[Act-ma_discuss] Julian Assange rally Sept 13

[Amy Hendrickson]

From: Susan McLucas [mailto:susanbmcl at gmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, September 04, 2021 10:23 PM



 

Supporters of Julian Assange and advocates for a free press will be gathering Monday, Sept 13th at Park St. Station, 4:30-6pm.

Boston Area Assange Defense is petitioning Senators Warren and Markey, and calling on Attorney General Merrick Garland to drop all charges against Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks. Signatures and letters will be collected at the rally.

Activists around the world are asking:
“Why is an innocent journalist imprisoned?”
‘What did Julian Assange reveal about the Afghan war in 2011 that the mainstream media largely ignored until now?”

A video of Julian Assange speaking in 2011 about the goal behind the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan recently went viral on social media, with over 3M views.  <https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1427929346262642688?s=20&fbclid=IwAR31zlmP9LLdxv6lEki3QVXKus-vDtu9yZ2FFDm7XZE-QqRFOn2hgxbsSac> https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/1427929346262642688...

“The goal is to use Afghanistan to wash money out of the tax bases of the US & Europe through Afghanistan and back into the hands of a transnational security elite. The goal is an endless war, not a successful war"
- Julian Assange in 2011

Optimistically Assange said, “If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth.”

The media failed to report on the truth about the Assange case over the years – several key discoveries should have stopped the US’s attempt to prosecute Julian Assange in its tracks. These include, the spying of Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy by CIA funded UC Global which is currently in the Spanish courts. And the latest discovery is that the prosecution’s key witness, Siggy Thordarson recanted his testimony, admitting that he lied about his association with Assange and WikiLeaks. The U.S. government has no grounds to prosecute Assange and the media is silent.

The Trump and Biden administrations’ attempt to prosecute the WikiLeaks publisher is an unprecedented attack on press freedom. If convicted on all charges, Julian Assange faces 175 years in prison. Assange is a political prisoner and the U.S. attempt at prosecution criminalizes journalism.


Free speech is a cornerstone of democracy. And a free press holds our government accountable. Publishing classified information is a common practice in serious journalism. Detained in the UK since he was 39 years old, Assange has spent 10 years in one form or another in arbitrary detention, as was determined by the United Nations' Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in 2016. In its December 2018 statement, it wrote “that the right of Mr. Assange to personal liberty should be restored.”
 <https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ohchr.org%2FEN%2FNewsEvents%2FPages%2FDisplayNews.aspx%3FNewsID%3D24552%26fbclid%3DIwAR0UpFXS5m66UZN2OjOKTxhnOPUdSJGvivPCp2AR08wpOmtOHXvMtqbz5JQ&h=AT1wg-HzagUzQLizIFv0XyQypYxUseSM1KAxr_iF9y-Yie8fnHOZxgTDpEPW6Tz6djyQaLdSsQliEtLjHZzkHi8RQV8ijj9UM1FRGerED_egnu7YHV34aWN3Yn9GYDG2Pw&__tn__=q&c%5b0%5d=AT3bec0jK9aEXPPAwW9gpuNUSV6jxpATcw0fpgaLcdv21ueG2RH0Ss1ykVfXmcd0i3-OCxfsr8Z9jMVR9r2RjbYREXegrkOjereXogFrJ8vWcQ2dEVQCa9zf-IEeLn8IJE4> https://www.ohchr.org/.../NewsE.../Pages/DisplayNews.aspx...

Please join us September 13th to help raise awareness to this important press freedom case and help Free Julian Assange.


Contact Paula Iasella at AssangeBoston at gmail.com <mailto:AssangeBoston at gmail.com>  and Susan McLucas at SusanBMcL at gmail.com <mailto:SusanBMcL at gmail.com>  or 617-501-9125. 

 

Susan McLucas

617-776-6524, cell: 617-501-9125

14 William St, Somerville, MA 02144

 

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