It was wonderful news to many people last week when word came that Julian Assange would speak publicly this week. For a long time it seemed that such a day would never come as Assange suffered in harsh conditions in a British prison under the threat of extradition to the United Sates where he would likely remain captive in similar harsh conditions until death.
The good news came in June that Assange had struck a deal to return as a free man to his home country of Australia. Yet, Assange did not come out in public to speak after returning to Australia. He focused on recovering the best he could from the torment imposed on him for exposing the US government’s dirty secrets, including related to wars.
In his introductory remarks as his Tuesday testimony at a Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg, France, Assange addressed his recent maltreatment and his ongoing effort to recover from it, stating:
The experience of isolation for years in a small cell is difficult to convey; it strips away one’s sense of self, leaving only the raw essence of existence.
I am yet not fully equipped to speak about what I have endured — the relentless struggle to stay alive, both physically and mentally, nor can I speak yet about the deaths by hanging, murder, and medical neglect of my fellow prisoners.
I apologize in advance if my words falter or if my presentation lacks the polish you might expect in such a distinguished forum.
Isolation has taken its toll, which I am trying to unwind, and expressing myself in this setting is a challenge.
Proceeding, Assange thanked PACE for the actions it took in opposition to his imprisonment and prosecution. None of those actions nor the actions by many others on his behalf, Assange noted, ”should have been necessary, but all of them were necessary because without them I never would have seen the light of day.” “This unprecedented global effort,” continued Assange, “was needed because of the legal protections that did exist, many existed only on paper, were not effective in any remotely reasonable time.”
Regarding the deal he entered to gain freedom, Assange stated that he “eventually chose freedom over unrealizable justice, after being detained for years and facing a 175 year sentence with no effective remedy.” While the deal helped Assange, he made clear that the deal did not produce a legal victory for the right to engage in journalism:
I want to be totally clear. I am not free today because the system worked. I am free today, after years of incarceration, because I pled guilty to journalism. I pled guilty to seeking information from a source. I pled guilty to obtaining information from a source. And I pled guilty to informing the public what that information was. I did not plead guilty to anything else.
Why was the US government so intent on silencing and punishing Assange? Assange provides a rundown of some of the apparent reasons in detailing WikiLeaks activities as follows:
We obtained and published truths about tens of thousands of hidden casualties of war and other unseen horrors, about programs of assassination, rendition, torture, and mass surveillance.
We revealed not just when and where these things happened but frequently the policies, the agreements, and structures behind them.
When we published Collateral Murder, the infamous gun camera footage of a US Apache helicopter crew eagerly blowing to pieces Iraqi journalists and their rescuers, the visual reality of modern warfare shocked the world.
But we also used interest in this video to direct people to the classified policies for when the US military could deploy lethal force in Iraq and how many civilians could be killed before gaining higher approval.
In fact, 40 years of my potential 175-year sentence was for obtaining and releasing those policies.
The threat from the US seemed to recede for Assange toward the end of President Barack Obama’s presidential term. Assange mentioned the US Justice Department choosing not to indict Assange and Obama commuting, in the last few days of his presidential term, the sentence of Chelsea Manning who had been convicted of being one of Assange’s sources. Then the situation worsened, Assange explained, with the transition to the new Trump administration. Here is how Assange introduced the change before going into the details of the ramping up during the Trump administration of expansive effort against Assange, his family, and his associates that even went so far as the CIA making plans for assassinating Assange:
However, in February 2017, the landscape changed dramatically, President Trump being elected.
He appointed two wolves in MAGA hats: Mike Pompeo, a Kansas congressman and former arms industry executive, as CIA Director, and William Barr, a former CIA officer, as US Attorney General.
“CIA director Pompeo,” asserted Assange, “launched a campaign of retribution” after WikiLeaks exposed CIA activities. Regarding these exposed CIA activities, Assange noted:
By March 2017, WikiLeaks had exposed the CIA’s infiltration of French political parties, its spying on French and German leaders, its spying on the European Central Bank, European economics ministries, and its standing orders to spy on French industry as a whole.
We revealed the CIA’s vast production of malware and viruses, its subversion of supply chains, its subversion of antivirus software, cars, smart TVs, and iPhones.
In the concluding remarks of his testimony, Assange commented on the importance of what happened to him in relation to the future of investigative journalism and liberty. Assange stated:
The criminalization of newsgathering activities is a threat to investigative journalism everywhere.
I was formally convicted, by a foreign power, for asking for, receiving, and publishing truthful information about that power while I was in Europe.
The fundamental issue is simple: Journalists should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs.
Journalism is not a crime; it is a pillar of a free and informed society.
Watch here Assange’s presentation of his testimony and answering of questions afterwards:
Assange’s testimony, as well as his answers to questions afterward, is dense with important information and insights. While some highlights from his testimony are presented here, there is no substitute for watching the full video. Emerging from his silence, Assange had much to say.
