#Free Assange Rallies in Australia

FREE ASSANGE RALLIES in AUSTRALIA TODAY!!
Sun March 3rd SYDNEY
2pm BRISBANE 1pm

But first:

‘US Federal Court subpoenas whistleblower Chelsea Manning’, Matthew Brennan, wsws.org,  2 March 2019

“On Thursday whistleblower Chelsea Manning disclosed to the New York Times that she has been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury by the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on March 5. The subpoena provides no information as to what prosecutors intend to ask her, but all indications are that it is part of an effort by the US Department of Justice to escalate its pursuit of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

The Eastern District of Virginia is the same federal court which “in error” revealed to the public in November 2018 that it secretly possesses sealed criminal charges against Assange. The courageous publisher is currently trapped in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London, after having sought political asylum in 2012 for publishing explosive leaks that exposed US war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq, imperialist intrigues around the world, and later the sordid backroom political corruption of the Democratic Party.” [snip]

“For these courageous actions, Manning was arrested and imprisoned under horrific conditions for seven years, including a year-and-a-half in solitary confinement. In January 2017, her 35-year prison sentence was commuted by President Obama, but she was not pardoned, and therefore her conviction still stands.

It is likely that one of the main reasons why Manning is currently being subpoenaed is to try to undermine her original 2010 court-martial testimony, in preparation to pursue Assange.

A key component of her 2010 testimony was that she refuted attempts by the Justice Department to imply that Assange had directed her to pursue the leaks. “No one associated with W.L.O. [WikiLeaks Organization] pressured me into sending any more information. I take full responsibility,” she stated at her court-martial.

For its part, the New York Times, while publishing Manning’s interview, still managed to attack Assange and WikiLeaks, who it claimed have “become notorious for their role in disseminating Democratic emails stolen by Russian hackers as part of the Russian government’s covert efforts to damage the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, and help Donald J. Trump win.”

See: ‘Disclosing Subpoena for Testimony, Chelsea Manning Vows to Fight’, nytimes.com, Feb. 28, 2019

Her attorney Moira Meltzer-Cohen is working to quash the subpoena, and had announced on her website:

“We will work to quash the subpoena on all available grounds, assist you in identifying lawful ways to resist the subpoena, and work to prevent a contempt finding in the event that you refuse to testify.”

From the Chicago Tribune’s coverage of the story (via the WaPO):

“Under Obama, Justice Department officials had decided not to pursue charges against Assange and WikiLeaks after concluding that to do so could set a precedent that paved the way for prosecuting news organizations for publishing classified information. But the case got a fresh look under President Donald Trump.

Steve Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law, said the Justice Department likely indicted Assange last year to stay within the 10-year statute of limitations on unlawful possession or publication of national defense information, and is now working to add charges. “There’s nothing else that would make sense,” he said.”

The authors also dig into some of the history of others required to testify to The Committee, most notably David House’ who appeared, and Daniel Dumshit-Borg who’d said an interview he was contacted by the German federal police in October 2017 and told that U.S. authorities wished to talk to him “about the Manning-Julian connection.”  He apparently had received another request in 2018 but told the German police that he wasn’t interested in speaking to the FBI.  They quote Manning:

“I object strenuously to this subpoena and to the grand jury process in general,” Manning said in a statement. “We’ve seen this power abused countless times to target political speech. I have nothing to contribute to this case and I resent being forced to endanger myself by participating in this predatory practice.”

Now myself, I’d reckoned that Manning was issued a subpoena in part due to Moar Russigate from emptywheel:

“Mueller isn’t telling us everything

Cohen will testify that he was in Trump’s office one day, before the DNC Convention, when Roger Stone was put through and Trump put the rat-fucker on the speaker phone.

‘In July 2016, days before the Democratic convention, I was in Mr. Trump’s office when his secretary announced that Roger Stone was on the phone. Mr. Trump put Mr. Stone on the speakerphone. Mr. Stone told Mr. Trump that he had just gotten off the phone with Julian Assange and that Mr. Assange told Mr. Stone that, within a couple of days, there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Mr. Trump responded by stating to the effect of “wouldn’t that be great.”

Likely, Stone was once again overselling his access to Assange. [Ya think??]

@wikileaks STATEMENT on Michael Cohen testimony to Congress: WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange has never had a telephone call with Roger Stone. WikiLeaks publicly teased its pending publications on Hillary Clinton and published > 30k of her emails on 16 March 2016. https://wikileaks.org/clinton-emails/ 

“Likely, this came via a cut-out. It’s likely Stone learned about this from his meeting with Nigel Farage at the RNC.

But it is an example of the kinds of details that Mueller — in spite of his speaking indictment of Stone — was trying to keep secret. It shifts Stone’s knowledge of WikiLeaks earlier than the indictment. It also makes it far more likely that Trump is the one who ordered someone to find out from Stone what more was coming.”

Some speculation there, Marcy Wheeler.

But on to the #FreeAssange Rallies in Australia:

‘Video: SEP national secretary James Cogan urges maximum participation in Free Julian Assange rallies’, wsws.org, march 2

#FreeAssangeRallies on Twitter:

If you missed the livestream of the SEP Solidarity Rally for 2019 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee #JulianAssange you can watch it here: Part 1: https://www.facebook.com/SocialistEqualityPartyAustralia/videos/2256617811244156/ …

Part 2: https://www.facebook.com/SocialistEqualityPartyAustralia/videos/561019177710902/ …

‘Let The Light In’ – CaTV cut – Alex Taylor for Wikileaks Arts – with Maria Milewska & Alex Hills

Rally to demand the Australian government acts to free Julian Assange!

@synlapse 9h9 hours ago “Great rally in Sydney today. Many times bigger than the previous one last year. The freeing of #Assange must be a central demand for the radicalising working class across the globe.”

Bonus:  From newmatilda.com, Feb. 19, 2019: ‘The Psychology Of Getting Julian Assange, Part 1: What’s Torture Got To Do With It?’, Dr Lissa Johnson; Part 2, Part 3: ‘The Psychology of Getting Julian Assange, Part 3 – Wikileaks and Russiagate: Trust Us, We’re The CIA’ (a very long, but worthy read w/ videos and photos)

(cross-posted at caucus99percent.com)