in the left-wing legal community. Her long-time friends and associates find it unthinkable that an activist and stalwart in the civil rights bar might have aided the Trump campaign or administration, even inadvertently.” [Japan Times] Seems that isn’t of concern any more.
Video- Part 3 – John F. O’Donnell, actor and writer. A comedian featured on Redacted Tonight and Comedy Central. [Twitter] [Live From Outer Space]
Speakers advertised were also to include: Deborah Hrbek, Media lawyer and member of WikiLeaks legal team; Ben Norton, journalist, The Grayzone; Kim Ives, writer and editor of Haiti Liberté, John Tarleton, editor-in-chief, The Indypendent. [Common Dreams]
Flickr Slide Show
++ More on the Global Protests from other media++
Lawyers for the U.S. government are seeking Assange’s extradition to the United States, where he faces 18 charges; his specific criminal actions related to the release of hundreds of thousands of top-secret U.S. diplomatic cables and documents in 2010 and 2011.
Assange’s lawyer said he was the obvious symbol of all that Trump condemned… He brought American war crimes to the world. [LA Times]
Lawyers acting for the U.S. government said Assange was guilty of “pure criminality” and cannot hide behind the guise of journalist.
His actions — hacking into a U.S. Department of Justice computer system with U.S. Army intelligence analyst Bradley (Chelsea) Manning and knowingly putting people at risk of torture and death by releasing thousands of classified documents that revealed the identities of sources helping the U.S. and its allies during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; this is an ordinary criminal charge.
Journalism is not an excuse for criminality.
Manning was convicted by court-martial under the Espionage Act and spent several years behind bars, but Assange has never faced trial. [LA Times]
BTW, at this Global Protest,
WHY: “FREE ‘Chelsea’ Manning?
Obama freed him in 2017.
Manning downloaded more than 700,000 classified documents from US military servers and passed them to WikiLeaks. [The Guardian 2013]
Manning said he attempted to contact the New York Times, and spoke to a Washington Post reporter during this period, but neither newspaper was quick to respond. So, he gave the information to WikiLeaks which went on to partner with news organizations, including the Guardian ,to share the leaked information. [NPR] [The Guardian 2017]
(Manning’s crime of espionage) was the largest compromise of classified information in the history of the United States.The names of human rights activists, journalists, religious leaders and dissidents were left unredacted in some of the material which, the prosecution argues, put them and their families at serious risk of being harmed by the oppressive governments they lived under. [LA Times]
The extradition hearing (for Assange) will continue for a week and then be placed on hold until May 18, 2020, so both sides can gather more evidence before a further three-week hearing.” [LA Times]
Meanwhile, weekly Free Assange protests at Grand Central
beginning Feb 27, 2020 at 4:30 pm
Where indicated, Pictures and Videos property of Pamela Hall (VSB)