Shadowproof Update: Abuse Of Process In Julian Assange's Case
https://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=W7Bt2gvaweM


Listen to Shadowproof editor Kevin Gosztola's brilliant overview of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's case management hearing held August 14, 2020, what it means, and the overall chaos resulting. He covers everything you need to know.

A superseding indictment was issued in June by US DoJ that didn't expand charges but expanded the timeline to include 4 additional years up through 2015 and changed the scope of the case against Julian Assange to shape a narrative that Assange was a hacker rather than a publisher/journalist.

There are major obstacles to reporting: This is a US case that would impact on freedom of speech and publishing, but we have to depend on UK journalists to report on it.
This is because 1) the streaming of the hearings always has technical issues as it did yesterday, and 2) In person reporting is prohibitive to foreign journalists. US journalists would have to quarantine for 2 weeks in UK before they could attend court.
Excerpt from video: "Assange is currently in Belmarsh under the second superseding indictment, which is the second indictment. This is the one expanded charges from a simple conspiracy to commit computer crime charge, the one that made him out to be a hacker. They started with that before they brought the charges under the espionage act. And of course that's the one that has received so much attention - the espionage act charges got the attention of all of these press freedom groups.

So you have that indictment and it no longer exists anymore. It's null and void because the U.S. Justice Department
issued a superseding indictment in June and so technically one could argue that the entire clock and all the processes and everything that's involved in extradition restarts and that's how all should move forward...."

Wikileaks,the Espionage Act, and the Constitution | C-SPAN.org
https://www.c-span.org/video/?297115-1/wikileaksthe-espionage-act-constitution

The issue of the constitutionality of charging Assange with espionage was already debated Dec 16, 2010 before US Congress. Listen at 02:58:29 Thomas S. Blanton, Director, National Security Archive on the "slippery slope" of charging foreigners for publishing US secrets.:

"And there's the larger question you're going to, and I think this is where the slippery slope that Mr. Schoenfeld was talking about; he thought the act should apply to foreigners. Well, I have to say, on our website, the National Security Archive, we published the transcripts of Mao Zedong's meetings with Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. That's top-secret information in China. That would certainly be subject to their espionage act. So they get a right to come prosecute me, on that basis?"

Message from WikiLeaks to Julian Assange supporters at Leipzig #WeAreMillions exhibit
https://youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=PM5WAkA3QNc

Assange Update: Lawyers Speculate the US will Drop all Charges & Re-arrest Julian Assange
https://youtube.com/watch?v=UM9dir1bSxU

Judge Overseeing Assange Extradition Has Approved 96 Percent Of Extradition Cases She's Reviewed
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yl1yrAP_NJE

Vivienne Westwood Dresses Like a Canary for Julian Assange

The British fashion designer came out of lockdown to perch inside a giant bird cage, suspended 10 feet in the air, outside the Old Bailey criminal court in London.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/style/vivienne-westwood-julian-assange.html

Petition update · Taking it to The Hague: Torture is a Crime Against Humanity, Go Fund John Shipton, Making the TOP 3 · Change.org
https://www.change.org/p/free-julian-assange-before-it-s-too-late-stop-usa-extradition/u/27304113

Phillip Adams the originator of the massive petition
"Free Julian Assange, before it's too late. Sign to STOP the USA Extradition" is ramping up matters:

I am now preparing to take the matter as Petitioner and on behalf of over 484,000 signatories to the International Criminal Court / The Hague for investigation. Psychological Torture is a "Crime Against Humanity" as specified by the UN initiated 1997 Rome Convention of the International Criminal Court (at The Hague). Julian Assange has been determined as being psychologically tortured by the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Torture. Britain and Australian politicians are legally bound to appear if subpoenaed as both British and Australian Parliaments have Ratified the UN "1997 Rome Convention" to come under international jurisdiction of the ICC where applicable.


https://www.facebook.com/112794885456369/posts/3294058377329988/

Next week, the guy who confined Chelsea Manning to a tiny prison cell 23 hours a day may end up becoming a Democratic nominee for Congress in 2020. https://t.co/UeUdigBIl5

US Prosecution Of Assange Expands To Criminalize WikiLeaks Staff Who Helped Snowden
https://medium.com/...assange-expands-to-criminalize-wikileaks-staff-who-helped-snowden-72f029276709

"The United States government expanded their indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to criminalize the assistance WikiLeaks provided to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden when staff helped him leave Hong Kong.

Sarah Harrison, who was a section editor for WikiLeaks, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a former spokesperson, and Jacob Appelbaum, a digital activist who represented WikiLeaks at conferences, are targeted as “co-conspirators” in the indictment [PDF], though neither have been charged with offenses.

No charges were added, however, it significantly expands the conspiracy to commit computer intrusion charge and accuses Assange of conspiring with “hackers” affiliated with “Anonymous,” “LulzSec,” “AntiSec,” and “Gnosis.”

The computer crime charge is not limited to March 2010 anymore. It covers conduct that allegedly occurred between 2009 and 2015.

Prosecutors rely heavily on statements and chat logs from Sigurdur “Siggi” Thordarson and Hector Xavier Monsegur (“Sabu”), who were both FBI informants, in order to expand the scope of the prosecution....

Doctors for Assange Say UK May be Liable for His Torture – Consortiumnews
https://consortiumnews.com/2020/06/25/doctors-for-assange-say-uk-may-be-liable-for-his-torture/

Clinical Psychologist and Australian co-author of the publication, ‘The ongoing torture and medical neglect of Julian Assange’, Dr Lissa Johnson said the failure to properly treat Mr Assange may amount to an act of torture in which state officials, from parliament to court to prison, risk being judged complicit.

“Our letter is published just two days after the US Department of Justice announced a new superseding indictment against Assange representing yet another escalation in psychological torture tactics,” said Dr Johnson.

“Introducing extra charges at this late stage, right before the defence evidence deadline and over a year after the indictment deadline, when documents given to the prison generally take two weeks to be passed on, when he has not been supplied with a computer and when he is unable to meet with lawyers under Coronavirus lockdown, serves to ramp up his helplessness jn the face of threat and is a key psychological torture tactic,” she said.

The doctors note that torture is prohibited under UK law, warning that UK officials could be judged “complicit”, including for their “silent acquiescence and consent”. They write that Assange at medical risk due to escalating abuses of his “fundamental human and legal rights at the hands of judicial, prison, and contracted security authorities”.

Julian Assange's hidden family revealed: top secrets inside the Embassy | 60 Minutes Australia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x43rg_ozbCI

The Extradition of Julian Assange
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0K806gtiGk

External Link
https://7news.com.au/...ian-assange-misses-uk-hearing-as-unwell-with-respiratory-problems--c-1072387

The Australian had been due for a regular call over hearing via videolink on Monday local time, in the Westminster Magistrates Court.

District Judge Vanessa Baraitser said the court had received an email from Belmarsh prison, saying Assange was “refusing to attend the hearing and refusing to sign a refusal form”.

When asked if the 48-year-old was too “unwell” to attend, his barrister Edward Fitzpatrick said the defence lawyer Gareth Pierce had sent the court an email on Friday outlining that he “had respiratory problems for some time”.

Meanwhile, Judge Baraitser said the court was yet to find an alternative venue for Assange’s next three-week extradition hearing set for September 7.

Prosecution barrister James Lewis also said his team had been unable to conduct a psychiatric assessment of Assange because they were still unable to access the prison.

The date of both the prosecution and defence’s psychiatric reports on the Australian has been pushed back to July 31.

Mr Lewis also mentioned that new evidence - not in response to prosecution evidence - had been served by the defence and would need to be examined to determine admissibility."

Rome's Palace of Exhibitions hosts portraits of Julian in isolation by artist Miltos Manetas. See them here: https://t.co/Ln2JWdNEB6

La mostra su Julian Assange di Miltos Manetas a Roma | Artribune
https://www.artribune.com/...-visive/arte-contemporanea/2020/05/assange-manetas-palazzo-esposizioni/

DOJ plans for retrial in case against former CIA engineer Josh Schulte, suspected WikiLeaks source - Washington Times
https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/may/30/doj-plans-for-retrial-in-case-against-former-cia-e/

Man Without A Country - Australian Institute of International Affairs - Australian Institute of International Affairs
http://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/man-without-a-country/

Must Read: Man Without A Country.
How Assange’s popular following was reversed, his reputation trashed, and his health ruined is a saga which is still playing out.
...
"What is lacking is Australian political intervention for Assange in London and Washington, particularly of the kind that produced the release of David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib. Australia often makes representations for its detained citizens in other countries, and Assange, who has been found guilty of nothing, deserves no less. But he has revealed crimes the US is guilty of, for which the UK treats him as if he’s guilty, and Australia presumes he’s guilty of whatever they say. The Assange case is a test of the values and the rule of law which Australian leaders claim is shared with Anglo-allies. The probity of the political and justice systems of the three countries is what’s on trial, and that affects us all."

~ Dr Alison Broinowski AM FAIIA is an author, academic, and former diplomat.