Most people would have forgotten who Julian Assange is. He was the gentleman who founded WikiLeaks and who now sits in prison – a political prisoner, being held at Our Majesty’s pleasure on behalf of an embarrassed foreign sovereign.
He came to wide international attention in 2010 when WikiLeaks published a string of leaks from US Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning – footage of a US airstrike in Baghdad, US military logs from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, and US diplomatic cables.
A diplomatic cable, also known as a diplomatic telegram (DipTel) or embassy cable, is a confidential text-based message exchange between a diplomatic mission, like an embassy or a consulate, and the foreign ministry of its parent country. A diplomatic cable is a type of dispatch. Other dispatches may be sent as a physical document in a diplomatic bag.
Julian Assange was raised in several towns in Australia until his family settled in Melbourne in his mid-teens. He became involved in the hacker community and was convicted of hacking in 1996.
Following the establishment of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange was its editor when it published the Bank Julius Baer documents, footage of the 2008 Tibetan unrest, and a report on political killings in Kenya with The Sunday Times.
In November 2020, Sweden issued a European arrest warrant for Julian Assange, for questioning in a Swedish investigation. After losing his appeal against the warrant, he breached bail and took sanctuary in the Embassy of Ecuador in London in June 2012.
He was granted asylum by Ecuador in August 2012 on the grounds of political persecution and fears he might be deported to the United States. He stood for the Australian Senate in 2013 and launched the WikiLeaks Party but failed to win a seat. Swedish prosecutors dropped the investigation in 2019.
On 11 April 2019, Julian Assange’s asylum was withdrawn following a series of disputes with Ecuadorian authorities. The police were invited into the embassy and he was arrested. He was found guilty of breaching the Bail Act and condemned to 50 weeks in jail.
The US government unsealed an indictment charging Julian Assange with conspiracy to commit computer intrusion related to the leaks provided by Chelsea Manning. In May 2019 and June 2020, the US government unsealed new indictments against Julian Assange, charging him with violating the Espionage Act of 1917 and alleging he had conspired with hackers.
Julian Assange has been detained in HM Prison Belmarsh in London since April 2019, as the United States government’s extradition effort is contested in the British courts.
The mother of Julian Assange has since spoken of the unending, gut-wrenching pain she’s been suffering. She also said that the WikiLeaks founder was being cruelly psychologically tortured by the authorities and said that she feared he would be imprisoned for the rest of his life.
Julian Assange, 52, is wanted in America over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information following WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars in 2010 and 2011.
Julian Assange might be in prison, but shouldn’t we the public keep raising our voices to our politicians till it’s all they can hear? After all, Julian’s life is in their hands.
Julian Assange’s fiancee accused the UK authorities of playing the role of executioner after he suffered a mini-stroke in jail.
Stella Moris, 38, said he was left with a drooping right eyelid, memory problems and indications of neurological impairment after the stroke.
She said that his confinement was having a disastrous effect on his health.
If the Americans get hold of him he will never feel fresh air on his face again. To sum it up we live in a Western unlawful cruel regime which outlaws press freedom and human rights, and this is what happens when people go up against the elite and expose the truth. We now live in a future where people will be imprisoned for speaking up or standing up – isn’t it a wonderful world we now live in, NOT!
Regardless of whether you like Julian Assange or not, or his methods, we have to stand up for what we believe in, otherwise, it’s 1984, full stop!
It’s about time that the US took some responsibility for their own actions instead of persecuting others for telling us about it. I mean, what other atrocities have they kept concealed from us? I bet there’s an abundance of them.
I’m sure that there will be plenty of extremely patriotic people out there saying that Julian had what was coming for him, but what did he really do wrong? I personally believe he didn’t do anything wrong, but he’s still being politically persecuted for exposing the crimes of the political elite.
The man didn’t kill anyone for goodness sake, he just exposed the illegal horrors perpetrated by the US federal government and others.
Does this also mean that anyone who exposes the barbaric behaviour of the so-called Western democracy should be banged up for life? It’s all about telling the truth to the people, but instead, they all sit on their hiney behind closed doors devising their next adventure on human life, and why shoot the messenger while all those real traitors roam free?
However, there are fools out there calling for him to be locked up indefinitely or sent to the US. Julian Assange was just a person who demonstrated crimes by the government – the sheep should go back to sleep or watch Love Island instead, but let’s face it, British politicians have always bent over for the US – there must be a few sore arses out there!
Free the guy now. It’s old news and what do they say ‘The truth will set you free!’.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 