Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Julian Assange should be free to go where he wants

Paul O'Hanlon | 08.01.2015 16:09 | Analysis | Policing | Terror War | London | World

Julian Assange, the founder and editor of Wikileaks has been a virtual prisoner in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for the past two and a half years. What, pray, is the nature of Julian Assange’s crime? He has spoken the truth to power and power does not like it might be one answer.
















Julian Assange should be free to go where he wants

As we start 2015 I think a very major priority for anyone who seeks justice is to end of the harassment of whistle blower and founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange.

The Ecuadorian Embassy in London is just around the corner from the rich people’s store Harrods and has been Julian’s home for the past two and a half years.

He cannot safely venture in to the street outside as it is crawling with cops who are likely to grab him as soon as he steps outside.

What, pray, is the nature of Julian Assange’s crime?

He has spoken the truth to power and power does not like it might be one answer.

From the website `Truth Lies Deception and Coverups - Democracy Under Fire`
 http://www.truthliesdeceptioncoverups.info/2013/06/julian-assange-and-pandoras-box.html


Julian Assange founded Wikileaks in 2006 and has been its public face since it became famous in 2010 when it published U.S. military and diplomatic documents leaked by Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning. The most famous leak came in April 2010 when WikiLeaks published gunsight footage from the 12 July 2007 Baghdad airstrike in which Iraqi journalists were among those killed by an AH-64 Apache helicopter. This footage became known as the Collateral Murder video. In July of the same year, WikiLeaks released Afghan War Diary, a compilation of more than 76,900 documents about the War in Afghanistan not previously available to the public.


These revelations have enraged the State Department in Washington which has ruthlessly pursued Julian ever since.

 http://johnpilger.com/articles/the-siege-of-julian-assange-is-a-farce-a-special-investigation



I have written to Home Secretary Theresa May to protest this appalling situation and here is a copy of my letter to her:

The Home Secretary
Theresa May
The Home Office
2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

Thursday 8th January 2015

Paul O’Hanlon
Edinburgh
Scotland

Dear Mrs May

I am absolutely disgusted by the continuing harassment of WikiLeaks editor and founder Julian Assange who has lived as a virtual prisoner in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for the last two and a half years having committed no crime.

His only misdemeanour in the eyes of the establishment is to have told the truth which of course is something the rich and the powerful cannot handle. His shocking revelation of the video `Collateral Murder` shows the contempt that the US and indeed British military have for International Law.

I would repeat that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was and is a crime against humanity as it was unprovoked and based on a tissue of lies about non-existent weapons of mass destruction. It might also be noted that some 11 (almost 12) years after the unprovoked attack on Iraq the electricity and water supplies have not been restored to the great majority of the Iraqi people. Where are the $150 billion a year oil revenues going to? Into the pockets of a corrupt kleptocracy no doubt. The unprovoked attack on Iraq has created millions of refugees; may I ask what is the British Government doing to help this awful situation that their criminal acts helped to create in the first place?


I was both dismayed and disgusted by the recent revelations about the CIA torture programme in which Britain played a supporting role.

American lawyer Marjorie Cohn writes: ` “Reading the 499-page torture report just released by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence was a disgusting experience. Even after many years of writing books and articles about the Bush torture policy, I was unprepared for the atrocious pattern of crimes our government committed against other human beings in our name.

One of the most hideous techniques the CIA plied on detainees was called "rectal rehydration" or "rectal feeding" without medical necessity - a sanitized description of rape by a foreign object. A concoction of pureed "hummus, pasta with sauce, nuts and raisins" was forced into the rectum of one detainee. Another was subjected to "rectal rehydration" to establish the interrogator's "total control over the detainee." This constitutes illegal, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and a humiliating outrage upon personal dignity.”

The executive summary of the torture report was made public, but the 6,700-page report remains classified. The summary depicts the CIA at best, as keystone cops, at worst, as pathological, lying, sadistic war criminals. The CIA lied repeatedly about the effectiveness of the torture and cruel treatment. Interrogations of detainees were much more brutal than the CIA represented to government officials and the American public.

Bush's CIA directors George Tenet, Porter Goss and Michael Hayden should be charged with crimes, along with their minions who carried out the torture.” `


The CIA and their British counterparts are a bunch of disgusting perverts and war criminals who ought to be behind bars.


Julian Assange is a good man whose only `crime` was to have exposed the lies and evil wrongdoing of the elites in the USA and in Britain. He should not be penalised for telling the truth.

I maintain that he should be allowed to leave The Ecuadorian Embassy and given safe passage to any country of his choice. Tony Blair and George Bush should be put on trial as the war criminals they are.

As a final thought when are we ever going to see the Chilcot report? It has been held up for years after it cost many millions of pounds of public money to fund. What on earth is the Government so afraid of that the report will reveal? Something horrendous like the truth either in whole or at least in part?

Yours Sincerely, Paul O’Hanlon




A similar situation exists a few miles away in Connaught Square near Marble Arch in another plush part of London. There armed police are stationed outside the house of former Prime Minister Tony Blair day and night since he bought the property for a trifling £3.6 million in 2004. However the police are not there to arrest Mr Blair for his warmongering activities but instead are there to protect him. The cost of policing Blair’s Bayswater residence is estimated at £6 million a year while armed officers also guard Mr Blair’s £4million country home near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.

The Daily Express of July 18th 2010 reported that ` With police forces facing drastic cutbacks, neighbours living near Mr Blair’s £4million town house in Connaught Square, London, are astonished at the array of firepower being used to protect him.
Last Wednesday one armed officer stood guard at the front of the house with three others at the rear, where the Blairs own another property in a mews-style close.
During the afternoon three other officers arrived at the rear of the property, possibly for a shift change or to bolster the security presence.
One neighbour said: “The armed officers sit at the back in full view of everyone with their guns on a table, sipping coffee. They work shifts so we think there are 20 or so involved.
“Some days you have to thread your way past three heavily armed men just to get into your street. It’s utterly ridiculous.”
The officers on house guard are in addition the 16 or so close protection officers constantly at his side as he travels the globe on private money-making ventures or when in the Middle East, where he acts as a part-time envoy for the European Union, America, the UN and Russia.`


That report was from nearly 5 years ago and Blair is still in Bayswater so the total cost of protecting him must run in to tens of millions of pounds.




The priorities of the British Government along with their masters in Washington appear to be to arrest someone who told the truth while protecting (at huge public expense) someone whose lies led to the deaths of millions in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the former Yugoslavia etc.

Here is the shocking video of `collateral murder`:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zok8yMxXEwk


The website of Wikileaks:
 https://wikileaks.org/About.html



End the persecution of Julian Assange and send Anthony Charles Lynton Blair to the dock in The Hague – now!!

Paul O'Hanlon
- e-mail: o_hanlon@hotmail.com

Comments

Display the following 2 comments

  1. He can leave — Anne
  2. Julian is being smeared for telling the truth. — Paul O'Hanlon
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech