
The Stalinist Trial of Julian Assange - contingencies
https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/john-pilger-stalinist-trial-julian-assange
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tdons
It's funny how indifferent everyone is about this. If you read about atrocious
events that happened in history you often wonder why nobody stepped up.

And here we are, things like this are happening in 2020 and almost nobody
cares. Almost all of us choose comfort and a frictionfree life over morality
when it comes down to it.

~~~
LockAndLol
Honestly, what can we do? There were protests, but those barely ever have the
desired effect. We can talk about it and make people aware, but the British
people are also to blame for voting in a government willing to kneel to
America. The EU might've been able to step in and provide Assange a safe
haven, but a few citizens voting for Assange in a few countries ain't gonna do
much.

What could we have done?

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Roark66
Every time this comes up on traditional media I scream at TV How on earth can
you be guilty of TREASON of a country you are NOT A CITIZEN Of? Can anyone
explain this twisted logic to me how an Australian can be prosecuted for
treason of US?

~~~
me_me_me
Whooo whooo there buddy. Why are you using facts and logic?

That's not allowed anymore. He is either traitor or not. No other way. /s

Welcome to black and white world of 2020 where stuff like this is encouraged.
Its deeply saddening how everyone is quoting scary stuff from 1984 and yet we
are using it as a manual.

Thinking about it its really scary how close we are to that reality. Just mix
in some Brave New World by Huxley and you get police state with docile drugged
up society addicted to entertainment not caring for real world around them.

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quink
Quick bit of recent background on the author, I don't think it's an ad hominem
as it's at least peripherally relevant to the matter of what's being discussed
here:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pilger#Russia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Pilger#Russia)

> On the Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury, Wiltshire on 4
> March 2018, Pilger said in an interview on RT (formerly Russia Today): "This
> is a carefully constructed drama as part of the propaganda campaign that has
> been building now for several years in order to justify the actions of NATO,
> Britain and the United States, towards Russia. That’s a fact"

> "Without a single piece of evidence, the US and its NATO allies and their
> media machines blamed ethnic Russian 'separatists' in Ukraine and implied
> that Moscow was ultimately responsible". He asserted that "the newspaper has
> made no serious attempt to examine who shot the aeroplane down and why".

That said, he's not wrong, but as with Assange the motivation and choices
aren't what can be called honest journalism.

~~~
quink
(minor clarification: not too wrong in the linked article, but definitely on
the side of very wrong in those past statements)

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andretti1977
People like him should be honored and if not considered heroes, at least be
remembered as people who standed for freedom. Instead they go under trial and
their life ruined. This is our world.

~~~
jevgeni
Wikileaks had such a strong Western bias that it hurt democratic movements in
third world countries. So no, it's not that black and white.

~~~
Nitrolo
I have to admit I don't know a lot about the history of Wikileaks (I was still
in school when they started going after Assange), but how did it hurt
democratic movements in developing countries?

~~~
jevgeni
They never seem to publish any serious leaks pertaining to other countries
with imperialist ambitions. For example, what bothered me, is that there
wasn't anything on Russia. For example, the leaked Surkov emails (which among
other things exposed Russian plans for the separatists in Ukraine) had to go
through 4chan and other ad hoc channels, but not through Wikileaks. Couple
that with the fact that the person responsible for CIS-country leaks at the
time at Wikileaks was a well known anti-semite and conspiracy theorist, who
left USSR sometime in the 60s or 70s and you start to build a picture of
conscious bias, at the very least.

This allowed to build a bleak narrative in the former Soviet space, that
"look, the West is corrupt as well, so you shouldn't try to fight corruption
as it is hopeless". Which, by the way, is a classical FUD passive measure
tactic.

~~~
boomboomsubban
Why would anyone in Russia with access to classified information send it to
Wikileaks, an organization with zero Russian speakers and extremely limited
influence in Eastern Europe. They would have far better options available to
them.

This criticism comes up often, but it assumes a conspiracy is necessary for
the expected behavior. How many Russian language news stories does your local
paper cover? Assange does not need Russian ties to be antisemitic either.

~~~
jevgeni
Since Russian is my native language, I read enough Russian papers. And I can
tell when a western outlet overlaps with the official Russian party line a bit
too much for comfort.

So, I guess you admit that WL has a western bias?

Also, they don’t really have any better options. Just FYI.

~~~
boomboomsubban
Wikileaks unquestionably has a bias towards English speaking nations. That is
why their leaks primarily are about America.

If your criticism is that they didn't build a strong enough international
team, remember that Assange spent most of their history unable to leave the
Ecuadorian embassy. Those years treated as an enemy also likely led to him
sympathizing with countries that aren't calling for his head. That isn't why
they don't publish Russian leaks though.

~~~
jevgeni
WL tried to discredit the Panama Papers (which feature some prominent Russian
officials). That doesn’t look like just a factor of not having an
international team.

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drukenemo
I found this to be a very powerful statement, that exceeds the issue with
Assange:

"Freedom of the press now rests with the honourable few: the exceptions, the
dissidents on the internet who belong to no club, who are neither rich nor
laden with Pulitzers, but produce fine, disobedient, moral journalism — those
like Julian Assange."

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andretti1977
67 points in 2 hours at the moment and the article is flagged...

~~~
nabla9
For good reason. The article is written in horrible tone.

~~~
artsr
What exactly about the tone is "horrible"? That's a strong word and I did not
perceive it that way.

~~~
nabla9
It uses adjectives and descriptions that suffocate the reader.

Completely separate from the subject matter, that kind of writing style treats
the reader as an idiot.

------
artsr
I don't know a lot about the Julian Assange case, but it's obvious that very
powerful interests are at play here. This single point ought to be reason
enough for journalists to put the issue front and center.

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doe88
Meanwhile the cooperation in the opposite direction doesn't seem so smooth
[https://english.elpais.com/spanish_news/2020-09-10/us-
demand...](https://english.elpais.com/spanish_news/2020-09-10/us-demands-
hinder-spanish-probe-into-alleged-cia-ties-to-security-firm-that-spied-on-
assange.html)

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Mikhail_Edoshin
The phrase "Stalinist trial" normally refers to either a staged trial [1] or
to a trial-by-three without due process [2]. Which of these applies to Julian
Assange?

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Trials](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Trials)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NKVD_troika](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NKVD_troika)

~~~
belorn
"the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt, and/or innocence,
of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal the presentation of
both the accusation and the verdict to the public so they will serve as both
an impressive example and a warning to other would-be dissidents or
transgressors"

~~~
Mikhail_Edoshin
The article has no such quote. And if it did, it would still have to back it
up, didn't it? So far it looks like a bunch of overstatements without any real
substance. E.g. "The extradition hearing in London this week is the final act
of an Anglo-American campaign to bury Julian Assange." How can a mere
extradition hearing be the final act?

~~~
boomboomsubban
This is a transcript of a public address. The time the speaker had was likely
limited, and the target were people already aware of the details.

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jevgeni
The trial might be unfair, but it's tone deaf to call it "Stalinist".

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varjag
It's weird that a Russia Today talking head would find Stalinism a negative.

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samoa42
why?

~~~
varjag
Because Russia Today promotes official Russian policy, with Stalinism
whitewashing being one its major component.

~~~
disgu
To be fair, pretty much every country aside from Germany is whitewashing their
past with the help of the media. Some call it propaganda, some call it
patriotism, some call it "promoting of state policy" but it's all the same
thing.

~~~
maze-le
To be fair, even in Germany there is a substantial amount of whitewashing the
past. Be it the founding of the BND predecessor "Organization Gehlen" or the
Nazi sympathizers that worked as judges and prosecutors in the federal
Republic.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehlen_Organization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gehlen_Organization)

~~~
indigo945
That the denazification process in both the Federal Republic and the
Democratic Republic was incomplete after the war is a pretty uncontroversial
thing in Germany, I would say. Aside from the far-right fringe, I don't think
there is a lot of "whitewashing" around it, although I might be wrong. The CDU
certainly has incentive to not stress that part of their history too much,
though.

