An Open Letter to Biden on Assange’s Extradition
JUNE 23, 2022
Dear President Biden:
The recent news that British courts approved Julian Assange’s U.S. extradition is the occasion for this letter. Mr. Assange is one of the most astute publishers, activists, and intellectuals of my generation; I write imploring you to drop all charges against him and other Wikileaks affiliated individuals– past, present, and future.
I was born in 1970. Easy access to my parents’ Time Life photo book series had me opposing the Vietnam War by elementary school. The pictures said it all. I pursued anti-war activism in college during the Persian Gulf War, and as a CSU Sacramento junior faculty member in the early 2000’s, I lectured on the failed foreign policy leading to Afghanistan and Iraq invasions. All of this work relied on excellent journalism pursued outside official U.S. media channels.
In 2006, Wikileaks made perfect sense because we need truthful war journalism outside Pentagon control. Brave Wikileaks warriors have risked their lives to shed light on wartime’s truths beyond corporate media propaganda. Your pursuit of Mr. Assange reveals wartime journalism’s threat to the Biden White House. Current U.S. military failures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, and elsewhere fuel the need for independent journalism more than ever.
Not only do I support Wikileaks, I laud it as an activist journalism model, mobilized by its international influences. Charging and incarcerating non-U.S. citizens is one of the most ludicrous and devastating examples of U.S. judicial overreach in my generation.
Judicial overreach is another hallmark of my generation. In addition to my extensive anti-war activism, I pursued prison abolitionist work as a California professor. As Black Lives Matter and anti-prison activism impact police and prisons, U.S. incarceration is more commonly considered a form of cruel and unusual punishment. Mr. Assange undergoes extensive persecution in isolation from loved ones, and his health is failing because of it. His ongoing incarceration and upcoming U.S. extradition is tantamount to a death penalty sentence.
Not only do I implore you to drop charges against all Wikileaks affiliated individuals, please champion new legislation protecting journalists’ rights. While The Espionage Act protects military actions, its employment here violates The First Amendment. As a President, classified information allows you to make educated decisions. How do you think valuable information is attained? You daily benefit from the very information accrual you punish Wikileaks for pursuing in the name of an informed global citizenry.
If any lesson can be learned from the longstanding attack on Wikileaks, it’s that freedom of speech is not a democratic guarantee. As you know, The Espionage Act emerged in 1917, the year of the Bolshevik Revolution. The attack on Wikileaks is nothing short of a new McCarthy Era style ideological attack. President Biden, for your brand of liberalism to have any distinction from Trump’s authoritarianism, you must uphold the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment–lest you reward and reinforce prevailing Fascist forces.
If you pursue Mr. Assange’s charges, your administration sets a Fascist legal precedent using the violence of extradition, courts, and prisons to violate press freedom and enforce cruel and unusual punishment. This at a time when more people consider demilitarization and decarceration as viable political strategies.
If you drop Mr. Assange’s charges, your administration is supporting press freedom and denouncing mass-scale war– even encouraging Middle East decolonization (read more here.) Peaceful diplomacy in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, not simply throwing around money, is what’s urgently needed. Pursuing Mr. Assange for Espionage is a step backwards from demilitarization, reinforcing a reactionary status quo foreign policy buttressed by media censorship and intimidation of the global citizenry.
The choice is yours.
With Deep Concern,
Michelle Renée Matisons, Ph.D.
Free Assange?
Yes, But That’s Not Nearly Enough
Photograph Source: thierry ehrmann – CC BY 2.0
On June 17, UK Home Secretary Priti Patel approved the extradition of Julian Assange to the United States to face 18 criminal charges: One count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion, and 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act of 1917. If convicted on all charges, Assange faces up to 175 years in prison.
His final recourse is an appeal to the High Court of Justice where, if the history of his case is any indication, he’ll be told that they’re all out of justice and have none for him.
If justice had anything to do with it, previous courts would have thrown out the US extradition request on grounds of both jurisdiction and treaty language. The “crimes” of which Assange is accused were not committed on US soil. And Article 4 of the US-UK extradition treaty forbids extradition for political offenses.
Be clear on this: Assange is a political prisoner, held for and charged with committing … journalism.
He exposed war crimes committed by US government forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other illegal schemes such as then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s attempts to have UN diplomats’ offices bugged.
The US government hates having its crimes exposed and, First Amendment be damned, tries to make examples out of those who dare display its dirty laundry.
While Assange obviously has more skin in the game than anyone else in this particular case, he’s not the real target. The real target is the NEXT journalist who catches the US government acting illegally. The goal is to make that journalist think twice before telling you about it.
For that reason, stopping the extradition of Julian Assange isn’t enough. Nor should we settle for an acquittal in court or a presidential pardon.
Crimes HAVE been committed, and examples DO need to made of the criminals who committed them.
The US Attorneys who filed the indictment — Tracy Dogerty-McCormick, Kellen S. Dwyer, and Thomas W. Traxler — must be charged with violating 18 US Code Titles 241 (Conspiracy Against Rights) and 242 (Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law). In addition to any prison sentences, they must permanently lose their licenses to practice law and be disqualified for life from further employment by the US government.
The same goes for their assorted co-conspirators, up to and including sitting and former presidents of the United States.
The US Department of Justice must dismiss the indictment, withdraw the extradition request, publicly apologize for its crimes against Assange, and compensate him richly for years of confinement and torture at its behest.
That’s the absolute bare minimum. Just as Assange was not their real target, they’re not ours. Our target is all the government officials who might, in the future, consider committing this kind of crime again.
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