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First They Came For Assange…

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Amy Goodman of Democracy Now hosted “First They Came For Assange…”, on Wednesday at Thoughtworks NYC, one of the many events around the globe signifying the 4 years Julian Assange has been in political asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and the ongoing violations of his basic human rights.Speakers will include, Pulitzer Prize winning author and journalist Chris Hedges; Julian Assange’s US defense lawyer Carey Shenkman; acclaimed civil rights attorney Margaret Ratner; founding editor of The Intercept, Jeremy Scahill; and live from London via videoconference, Julian Assange himself.

It was a Global event that included special productions in 8 European cities (Berlin, Brussels, Belgrade, Naples, Madrid, Paris + Milano Fashion Show / Vivienne Westwood / and Sarajevo / live-stream) as part of “Assange week” that also took place in New York, Quito (Ecuador), Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Montevideo (Uruguay).

The event also focused on the threats whistleblowers face around the world, and the significance of real investigative journalism and transparency in today’s world of mass surveillance, hidden agendas and covert wars. The ongoing struggle to protect journalists, whistleblowers and others, who courageously expose the truths essential to ensuring strong and durable democratic societies, has become a forefront of the international human rights movement and the global fight for peace and justice.

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An important video message from Michael Moore outside the Ecuadorian Embassy where he met with Julian Assange saying, “This is wrong, The United States should stop this”. Michael Moore directed his words at President Obama directly asking, “If you see this, Come on. Whatever may have upset our National security agency, the greater good that this man did and Chelsea Manning did for us, far supersedes anything else here”.

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Amy Goodman commenced the event at Thoughtworks NYC of a room of a couple of hundred with standing room in the back said of Julian Assange that he fears that if he steps foot outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London he will be extradited to the U.S. “where he could face years, perhaps life in prison”.

Amy referred to a video clip that was played of media and politicians calling for harsh treatment of Julian Assange some even calling for the death penalty.

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Amy Goodman introduced The Ecuadorian Ambassador to the UN, Horacio Sevilla, who stood from the front row and waved to the room, who was in attendance.

Amy spoke about a time when she met with Assange at the Embassy after Hillary Clinton had just done an interview with the Guardian telling Edward Snowden and Julian Assange to “Man Up”. With the focus being on Snowden saying he could come back and go through the proper channels and launch a public, legal defense. Amy also spoke about Chelsea Manning who is currently serving a 35 year sentence for exposing human rights violations of the Military in Iraq. Serving time in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Manning has been able to receive hormone treatments while facing other restrictions around gender expression.

From the Chelsea Manning bio, In 2009, Manning was stationed at Forward Operating Base Hammer in Iraq, an isolated site near the Iranian border. Her duties as an intelligence analyst there gave her access to a great deal of classified information. Some of this information—including videos that showed unarmed civilians being shot at and killed—horrified Manning.

Manning reportedly made her first contact with Julian Assange‘s WikiLeaks in November 2009 after having made attempts to contact The New York Times and The Washington Post.

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Julian Assange’s US defense lawyer Carey Shenkman read an Iwewe quote Iwewe, “A society that has no ideals, that discards principles of humanitarianism, that abandons the fundamental rights and dignity of humanity, can only survive by denying truth, fairness and justice.” Iwewe wrote that to mark the 1 year anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake in China in 2008 which had a lot of “cover up and corruption”, Carey said. Iwewe wanted citizens to be “obsessed with the truth as the only way to uncover truth and cover ups”. “WHAT IS HAPPENING TO JULIAN IS QUITE UNPRECEDENTED IN ITS SCALE AND NATURE”. “The U.S. Gov which prides itself on the First Amendment and the Constitution is attempting to mount a criminal case to criminally prosecute a publisher for publishing truthful information.” “IMAGINE WHAT THAT IMPLICATION MEANS FOR JOURNALISTS, FOR TRUTH TELLERS ALL AROUND THE WORLD?”
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Margaret Ratner Kunstler told the crowd that their support is “critically important for Julian Assange, the Wikileaks staff and Sarah Harrison and all those who’s lives are on the line”. YOUR SUPPORT FOR JULIAN MEANS YOU SUPPORT WHAT HE STANDS FOR. This is a Scare process. All of this is very dangerous and we Must support Julian”.
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Jeremy Scahill began by talking about what Edward Snowden wrote in his book, Assassination Complex about releasing Government documents “if you are not doing in the service of the state”. Jeremy said Snowden draws a distinction between leakers and whistleblowers. Jeremy mentioned Thomas Drake and William Binney who worked in the National Security state and wasn’t a “flaming Leftist” and spoke out when they started seeing the Constitution being violated or “represented abuses of power”. He went on to say that Bill Binney and Tom Drake are free today, or “so-called free today because they’re not in jail. But, they were retaliated against, targeted, punished, and in the case of Drake, threatened with prosecution under the Espionage Act. The National Security state turned on him for speaking out about their crimes and their abuses “, which is why Tom Drake is working at the Apple store in VA. “THE UNITED STATES HAS NEVER WELCOMED INTERNAL DISSENT AND HAS ALWAYS RESPONDED WITH FORCE”, when people within the NSA who tried to blow the whistle through the chain of command. “THEY WERE MET WITH PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL RETALIATION”. “THEY NEVER SEEM TO STOP ANYBODY ON THE WATCH LIST”, Said Scahill then referred to the recent Orlando Shooter as supposedly being on the watch list as well as Nelson Mandela. Julian Assange is punished not for stealing classified documents, not for obtaining them through a security clearance but, for publishing these documents on Wikileaks.
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“WE HAVE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT WE NO LONGER LIVE IN A FUNCTIONING DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM”. Hedges referred to Sheldon Wolin, one of the most important contemporary political theorist who died Oct. 21, 2015 at the age of 93 who called what we are currently living under “Inverted Totalitarianism”. Wolin wrote Democracy Incorporated in which Hedges urged everyone in the room to read. Wolin was blacklisted in the 90’s when he called out Neo Liberalism for the lie that it was. Through the anonymity of the Corporate state which claims to purports to abide by the Constitution while internally ceasing all levels of power leaving the average citizen impotent. “THE ATTACK OF JULIAN ASSANGE, THE ATTACK OF CHELSEA MANNING AND EDWARD SNOWDEN AND JEREMY HAMMOND AND EXPOSE THE CRIMINAL ACTIVITY OF THOSE WHO GOVERN THIS COUNTRY”. Unless we resist, Hedges went on to describe it saying, SUSTAINED ACTS OF MASS CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE”. Hedges praised Snowden for his courage in exposing the fact that everyone in the U.S. is surveilled and monitored 24 hours a day “and all our information is stored in perpetuity in Government computers”. “THAT IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN A MASTER AND A SLAVE”. “WE HAVE NO TIME LEFT TO FOOL AROUND”.
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Amy Goodman asks Julian Assange after the crowd gives him a round of applause, what it feels like to be reaching the start of his 5th year in “captivity” in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he hasn’t stepped one foot outside? Assange said it was “4 years in the Embassy but 5.5 years without charge in the United Kingdom”. Assange said there were “some consolations to being an accused person, some consolations of being detained unlawfully at the UN. It gives you a kind of power to see into the souls of other people. The people who are accused in a very severe manner and there’s no more sever accusation than to be accused by a super power, themselves develop a kind of superpower”. The propaganda pushes away the false friends, he said. For more see the video of the event at my Youtube channel April Watters.
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“The head of German Intelligence recently made scurrilous allegations about Edward Snowden saying he actually is an FSB asset, ‘Without any evidence’- Assange interjected, without any evidence whatsoever”. – Jeremy Scahill Scahill and Assange discuss Laura Poitras’ film RISK and in it Assange gets on the phone with one of Hillary Clinton’s legal advisors letting him know that Assange wanted to get the info that is in the public interest out responsibly and if he didn’t take it seriously it would be painful for them. “IT SHOWED THE INCOMPETENCE OF THE ULTRA POWERFUL”. Scahill asked Assange to comment on the fact that Hillary Clinton was the Secretary of State when that went on. Assange said Hillary Clinton was, “extremely ambitious, Liberal interventionist hawk”.
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Julian Assange of Wikileaks starting his 5th year in asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
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Applause from the panel for Julian Assange as the event winds down to his final comments.
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Julian Assange’s final comments; “They tried to find Weapons of Mass Destruction. They tried to find any excuse where they could find that a single person had come to physical harm as a result of our exposure. No, No one.” “WE’RE HAPPY TO ACCEPT THAT WE WILL PUBLISH WHERE OTHERS WILL NOT, as far as mainstream press outlets because we perceive those outlets to be completely beyond the pale. THEY DESTROY HISTORY. THEY PRIVATIZE IT. HISTORY DOES NOT BELONG TO AN INSTITUTION. HISTORY DOES NOT BELONG TO JOURNALISTS. HISTORY DOES NOT BELONG TO A MEDIA ORGANIZATION. HISTORY BELONGS TO HUMAN CIVILIZATION to understand in order to better itself. HISTORY DOESN’T EVEN BELONG TO WHISTLEBLOWERS. They can be an important part of bringing history to civilization”.

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