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OpEdNews Op Eds    H1'ed 12/13/21

Assange Verdict: Vengeance Is Ours, Saith the Agency

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From Antiwar

Julian Assange eyes DDC_4793
Julian Assange eyes DDC_4793
(Image by Abode of Chaos from flickr)
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Are the CIA and its contractors able to bully not only the U.S. Department of Justice, but also the UK judiciary? This is not hard to conclude after the High Court decision announced early Friday to bow to the US and extradite Julian Assange.

Underneath the pettifoggery, the decision demonstrates that the British will lop the "juris" off jurisprudence and pay heed only to "prudence" in kowtowing to the security state in Washington and its junior partner in London.

The objective, of course, is to warn any journalist or publisher tempted to investigate and and expose U. S. war crimes or political sabotage, US "Justice" is going to get you, no matter who you are or where you live. (Call it a new wrinkle on the concept of "universal jurisdiction," if you will.)

All According to (Updated) Plan

Assange's lawyers have said they intend to appeal the High Court decision. But, as Glenn Greenwald pointed out, "today's victory for the US means that Assange's freedom, if it ever comes, is further away than ever: not months but years even under the best of circumstances." That, of course, has been the plan for a decade or more.

Glenn also noted that post-Obama Democrats and their security state allies have a particularly potent reason to exact vengeance on Assange, who published those DNC emails showing that Bernie Sanders was cheated out of the nomination in 2016. Add the indignity suffered by the CIA, when an insider apparently leaked a treasure trove of unique documents on cyber warfare. WikiLeaks promptly published parts of "Vault 7," the family jewels of offensive cyber tools, in which the CIA and NSA has invested Billions. The security state had a witches' brew.

In early July, I pointed to some graphic evidence that this was about bloodlust as well as vengeance, noting that the British were following the detailed 'Washington Playbook" approach that was exposed by WikiLeaks itself in Feb. 2012.

Some readers may recall that WikiLeaks-revealed confidential emails from the US private intelligence firm Stratfor mentioned that the US already had a secret indictment against the WikiLeaks founder. Bad enough.

Inspector Javert

What also showed up in the Stratfor emails was the unrelenting, Inspector-Javert-type approach taken by one Fred Burton, Stratfor's Vice-President for Counterterrorism and Corporate Security. (Burton had been Deputy Chief of the Department of State's counterterrorism division for the Diplomatic Security Service.)

Here's Javert - I mean Burton:

"Move him [Assange] from country to country to face charges for the next 25 years. But seize everything he and his family own, to include every person linked to Wiki." [my comment: "country to country", or -- equally effective -- court to court]

"Pursue conspiracy and political terrorism charges and declassify the death of a source, someone which could link to Wiki."

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Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He was an Army infantry/intelligence officer and then a CIA analyst for 27 years, and is now on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS). His (more...)
 
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