Julian Assange: Punished for Daring to Reveal the Truth
As these words are written, in March, 2020, Julian Assange, the Australian activist and founder of Wikileaks, an organization dedicated to gathering and publishing documents that offer undeniable proof of the gross offenses committed by governments and corporations, remains in custody, in the United Kingdom, at HM Prison Belmarsh, in London. He has been there since April, 2019, when he was arrested after his seven years of asylum within the confines of the Ecuadorian embassy came to an end. His future depends on the decision, yet to be made, by a British law court in regard to a request for his extradition to the United States, whose government has made known its intention to subject him to extreme penalties.
Julian Assange, seeking to uphold knowledge and openness as fundamental elements of democracy, founded Wikileaks in 2006, intending it to act as a counter to the fraudulent dealings of the powers that be, using the Internet to release sensitive information (depicting those powers as steeped in corruption and guilty of mass murder under the guise of warfare) that otherwise would have been withheld from the general domain. Wikileaks made it harder for the powers that be to continue in their wanton assaults upon human rights, and also made it harder for them to maintain their usual smokescreen of duplicity. To a fair-minded observer, it would seem that Julian Assange should be commended, not condemned.
The government of the United States is determined to make a lasting example (or, more properly, a lasting scapegoat) of Julian Assange, thereby sending out a sharp warning to anyone else who might be tempted to do anything that would bring about a more direct awareness of its motives, policies, and undertakings. For the same reason, it also pursued hardhanded measures against Chelsea Manning, a whistleblower and former American soldier who gained release from detention in Alexandria, Virginia, on March 12, 2020, and Edward Snowden, another American whistleblower, formerly employed by the Central Intelligence Agency, who was driven into exile in Russia, far beyond America's reach, in 2013.
In our current world, in which all governments are brazenly involved in the dirty business of promoting falsehood and deceit, all leaders (and most public figures of any kind) are shameless liars who greedily engage in the ruthless pursuit of their own gain, and most sources of news are highly suspect, no one in authority can be trusted or believed. To be a good citizen (and, moreover, to be a good human being), it is necessary to actively question everyone and everything. In particular, it is urgently essential to closely examine the broad justifications that are casually given for the many wars being waged throughout the world: hasty, hollow justifications which, nowadays, range from clearly doubtful to overtly specious.
How can those who constitute the worldwide dictatorship of deception be stopped, and held to account for their wickedness? It is dangerously foolish to imagine that they can be defeated, hindered, or even seriously challenged through the use of violence, because unrestrained violence is the primary means by which they sustain their evil dominion, serving as the ugly foundation of their malign strength. It is much wiser, and much more effective, to undermine them by providing evidence that shows the complete extent of their foul actions (as Wikileaks strives to do), pushing and pushing against their bulwark of lies, until finally it crumbles and falls, and there is nowhere for them to hide.
Is it right for someone to be harshly punished, and heavily abused, merely for having dared to reveal the truth, for having fully exposed the rampant wrongdoing of the depraved villains who wield immoral power over us? Can we afford to pretend that such a stark violation of humanity is not happening? If we fail to stand with Julian Assange during his grievous persecution, if we fail to support his courageous attempts to shine an honest light upon the dark forces that control our world, we are failing in our common duty to defend the vital principles of freedom and peace, principles that are deeply threatened by his unjust plight, and, in doing so, we are accepting and enabling the brutal will of our heartless oppressors.
Julian Assange, seeking to uphold knowledge and openness as fundamental elements of democracy, founded Wikileaks in 2006, intending it to act as a counter to the fraudulent dealings of the powers that be, using the Internet to release sensitive information (depicting those powers as steeped in corruption and guilty of mass murder under the guise of warfare) that otherwise would have been withheld from the general domain. Wikileaks made it harder for the powers that be to continue in their wanton assaults upon human rights, and also made it harder for them to maintain their usual smokescreen of duplicity. To a fair-minded observer, it would seem that Julian Assange should be commended, not condemned.
The government of the United States is determined to make a lasting example (or, more properly, a lasting scapegoat) of Julian Assange, thereby sending out a sharp warning to anyone else who might be tempted to do anything that would bring about a more direct awareness of its motives, policies, and undertakings. For the same reason, it also pursued hardhanded measures against Chelsea Manning, a whistleblower and former American soldier who gained release from detention in Alexandria, Virginia, on March 12, 2020, and Edward Snowden, another American whistleblower, formerly employed by the Central Intelligence Agency, who was driven into exile in Russia, far beyond America's reach, in 2013.
In our current world, in which all governments are brazenly involved in the dirty business of promoting falsehood and deceit, all leaders (and most public figures of any kind) are shameless liars who greedily engage in the ruthless pursuit of their own gain, and most sources of news are highly suspect, no one in authority can be trusted or believed. To be a good citizen (and, moreover, to be a good human being), it is necessary to actively question everyone and everything. In particular, it is urgently essential to closely examine the broad justifications that are casually given for the many wars being waged throughout the world: hasty, hollow justifications which, nowadays, range from clearly doubtful to overtly specious.
How can those who constitute the worldwide dictatorship of deception be stopped, and held to account for their wickedness? It is dangerously foolish to imagine that they can be defeated, hindered, or even seriously challenged through the use of violence, because unrestrained violence is the primary means by which they sustain their evil dominion, serving as the ugly foundation of their malign strength. It is much wiser, and much more effective, to undermine them by providing evidence that shows the complete extent of their foul actions (as Wikileaks strives to do), pushing and pushing against their bulwark of lies, until finally it crumbles and falls, and there is nowhere for them to hide.
Is it right for someone to be harshly punished, and heavily abused, merely for having dared to reveal the truth, for having fully exposed the rampant wrongdoing of the depraved villains who wield immoral power over us? Can we afford to pretend that such a stark violation of humanity is not happening? If we fail to stand with Julian Assange during his grievous persecution, if we fail to support his courageous attempts to shine an honest light upon the dark forces that control our world, we are failing in our common duty to defend the vital principles of freedom and peace, principles that are deeply threatened by his unjust plight, and, in doing so, we are accepting and enabling the brutal will of our heartless oppressors.