42 Comments

Julian's situation pains me. I'm regularly disturbed. And, rightly or wrongly, I've tied his future to mine, hell, everyone's. I'm immensely fucked off that the masses of our so called fellow human beings have done what they always do in response to villains dragging out proceedings - they lose interest. That the longer one's suffering is inversely proportional to caring explains why we are unable to plan our long-term future, and thus focus on distractions such as stupid debt, stupid football and fucking useless celebrity politicians.

Expand full comment

Let my emotions not overtake my civility i.e., thanks for the great article!

Expand full comment

I know exactly how you feel, and in addition I try to continually fight off a creeping sense of futility. If a certain necessary percentage of those "so called fellow human beings" don't somehow find it in themselves to wake up and start thinking about something besides the next "aperitivo" in their favourite café, we're all fucked. Given the general population response (near-total acceptance of what they are told on the mainstream network news) to covid and the famous gene-therapy, the complete wickedness of the Israelis in Palestine and the total lack of interest in what really is behind the war in Ukraine, it will be a miracle if the Assange story ends happily. I will never forgive or forget Trump for being too cowardly to pardon him when he had the opportunity.

Expand full comment

Yes, it's a brain survival challenge e.g., how much of our lives should we fight... all of it?

I never saw Trump as anything but establishment ego and the perfect example of American fake celebrity, a Kardashian for the White House and his mirror. However, I promised myself that if he pardoned Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, I would think of him after he was dead.

Expand full comment

Excellent article - absolutely horrific what is happening. What's more horrific is that it lies in the hands of a single judge - literally depends on their genuine integrity and courage to stand up to the map fascist British government - for Assange to find justice.

British judges aren't renowned for justice

Expand full comment

An American snaps his fingers, and european knees hit the floor with a resolute thwack!

Expand full comment

Greed is religion.

Expand full comment

What an unjust assault on an innocent man and excellent reporter, and to our global commitment to accurate reporting!

Expand full comment

Absolute disgrace an upstanding proper journalist like your good self was hounded off Twitter probably assisted by a seething, green-eyed Paul Mason frothing at the mouth with envious rage as a failed journo past his best being laid out by a few home truths about his marital infidelity and the fact of his own multiple failures to become the new new Labour Member of Parliament for Absolutely Anywhere That Would Have Him. Mason's misery was compounded by the hacked revelation of his attempt to become 00-Mason Special Agent dobbing in lefties to the UK security services with the aid of his crazier-than-the-spidergram-meme spidergram. Hardly a capable James Bond figure, the idiot Mason didn't even secure his own shit with 2FA, no wonder that dunce got hacked. Anyways, the thought of him punching his own wall in drunken fit of frustration at his own inability to break through somehow and his jealousy should comfort you in the time off before you're back on Twitter, if you even want to be.

Expand full comment

Great article. The Guardian not only assisted HMG ensnare Assange, having profited from his journalism, they put up a load of Luke Harding nonsense about JA being visited in the Ecuadorean embassy by Paul Manafort, and though that was quickly shown to be untrue the G hasn't retracted the story, let alone apologised. But this week there will be many vomit-inducing weasel words from that rag. But now I know why my Spanish brother-in-law, who's very opposed to Catalan independence, thinks Assange is getting what he deserved.

Expand full comment

Keep in mind that MI5 paid The Graun a visit shortly after publishing the Snowden revelations, and the goodthinkers at the guardian have hewed very close to the neocon line ever since.

Expand full comment

Indeed. But when it comes down to it The G was always an establishment rag, and Zionist to boot. It is a lot worse under the new management. They're probably kept just about afloat by Gates's filthy lucre.

Expand full comment

Luke Harding also published the password to unpublished unredacted WikiLeaks files creating a security breach by The Guardian & staff that's a charge of risking source lives that's been thrown at Julian.

Famous at the time video of Julian and Sarah Harrison trying to connect to Clinton State Dept w JA warning of pw compromise "We don't have a problem you have a problem..."

Expand full comment

Yes, Luke Harding is a snake. Harding is the one who made it possible for people to access unredacted data, not Julian and yet Harding still works for the Guardian. I'll never forget how Aaron Mate took him down in an interview. Harding is a POS.

Expand full comment

Loved and adored Aaron long before the Harding interview but that was a gem for the ages!

Expand full comment

Great to see this thorough journalism from you after I figured what usually ends up being a few days of suspension from real journalists.

Still think it won’t be a full month. 🤞🏽

Thank you.

Expand full comment

Here's hoping!

Expand full comment

Kit, great to hear you, a great analysis as always!

Also, shame on Elon Musk!

Expand full comment

Elon Musk is under extraordinary pressure!!!

Expand full comment

Yep, those Pentagon contracts must be hard to resist...

Expand full comment

Israeli lobbyists are very active and influential as well!

Expand full comment

I'm mentioning that in half an hour's time.

Expand full comment

Wow! Thank you, I will read that!

Expand full comment

I agree, but then he should stop to brag about "free speech"

Expand full comment

Yes Serge — you are so “pure” and thoughtful ;-))

Expand full comment

As ever, their claims that something is "Russian linked" or "Putin controlled" rely on the hearers being very stupid, and there is never a shortage of idiots

Expand full comment

Nothing gives the british greater delight than when they are permitted to lovingly fellate their American Master.

Expand full comment

Well said.

Expand full comment

The Finster's blood runs icy cold.

Expand full comment

Also that Pompeo, when he classified Wikileaks as a hostile intelligence service, effectively put them on the same level of a terrorist org. We covered that on How Did We Miss That in June of last year. https://youtu.be/UcdBpdcslZU

You covered an article about how the NYT & Guardian sold out Julian in June 2022 that we covered on How Did We Miss That

https://kitklarenberg.substack.com/p/they-should-be-in-jail-how-the-guardian

Miss you on Twitter. DM me t.me/indleftmedia

Expand full comment

Great work, Kit! Hope to see you back at "X" soon! I think it is not expressed enough that the censorship that leads journalists like yourself to be suspended or banned, not to mention the vilification of and isolation of Julian Assange, is not just punishment of the journalists (though it is that, too). It is an attack on the reading public, as it acts to keep them uninformed and misled by government actors. When X silenced you, it removed your exposés from the purview of its audience. It does their readers a terrible disservice, just as it is also an awful injustice to you!

Keep up the great work!

Expand full comment

It seems clearer than ever that the US was long ago infiltrated and taken over by the UK to be the face of and tool of its imperial ambitions as its own perceived power declined? All the torture techniques purportedly invented by the British and utilized in its colonies are exactly replicated in Abu Ghraib.

Expand full comment

Spot on! The Brutish even made a movie, The Ipcress File, showing off their fondness for torture.

Expand full comment

Julian Assange positioned himself as easy prey for the ruthless and powerful thugs he exposed. Why he did so, will be considered for a thousand years. He was certainly aware of the high stakes, of the capacity which the criminals posses for spinning lies and for acting with impunity. Every journalist, and every reader, must consider if Truth and Humanity are better served from a safe distance or by sharing in some measure, Julian's fate. Thank you for your article and may you escape the long arm of western freedom for a long time.

Expand full comment

Re-reading this terrific piece just after another sleepless night wondering just how long the brits w/usgov can keep pushing the speck of hope that a "noncitizen" can appeal the deathstar whlie their torturers escalate oblivian. Julian & Palestinians are forever reminders of truthful integrity.

Bless you for this work you do.

Expand full comment

British Intelligence Framed Julian Assange As Russian Agent by, let's see, giving him a show on Russian state TV, tricking its boss into calling him her best friend and Putin himself into praising Assange to high heavens, infiltrating Wikileaks to prevent it from publishing any actual leaks from Russia and finally infiltrating Assange's own mind to force him to publicly make ludicrous claims such as "Russia doesn't need Wikileaks." What a devious plan!

I'm sure the same British intelligence also forced Kit Klarenberg, a person with no employment history in the media outside of the same Russian government-owned outlets that took on Assange, to collaborate with Russian intel agencies and then brag about it to people he snitched on.

Expand full comment

Constantibne Markides impressed me with this poem about Julian Assange, and the apathy and cruelty he faces. Consequently, I'm going to share it on a handful of pages.

See the eagle

over the mountain,

wheeling down,

blotting out the sun.

The pale man with the white

beard chained to the rock

winces

as the talons

anchor upon his thighs,

the bird of prey perching

upon its daily bread—

a man unforgiven for his

trespasses.

The head cocks,

its blank murderous eye

reflecting the cold will

of its lordly bidder,

then the curved beak

begins to jab,

stabbing at his guts,

digging for the

liver.

All day the pale man

on the mountain writhes

in agony unrelenting

as the bald eagle,

that stately emblem of authority,

disembowels him,

gingerly, delicately,

excruciatingly,

relishing its daylong feast,

fiber by fiber,

meting out the decreed

punishment for this heretic,

this bringer and starter

of fires.

Only at close of day

when the sun wearies

of this grisly theatre does the eagle,

sated from its bloody orgy,

retreat through the reddened sky,

leaving the wrecked man

to heal in darkness,

the liver regenerating overnight

until his torso,

that accursed cornucopia of organ meat,

is replenished by dawn,

just in time for

the next feeding.

So it goes.

Day in, day out,

for in matters of power—

whether you are the founding mortals

tasting forbidden fruit,

a luciferous angel refusing to serve,

or a firebrand publishing state secrets—

disobedience ever remains

the supreme crime.

Far below this mountain,

in the

polished halls of privilege,

the servants of the state,

identifying as journalists,

scurry about

freely.

Flushed with their proximity to power,

they fete and self-decorate

at correspondents’ dinners,

backslapping

over their professional integrity,

descrying the jailed dissidents

of official enemies.

Yet they never mention the pale man,

never glance up,

never ask why

a publisher is chained up

on their mountain.

And why should they,

these stenographers of empire?

They know their role,

just as a gimp knows how to submit,

a courtesan how to please,

and a goon how to

obey.

Why sabotage their high standing

when the accredited have

declared the pale man guilty

of espionage?

Why sleep poorly

Over a traitor’s chains?

No need to shirk from mirrors,

for they have

dutifully internalized,

as festooned lackeys do,

that this “journalist”

(rabbit ears required)

is a criminal,

a pawn of hostile states,

an abettor of lawbreakers,

a threat to national security,

a bail jumper,

a sexual delinquent!

Why should these handmaidens of the court

worry and risk disrepute?

They are too busy caterwauling

the imprisonments and injustices

by the latest enemy.

Too busy doomsdayering

unironically

over impending threats to press

freedom.

Too busy fussing

with the ruling

orthodoxies of the day.

Too busy to consider that

up there

on the mountain,

beyond their vision,

beyond the fireglow of hearths,

a Titan of their trade

is chained

to the rock.

https://www.mostlymyth.com/p/prey-for-assange

Expand full comment