Assange To Take Plea Deal

In a deal with U.S. prosecutors, Russian asset and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will plead guilty to one charge of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. defense documents, and be released from custody later today. U.S. prosecutors say that Assange will be credited with the time he's served in a British prison and face no additional time. From Reuters:

"U.S. prosecutors said in court papers that Assange, 52, has agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal count of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified U.S. national defense documents, according to filings in the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands.

Assange is due to be sentenced at a hearing on the island of Saipan at 9 a.m. local time on Wednesday (1900 EDT/2300 GMT on Tuesday). He is likely to be credited for the time he has already served and face no new jail time.

WikiLeaks in 2010 released hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. military documents on Washington's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - the largest security breaches of their kind in U.S. military history - along with swaths of diplomatic cables."

Assange was served with an arrest warrant in Britain for sexual assault in Sweden in 2010, but fled to the Ecuadorian embassy where he was given asylum until being kicked out in 2019. Nearly all investigations at WikiLeaks have involved the leak of U.S. and western allies' secrets, rather than from Russia, China or Iran, in an indication of the organization's political bias.

(photo: Assange dragged from the Ecuadorian embassy. NBC News screenshot)

 

Assange One Step Closer To Facing Justice

Russian intelligence cut-out Julian Assange, founder of Trump-aligned WikiLeaks, is one step closer to being extradited to the U.S. to face 17 espionage charges. British Home Secretary Priti Patel approved Assange's extradition following a long court case that found that Assange would be treated humanely by U.S. authorities. Assange has 14 days to file another appeal, which his wife / lawyer has promised to do.

Assange became the Malignant Loser's favorite cyber celebrity when WikiLeaks published emails from the campaign of Hillary Clinton which were likely stolen by the Russian military intelligence service GRU. A 2020 report by a Republican-led Senate Select Committee on Intelligence concluded that WikiLeaks participated in Russia's interference in the 2016 elections:

"Founded by Julian Assange, WikiLeaks published thousands of emails hacked from Clinton’s campaign and a top campaign aide in the weeks before the 2016 election, yielding a drumbeat of negative coverage about the Democrat.

As Russian military intelligence and WikiLeaks released the hacked documents, the report said Trump’s campaign sought advance notice, devised messaging strategies to amplify them 'and encouraged further theft of information and ... leaks.'

'The Trump campaign publicly undermined the attribution of the hack-and-leak campaign to Russia and was indifferent to whether it and WikiLeaks were furthering a Russian election interference effort,' the report added." (our emphasis)

Assange has used every vehicle to escape accountability over the past decade, including a 7-year stay in Ecuador's London embassy, and years of court fights and appeals after Ecuador tossed him out. The UK's decision to finally extradite him to the U.S. means that he's closer than ever to facing justice.

(photo: You won't have to hitch a ride to the U.S. Peter Nicholls / Reuters)

 

Assange One Step Closer To Extradition

Russian intelligence asset and Trump's 2016 election enabler, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, was dealt a defeat in British court, which declined to hear his appeal of an extradition request from the U.S. on espionage charges. Assange has been held in London's high-security Belmarsh prison since he was removed from the Ecuadorian embassy in London in April 2019 at the embassy's request. Assange, who was able to father a child while being given asylum in the embassy, is in his tenth year of fighting extradition to the U.S. Unfortunately, the slippery Assange can stall his extradition from the U.K. for some time to come:

"Britain’s home secretary has to rule on the extradition. Assange can also appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, which guides British court decisions. And he can revive other claims denied in lower court — that the prosecution is political, that it violates free-speech rights, that it comes too long after the alleged crime, and that American authorities acted unlawfully."

Assange has proven to be a flight risk, so as long as he's behind bars, the wheels of justice can continue to grind. But at some point enough is enough, and he needs to be brought to justice in the U.S.

Strange Headfellows

In an interview with Campus Reform, fugitive from Swedish justice and Wikileaks indiscriminate leaker Julian "Ass Is Part of Who I Am" Assange revealed his American political preferences (via LGF):

College-aged support for libertarians and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) represents the United States’ “only hope” in politics, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange told Campus Reform early Friday morning.

“The only hope as far as electoral politics… presently, is the libertarian section of the Republican party,” said Assange, in response to a question about the recent swell of college-aged and youth-based support for libertarianism.

“The libertarian aspect of the Republican Party is presently the only useful political voice really in the U.S. Congress,” said Assange. “[I] am a big admirer of Ron Paul and Rand Paul for their very principled positions in the U.S. Congress on a number of issues.” [snip]

Assange, who was speaking in an online video forum, hosted by the transparency organization OurSay.org, also praised American Journalist Matt Drudge saying he is responsible for breaking down the “self-censorship” of the American mainstream media.

“Matt Drudge is a news media innovator… It is as a result of the self-censorship of the establishment press in the United States that gave Matt Drudge such a platform and so of course he should be applauded for breaking a lot of that censorship,” said Assange.  (our emphasis)

This, along with fellow Paultard and Putin houseguest Edward "Shoot My Balls" Snowden's drama, illustrates why some progressives need to be very careful in picking their "heroes."  In our view, both Assange and Snowden veer onto the "anarcho-libertarian" nihilist edge of politics, wherein a sense of "ethical egoism" and unfocused action always trumps collective judgement.  =cough= AynRand =cough= To name-check far-right conspiracy fluffer Matt Drudge (!) as a media exemplar kinda gives Assange's game away, too. 

But Gary Norton sums it up best, first on the link to Paul and the Republican Party, then on Drudge:

Yup. An anti-government, anti-Social Security, anti-Medicare and Medicaid, anti-civil rights, anti-choice, anti-LGBT, pro-business, anti-minimum wage, anti-40 hour work week, anti-union, basically anti-every piece of Democratic and progressive legislation that has ever been passed in this country Political Party and its nihilistic leaders are the only hope for America.

And Matt Drudge, a guy who has never found a right wing lie that he wasn't eager to spread, is Assange's idea of a "news reporter." Wonder if Assange has a tricorn hat, breeches and wig in his suitcase?

BONUS:  Also, Tomasky.

Proof That Irony Is Not Dead

"Assange Assails Leaks By Swedish Prosecutors" - headline in Kaplan Daily.