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Friends,
Julian Assange, the world’s most prominent political prisoner, is still fighting for his life. And it’s our collective freedom that hangs on his fate.
This morning, the high court in the U.K., where Assange has been incarcerated for 12 years, issued a new order related to his pending extradition to the U.S.
Julian was granted the right to a new trial IF and only if the U.S. government cannot give so-called “satisfactory assurances” about how his case will be handled.
This court had the opportunity to do the right thing and set Julian free, denying his extradition on the grounds that the U.S. has repeatedly refused to rule out a death penalty conviction for his case. They could have tossed this case as a blatant assault on press freedom.
But they didn’t.
If the Biden DOJ gives “satisfactory assurances” that Assange won’t be put to death, the extradition will go forward. Then he will face a 175 year sentence in a federal supermax prison – where he will be subjected to torture and the inhumane conditions of American prisons condemned by every major human rights organization on the planet.
And for what?
Because he told us the truth.
I’m a lifelong anti-war activist. I was NOT shocked to learn that my government had committed war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. The entire invasion of Iraq was illegal – and for years we’d seen evidence of prisoner abuse, torture, and widespread reporting of indiscriminate killing, rape, and abuse of Iraqis by U.S. and coalition forces.
But when Wikileaks and Chelsea Manning released the largest dump of classified materials in history, I was shocked by the sheer magnitude of those crimes.
How could anyone watch the video of American soldiers casually gunning down over a dozen civilians – including two Reuters journalists and two children – and demand anything less than total transparency and justice?
I had the same, sickened feeling of rage last week watching footage from an Israeli drone executing four clearly unarmed young Palestinian men in Gaza.
Those young men were murdered for trying to reach their homes, which had been destroyed in another Israeli airstrike, to salvage anything they could.
Julian Assange has been imprisoned for over a decade and still faces charges in the U.S. for telling the world the truth about crimes exactly like this one.
The charges against Assange not only threaten press freedom everywhere, they give license to tyrants like Netanyahu and his cabinet of thugs to brag about their war crimes on cable news and social media – and never fear justice.
It’s time to turn the tables. Assange must be set free and the politicians he has exposed must be investigated for war crimes.
I’m running for Congress to sound the alarm on American war crimes from the heart of the halls of power, and to work for justice and accountability in every part of our government.
I’m running as a member of the Green Party because, after 30 years of organizing against war and corporate corruption within the Democratic Party, it is abundantly clear to me that both parties are complicit in the crimes that Assange exposed.
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When elected, I will immediately support legislation that forces the D.O.J. to drop all charges against Assange, and I will work to overhaul the Espionage Act so that it can never again be used to target journalists, whistleblowers, or anyone the government simply wants to silence.
Please go to AssangeDefense.org today to learn how you can take action to secure his release and stand up for press freedom.
His freedom is our freedom. It’s time for Julian to come home.
In solidarity,
Jason |
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