Judge confirms Assange is a bit of a git

[Sandydragon]

I actually read as far as good article, which seemed a nailed on reason to stop reading.

I got as far as this:
Julian Assange’s latest attempt to have his outstanding UK arrest warrant dropped has failed in what stands as one of the most blatant and cruel examples of the British legal system being wielded as an instrument of persecution against a man whose only crime is speaking truth to power.

As this is factually untrue - his crime is a breach of bail conditions - the rest of the article is based on a falsehood and not worth reading.

Yeah, but this is alternative media. It doesn’t lie like MSM does.

[rowan]

Also good


The “judge” who dismissed Assange’s case yesterday was “Lady Arbuthnot of Edrom”, wife to Tory peer, former Tory junior Defence Minister and government whip Lord James Arbuthnot. Not to mention Chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel. Arbuthnot was naturally Eton educated, the son of Major Sir John Sinclair Wemyss Arbuthnot. Of course Lady Arbuthnot’s children were all sent to Eton too.

At the first hearing, I was stunned by reports of completely inappropriate comments by Lady Arbuthnot, including responding to representations about Assange’s health by the comment that medical care is available in Wandsworth prison. As the official charade is that Assange is wanted for nothing but jumping bail, for which a custodial sentence is rare, that callous attempt at gallows humour was redolent of Arbuthnot’s Tory mindset. She also remarked – and repeats it in yesterday’s judgement – that Assange has access to fresh air through the Embassy’s balcony. That is simply untrue. The “balcony” floor is 3 feet by 20 inches and gives no opportunity to exercise. Julian does not have access to it. He is confined to a small area within the Embassy, which still has to function. The balcony is off the Ambassador’s office. He has been given access to it on average about twice a year. But “Lady” Arbuthnot showed a very selective attitude to getting at the truth.

The truth is that just last week the evidence was published which inarguably proves that the questioning for sexual allegations was only ever a charade to secure Assange in custody for deportation to the US, to face charges for publishing the USA’s dirty secrets. In 2013 Sweden wished to drop the investigation and the arrest warrant, and was subject to strong persuasion from the Crown Prosecution Service to maintain the warrant. This included emails from the CPS telling the Swedes “Don’t you dare” drop the case, and most tellingly of all “Please do not think this case is being dealt with as just another extradition.” That last exposes the entire pretence in just one sentence.

It is worth noting it was not the servile UK corporate media, but the Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi and the Italian newspaper Le Repubblica which obtained these emails through dogged freedom of information requests and High Court proceedings. These revealed the quite stunning truth that the CPS had systematically destroyed most of the highly incriminating correspondence, with only accidental copies of a few emails surviving to be produced in response to the FOI request.

The CPS emails devastate the official charade, which is precisely that this is just a normal extradition case. Furthermore it is admitted at para 43 of “Lady” Arbuthnot’s judgement that the Crown Prosecution Service actively referred the Swedish authorities to Wikileaks activities in the United States as a reason not to drop the arrest warrant, a fact which the UK mainstream media has still never reported and which obviates “Lady” Arbuthnot’s trite observation that there is no evidence that Sweden would have extradited Assange to the USA.

Perhaps most stunning of all “Lady” Arbuthnot opines at para 44 that “I cannot determine from the extracts of correspondence whether the lawyer in the extradition unit acted inappropriately” in preventng the Swedes from dropping the case and referring them to Wikileaks activities vis a vis the USA. Whereas in fact:

a) It provides irrefutable proof that this was never about the frankly unbelievable Swedish sexual allegations, which were always just a pretext for getting Assange into custody over Wikileaks’ publications

b) The reason she only has “extracts” of the correspondence is that the Crown Prosecution Service, as openly admitted in the High Court, tried to destroy all this correspondence, itself an illegal act. Arbuthnot gives them the benefit of their illegality, against all legal principle.

“Lady” Arbuthnot takes it upon herself to contradict the judgement of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, every one of whose members is a much more eminent lawyer than “Lady” Arbuthnot. The UK had of course every opportunity to raise the points made by Lady Arbuthnot in its appeal to the UN, which appeal also failed. “Lady” Arbuthnot’s attempt to undermine a judgement by going back and disputing the actual facts of the case, with no opportunity to answer, is, to say the least, a creative piece of judicial process. But as with her failure to pursue the CPS’ destruction of evidence, it is just an example of her most obvious bias.

“Lady” Arbuthnot set out with one clear and evident purpose, to assist the Crown.

“Lady” Arbuthnot has perhaps performed an unwitting public service by the brazen nature of her partiality, which exposes beyond refutation the charade of legal process behind the effort to arrest Assange, in reality over the publication of USA secrets. The second half of Para 57 of the judgement sets out how, following his arrest for “jumping bail”, the American extradition request on espionage charges will be handled.

I should like to conclude that “Lady” Arbuthnot is a disgrace to the English justice system, but I fear she is rather typical of it. This intellectually corrupt, openly biased, callous Tory shill is rather a disgrace to humanity itself.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives ... n-assange/

Pilger: https://soundcloud.com/radiosputnik/jul ... st/s-evOXx

[cashead]

I actually read as far as good article, which seemed a nailed on reason to stop reading.

Read the first paragraph. It’s funnier than anything he’s posted in the funny images thread.

That's not exactly a high bar, now is it?

[Stones of granite]

Also good


The “judge” who dismissed Assange’s case yesterday was “Lady Arbuthnot of Edrom”, wife to Tory peer, former Tory junior Defence Minister and government whip Lord James Arbuthnot. Not to mention Chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel. Arbuthnot was naturally Eton educated, the son of Major Sir John Sinclair Wemyss Arbuthnot. Of course Lady Arbuthnot’s children were all sent to Eton too.

At the first hearing, I was stunned by reports of completely inappropriate comments by Lady Arbuthnot, including responding to representations about Assange’s health by the comment that medical care is available in Wandsworth prison. As the official charade is that Assange is wanted for nothing but jumping bail, for which a custodial sentence is rare, that callous attempt at gallows humour was redolent of Arbuthnot’s Tory mindset. She also remarked – and repeats it in yesterday’s judgement – that Assange has access to fresh air through the Embassy’s balcony. That is simply untrue. The “balcony” floor is 3 feet by 20 inches and gives no opportunity to exercise. Julian does not have access to it. He is confined to a small area within the Embassy, which still has to function. The balcony is off the Ambassador’s office. He has been given access to it on average about twice a year. But “Lady” Arbuthnot showed a very selective attitude to getting at the truth.

The truth is that just last week the evidence was published which inarguably proves that the questioning for sexual allegations was only ever a charade to secure Assange in custody for deportation to the US, to face charges for publishing the USA’s dirty secrets. In 2013 Sweden wished to drop the investigation and the arrest warrant, and was subject to strong persuasion from the Crown Prosecution Service to maintain the warrant. This included emails from the CPS telling the Swedes “Don’t you dare” drop the case, and most tellingly of all “Please do not think this case is being dealt with as just another extradition.” That last exposes the entire pretence in just one sentence.

It is worth noting it was not the servile UK corporate media, but the Italian journalist Stefania Maurizi and the Italian newspaper Le Repubblica which obtained these emails through dogged freedom of information requests and High Court proceedings. These revealed the quite stunning truth that the CPS had systematically destroyed most of the highly incriminating correspondence, with only accidental copies of a few emails surviving to be produced in response to the FOI request.

The CPS emails devastate the official charade, which is precisely that this is just a normal extradition case. Furthermore it is admitted at para 43 of “Lady” Arbuthnot’s judgement that the Crown Prosecution Service actively referred the Swedish authorities to Wikileaks activities in the United States as a reason not to drop the arrest warrant, a fact which the UK mainstream media has still never reported and which obviates “Lady” Arbuthnot’s trite observation that there is no evidence that Sweden would have extradited Assange to the USA.

Perhaps most stunning of all “Lady” Arbuthnot opines at para 44 that “I cannot determine from the extracts of correspondence whether the lawyer in the extradition unit acted inappropriately” in preventng the Swedes from dropping the case and referring them to Wikileaks activities vis a vis the USA. Whereas in fact:

a) It provides irrefutable proof that this was never about the frankly unbelievable Swedish sexual allegations, which were always just a pretext for getting Assange into custody over Wikileaks’ publications

b) The reason she only has “extracts” of the correspondence is that the Crown Prosecution Service, as openly admitted in the High Court, tried to destroy all this correspondence, itself an illegal act. Arbuthnot gives them the benefit of their illegality, against all legal principle.

“Lady” Arbuthnot takes it upon herself to contradict the judgement of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, every one of whose members is a much more eminent lawyer than “Lady” Arbuthnot. The UK had of course every opportunity to raise the points made by Lady Arbuthnot in its appeal to the UN, which appeal also failed. “Lady” Arbuthnot’s attempt to undermine a judgement by going back and disputing the actual facts of the case, with no opportunity to answer, is, to say the least, a creative piece of judicial process. But as with her failure to pursue the CPS’ destruction of evidence, it is just an example of her most obvious bias.

“Lady” Arbuthnot set out with one clear and evident purpose, to assist the Crown.

“Lady” Arbuthnot has perhaps performed an unwitting public service by the brazen nature of her partiality, which exposes beyond refutation the charade of legal process behind the effort to arrest Assange, in reality over the publication of USA secrets. The second half of Para 57 of the judgement sets out how, following his arrest for “jumping bail”, the American extradition request on espionage charges will be handled.

I should like to conclude that “Lady” Arbuthnot is a disgrace to the English justice system, but I fear she is rather typical of it. This intellectually corrupt, openly biased, callous Tory shill is rather a disgrace to humanity itself.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives ... n-assange/

Pilger: https://soundcloud.com/radiosputnik/jul ... st/s-evOXx

Wow! Until I read this I hadn't realised that it's the UK justice system that is keeping Assange looked up in a small room in the Ecuadorian Embassy. I demand that he immediately be treated as a special case and exempt from UK law because of his special status as a special person.

[Digby]

Wow! Until I read this I hadn't realised that it's the UK justice system that is keeping Assange looked up in a small room in the Ecuadorian Embassy. I demand that he immediately be treated as a special case and exempt from UK law because of his special status as a special person.

Clearly we're subject to the UN in all matters of law, the notion we should simply apply UK law here in the UK is fanciful

[morepork]

The age of opinion pieces dressed as journalism. A plague of background radiation masking all the data.

[kk67]

We live in an era where the most vulnerable members of society are demonised and in a society where the most psychopathic are lionised.
That's pretty much the last 500 years of recorded history in a nutshell.
Might have been the next 500.....but we now have the internet, Snowdon and Assange. And now the terms have changed..

[kk67]

How could I have missed Chelsea Manning and Chris Wylie...?. I must have been a bit half-cut.
Yeah,.... let's demonize them. Wanchers, all of them.

[kk67]

.... and let's not forget the NHS whistleblower 20 years ago who exposed monetary corruption at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead and at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and had her career utterly ruined by our government.
What a cow.
Or the Asian police officer who was blackmailed and fitted-up by the Met' for 15 years.
He MUST have been a git.

[kk67]

Or even my Father, who took on Ian Smiths government for financial corruption and was hounded by the British Attorney General.

What a bunch of pricks.

[cashead]

Did your dad do a bit of something that counts as a sex crime, then run away instead of face up to his crimes, and then lock himself away in an Ecuadorian broom closet for however many years it was?

[cashead]

Also, lol, no one is telling Jules what the wi-fi password is.

[rowan]

You seem very bitter toward this courageous journalist who had the moral integrity to expose US war crimes in Iraq. This tells us a great deal more about you than it does about him.

[cashead]

I didn't realise Chelsea Manning was a journalist now.

[Digby]

You seem very bitter toward this courageous journalist who had the moral integrity to expose US war crimes in Iraq. This tells us a great deal more about you than it does about him.

There was without doubt a certain amount of good in some of the details being made public of war crimes being undertaken in our name both here and in the USA, exposing and shaming governments in such fashion remains important work. However there was also a lot of harm in just dumping a lot of information without review out in the public domain exposing a great many to unwarranted risks. So he gets some praise and some opprobrium. Also whether Assange made any reveals out of courage I don't know, it could well have been narcissism, maybe a bit of both.

For hiding in a broom cupboard rather than face a rape charge he deserves nothing but opprobrium.

[rowan]

You seem very bitter toward this courageous journalist who had the moral integrity to expose US war crimes in Iraq. This tells us a great deal more about you than it does about him.

There was without doubt a certain amount of good in some of the details being made public of war crimes being undertaken in our name both here and in the USA, exposing and shaming governments in such fashion remains important work. However there was also a lot of harm in just dumping a lot of information without review out in the public domain exposing a great many to unwarranted risks. So he gets some praise and some opprobrium. Also whether Assange made any reveals out of courage I don't know, it could well have been narcissism, maybe a bit of both.

For hiding in a broom cupboard rather than face a rape charge he deserves nothing but opprobrium.

There was no rape charge. The women concerned never claimed there was and complained about being harassed by police. He has been fully exonerated and that's official, but rather than apologise the British police are still threatening to arrest him for skipping bail while the false charges were still active. Assange is a far more courageous individual than you; that's for certain.

[Digby]

You seem very bitter toward this courageous journalist who had the moral integrity to expose US war crimes in Iraq. This tells us a great deal more about you than it does about him.

There was without doubt a certain amount of good in some of the details being made public of war crimes being undertaken in our name both here and in the USA, exposing and shaming governments in such fashion remains important work. However there was also a lot of harm in just dumping a lot of information without review out in the public domain exposing a great many to unwarranted risks. So he gets some praise and some opprobrium. Also whether Assange made any reveals out of courage I don't know, it could well have been narcissism, maybe a bit of both.

For hiding in a broom cupboard rather than face a rape charge he deserves nothing but opprobrium.

There was no rape charge. The women concerned never claimed there was and complained about being harassed by police. He has been fully exonerated and that's official, but rather than apologise the British police are still threatening to arrest him for skipping bail while the false charges were still active. Assange is a far more courageous individual than you; that's for certain.

My apologies, for hiding in a closet refusing to answer questions about a rape allegation he deserves only opprobrium.

[cashead]

There was no rape charge.

Wrong.

The women concerned never claimed there was and complained about being harassed by police.

Wrong.

He has been fully exonerated and that's official,

Several of the charges were dropped due to statute of limitations, and the other has been dropped (for now) because the police haven't been able to effectively interview him because he refuses to come out of his broom closet. Like fuck he's been exonerated.

but rather than apologise the British police are still threatening to arrest him for skipping bail while the false charges were still active. Assange is a far more courageous individual than you; that's for certain.

Fuck off.

[cashead]

This tweet tells you everything you need to know about Assange




Fuck. Off.

[rowan]

We call on the government of Ecuador to allow Julian Assange his right of freedom of speech.

If it was ever clear that the case of Julian Assange was never just a legal case, but a struggle for the protection of basic human rights, it is now.

Citing his critical tweets about the recent detention of Catalan president Carles Puidgemont in Germany, and following pressure from the US, Spanish and UK governments, the Ecuadorian government has installed an electronic jammer to stop Assange communicating with the outside world via the internet and phone. As if ensuring his total isolation, the Ecuadorian government is also refusing to allow him to receive visitors. Despite two UN rulings describing his detention as unlawful and mandating his immediate release, Assange has been effectively imprisoned since he was first placed in isolation in Wandsworth prison in London in December 2010. He has never been charged with a crime. The Swedish case against him collapsed and was withdrawn, while the United States has stepped up efforts to prosecute him. His only “crime” is that of a true journalist — telling the world the truths that people have a right to know.

Under its previous president, the Ecuadorian government bravely stood against the bullying might of the United States and granted Assange political asylum as a political refugee. International law and the morality of human rights was on its side.

Today, under extreme pressure from Washington and its collaborators, another government in Ecuador justifies its gagging of Assange by stating that “Assange’s behaviour, through his messages on social media, put at risk good relations which this country has with the UK, the rest of the EU and other nations.”

This censorious attack on free speech is not happening in Turkey, Saudi Arabia or China; it is right in the heart of London. If the Ecuadorian government does not cease its unworthy action, it, too, will become an agent of persecution rather than the valiant nation that stood up for freedom and for free speech. If the EU and the UK continue to participate in the scandalous silencing of a true dissident in their midst, it will mean that free speech is indeed dying in Europe.

This is not just a matter of showing support and solidarity. We are appealing to all who care about basic human rights to call on the government of Ecuador to continue defending the rights of a courageous free speech activist, journalist and whistleblower.

We ask that his basic human rights be respected as an Ecuadorian citizen and internationally protected person and that he not be silenced or expelled.

If there is no freedom of speech for Julian Assange, there is no freedom of speech for any of us — regardless of the disparate opinions we hold.

We call on President Moreno to end the isolation of Julian Assange now.

List of signatories (in alphabetic order):

Pamela Anderson, actress and activist

Jacob Appelbaum, freelance journalist

Renata Avila, International Human Rights Lawyer

Sally Burch, British/Ecuadorian journalist

Alicia Castro, Argentina’s ambassador to the United Kingdom 2012-16

Naomi Colvin, Courage Foundation

Noam Chomsky, linguist and political theorist

Brian Eno, musician

Joseph Farrell, WikiLeaks Ambassador and board member of The Centre for Investigative Journalism

Teresa Forcades, Benedictine nun, Montserrat Monastery

Charles Glass, American-British author, journalist, broadcaster

Chris Hedges, journalist

Srećko Horvat, philosopher, Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25)

Jean Michel Jarre, musician

John Kiriakou, former CIA counterterrorism officer and former senior investigator, U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations

Lauri Love, computer scientist and activist

Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst, Presidential advisor

John Pilger, journalist and film-maker

Angela Richter, theater director, Germany

Saskia Sassen, sociologist, Columbia University

Jeffrey St. Clair, journalist

Oliver Stone, film-maker

Vaughan Smith, English journalist

Yanis Varoufakis, economist, former Greek finance minister

Natalia Viana, investigative journalist and co-director of Agencia publica, Brazil

Ai Weiwei, artist

Vivienne Westwood, fashion designer and activist

Slavoj Žižek, philosopher, Birkbeck Institute for Humanities

http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-isol ... -of-us-all

Who is John Pilger?

Career Summary
1958-62: Reporter, freelance writer, sports writer and sub-editor, Daily & Sunday Telegraph, Sydney
1962: Freelance correspondent, Italy
1962-63: Middle East desk, Reuter, London
1963-86: Reporter, sub-editor, feature writer and Chief Foreign Correspondent, Daily Mirror
1986-88: Editor-in-Chief and a founder, News on Sunday, London
1969-71: Reporter, World in Action, Granada Television
1974-present: Documentary film-maker, producer, director, reporter, Independent Television Network (ITV), London
Accredited war correspondent in Vietnam, Cambodia, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Biafra and the Middle East
Contributor
BBC Television Australia, BBC Radio, BBC World Service, London Broadcasting, ABC Television, ABC Radio Australia, Al Jazeera, Russia Today.

Website contributor
Information Clearing House, TruthOut, ZNet, Common Cause, TruthDig, Online Opinion Australia, Global Research, Antiwar.com.
Publications
The Guardian, The Independent, New Statesman, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation: New York, The Age: Melbourne, The Sydney Morning Herald, plus French, Italian, Scandinavian, Canadian, Japanese and other newspapers and periodicals.

Honours
D. Arts, Lincoln University
D. Litt, Staffordshire University
D. Litt Rhodes University, South Africa
D. Phil, Dublin City University
D. Arts, Oxford Brookes University
D. Laws, St.Andrew's University
D. Phil, Kingston University
D. Univ, The Open University
1995 Edward Wilson Fellow, Deakin University, Melbourne
Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor, Cornell University, USA
Selected Awards
1966: Descriptive Writer of the Year
1967: Reporter of the Year
1967: Journalist of the Year
1970: International Reporter of the Year
1974: News Reporter of the Year
1977: Campaigning Journalist of the Year
1979: Journalist of the Year
1979-80: UN Media Peace Prize, Australia
1980-81: UN Media Peace Prize, Gold Medal, Australia
1979: TV Times Readers' Award
1990: The George Foster Peabody Award, USA
1991: American Television Academy Award ('Emmy')
1991: British Academy of Film and Television Arts - The Richard Dimbleby Award
1990: Reporters San Frontiers Award, France
1995: International de Television Geneve Award
2001: The Monismanien Prize (Sweden)
2003: The Sophie Prize for Human Rights (Norway)
2003: EMMA Media Personality of the Year
2004: Royal Television Society Best Documentary, 'Stealing a Nation'
2008: Best Documentary, One World Awards, 'The War On Democracy'
2009: Sydney Peace Prize
2011: Grierson Trustees' Award

Who is Cashead?

aka Hapless
Posts on a rugby forum

[Digby]

If Assange doesn't like it then walk outside. It's his choice

[rowan]

To be arrested and left at the mercy of one of the most evil, murderous regimes in history? & it's not for want of courage. He's displayed a huge amount of that already. He's making the only stand a moral human being could make - defying an evil, murderous regime which was determined to pursue false charges against him.

[belgarion]

To be arrested and left at the mercy of one of the most evil, murderous regimes in history? & it's not for want of courage. He's displayed a huge amount of that already. He's making the only stand a moral human being could make - defying an evil, murderous regime which was determined to pursue false charges against him.

Remind me never to visit Sweden

[Digby]

To be arrested and left at the mercy of one of the most evil, murderous regimes in history? & it's not for want of courage. He's displayed a huge amount of that already. He's making the only stand a moral human being could make - defying an evil, murderous regime which was determined to pursue false charges against him.

Remind me never to visit Sweden

He must be very against the tax rates they have there, always seemed a nice place tbh. And if he doesn't like Sweden he can always stay where he is, or at least Ecuador tires of him or trades him for something

[rowan]

It's not Sweden that wants to arrest him. The charges were dropped long ago. It's Britain, the country which is currently helping the US, Saudi & Israel, et al, bomb and butcher people all around the world.