World Socialist Website reports
Speaking in the Australian parliament yesterday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese claimed for the first time that his Labor Party government has made representations to the Biden administration to end “legal action” against persecuted WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange.
Referencing Assange, Albanese repeated past statements that “enough is enough” and that it is “time for this matter to be brought to a conclusion.”
Before yesterday, Albanese not had so much as mentioned Assange in months, despite the fact that the journalist is the world’s most high-profile political prisoner and an Australian citizen. Albanese’s stony silence has persisted amid warnings that Assange’s health has deteriorated to the point that he may die, as a result of more than ten years of US-led persecution.
Assange, moreover, is being detained in a maximum-security prison in Britain. He faces extradition to the US, where he would be prosecuted under the Espionage Act for publishing true information exposing war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. The maximum sentence is 175 years imprisonment, effectively the death penalty by another name.
While this frame-up has proceeded over the past six months, the Labor government has vastly expanded Australia’s military and intelligence ties with the US and Britain, above all in preparation for conflict with China.
Albanese’s comments were a response to questions from independent MP Monique Ryan. She stated:
“Journalists obtaining and publishing sensitive information in the public interest is essential to democracy. Australian citizen Julian Assange is still contained in Belmarsh prison, charged by a foreign government with acts of journalism. Mr Assange’s freedom will only come from political intervention. Will the government intervene to bring Mr Assange home?”
The Labor PM was at pains to differentiate himself from this favorable, and accurate, description of the heroic WikiLeaks founder. In the course of a reply that only runs to three paragraphs, Albanese stated twice that he had no “sympathy” for “Mr Assange’s actions.”
Albanese did not elaborate, but the meaning is clear. He is hostile to Assange’s journalism, which exposed thousands of civilian deaths, torture and other war crimes. He opposes WikiLeaks’ public interest reportage, which has been described by Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and other commentators as among the most important in modern history.
The clear implication is that the US pursuit of Assange was legitimate, at least for a time. In reality, the prime minister was referring to one of the most monstrous frame-ups in recent decades, which included CIA plots to illegally kidnap or assassinate an Australian journalist and publisher in London.
Read more https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/12/01/ztsp-d01.html
