Let's Declare June 24 Julian Assange Day

A Bittersweet Plea Deal with Major Ramifications, but We Must Remember the Whole History

What must we remember on Julian Assange day?

We must remember the sight of Julian Assange boarding a plane on June 24, to return to his home of Australia after being persecuted for 14 years.

We must remember that nine of those 14 years were spent holed up in the Ecuadoran embassy to avoid being arrested on trumped up charges which ended up being dropped. He could not step out of the embassy, or he would have been arrested immediately. The whole area around the embassy was under 24/7 surveillance, waiting for him to make a wrong move.

We must remember that it was Trump who indicted Assange, after making a campaign promise to pardon him.

We must remember he spent the last five year in a maximum-security prison. The conditions of these prisons are depraved and are usually reserved for the worst of the worst offenders. Doctors who saw him said that he was getting frailer and weaker. What crime was he officially being held for? Bail jumping.

We must remember that it was Assange that told us that Saudi Arabia was arming militants; that the Democrats had sandbagged Bernie Sanders; that the Democrats used words like “tacos” in their emails to describe Mexicans; that the US had committed astonishing war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan; how inhumanly the prisoners were treated in Guantanamo.

We must remember that Assange is fearless and adversarial and willing to risk his life for the truth. He may be the greatest journalist since George Orwell. Nobody has ever reported as many war crimes and human rights violations as Assange. In today’s mainstream media, where journalists take dictation from the government, Assange is filet mignon in a sea of McDonald’s. He was willing to challenge the empire and report its many misdeeds. Assange did the work that US journalists are supposed to be doing.

We must remember that Assange could never have faced a trial because he would further spill the beans on the war crimes he revealed. Can you imagine him testifying? This is what saved him from life imprisonment.

We must remember that Assange was freed, but the case was not dismissed. He pleaded guilty to one count of the Espionage Act for publishing leaked materials. He gets to return home a free man, but this sent shockwaves through the world of journalism. In a field where leaks are often how journalists get information, journalists could face criminal charges for leaking a document that elites find threatening. The intelligence agencies views Assange’s plea as powerful precedent that can be used as a deterrent against future leaks, or in worst case, to prosecute journalists. Prosecuting a journalist for a leak would be a miscarriage of justice. A leak does not imply espionage.

After all, it was a leak in 1971 that told Americans the truth about how badly the Vietnam war was going, via the Pentagon Papers. It was Edward Snowden who leaked about the US domestic surveillance program that proved that the government is indeed spying on its own citizens. These are things that Americans deserve to know. Whatever criticism that can be leveraged against the founding fathers, they understood that the only way to hold the government accountable for their actions is a free and adversarial media. Today’s mainstream media has not met this standard, which is why it’s worthless.

We must remember how the mainstream media tried to trivialize his work and at the same time demonize Assange by concocting narratives that he had put the US and others at risk with his reporting. No specifics were ever given for these accusations. Nobody in the mainstream media was even pressed to give details of these assertions.

We must remember that the NY Times staff eventually came to their senses and realized that prosecuting a journalist is a danger to the United States:

This indictment sets a dangerous precedent and threatens to undermine America’s First Amendment and the freedom of the press.

Holding governments accountable is part of the core mission of a free press in a democracy.

Obtaining and disclosing sensitive information when necessary, in the public interest is a core part of the daily work of journalists.  If that work is criminalised, our public discourse and our democracies are made significantly weaker.

Twelve years after the publication of “Cable gate”, it is time for the U.S. government to end its prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing secrets.

Publishing is not a crime.

We must be grateful that his enemies did not get their way by putting him in jail for life. Assange will be heard from again.

We must be grateful for what the world knows about war crimes because of Julian Assange. Who could blame him if he decides to hang it up and stop publishing? Even if he never publishes a single article again, and even if he stays out of the public eye, the world is a better place because of him.

I make a motion that all of us put June 24th in our calendars and never forget the great work Julian did, and how wretchedly he was treated.