Julian Assange's Extradition Hearing
Last year, Julian Assange was indicted by the United States Department of Justice for publishing classified documents leaked by Chelsea Manning, and acting as a co-conspirator to Manning by helping her "hack" into a database that she supposedly didn't already have access to herself. This indictment has resulted in Assange being forced out of hiding at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, since then he has been held in Belmarsh Prison, where he as experienced what some on his defense team equate to torture. Assange is now awaiting the results of his ongoing extradition hearing which will decide wether or not he will be handed over to American authorities to face punishment for something thats supposed to be protected by the first amendment of the Bill of Rights.
These accusations of hacking are totally unfounded, according to the Intercept, "...the indictment alleges no such thing. Rather, it simply accuses Assange of trying to help Manning log into the Defense Departments computers using a different username so that she could maintain her anonymity...", this is just standard operating procedures for any investigative journalist with experience in handling leaked documents.
Unfortunately, this doesn't stop mainstream media, or the United States Justice Department from repeating claims of hacking, or stating that Wikileaks disclosures harmed American national security or individuals named in the leaked documents. This is all part of the United States plan to show the world what it can do to those who attempt to expose our permanent police states massive secrets.
Those who have had contact with Assange since he has been locked up accuse authorities of sedating Assange with psychotropic drugs, and mistreating him in numerous other ways including denying the journalist access to doctors. British authorities haven't admitted to sedating Assange, but they have released information revealing that Assange is being kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.
Assange's extradition case began two days ago, his defense team has already argued that the allegation that Assange knowingly put people at risk is "obviously false" based on publicly available information. The Prosecution has used this claim to justify the "separate treatment" of Assange under the first amendment.
Assange's defense team has also outlined the chronology of Manning accessing the material disclosed to Wikileaks, according to the defense, the cables accessed by Manning had clear public interest due to the fact that they proved that the United States spied on US diplomats, and previously denied a drone strike in Yemen. The cables also showed CIA involvement in various drone strikes.
Manning says that the cables she accessed were available to thousands of people within the United States, she discussed the level of sensitivity and why she didn't think the leaked material would result in harm for US national security. It's clear that Manning had access to this material already, and the US Government already knew that database required no password to access.
Unfortunately, the United States Government continues to claim that Manning attempted to operate anonymously, but the defense has stated that using the terminal to long into the database using a different user account would have made absolutely no difference to Manning's anonymity, since usage is tracked by IP address rather than logins.
The Prosecution also alleges that Assange knew there were sensitive names in the documents that were released, and he knowingly put them in harms way. They make these claims even though the United States knows that neither Julian Assange or Wikileaks rushed to publish this material when it was first received in April of 2010. The prosecution knows full well that instead of Wikileaks publishing this material on their own, they entered into a partnership with a series of mainstream media organizations so they could understand the material and deal with it properly.
Despite the United States claiming that Wikileaks and Julian Assange were reckless and caused harm by publishing these materials, the United States government knows that they redacted and participated in the process mentioned above. According to Assange's defense team, evidence form John Goetz proves this by showing that the redaction process involved the US State Department, "...feeding in suggestions for redactions to the media partnership, which Wikileaks implemented."
The United States Government knows that Julian Assange and Wikileaks were responsible in their handling of material. They had clearly stipulated procedures in their agreements with media partners with guidelines regarding how to use data and how to redact names of sensitive sources and people at risk.
Its clear that these claims of wrongdoing coming from the United States are noting but an attempt to punish a journalist for speaking truth to power. The US has had its eyes on Julian Assange since 2010 when Wikileaks published, "...hundreds of thousands of war logs and diplomatic cables revealing numerous war crimes and other acts of corruption by the US, UK, and other Governments around the world."
The people in positions of power think that they can stop us from exposing their crimes against humanity. While they may be able to buy themselves some extra time, there will always be someone else to take their place and continue exposing the United States Empire for what it truly is. Just another empire, and they all fall eventually. Usually due to their own arrogance and belief that they're above the law.