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May 19, 2024 - Info Warrior - Jason Bermas

16:46

Extradition Day For Assange?

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	Today's News Talk.
	TNT. It seems like only yesterday that WikiLeaks came on the scene and I was talking about some of the documents and videos they had been putting out.
	They really did take the world by storm, now well over 15 years ago.
	And again, if you've been following the story Monday, we are supposed to find out whether or not Julian Assange will be extradited wrongfully to the United States to face espionage charges.
	Now, some months ago, I was actually able to watch the film, The Trust Fall, on Julian Assange.
	It is an excellent film.
	And before we go to the filmmaker himself, we're going to play the trailer for folks because this is a huge issue and will continue to be such.
	So without further ado the trailer for the trust fall This is generally the view of the trailer.
	We don't know much about the time.
	Well, you should know, because whether you know it or not, he is fighting for you.
	All your courage and leadership and tenacity in journalism and publishing.
	Since 2010, Assange has been held in progressively narrower, darker, colder and crueler spaces.
	He has been detained since the 7th of December 2010 in one form or another.
	And we are now here after years of imprisonment.
	WikiLeaks is a non-state hostile intelligence service.
	I think the man is a high-tech terrorist.
	A high-tech terrorist. A traitor, a treason.
	He has an answer.
	Assange faces up to 175 years in prison for publishing classified documents exposing U.S. war crimes.
	The U.S. government narrative about Julian is a complete fraud.
	It is a complete fraud from A to Z. Julian took on the most powerful countries in the world.
	Basically all of them.
	We now have confirmed that there were plans to kidnap Julian here in the centre of London, or even assassinate him.
	No one who instigated that illegal and immoral war has been brought to justice.
	But the great truth-tell sits behind us.
	If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth.
	Julian Assange is a hero.
	What if everything we thought we knew about somebody was a lie?
	Would we be willing to go on a new journey of understanding?
	This is a story of deception, lies, bravery, and a man who risked everything to bring the truth to light.
	Mr. Assange shows all the symptoms that are typical for a person that has been exposed to psychological torture over a prolonged period of time.
	He looked at me intensely and said, I hate to say this.
	He then hesitated, visibly troubled and searching for words.
	And then he finally said, please, save my life.
	May future generations have the ability to speak without restraint.
	May our children and their children know truth and have access to information that leads to justice.
	Wherever Julian goes, free speech goes with him.
	If there is a bird that is about to take flight, stretch her wings and rule the skies, may it be a peace stop and no longer a born eagle.
	If you think Assange is a traitor.
	He's a rapist. He's a narcissist.
	He's a hacker. I don't blame you because you have been deceived.
	And if you think you've locked him in the ceiling, that's normal because otherwise he wouldn't be deceptive.
	There it is folks, the trust fall.
	And I don't know that there is a better tool out there to enlighten somebody who is simply ignorant of the case of Julian Assange, what's going on and how important it really is.
	Joining us now Thank you so much for being with us.
	If they do rule to extradite him to the United States.
	I mean, at that point, we've really lost.
	I mean, the final nail in the coffin of free speech in this country and around the world may have been had.
	Thanks for having me, Jason.
	Look, we made this film because we felt like the world needed a film that really It gives a real overview of the entire debacle, this whole story.
	Why was the innovation of the WikiLeaks technology and the website that could never be shut down, why was this so significant in relation to press freedom, you know, free speech in the world?
	And just to help people understand, finally make sense of this, to be able to sit down for two hours and go from zero to 100 in that time.
	It's currently in cinemas in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. We have limited resources to distribute it, so we can't put it out to the entire world straight away, but we are getting ready to release it in the US. Well I hope so because again I watched this film several months ago now when you came on my other program and it's utterly excellent.
	You should be commended.
	Now there's a lot of focus especially surrounding the collateral damage video and I remember watching the film And it was the first time that I had seen the collateral damage video start to finish really in years.
	And that makes it even more egregious.
	Basically, we had this situation where unarmed journalists and civilians were gunned down by the U.S. military.
	Highly covered up and I'm just gonna say it's a very hard video to watch especially start to finish because you're watching the murder of innocent people.
	Yeah well that's just one of the 10 million documents that WikiLeaks have on their website that they've disclosed to the world over that period of time since WikiLeaks started in 2006.
	The collateral murder video You know, it's the most visceral video ever probably that's ever been taken from the modern era of wars to show us what modern wars are really like.
	You know, that's what started it all for me in 2010.
	I saw it on the news.
	It was awful to watch.
	I knew that there was something terribly, terribly wrong.
	And not only that incident, but also the attitudes of the soldiers that are committing that crime, the commentary as they're killing those people, the two journalists, the ten civilians.
	They're commenting as if it's a video game, as if they're detached from what they're doing.
	And I think that video just really changed the world.
	Even for people that haven't seen it, It's had a massive effect on the way that we understand modern wars.
	And, you know, there's many examples of how WikiLeaks have influenced the world.
	And the Ashaki massacre is another one in 2006 during the Iraq War.
	US and NATO allies went to a house in a town in Iraq called Ashaki.
	They killed 11 people, four women and five children.
	Including four women, five children under the age of five, with the youngest being a five-month-old baby.
	The autopsy showed that they had handcuffed all of them and shot them in the head.
	And when WikiLeaks disclosed this as part of the diplomatic cables, cable gate, as it's called, When that information got to the Iraqi government, they quickly made the decision to end the immunity deal that they'd given to the US government, deny them any military bases in Iraq and ask them to leave.
	And that was basically the end of the Iraq war.
	So leaks can end wars.
	And what we all need to understand is that Assange is on a mission to Bring about more justice in the world and end wars through revealing information, through revealing war crimes and corruption.
	We've got to take a quick break, but I want to reiterate that, you know, up until, you know, even him going into Belmarsh when he was in the Ecuadorian embassy and they released the OPCW documents that clearly showed that there was no chemical attack in Duma.
	You know, that was a big wake-up call to people.
	So, you know, WikiLeaks is still the most relevant outlet with 100% accuracy out there.
	We've got to take that break for the headlines.
	More with Kim Staten after this.
	What time is it? Now, TNT Radio News.
	You know what time it is? Yeah!
	Time to read some news.
	For TNT, this is James O'Neill.
	Former President Donald Trump attended his son Barron Trump's high school graduation in Florida, taking a break from his ongoing New York criminal trial.
	The graduation took place at Oxbridge Academy in Palm Beach.
	During a meeting in Beijing, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping committed to deepening cultural ties and combating cancel culture.
	This meeting marks Putin's first state visit since his re-election for a fifth term.
	We're the pinup boys and poster girls for free speech.
	We just don't look as impressive as Vladimir Putin shirtless on a horse.
	Yeah. 24-7, 365.
	We never stop sifting fact from fiction.
	Misinformation from the truth.
	From government overreach, to the latest on mandates, big tech censorship, to propaganda gone mad, listen to TNT Radio and get the news and views direct from our expert presenters and commentators anywhere you go.
	Ask Alexa or Google to play TNT Radio or download the TNT Radio app for free from the App Store or Google Play.
	Today's News Talk.
	This is TNT Radio.
	We are talking Julian Assange, the filmmaker behind the Trust Fall.
	Now, Monday, we are finally supposed to come to this crescendo as to whether or not Julian Assange will be extradited to the United States.
	This has been a very long and arduous process.
	I would argue he did not get proper due process.
	I believe he's been in Belmarch now five years, correct?
	Yeah, just past five years in solitary confinement, a six metre square cell, 22 hours a day.
	And that's an absolute travesty.
	And under various human rights agreements, including the United Nations Mandela laws updated in 2015, if someone is in solitary for 22 hours or more a day, that is considered torture.
	I mean, it's obvious torture.
	Some of the punishment is obviously the process and really getting here.
	You know, I remember it's probably two or three years ago initially when the judge had ruled that Assange could not be extradited to the United States because they could not guarantee his safety.
	In other words, that he would not be able to take his own life.
	Obviously, that was appealed.
	The U.S. government said, no, no, no.
	We're going to make sure that he is not going to be able to commit suicide.
	And now, through the process, we are here to that final ruling.
	What can we expect? What do you think will happen on Monday?
	Well, you know, on the 20th and 21st of February, it was expected there would be a decision as to whether Assange could be extradited or whether another appeal would be heard.
	And on those days, the UK High Court asked the US for assurances on three points, and they had seven weeks to provide those assurances.
	The three points were Essentially, one, that Assange, if put on trial in the US, his sentence couldn't be upgraded to a death penalty.
	Two, that he, as an Australian citizen, would still be able to access free speech protections, First Amendment protections.
	And three, that as an Australian citizen, he wouldn't be prejudiced against.
	The U.S. came back on the exact day that those assurances were due with a little three-page document.
	They basically, on the question as to whether he would be subject to the death penalty, they gave a sort of a standard assurance, which let's keep in mind that if he is tried in the U.S. and found guilty of these bogus 18 count indictment, he would be Possibly given a sentence of 175 years, which is a virtual death sentence.
	And also, let's remember that the US plotted to assassinate him in London while he was in the embassy, the CIA under Mike Pompeo.
	They were sketching up plans of how they could rub him out.
	So on that assurance, it was a standard assurance.
	In regards to free speech, the First Amendment protections went on trial.
	They said that he could Seek to apply, basically, that he could try his luck when he's in a court in the US. So a non-assurance there.
	And I think based on that, most people expect that the High Court is going to deny his extradition, which would sound like a good turn of events, except let's remember that Assange will then be kept in solitary 22 hours a day for Probably six months.
	It's very interesting if you look at the timeline of that, because with this decision on Monday, if they decide to allow the appeal, if the UK court allows the appeal of Assange's offence, it'll be another six months.
	If you add six months to Monday, it takes you two weeks neatly past the next US elections.
	And it seems apparent to me that Biden, while he struts around and He makes claims that he defends free speech.
	He said a couple of weeks ago in an interview, he said, I will always defend free speech.
	He doesn't want, leading up to the next elections, a journalist arriving into the US in handcuffs.
	So you think that they're going to punt it for, you know, right after the election and then there will be a ruling essentially?
	And do you think it matters whether or not Trump or Biden gets in?
	Or is it a foregone conclusion that after this election, he ends up coming to the United States charged with the Espionage Act and in a court system that has a 100% conviction rate?
	It's hard to tell because, you know, Trump has given mixed messages.
	On one hand, he said, I love WikiLeaks.
	The next minute he's saying Julian should be given the death penalty, something along those lines, or that he doesn't know anything about WikiLeaks.
	But Trump is the one, let's remember that he's the one that went after Assange.
	You know, Biden in the film, we quote him as saying that Assange is a high-tech terrorist.
	Look, there's not much difference between Trump and Biden these days.
	I think that's pretty much been exposed that neither of them are really patriots.
	They're not interested in real democracy and real free speech.
	Kim, we have run out of time.
	I hope people check out the trust fall.
	We're obviously going to be following this case, and we're hoping for the best on Monday, but we haven't had the best results, and we can only hope that Julian Assange can survive in this type of environment.

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