Exposing ‘collateral murder’ and mass surveillance: Why the world should be grateful to Assange

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Julian Assange is a pioneering whistleblower in the digital-age, speaking truth to power like no one before him managed on such a significant scale. As he sits in a London jail cell, here’s why we should be grateful for his work.

By setting up the international non-profit organization WikiLeaks in Iceland in 2006, Assange irrevocably shifted the balance of power in the online era.

From humble beginnings as a master coder and hacker, caught by Australian authorities in 1995 but escaping a prison term, to the foremost publisher of sensitive, embarrassing and potentially dangerous material for the world to see, Assange’s storied career as a publisher and whistleblower has captured headlines, and the global public’s attention for years.

RT takes a look back at the key moments in Assange’s career that remind us why the world owes him such a debt of gratitude.

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The early years

In 2007, WikiLeaks published emails exposing the manuals for Camp Delta, a controversial US detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba which was the focal point for the US war on terror and the final destination for those captured as part of its extraordinary rendition campaign.

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The following year the whistleblowing site posted emails from vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s private Yahoo email account, again exposing the newfound weakness of the political class in the digital age.

‘Collateral murder’

In a move that would reverberate online and across the world for years, in April 2010 WikiLeaks published footage of US forces summarily executing 18 civilians from an Apache attack helicopter in Iraq. It was an almost unheard of revelation of the brutality of war and the low price of human life in modern conflict.

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Diplomatic cables

2010 was a very busy year for Assange as in July WikiLeaks published more than 90,000 classified documents and diplomatic cables relating to the Afghanistan war.

Later, in October 2010, the organization published a raft of classified documents from the Iraq War. The logs were referred to as “the largest leak of classified documents in its history” by the US Department of Defense, according to the BBC. WikiLeaks followed that up in November by publishing diplomatic cables from US embassies around the world.

The Guantánamo Files and Spy Files

In April 2011, WikiLeaks published classified US military documents detailing the behavior and treatment of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. This leak would be followed, once again, by a vast trove (250 million) of US diplomatic cables.

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Throughout this sequence of widely-praised leaks, Assange invited a global audience behind the curtain of international diplomacy and warfare to expose the hidden truths of global power dynamics in a way which would forever change the power structure and landscape, affording a platform to analysts like Chelsea Manning to expose potential war crimes and misdeeds by the US military at large.

Assange and WikiLeaks would also help fellow whistleblowers like Edward Snowden to seek refuge from predatory US authorities, providing aid and comfort to those who risked everything in the pursuit of truth, exposing some of the most egregious mass surveillance programs the world has ever known.

DNC leak

As the 2016 US presidential election loomed, WikiLeaks published nearly 20,000 emails from the Democratic National Committee, which exposed the preferential treatment shown to then-candidate for president Hillary Clinton over her competitor Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary. Assange boldly informed CNN’s Anderson Cooper that the release was indeed timed to coincide with the Democratic National Convention.

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In October that same year, WikiLeaks began publishing emails from Clinton’s campaign manager John Podesta, which shed light on the inner workings of the Democratic nominee’s political machine.

These included excerpts from Clinton’s speeches to Wall Street, politically-motivated payments made to the Clinton Foundation, her consideration of choosing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates or his wife as a potential running mate, her desire to covertly intervene in Syria, her intention to ring-fence China with missile defense batteries if it did not curtail North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

Legacy

Following his arrest on the morning of April 11, 2019, Assange’s future remains unclear. He likely faces extradition to the US where it was inadvertently revealed that he has been charged under seal in a US federal court. Former Assange collaborator Chelsea Manning has been imprisoned for refusing to cooperate with the court in relation to the case.

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Assange’s legal battle is only just beginning, it seems, but the international following he has forged will undoubtedly grant him a place in the pantheon of history’s champions of truth.

He remains a true digital pioneer, paving the way for so many to follow in his footsteps and expose the untold misdeeds of the powerful, be they political figures or entire militaries. Assange has defiantly shown what a powerful tool digital technology can be and how easily the dynamics of power can be shifted in the 21st century by those brave enough. Unfortunately, he also showed the consequences of wielding such power in the face of such overwhelming international and political opposition.

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April 11, 2019 0

FLASHBACK: BERNIE SANDERS CALLS FOOD LINES A “GOOD THING”

Flashback: Bernie Sanders Calls Food Lines a âGood Thingâ

Socialist candidate praises food rationing

Ben Warren | Infowars.com – FEBRUARY 19, 2019

**Footage of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) calling food lines a “good thing” has resurfaced after he announced his run for president in 2020.**

The footage allegedly takes place in the 1980s and shows Sanders answering a question about bread lines in Nicaragua due to the food shortages triggered by a local socialist party called Sandinistas.

“You know, it’s funny. Sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is when people are lining up for food,” he said. “That’s a good thing.”

“In other countries, people don’t line up for food. The rich get the food and the poor starve to death.”

The resurfaced footage of Sanders praising an iconic symptom of a failed state comes on the heels of President Trump pinning Venezuela’s collapse to its socialist policies.

“…But the American people will reject an agenda of sky-high rates, government-run health care and coddling dictators like those in Venezuela,” reads a Trump statement. “Only President Trump will keep America free, prosperous and safe.”

Interestingly, Sanders likend his 2020 campaign to a revolution in an email he sent to his supporters that also also called Trump the most dangerous president in modern American history.

“Together, you and I and our 2016 campaign began the political revolution,” said Sanders. “Now, it is time to complete that revolution and implement the vision that we fought for.”

February 20, 2019 0

Migrants Report Cash Transactions Between Mexican Officials to Allow Them Access to US Border

By Randy DeSoto

A number of migrants are alleging that Mexican officials at the U.S. border are charging substantial sums of money to gain access to make asylum claims in the U.S.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Mexicans are overseeing a list, which they are using to decide who is allowed to cross two bridges over the Rio Grande into Brownsville, Texas from Matamoras, Mexico.

Cuban asylum seeker Elvis Gonzalez Rodriguez, 23, said that when he arrived at one of the bridges over the Rio Grande last week, a uniformed Mexican immigration official demanded he pay $1,000 to cross. When Rodriguez refused, the official made him leave.

“There’s a lot of corruption here,” Rodriguez, an electrician from Havana said. “It’s the responsibility of Mexican officials to protect immigrants. I want to come the correct, legal way.”

He wants U.S. officials to help asylum seekers and investigate what’s happening on the bridges.

“They need to help us,” he said. “They need to know about the corruption, how it’s a business to pass here.”

The Times reported that another Cuban asylum seeker said a uniformed Mexican immigration official “demanded $500 to get her across the old bridge after she arrived at Matamoros airport in mid-October.”

She told the paper that other Cubans seeking asylum called her cellphone after crossing the bridge into the U.S. saying the Mexican officials made them pay between $100 and $300 to move to the front of the line.

“They are. I know that’s a fact,” said Michael Seifert, an ACLU border advocacy strategist in Brownsville. “It’s only gotten worse. It’s gotten more expensive. The Cubans are targeted because they have money.”

Seifert said that African immigrants are forced to wait weeks because “they don’t speak enough Spanish to understand the bribe.”

Asylum seekers from Cameroon reported being falsely told by Mexican officials in Matamoros that the U.S. was not accepting more Africans.

Michael Randy, 30, who is from Cameroon, said he was able to speak with U.S. customs officers at the bridge, who assured him the claim was false.

Randy told The Times he fled Cameroon after police shot his younger brother and raped his wife in front of him and burned down the home they shared with their 2- and 3-year-old daughters. He recounted that he was imprisoned and tortured for 77 days.

“It’s not fair,” Randy said of how Mexico is handling the border crossings. “I could stay for a month — there’s no certain time.”

Christina Patiño Houle of the nonprofit Rio Grande Valley Equal Voice Network said the situation needs to be addressed.

“These are incredibly dangerous areas where these individuals are waiting for days and weeks to enter the bridge. We sometimes have pregnant women, women with toddlers, who are sent back into territories that are managed openly by cartels,” she said.

The Times reached out to Customs and Border Protection regarding claims of Mexican officials charging asylum seekers to cross bridges into the U.S. and was told the matter should be taken up with Mexico.

“Mexico is a sovereign nation, and our authorities do not cross international boundaries,” the agency said in a statement. “Actions of Mexican officials, or people in Mexico, should be addressed to the government of Mexico including any actions taken on the Mexican side of bridges and in the border cities of Mexico.”

The CBP said that asylum seekers are “processed on a first-come, first-serve basis.”

CBP told the Times it “does take into consideration persons with medical emergencies, unaccompanied alien children, the disabled, and gives priority as we can, bearing in mind the day-to-day availability of resources, case complexity, holding space, port volume and enforcement actions.”

November 29, 2018 0

SOCIALISM . . .

THIS IS ACCURATE!

November 23, 2018 0