Monday, July 10, 2023

UK government must not aid US in Assange extradition efforts

The National Union of Journalists is alarmed to learn that UK police officers have approached British-based journalists, apparently seeking evidence intended to aid the prosecution of Julian Assange.

10 Jul 2023

The union is concerned by reports of “voluntary interview” approaches to reporters and urges the UK government not to allow Assange’s extradition to the US, or assist with information gathering.

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, said:

“British police should not be deployed to undertake another country’s dirty work, particularly when it involves pressuring journalists to assist with a case that has such potential to damage free expression and investigative reporting. We have long called for the charges for which Assange's extradition is sought to be dropped, and have highlighted the danger caused by the US government’s relentless pursuit of this case.

“The UK must play no part in supporting Assange’s extradition and journalists should not have to fear being contacted to aid a case that poses considerable threat to media freedom and to journalists worldwide. Nor should they have to worry about potential consequences of refusing to take part in such interviews, in relation to future travel or work in the US.”

Assange faces 175 years in prison if convicted by United States courts of charges faced, including several from the Espionage Act. The NUJ has opposed efforts to extradite him, joining the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in condemning the chilling effect this will have on journalists worldwide who fear their reporting may see them imprisoned.

NUJ members have joined protests demonstrating against his extradition and have supported the Free Assange Now! campaign. The union continues to raise awareness about Assange’s case, and opposes his persecution.

Edward Snowden Calls Out Biden Administration's 'Historic Scandal'
ON 7/6/23 

Edward Snowden responded to a new report about the Biden administration's attempt to build a case against another high-profile whistleblower, calling it a "historic scandal."

Snowden's remarks come a day after Rolling Stone reported that President Joe Biden's Justice Department has been pressuring multiple British journalists to cooperate with prosecutors in its efforts to have WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange extradited to the U.S.

Assange is being held in London's Belmarsh prison on charges related to his involvement with Chelsea Manning, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst who gave Assange classified national defense documents concerning conditions at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

"It is a historic scandal that Biden continues to pursue Assange for what are now plainly political reasons, and that major newspapers ignore it," Snowden tweeted on Thursday. "The FBI is now pressuring journalists into [testifying] against Wikileaks to prop up its flimsy case."

Snowden himself has spent the last decade exiled from the U.S. A former contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA), he became well known in 2013 after he leaked highly classified information from the agency and was charged with two counts of violating the Espionage Act and theft of government property. He now lives in Russia, where he was granted permanent residency by Russian President Vladimir Putin last year.

Newsweek reached out to the White House via email for comment.

Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, refuses to leave an entrance outside the Department of Justice before being arrested Thursday in Washington, D.C. Cohen was arrested after protesting the department's efforts to have WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange extradited to the U.S.
WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY

In the Rolling Stone report, journalist James Ball accused the Biden administration of "using vague threats and pressure tactics" to persuade British reporters into helping the U.S. strengthen its case against Assange.

"I know because I am one of the British journalists being pressured to cooperate in the case against him, as someone who used to (briefly) work and live with him, and who went on to blow the whistle on WikiLeaks' own ethical lapses," Ball wrote.

Ball described being asked by U.S. and U.K. authorities to act as a "voluntary witness" concerning a story he wrote about Assange's relationship with Putin ally Israel Shamir, noting that without his testimony, the "U.S. government cannot make much use of what I revealed in the article in a court of law."

Ball said that while he was "more than willing" to write about his relationship with Assange in the media, "I do not believe it should be used to help a vindictive prosecution of Assange."

Because the WikiLeaks documents were published in conjunction with five American newspapers, including The New York Times, the Justice Department, under the Obama administration, ultimately decided it could not prosecute Assange without threatening the First Amendment protections granted to those papers.

"If President Biden wants his Department of Justice to reverse the decision of the Obama DOJ on prosecuting Assange for his 2010 actions, he should at least explain it, and say why it is worth the silencing effect it is having on mainstream journalism," Ball wrote.

He continued, "As it stands, Biden's DOJ is threatening the U.S. media's First Amendment rights, even as it claims to be standing up to a Supreme Court that is threatening many other rights. The hypocrisy should not stand."

READ MORE
Edward Snowden reacts to Trump's classified documents indictment
Julian Assange's latest court loss is headache for Biden
Julian Assange's biggest fight in prison? It's not against extradition

Amnesty International used Monday, which was Assange's 52nd birthday, to renew calls for the Australian government to ask that the U.S. drop all charges against the Australian whistleblower and its extradition efforts.

"This will be his 13th birthday without his freedom and away from his loved ones, and it must be his last," Amnesty International said in a blog post. "Julian Assange's family confirm that his deteriorating health, his incarceration in Belmarsh prison and the continuing threat of prosecution by the United States government is causing him profound harm."

The post went on: "Julian Assange used his platform to expose war crimes that would have otherwise remained concealed. Prosecuting him will have a significant 'chilling effect' on media freedom and will risk exposing him to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The Australian government must do everything in its power to have the US drop the charges against him and to ensure his release."

Reflecting on his own decisions, Snowden told The Guardian last month that he had "no regrets" about leaking information about the NSA's scale of surveillance.

"Technology has grown to be enormously influential," he said. "If we think about what we saw in 2013 and the capabilities of governments today, 2013 seems like child's play."



COMMENTARY

Biden’s DOJ Is Pressuring Journalists to Help Build Its Case Against Assange

The prosecution of the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is already a threat to a free media — the justice department's campaign to get me and other journalists to testify only makes matters worse

DOJ pressuring journalists to aid its prosecution against Julian Assange: report

The DOJ and the FBI are using 'vague threats and pressure tactics' in their attempts to receive journalists' help in building their case against Assange

By Landon Mion | Fox News
JULIAN ASSANGE
Published July 8, 2023 

Julian Assange: Martyr or criminal? Brother, father discuss his role in leaking classified documents

Fox Nation host Piers Morgan talks to Julian Assange's brother and father about this role in leaking classified military documents.

The U.S. Justice Department is pressuring some British journalists to cooperate with the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is accused of publishing classified U.S. military documents leaked to him by a whistleblower.

The DOJ and the FBI are using "vague threats and pressure tactics" in their efforts to receive journalists' help in building their case against Assange, according to Rolling Stones' James Ball, who said he is among the journalists being pressured to cooperate. Ball is sought by the DOJ as someone who had briefly worked and lived with Assange, and was a whistleblower revealing what he described as "WikiLeaks' own ethical lapses."

The first attempt at receiving Ball's cooperation in Assange's prosecution came through London’s Metropolitan Police in December 2021, he wrote. He remained silent at the time, on the advice of counsel, but has since learned that more journalists have had police show up at their doorsteps in the last month. Former Guardian investigations editor David Leigh, transparency campaigner Heather Brooke and writer Andrew O’Hagan have all been approached by police.


Assange is facing an uphill legal battle over his potential extradition from London, where he has been held at the high-security Belmarsh Prison, to the U.S. over Wikileaks' 2010 publication of top secret cables detailing war crimes committed by the U.S. government in the Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp, Iraq and Afghanistan. The materials, which were leaked to him by then-U.S. soldier Chelsea Manning, expose instances of the CIA engaging in torture and rendition. Wikileaks also published a video showing the U.S. military gunning down civilians in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists.

SUPPORTERS OF JULIAN ASSANGE RALLY AT JUSTICE DEPT. ON 4-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF DETAINMENT


The U.S. Justice Department is pressuring some British journalists to cooperate with the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is accused of publishing classified U.S. military documents. (AP)

The Australian journalist would face 17 charges for receiving, possessing and communicating classified information to the public under the espionage act and one charge alleging a conspiracy to commit computer intrusion if he is extradited to the U.S., and could be sentenced to as many as 175 years in an American maximum security prison. Manning was convicted by the Obama administration's DOJ in 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses over the Cablegate leak.

Assange has been held at Belmarsh Prison since he was removed from the Ecuadorian Embassy four years ago for breaching jail conditions. He had sought asylum at the embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations he raped two women because Sweden would not promise him protection from extradition to the U.S. The investigations into the sexual assault allegations were eventually dropped.

Ball was first contacted about helping in the Assange case by a Metropolitan Police officer on the special investigations team, who had called him on a blocked number Ball failed to answer. He then received a "deliberately innocuous" email from the police.

"James, I would like to meet with you to ask if you would be willing to participate in a voluntary witness interview," the officer wrote. "You are not under investigation for anything. It is a delicate matter that I am only able to discuss with you face to face."

A lawyer spoke to police on Ball's behalf and learned that U.S. and U.K. authorities were asking him to testify about a story he wrote on Assange's relationship with Israel Shamir, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ball wrote, adding that, without his testimony, the "U.S. government cannot make much use of what I revealed in the article in a court of law."

Ball said he was "more than willing" to write about his relationship with Assange in the media, but he does not believe "it should be used to help a vindictive prosecution of Assange."

REP. RASHIDA TLAIB URGES FELLOW HOUSE MEMBERS TO DEMAND DOJ DROP CHARGES AGAINST JULIAN ASSANGE


The DOJ and the FBI are reportedly using "vague threats and pressure tactics" in their efforts to receive journalists' help in building their case against Assange.
(Fox News Digital/Landon Mion)

An officer told Ball's lawyer that U.S. intelligence agencies claimed to have discovered that "'James Ball' doesn't exist," which Ball said was a false accusation as the name is his actual birth name that has never changed. After seeking further legal advice, Ball was told by multiple attorneys not to travel to the U.S. or speak out publicly over concerns about potential prosecution for his refusal to cooperate.

"That uneasy truce has come to an end," Ball wrote. "As a journalist, I need to be able to travel to the U.S. to work, and I am doing so this week. Also, other journalists are now being contacted in relation to the case. Both together make continued silence impossible."

Ball said the two years he avoided traveling to the U.S. on legal advice has "stifled stories I would otherwise have written for U.S. outlets. I had a real and credible fear of prosecution."

Last year, the editors and publishers of U.S. and European news outlets that worked with Assange on the publication of excerpts from more than 250,000 documents he obtained in the Cablegate leak — The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País — wrote an open letter calling for the U.S. to end its prosecution of Assange.

The Obama administration elected against indicting Assange after Wikileaks published the cables in 2010 because it would have had to give the same treatment to journalists from other major news outlets that worked with Assange on the documents. But former President Trump's DOJ later moved to indict Assange under the Espionage Act, and the Biden administration has continued to pursue his prosecution.

"If President Biden wants his Department of Justice to reverse the decision of the Obama DOJ on prosecuting Assange for his 2010 actions, he should at least explain it, and say why it is worth the silencing effect it is having on mainstream journalism," Ball wrote.


Assange would face 17 charges for receiving, possessing and communicating classified information to the public under the espionage act and one charge alleging a conspiracy to commit computer intrusion if he is extradited to the U.S. (Getty Images)

"As it stands, Biden's DOJ is threatening the U.S. media's First Amendment rights, even as it claims to be standing up to a Supreme Court that is threatening many other rights. The hypocrisy should not stand," he continued.

Assange's case has received the attention of some lawmakers on Capitol Hill, with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., leading a letter to the DOJ demanding the charges against him be dropped. Lawmakers in Australia and other countries have also pushed the U.S. to end its prosecution of Assange. Pope Francis recently met with Assange's wife, Stella, who said the Pope expressed support for her family's situation and concern about Assange's suffering.

The Trump administration CIA reportedly had plans to kill Assange over the publication of sensitive agency hacking tools known as "Vault 7," which the agency said represented "the largest data loss in CIA history," according to a 2021 Yahoo report. The agency had discussions "at the highest levels" of the administration about plans to assassinate Assange in London. Acting on orders from then-CIA director Mike Pompeo, the agency had also drawn up kill "sketches" and "options."

The CIA had advanced plans to kidnap and rendition Assange and had made a political decision to charge him, according to the report

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