A Pyrrhic Victory for Assange
“Julian Assange is a truth-teller who has committed no crime but revealed government crimes and lies on a vast scale and so performed one of the great public services of my lifetime. Do we need to be reminded that justice for one is justice for all?”[i]– John Pilger
(This essay was written before the news today that Assange will travel for sentencing at a court in The Northern Mariana Islands, which is part of a plea deal that his lawyers agreed to with the Biden administration. Instead of rewriting or discarding this essay, I have decided to publish it accompanied with this opening disclaimer and to make my next essay about Assange focus on what seems to be the conclusion to his case)
Julian Assange may have just won a minor victory in the British High Court’s latest decision to grant his appeal to argue for protection under the first amendment, but it is a Pyrrhic victory, as the longer his trial continues, the longer he languishes in prison and awaits nigh inevitable extradition to the US. Some are proclaiming that this is a minor victory for Assange, however, this is no triumph, nor is it a flicker of hope. Binoy Kampmark opens his essay in response to Assange being granted his right to appeal by writing that “It was faint, but there was more than just a flicker of hope. In the tormented (and tormenting) journey the WikiLeaks founder and publisher, Julian Assange, has endured, May 20, 2024, provided another pitstop.”[ii] It was not even a faint flicker of hope, it was a pitstop in a tormenting trek that is not over yet and is not shifting in Assange’s favor at all. Mary Dejevsky shares this delusion that Assange won a victory, and she concludes that “For the moment, the legal wrangling looks set to go on. But for almost the first time in this marathon legal duel, Assange has a slight advantage.”[iii] How is Assange at an advantage. He still sits rotting in a high security prison. If it was any sort of victory, it was a pyrrhic victory.
In the long term, this outcome benefits the Biden regime more than it does Assange, as his extradition may be held off until after the upcoming election, in which Biden may lose to Trump. If Trump assumes office in 2025 and if it is his regime that oversees the extradition and conviction of Assange, then the Biden team can exploit it as evidence that Trump is a dire threat to press freedoms. That Biden did not pardon Assange or order the intelligence agencies who are supposed to be under his command to cease their persecution of him will not be reported by the harpies in the corporate press. However, they will slavishly pretend that Trump and whoever he appoints in his second term are a total contrast to the Biden regime.
Trump’s potential return is noted by many press freedom and human rights groups as a danger for free speech and journalism, and his time in office is seen as a blight on America’s record in freedom of the press reports. For example, Reporters Without Borders, on the political context of its report on media freedoms in the US, notes that “After four years of President Donald Trump’s constant denigration of the press, his successor, President Joe Biden, declared that “journalism is not a crime.”[iv] The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) makes a similar point, that the Biden team marks a notable change in rhetoric on the importance of a free press.[v] The CPJ at least notes Biden’s persecution of Assange as a contradiction of his rhetoric. Outside of some free press and human rights groups, there are few defenders of Assange. Rather than report on his persecution, many in the US media are stoking panic and fear over a possible second Trump term and what it would mean for US media.
NBC’s Nicole Wallace said tearfully in a monologue in response to The White House Correspondents Dinner that if Trump returns, her show may be taken off the air, and in what seems like a contest of who can make the most deranged claims about Trump’s plans for a second term, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow said in an interview that Trump may throw her into an internment camp out of revenge.[vi] Oliver Darcy best captures the delusion of the Western mainstream press when he opens an article on Trump and his attitudes towards the press by declaring that “The American press is facing, arguably, the gravest potential threat to its freedom in a generation.”[vii] Cretins like Darcy, Maddow, and Wallace, as well as the Biden regime have no moral authority to decry Trump as a threat to press freedoms.
On May 3rd, Biden made a statement on World Press Freedom Day by again hijacking the Assange campaigns slogan by saying that “Journalism should not be a crime anywhere on Earth.”, and that “On World Press Freedom Day, the United States calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all journalists who have been put behind bars for simply doing their jobs.”[viii] The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a similar remark, saying “On World Press Freedom Day, we call on every nation to do more to protect journalists, and we reiterate our unwavering support for free and independent media around the world.”[ix] Biden and Blinken should be torn to pieces over making such hypocritical and two-faced statements. The Biden regime is simply better able to roleplay as defenders of liberty and truth in the global press freedom charade.
The US celebrates press freedoms but assaults these rights routinely, and the likes of the Pulitzer Prize are worthless tokens not of bravery or heroic journalism, but they are testaments to loyalty to the Washington consensus. Just look at the panel of judges at the Pulitzer Prize board in 2023, they are all establishment figures who either work at neoliberal press outlets or for elitist publishing houses. They include Carlos Lozada, David Remnick, Jelani Cobb, and Anne Applebaum, all proponents of Western exceptionalism and the narrative that Trump is an existential threat to all that is good in America and the entire Western world.[x] None of these louts write at all, let alone extensively, as they should if press freedoms and the significance of journalism are causes, they are truly passionate about, about Assange’s persecution. Rather than hold Assange in high regard, they smear him as a Kremlin agent, the equivalent of a Trump aide for his leak of Hillar Clinton’s emails in 2016 that apparently swung that election to Trump, and an egomaniac who seeks to bolster his own image, not to pursue noble causes like exposing the reality of the US empire and the permanent regime who runs it.
Gordon Kromberg, the assistant attorney working at the Eastern District of Virginia, where mostly all whistleblower cases are tried, who Chris Hedges referred to as Assange’s ‘Grand Inquisitor’, is a menace who acts as legal counsel to the permanent regime, ensuring that all who expose or embarrass them are swiftly prosecuted and thrown into federal prison.[xi] Just as he did in the case of Daniel Hale, Kromberg is working overtime to have Assange extradited and imprisoned not to exact justice, but to bolster his own career. As CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou notes, attorneys like Kromberg are first and foremost “government employees. They get promoted when they win convictions. They get promoted when they win long sentences. They don’t get ahead in their careers by not charging people with crimes. They don’t get ahead by not seeking draconian sentences.”[xii] In both Kiriakou’s and Hale’s cases, the prosecution argued that they leaked documents not because they opposed crimes being committed by the government, like drone killings and torture, but because they were self-aggrandizing and looking to move into consulting. Kiriakou, who, when told by Judge Leonie Brinkema that she felt he was seeking a wealthy job in consulting, simply rebutted by telling her to look in his empty bank account.[xiii] Federal prosecutors, working on behalf of the security state, do not seek justice, they seek retribution. Kromberg is the epitome of this.
Assange’s case being dragged out even longer will not relieve him of his torture, it will only extend it. As Hedges notes, “Prolonged imprisonment, which the granting of this appeal perpetuates, is the point.”, because “The goal is to destroy him.”[xiv] Perpetuating his slow death from overseas, ensuring that his extradition is not approved and happens during his reign is the best outcome for Biden. Although the Assange case does not spark the level of outrage that it should, especially among Western journalists who prattle on about the sanctity of a free and adversarial press, his extradition and imprisonment will be a horrible stain on Biden’s record. Though he and his regime have no intention of pardoning Assange, they must know how their persecution of him looks.
The more appeals Assange is granted, making his tortuous journey seemingly eternal, the more likely Biden will be able to pass off the inevitably gloomy conclusion to Assange’s trials and tribulations onto Trump, who, at the behest of avaricious, grotesque louts like Mike Pompeo, indicted Assange in 2019. Joe Lauria best captures the reality of Assange’s latest appeal and how it will benefit the Biden regime in the long term when he writes that “In that sense it was a bitter victory for Assange. He gets to stay in prison another year or more, Joe Biden doesn’t have to worry about a journalist showing up in chains in Alexandria, VA during a presidential campaign and of course Assange could lose his appeal and arrive in the U.S. at a more opportune time for Biden.”[xv] How spending more time in a high security prison, awaiting either more appeals or extradition, is an advantage for him or that it offers any sign of hope is preposterous. These endless appeals are a boon for Biden, not Assange.
That the mainstream press does not protest on Assange’s behalf at all is shameful, but that some in the alternative press cling to each appeal granted in Assange’s case as even a flicker of hope is disappointing, though it is understandable, as, especially for his family, even the slightest chance that Assange could be freed from his chains is bound to instill hope. However, it is obvious what these appeals benefit more.
Meanwhile, in Australia, a whistleblower who leaked documents exposing ADF war crimes in Afghanistan, David McBride, has been sentenced to five years and eight months in prison.[xvi] McBride leaked documents exposing war crimes committed by the Australian military in Afghanistan. In 2020, the Brereton Report, the result of the Brereton Inquiry, which was established to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Australian Special Forces in Afghanistan, found “credible information” that these allegations were true, though aside from terminating lower-level soldiers from the ADF, there has been little accountability for what is alleged in the Brereton Report.[xvii]
Given that Australia is a signatory to the Rome Statute, they are obligated to investigate and hold accountable any military officials who are accused of committing war crimes. Just as people like Kiriakou and Hale were indicted and imprisoned in America for exposing war crimes, instead of the perpetrators of the exposed war crimes being prosecuted, McBride is being punished for shedding light on the ADF’s war crimes, while the ADF is undergoing a slothful inquiry into the allegations illustrated by the Brereton Report. Australia differs from the US in that they are a signatory to the Rome Statute, however, war crimes should not be investigated and punished because the federal government signed a piece of paper many years ago, but to uphold its professed values of democracy and the rules-based order, which includes adherence to international law.
Just like these professed values are fraudulent, the Australian government, like other Western governments, betrays its rhetoric with its actions. Albanese is supposed to be a welcome break from his predecessor, akin to Biden in America, however, Albanese did not stop the trial of McBride, nor is it likely that he will pardon him or commute his sentence. If he is, as former Australian Senator Rex Patrick notes, ‘lily livered’ on the plight of McBride, then why would anyone expect a more hopeful outcome for Assange.[xviii] Speaking outside the ACT Supreme Court before the start of his trial, McBride loudly proclaimed, “Today I serve my country. And the question I have for you, Anthony Albanese is, ‘Who do you serve?’”[xix]
Albanese, like Barrack Obama, Tony Blair, and other faux liberal Western leaders eloquently employs the language of liberalism and democracy, but their actions contradict their ornate words. Albanese is a moral coward. He can evidently not be counted on to press for Assange’s freedom, as he failed to stop the trial and sentencing of McBride.
[i] Pilger, John. “Justice for Assange Is Justice for All.” Consortium News, January 24, 2024. https://consortiumnews.com/2024/01/24/john-pilger-justice-for-assange-is-justice-for-all/.
[ii] Kampmark, Binoy. “The Assange Case: A Flicker of Hope in the UK High Court.” CounterPunch.org, May 22, 2024. https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/05/22/the-assange-case-a-flicker-of-hope-in-the-uk-high-court/.
[iii] Dejevsky, Mary. “Julian Assange’s Fight for Freedom Is far from Over.” http://www.spiked-online.com, May 21, 2024. https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/05/21/julian-assanges-fight-for-freedom-is-far-from-over/?utm_source=Today+on+spiked&utm_campaign=7f9d2cc669-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_05_21_05_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-7f9d2cc669-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D#google_vignette.
[iv] Reporters Without Borders. “United States | RSF.” rsf.org, 2022. https://rsf.org/en/country/united-states.
[v] Committee to Protect Journalists. “‘Night and Day’: The Biden Administration and the Press.” Committee to Protect Journalists, January 13, 2022. https://cpj.org/reports/2022/01/night-and-day-the-biden-administration-and-the-press/.
[vi] Mastrangelo, Dominick. “Wallace Suggests She Might Not Be on the Air If Trump Wins.” The Hill. The Hill, April 30, 2024. https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4632201-nicole-wallace-donald-trump-msnbc-free-press-november-2024/., Haile, Nardos. “‘Yes, I’m Worried’: Rachel Maddow Thinks Trump’s ‘Massive Camps’ May Not Just Be for Migrants.” Salon, June 11, 2024. https://www.salon.com/2024/06/11/yes-im-worried-rachel-maddow-thinks-massive-camps-may-not-just-be-for-migrants/., and for more on the dire threat that Trump allegedly presents to the American press corps, see this article by Brian Karem at Salon: “Trump Wants to Jail Reporters.” Salon, February 24, 2024. https://www.salon.com/2024/02/24/joe-biden-gives-the-media-a-desperately-needed-lesson-about-donald/.
[vii] Darcy, Oliver. “Trump and His Allies Are Threatening Retribution against the Press. Their Menacing Words Should Not Be Ignored | CNN Business.” CNN, December 7, 2023. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/07/media/trump-threatens-retribution-against-press/index.html.
[viii] The White House. “Statement by President Joe Biden on the Occasion of World Press Freedom Day 2024.” The White House, May 3, 2024. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/05/03/statement-by-president-joe-biden-on-the-occasion-of-world-press-freedom-day-2024/.
[ix] The US State Department. “World Press Freedom Day.” United States Department of State, May 3, 2024. https://www.state.gov/world-press-freedom-day-3/.
[x] The Pulitzer Prizes. “Pulitzer Prize Board 2023-2024.” The Pulitzer Prizes, 2024. https://www.pulitzer.org/board/2024.
[xi] Hedges, Chris. “Julian Assange’s Grand Inquisitor.” ScheerPost, February 22, 2024. https://scheerpost.com/2024/02/22/chris-hedges-julian-assanges-grand-inquisitor/.
[xii] Kiriakou, John. “Prosecutors.” Consortium News, August 9, 2021. https://consortiumnews.com/2021/08/09/john-kiriakou-prosecutors/.
[xiii] Kiriakou. “Prosecutors.”
[xiv] Hedges. “The Slow-Motion Execution of Julian Assange Continues.” ScheerPost, May 21, 2024. https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/21/chris-hedges-the-slow-motion-execution-of-julian-assange-continues/.
[xv] Lauria, Joe. “Assange Wins Right to Appeal on 1st Amendment Issue.” Consortium News, May 20, 2024. https://consortiumnews.com/2024/05/20/assange-wins-right-to-appeal-on-1a-issue/.
[xvi] International Federation of Journalists. “Australia: Whistleblower Jailed for Nearly Six Years for Media Leaks / IFJ.” http://www.ifj.org, May 16, 2024. https://www.ifj.org/media-centre/news/detail/category/press-releases/article/australia-whistleblower-jailed-for-nearly-six-years-for-media-leaks.
[xvii] Torrens, Dr. Shannon. “War Crimes in Afghanistan: The Brereton Report and the Office of the Special Investigator.” http://www.aph.gov.au, 2020. https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BriefingBook47p/BreretonReport.
[xviii] Patrick, Rex. “‘So… Un-Labor’: Albanese Lily-Livered as Whistleblowers Head for Extradition or Jail.” Crikey, February 20, 2024. https://www.crikey.com.au/2024/02/20/rex-patrick-julian-assange-david-mcbride-whistleblowers/.
[xix] Jiggens, John. “Who Do You Serve? The Non-Trial of David McBride.” Pearls and Irritations, November 20, 2023. https://johnmenadue.com/who-do-you-serve-the-non-trial-of-david-mcbride/.
References
Committee to Protect Journalists. “‘Night and Day’: The Biden Administration and the Press.” Committee to Protect Journalists, January 13, 2022. https://cpj.org/reports/2022/01/night-and-day-the-biden-administration-and-the-press/.
Darcy, Oliver. “Trump and His Allies Are Threatening Retribution against the Press. Their Menacing Words Should Not Be Ignored | CNN Business.” CNN, December 7, 2023. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/07/media/trump-threatens-retribution-against-press/index.html.
Dejevsky, Mary. “Julian Assange’s Fight for Freedom Is far from Over.” http://www.spiked-online.com, May 21, 2024. https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/05/21/julian-assanges-fight-for-freedom-is-far-from-over/?utm_source=Today+on+spiked&utm_campaign=7f9d2cc669-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_05_21_05_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-7f9d2cc669-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D#google_vignette.
Haile, Nardos. “‘Yes, I’m Worried’: Rachel Maddow Thinks Trump’s ‘Massive Camps’ May Not Just Be for Migrants.” Salon, June 11, 2024. https://www.salon.com/2024/06/11/yes-im-worried-rachel-maddow-thinks-massive-camps-may-not-just-be-for-migrants/.
Hedges, Chris. “Julian Assange’s Grand Inquisitor.” ScheerPost, February 22, 2024. https://scheerpost.com/2024/02/22/chris-hedges-julian-assanges-grand-inquisitor/.
———. “The Slow-Motion Execution of Julian Assange Continues.” ScheerPost, May 21, 2024. https://scheerpost.com/2024/05/21/chris-hedges-the-slow-motion-execution-of-julian-assange-continues/.
International Federation of Journalists. “Australia: Whistleblower Jailed for Nearly Six Years for Media Leaks / IFJ.” http://www.ifj.org, May 16, 2024. https://www.ifj.org/media-centre/news/detail/category/press-releases/article/australia-whistleblower-jailed-for-nearly-six-years-for-media-leaks.
Jiggens, John. “Who Do You Serve? The Non-Trial of David McBride.” Pearls and Irritations, November 20, 2023. https://johnmenadue.com/who-do-you-serve-the-non-trial-of-david-mcbride/.
Kampmark, Binoy. “The Assange Case: A Flicker of Hope in the UK High Court.” CounterPunch.org, May 22, 2024. https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/05/22/the-assange-case-a-flicker-of-hope-in-the-uk-high-court/.
Karem, Brian. “Trump Wants to Jail Reporters.” Salon, February 24, 2024. https://www.salon.com/2024/02/24/joe-biden-gives-the-media-a-desperately-needed-lesson-about-donald/.
Kiriakou, John. “Prosecutors.” Consortium News, August 9, 2021. https://consortiumnews.com/2021/08/09/john-kiriakou-prosecutors/.
Lauria, Joe. “Assange Wins Right to Appeal on 1st Amendment Issue.” Consortium News, May 20, 2024. https://consortiumnews.com/2024/05/20/assange-wins-right-to-appeal-on-1a-issue/.
Mastrangelo, Dominick. “Wallace Suggests She Might Not Be on the Air If Trump Wins.” The Hill. The Hill, April 30, 2024. https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4632201-nicole-wallace-donald-trump-msnbc-free-press-november-2024/.
Patrick, Rex. “‘So… Un-Labor’: Albanese Lily-Livered as Whistleblowers Head for Extradition or Jail.” Crikey, February 20, 2024. https://www.crikey.com.au/2024/02/20/rex-patrick-julian-assange-david-mcbride-whistleblowers/.
Pilger, John. “Justice for Assange Is Justice for All.” Consortium News, January 24, 2024. https://consortiumnews.com/2024/01/24/john-pilger-justice-for-assange-is-justice-for-all/.
Reporters Without Borders. “United States | RSF.” rsf.org, 2022. https://rsf.org/en/country/united-states.
The Pulitzer Prizes. “Pulitzer Prize Board 2023-2024.” The Pulitzer Prizes, 2024. https://www.pulitzer.org/board/2024.
The US State Department. “World Press Freedom Day.” United States Department of State, May 3, 2024. https://www.state.gov/world-press-freedom-day-3/.
The White House. “Statement by President Joe Biden on the Occasion of World Press Freedom Day 2024.” The White House, May 3, 2024. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/05/03/statement-by-president-joe-biden-on-the-occasion-of-world-press-freedom-day-2024/.
Torrens, Dr. Shannon. “War Crimes in Afghanistan: The Brereton Report and the Office of the Special Investigator.” http://www.aph.gov.au, 2020. https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BriefingBook47p/BreretonReport.
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