Not Without Incident: Questioning Big Brother's Platitudes

This point, that if Socrates were to mind his own business and keep his philosophical wonderings to himself, then life would be unexamined and thus not worth living, is applicable to the cases of Assange, Snowden, Hale, Daniel Ellsberg, and the countless others who have risked their safety and security to expose state crimes, as if people like Assange simply exiled themselves instead of revealing the truths that they did, then the actions of the US government and military would go unexamined. Thus, life would not be worth living. Assange must be freed, otherwise, the ability to tell the truth will be imprisoned with him.

“If we’re talking about creating threats to small publishers to stop them publishing, the U.S. has lost its way. It has abrogated its founding traditions, it has thrown the First Amendment in the bin, because publishers must be free to publish.”[i]– Julian Assange

“Let’s be clear. This disclosure is not just an attack on America — it’s an attack on the international community,”[ii]– Hillary Clinton

“He’s made it more difficult for us to conduct our business with our allies and our friends. For example, in my meetings – you know I meet with most of these world leaders – there is a desire now to meet with me alone, rather than have staff in the room. It makes things more cumbersome – so it has done damage.”[iii]– Joe Biden

In an age of the most mundane and faux subversive acts being hailed as acts of stunning bravery and heroism, Julian Assange, the most important and courageous journalist of our generation, is demonized and faces decades in prison for exposing the macabre machinery of US empire. The case of Assange shows the absurdity of Western states like the United Kingdom and the US and their claims to care about universal human rights and press freedoms. True heroes and acts of courage are pilloried and despised. Assange is lied about on most corporate news outlets, that he’s a Russian agent or a cyber terrorist. US government officials decry other countries for choking press freedoms, after overseeing the sentencing of Daniel Hale, the former CIA analyst who leaked the drone papers published by Jeremy Scahill of The Intercept, revealing that 90% of those killed during the Obama administration’s drone campaign were civilians.[iv] Hale was sentenced to 45 months in federal prison, and the CIA goons responsible for killing thousands of innocent people will never see a day in court and will likely retire with a healthy pension.[v]

The president of Mexico has called for the freedom of Assange repeatedly, guaranteeing him asylum and the mayor of Mexico City awarded Assange the key to Mexico City. Leaders across Latin America have joined this call for Assange’s freedom, and yet, his persecution continues at a snail’s pace. Many people are not even aware of Assange or his plight. Perhaps, the British and US government have succeeded in disappearing him, as to many he is invisible, not even known. This is a tragedy. If more knew about Assange, maybe the government would be forced to end his persecution. If enough people knew, we could commit to the only style of action that stirs the US government into acting in the interest of the American people, and that is making them afraid, however, as Chris Hedges pointed out in his speech at an Assange rally in Washington D.C in October, 2022, the perpetrators of Assange’s persecution sit in Langley, Virginia, at the CIA headquarters, a building no one will be able to surround and picket.[vi] It is not Biden or Trump, who oversaw the indictment of Assange in 2019, who are solely responsible for Assange’s persecution, though Trump had an opportunity to pardon Assange and Snowden but was convinced not to by Mitch McConnell and other establishment Republicans in return for them not voting to convict him in his second impeachment trial.[vii] Those primarily responsible for Assange’s persecution are the managers of the military-industrial complex, the shadow government, those who control US foreign policy, liberal hegemony.

The crimes that Assange exposed show the world what the US government was conducting in its endless wars in the Middle East and domestically in the 2016 election and CIA surveillance, a criminal enterprise. Assange also exposed the depravity of the Clinton dynasty, and he is often blamed for Trump winning the 2016 election. The Podesta emails revealed efforts to sabotage the candidacy of Bernie Sanders, to deal with Clinton’s ties to Russia and the attempt to paint Trump as a Russian asset, Clinton’s speeches at big banks, and the infamous Pied Piper strategy, where Trump and other clownish candidates were elevated to give Clinton a more beatable opponent was revealed. The leaked emails were claimed to be stolen by Russia. Assange was implied to be a Russian agent. Once beloved by the left and liberals for exposing the crimes of the Bush administration, he became hated by those same people for allegedly helping elect Trump, even though the Clinton emails proved that it was Clinton who helped Trump get elected.

If Assange is extradited and thrown in US federal prison, as Hedges notes, “The crimes of war and finance, the persecution of dissidents, minorities, and immigrants, the pillaging by corporations of the nation and the ecosystem and the ruthless impoverishment of working men and women to swell the bank accounts of the rich and consolidate the global oligarch’s total grip on power will not only expand, but will no longer be part of public debate. First Assange. Then us.”[viii] We already see the Overton window of debate narrowing more and more around the Ukraine and Taiwan Crises, where the discussion is not around whether we should opt for further bloodshed or peace, but it is around how we are going to fight and fund war. Assange is to be an example to others who would dare question or expose the crimes of the transnational security state, the global oligarchy. America is at the forefront of killer robots and lethally armed police robots. San Francisco passed a law allowing the police to arm robots with high explosives as a last resort.[ix] This law was repealed “for the time being” in response to outcries from civil rights groups and activists.[x] This, together with autonomous combat drones, is a glimpse of what the future holds. The arms industry is now expanding into killer robots and other tools of death conceived in the most disturbing science fiction dystopias. We are inching closer to becoming an international police state guised in a façade of a rules-based order and international laws. This international relations jargon masks a sinister system built on exploitation and death.

The US establishment is a sales force, selling a grand strategy of liberal hegemony, which entails occupation around the world and endless wars that are intended to funnel money into the coffers of arms manufacturers and other lobbyists. Trump was despised because he was a poor salesman, the likes of Bush and Obama were far slicker, especially Obama, who Wikileaks revealed was favored over John McCain by the US intelligence services in the 2008 election as Obama would be able to convince Europeans, who were becoming disillusioned with the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, to stay in the wars.[xi] Much of the fear and loathing for Trump in 2016 was his criticism of US foreign policy, especially Middle East policy. Trump and his coterie of buffoons put an ugly, inept face on empire, and they were a poor sales force for liberal hegemony. As Assange points out, “As the diplomatic apparatus of the United States, the State Department is directly involved in putting a friendly face on empire, concealing its underlying mechanics.”[xii] Assange revealed these underlying mechanics through his publishing. Biden and his slick salesforce are not only superior at selling a failed and destructive grand strategy, but they can also put a friendly face on the ruthless and insidious persecution of Assange.

Bizarro Empire of Lies

“In a society where truth becomes treason, then we’re in big trouble. And now, people who are revealing the truth are getting into trouble for it.”[xiii]– Ron Paul

In the past few days, WNBA player Brittany Griner has been freed from a Russian penal colony in a prisoner swap in exchange for Viktor Bout, aka the Merchant of Death. Bout inspired Andrew Niccol’s film Lord of War, a cold and cynical portrayal of an international arms dealer. The efforts to bring Griner back home were speedy, and Biden touted this as a major success. Biden made remarks upon Griner’s freedom being secured, and he said that “She wrote to me back in July.  She didn’t ask for special treatment, even though we’ve been working on her release from the day one.  She requested a simple, quote, “Please don’t forget about me and the other American detainees.  Please do all you can to bring us home.”[xiv] Here and throughout Biden’s remarks, he pretends to care about injustice and Americans who are unjustly detained across the world. This exchange is more performative than a serious act of diplomacy. Griner ticks all the necessary diversity boxes through her identity. It is not hard to imagine a scenario where Trump as president makes the same negotiation that Biden did, and in response the media, instead of cheering for an apparently historic moment, condemn him for trading off a Russian arms dealer as Russia is invading Ukraine. Bout has already praised Putin’s invasion and he pledged his assistance where needed.[xv]

It is hard for anyone in the US elite to critique Bout and his career of funneling arms to war torn countries in Africa and elsewhere, as the US is the globes primary international arms dealer. The negotiation for Griner’s freedom is at best questionable. There is little scrutiny from the ‘journalists’ in corporate media outlets. There is little scrutiny when it comes to any issue, especially when it comes to war and the actions of Democratic administrations, who are favored by media outlets like CNN, NBC, and MSNBC. Many who work on the panels at these networks once served in the Clinton, Obama, and Biden administrations. The supposed journalists who staff these networks are not interested in pursuing the truth or holding centers of power accountable, which is the purpose of journalism, otherwise, it is mere propaganda. We in the West mock networks in other countries like RT and China Daily for being propaganda, which they are, but we try to pretend that we, the holy and truth seeking West, have legacy media outlets who valiantly work as agents of the truth. Our arrogance is exposed in the ruthless and inhumane treatment of Assange, who lives by the journalistic ethos that those who staff the newsrooms of alleged news outlets have either forgotten or ignore, is seen as not being a journalist, as if journalism is a higher calling that requires a divine skill base and birthright, like a monarch in the middle ages who acted as a conduit for God, and whose will was not his but God’s.

This elitism around journalism and its role in society was highlighted in the recent Munk Debate between Douglas Murray, Matt Taibbi, Malcom Gladwell, and Michelle Goldberg on whether people should trust mainstream media.[xvi] Gladwell and Goldberg talked up the cautious and thoughtful processes that mainstream media have the resources and ability to engage in, and when Taibbi pointed out that the WMD lie peddled by mainstream media resulted in those who got it right being fired and ostracized, and those who pushed it and spent little time reflecting on it being promoted to lavish media positions, the response from Gladwell and Goldberg was that yes, the mainstream media makes mistakes, but those mistakes are far outweighed by the disinformation pushed by independent media.[xvii] They did not directly engage the issues, like the WMD hoax and even the Hunter Biden laptop censorship scandal, scoffed at by Gladwell and rebuffed by Goldberg. This is who the mainstream media is- propagandists, not truth seekers. That is one of the reasons they hate Assange and are content perpetuating lies about him.

The shadow government is being enabled in its ruthless persecution of a man who is not even a US citizen. As Hedges notes, “Julian exposed the truth.  He exposed it over and over and over until there was no question of the endemic illegality, corruption and mendacity that defines the global ruling elite. And for these truths they came after Julian, as they have come after all who dared rip back the veil on power.”[xviii] While there is no question of the illegality exposed by Assange to fair minded people, those who are not interested in truth must keep up the pretense that there are questions to be asked not just about what Assange exposed, but also about the providence of how the information was acquired, who it benefits, and who it hurts. For an honest journalist, this should not matter, as Greenwald has pointed out, only two things should matter to a journalist, is the information authentic and is it in the public interest to know.[xix] Whether or not the deliverer of the information is of good character or is acting out of altruistic or vengeful motive is irrelevant. Jeffery Wigand, the whistleblower who exposed the tobacco industry for knowingly tampering with its products, was by all accounts unlikeable and prickly, as depicted by Russel Crowe in Michael Mann’s 1999 film The Insider, however, that is irrelevant to the criminality that he revealed. The same standard must be applied to Assange. Much of the criticism of him and Wikileaks is about him and how he handles information, where he gets it, and how difficult he is to work with, and not only is this irrelevant to the charges against him laid out in the 2019 indictment, but it is also irrelevant to the importance of the crimes that he exposed.

The US security state, in its embarrassment, are trying to enact their revenge. Anthony Albanese, prime minister of Australia, publicly called for an end to the persecution of Assange on the floor of the Australian parliament recently, and he said, “You have to reach a point, whereby what is the point of continuing this legal action, which could be caught up now for many years, into the future.”[xx] Here and throughout his speech, while he is right to advocate for an end to Assange’s persecution, he is wrong that we have reached a point where we ask what the point is. We all know the point, even those who insist that Assange must be imprisoned. The point is that the architects of US empire, the unelected bureaucrats who control US foreign policy, were exposed for engaging in the nature crime that they routinely accuse other countries of. Thus, they demand revenge. Politically Assange has been made a pariah, and advocacy for his freedom is akin to supporting anti-Americanism, Russian propaganda, or insert another buzzword used to smear dissent from the dominant of the Washington establishment.

Even some liberal media outlets have recognized the precedent set by Assange’s plight, and five media outlets including The New York Times and The Guardian, who published “Cablegate” in 2010, called for Assange’s freedom, and the letter concludes by stating “Twelve years after the publication of “Cablegate”, it is time for the US government to end its prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing secrets. Publishing is not a crime.”[xxi] These outlets have published lies about Assange, especially surrounding the Clinton and Podesta emails. For example, Luke Harding, a deranged Russiagate conspiracist, wrote an article for The Guardian about a meeting between Assange and Paul Manafort at the Ecuadorian Embassy.[xxii] This article is false, yet it has not been retracted. It is refreshing to see these outlets call for an end to Assange’s persecution, but the seeming inability for these outlets and for other prominent figures to call this case for what it is, the revenge of the war machine in Washington, is disappointing, however, it is understandable with Biden now in office. Although it is understandable, there is no excuse for this extradition, or the charges Assange is facing.

Conclusion

“I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.”[xxiii]– Malcom X

This week is the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and the White House put out a statement affirming America’s commitment to human rights and Biden outlined his accomplishments, like emphasizing diversity and setting up a Gender Policy Council.[xxiv] In this statement, Biden says that “A positive future will be forged by countries that unleash the full potential of their people and protect their human rights.  Today, and every day, I am committed to doing just that.”[xxv] In the face of persecuting a person for exposing crimes that show the US has historically trampled all over the UDHR these words from the White House are utterly vacuous and performative. Biden and his administration, like all his predecessors, do not care about human rights, it is nothing more than political theater. If Assange is extradited under Biden, then he will be responsible for affirming not a commitment to human rights, but a commitment to retaining empire at all costs, including the violation of the human rights of those who would dare expose depraved acts like torture and rendition, drone killings, and overthrowing governments. That this public execution of the most important and consequential journalist and publisher of our generation is not more known let alone more discussed is despicable. This is proof that no matter who is president, the shadow government, the CIA, who act as a paramilitary organization globally, has final say in US foreign policy and that when you expose the reality of its machinery, you are to be wiped from history.

Many hailed Biden as a welcome return to respect for press freedoms, and he and his cabinet officials are friendly with reporters, but only because they are on the same team, not because Biden respects the importance of journalism, as Eve Ottenberg points out, “By his inaction, it’s clear that Biden approves of the criminal state attack on Assange.”[xxvi] Just like Obama and Trump cannot be allowed to have their vicious attacks on the press and on whistleblowers, especially Obama, from their legacies, Biden cannot be allowed to have his continued persecution, perhaps prosecution and sentencing, not be a massive stain on his legacy and also proof that he is not the moral superior to Trump, as he did not move to drop the charges against Assange, he instead took the baton from Trump and he and his cabinet continue to seek revenge on behalf of the goons and imperialists who had their operations illuminated by Wikileaks. How dare Biden say he and his administration are committed to human rights as they continue their assault on Assange. Shame on media elites for stroking the ego of the Biden administration. Shame on Trump for not pardoning Assange and Edward Snowden when he had the chance, and the ‘journalists’ who work in air-conditioned newsrooms, reciting talking points form their donors and lobbyists could only ever have the courage and heroism that Assange has displayed in their dreams. In the Apology of Socrates, Plato writes that Socrates said in response to those who would say he could simply keep his mouth shut and exile himself, “if I say it’s the greatest good for a man to discuss virtue every day, and the other things you’ve heard me discussing and examining myself and others about, on the grounds that the unexamined life isn’t worth living for a human being, you’ll believe me even less when I say that.”[xxvii] This point, that if Socrates were to mind his own business and keep his philosophical wonderings to himself, then life would be unexamined and thus not worth living, is applicable to the cases of Assange, Snowden, Hale, Daniel Ellsberg, and the countless others who have risked their safety and security to expose state crimes, as if people like Assange simply exiled themselves instead of revealing the truths that they did, then the actions of the US government and military would go unexamined. Thus, life would not be worth living. Assange must be freed, otherwise, the ability to tell the truth will be imprisoned with him.

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[i] Assange, Julian. Julian Assange in His Own Words. 2022. Reprint, OR Books, 2021.

[ii] Neuman, Scott. “Clinton: WikiLeaks ‘Tear at Fabric’ of Government.” NPR, November 29, 2010, sec. National Security. https://www.npr.org/2010/11/29/131668950/white-house-aims-to-limit-wikileaks-damage.

[iii] MacAskill, Ewen. “Julian Assange like a Hi-Tech Terrorist, Says Joe Biden.” the Guardian, December 19, 2010. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/dec/19/assange-high-tech-terrorist-biden.

[iv] Scahill, Jeremy. “The Drone Papers.” The Intercept, October 15, 2015. https://theintercept.com/drone-papers/.

[v] Devereaux, Ryan, and Murtaza Hussain. “Daniel Hale Sentenced to 45 Months in Prison for Drone Leak.” The Intercept, July 28, 2021. https://theintercept.com/2021/07/27/daniel-hale-drone-leak-sentencing/.

[vi] Hedges, Chris. “Chris Hedges: The Puppets and the Puppet Masters.” scheerpost.com, October 9, 2022. https://scheerpost.com/2022/10/09/chris-hedges-the-puppets-and-the-puppet-masters/.

[vii] Ray, Siladitya. “Trump Didn’t Pardon Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange and His Supporters Aren’t Happy.” Forbes, January 20, 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/siladityaray/2021/01/20/trump-didnt-pardon-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-and-his-supporters-arent-happy/?sh=1cccb40b49e0.

[viii] Hedges, Chris. “Chris Hedges: Julian Assange and the Collapse of the Rule of Law.” scheerpost.com, June 11, 2021. https://scheerpost.com/2021/06/11/chris-hedges-julian-assange-and-the-collapse-of-the-rule-of-law/.

[ix] ABC News. “San Francisco Votes to Allow Police to Use Remote-Controlled Robots Armed with Explosives.” ABC News, December 5, 2022. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-12-05/san-francisco-police-robots/101736268.

[x] Press, The Associated. “San Francisco Supervisors Bar Police Robots from Using Deadly Force for Now.” NPR, December 6, 2022, sec. National. https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1141129944/san-francisco-deadly-robots-police.

[xi] Wikileaks, ed. “CIA Report into Shoring up Afghan War Support in Western Europe,” 2010. https://file.wikileaks.org/file/cia-afghanistan.pdf.

[xii] Assange. Julian Assange in His Own Words.

[xiii] Andy Barr. “Ron Paul Stands up for Assange.” POLITICO, December 3, 2010. https://www.politico.com/story/2010/12/ron-paul-stands-up-for-assange-045930.

[xiv] The White House. “Remarks by President Biden on the Release of Brittney Griner.” The White House, December 8, 2022. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/12/08/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-release-of-brittney-griner/.

[xv] Aggarwal, Mithil. “Viktor Bout Enjoys Celebrity Status in Russia after Griner Exchange.” NBC News, December 13, 2022. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/viktor-bout-praises-putin-celebrity-status-griner-prisoner-exchange-rcna61214.

[xvi] Munk Debates. “Mainstream Media | Munk Debates.” munkdebates.com, November 30, 2022. https://munkdebates.com/debates/mainstream-media.

[xvii] Munk Debates. “Mainstream Media | Munk Debates.”

[xviii] Hedges, Chris. “Chris Hedges: Julian Assange and the Collapse of the Rule of Law.” scheerpost.com, June 11, 2021. https://scheerpost.com/2021/06/11/chris-hedges-julian-assange-and-the-collapse-of-the-rule-of-law/.

[xix] Greenwald, Glenn. “My Resignation from the Intercept.” greenwald.substack.com, 10, 2020. https://greenwald.substack.com/p/my-resignation-from-the-intercept.

[xx] Norman, Jane. “PM Vows to Continue Lobbying the US to End Legal Action against Julian Assange.” ABC News, November 30, 2022. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-30/anthony-albanese-lobby-us-government-drop-case-julian-assange/101717622.

[xxi] The New York Times, The Guradian, Le Monde, El Pais, and Der Spiegel. “‘Publishing Is Not a Crime’: Media Groups Urge US to Drop Julian Assange Charges.” Edited by Jim Waterson. The Guardian, November 28, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/nov/28/media-groups-urge-us-drop-julian-assange-charges.

The White House. “A Proclamation on Human Rights Day and Human Rights Week, 2022.” The White House, December 9, 2022. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2022/12/09/a-proclamation-on-human-rights-day-and-human-rights-week-2022/.

[xxii] Harding, Luke, and Dan Collyns. “Manafort Held Secret Talks with Assange in Ecuadorian Embassy, Sources Say.” The Guardian, November 27, 2018. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-held-secret-talks-with-assange-in-ecuadorian-embassy., and Greenwald, Glenn. “Five Weeks after the Guardian’s Viral Blockbuster Assange-Manafort Scoop, No Evidence Has Emerged — Just Stonewalling.” The Intercept, January 3, 2019. https://theintercept.com/2019/01/02/five-weeks-after-the-guardians-viral-blockbuster-assangemanafort-scoop-no-evidence-has-emerged-just-stonewalling/.

Greenwald, Glenn. “My Resignation from the Intercept.” greenwald.substack.com, 10, 2020.

[xxiii] X, Malcolm, and Alex Haley. The Autobiography of Malcolm X. 1965. Reprint, New York: Ballantine Books, 2015. https://antilogicalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/malcom-x.pdf.

[xxiv] The White House. “A Proclamation on Human Rights Day and Human Rights Week, 2022.” The White House, December 9, 2022. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2022/12/09/a-proclamation-on-human-rights-day-and-human-rights-week-2022/.

[xxv] The White House. “A Proclamation on Human Rights Day and Human Rights Week, 2022.”

[xxvi] Ottenberg, Eve. “The Biden-Trump Persecution of Julian Assange.” CounterPunch.org, August 19, 2022. https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/08/19/the-biden-trump-persecution-of-julian-assange/.

[xxvii] C. D. C Reeve, Plato, Aristophanes, and Xenophon. The Trials of Socrates: Six Classic Texts. 2022. Reprint, Indianapolis; Cambridge: Hackett Pub. Co, 2002.

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