How and why the author compiled of people and organizations that have reportedly helped Assange and those that have reportedly harmed him, and a run down of who is on them.

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Before I get started, there is one name that made neither my list of heroes nor of scoundrels, the one person who could make a real difference in Julian Assange's treatment if he'd just speak up, now where did he go? Just two words on that: "Donald Who?"

I think the plight of Julian Assange is one of the most defining issues of our perilous times and the actions people have taken either way and words they have used to comfort or hurt, support or condemn can be considered a shibboleth distinguishing each person's or organization's stance toward tyranny. Some see the danger, while others are befuddled and some even hope to benefit from imposition of a drastic regime for concealing crimes against humanity.

The List

Thus after Mr. Assange's arrest, I began compiling a list of people and organizations who stood up for him. On the other hand, the actions of those attacking him were so outrageous that I created two columns and stuck the latter over on the right (not to be confused with their political stance-the persecution of whistleblowers has been bi-partisan). The list has extended to five pages now. In many cases I didn't write down exactly why they'd made the list, and while I've attempted to organize it, the names are still mostly in the order that I encountered them. Moreover, I haven't had a chance to update it for a while. Any criticisms or suggestions would be welcome.

Most of my sources for this, I must add since I wasn't thinking of publishing at the time, came from links at Rice Farmer's blog https://ricefarmer.blogspot.com/, particularly the sections labelled "Propaganda/censorship/fake news/alternative facts" and "War on Julian Assange" in the weeks following his arrest. They would be too numerous for me to add to an already long article.

As the list grew the number of people and entities trying to help Assange was at times nearly twice the length of those attacking him. But then I would encounter a number of new articles about all the dirty deeds by the press and other malefactors, and as of this moment, the two lists are exactly the same length, with eight lines to go to the bottom of the fifth page. That would be roughly 160 names of people/organizations each, but I've got two names on some lines, particularly among the mischief-makers, and an occasional explanatory note occupying a line.

I added an asterisk for notable cases and two for exceptional, and when I glance through, the notably bad outnumber the notably good by quite a margin, which is I suppose why Mr. Assange still rots away in his bellmarish surroundings.

Political and governmental

Political and governmental figures earned most of the asterisks, because they have clout and take more of a risk in standing up, or conversely gain more by leading the attack. There are very few among this group who have supported Assange. Chelsea Manning** was making inroads into politics, so I include her here with two asterisks for really putting all she has into it. Democratic candidates Tulsi Gabbard* and Mike Gravel, Utah Senatorial candidate Daniel Geery, Ron Paul and Rand Paul round up that list in the US, with Jeremy Corbyn* and Dianne Abbott of the UK Labour Party, Maria Zacharova (Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs), UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer**, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to privacy Joe Cannataci and former Ecuadoran President Rafael Correa** and Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino, who protected Assange for nearly six years (June 2012 to March 2018 when his communications were cut off). Attorney General William Barr also managed to make this list, but I've forgotten why.

Meanwhile the rogues over on the right hand list include James Comey**, Hillary Clinton**, Mike Pompeo*, Robert Mueller*,Mike Pence*, Sen. Joe Manchin*, Sen. Mark Warner*, Sen. Ben Sasse*, James Clapper, John Bolton, Judge Leonie Brinkema** (Eastern District of Virginia), US Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey, Dianne Feinstein, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Sen. Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders (for his unconscionable silence), Ecuador President Lenin Moreno**, Theresa May, UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid** (who "gleefully" signed the extradition order), UK Judge Michael Snow*, Meghan Brown* (FBI affidavit), Tony Bair (UK Labour Party), Marianne Ny (Swedish prosecutor), Interpol**, Emma Arbuthnot (UK judge, Tory), Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Sen. George Braendis (2011), Sen. James Lankford, John McCain (who delivered the infamous Trump-Russia dossier), Congressional Democrats Adam Schiff, Eric Swallwell, Ted Lieu, Maxine Waters, Joaquin Castro, John Brennan, Sen. Jim Molan of Australia and Judge Deborah Taylor (UK).

Political/governmental organizations that have harmed Assange include basically every organ within the US government, but notably Cyber Counterintelligence Assessment Branch, US Justice Dept., DOD agencies, depts., Department of State, Diplomatic Security Service, ODNI, ONCIX, CIA, FBI PIAB and Center for Cyber Intelligence. Overseas, they include the London Metropolitan Police*, especially the West End Central police station** whose goons dragged Assange from the embassy, the Australian government and mass media, New Zealand government (for censorship), the Ecuador Interior Ministry, British Parliament (Tories), and Britain's Crown Prosecution Service. And let's not forget the Democratic National Committee** for scapegoating Assange.

The Media

The vast majority of people standing up for Assange have been non-MSM journalists/press organizations and human rights lawyers. Pepe Escobar*, Caitlin Johnstone* and John Pilger* top my list of writers, reporters and bloggers, which also includes the Saker (along with all the regular commenters on his blog), Washington Blog, b (at Moon of Alabama), Chris Hedges, Mark Taliano, John Kiriakou, John Wight, Chris Faure, Alexander Rubinstein, Glen Greenwald (Intercept), Jameel Jaffer, Scott Shane (New York Times), Kit Knightly (Off Guardian), Nathan Robinson (Guardian), Michael Krieger (Liberty Blitz), Craig Murray, Rob Slane (TheBlogMire), Jason Ditz and Simon Floth at antiwar.com, Jonathan Cooke, Kristian Hrafnsson (and of course all of Wikileaks), James Kunstler, CJ Hopkins (Unz Review), Andre Vltchek, Rob Kall and Lila York at Op-Ed News, Tom Luongo, Jonathan Turley (USA Today), John Solomon and James Goodale of The Hill, Kelley Baucar Vlahos, Daniel Ellsberg, Tyler Durden (Zero Hedge), Mike Masnick (Techdirt), Whitney Webb (MPN News), Max Blumenthal, Elizabeth Vos, Eric Zeusse, Seymour Hersh, Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris of The Duran, Matt Taibbi (Rolling Stone), James Wight, Lissa Johnson (New Matilda), Yves Smith (Naked Capitalism), Naomi Wolf, Kevin Gosztola (Shadowproof), Daniel Lazare (Consortium News), Lee Camp (Redacted Tonight), Dmitri Orlov, Alistair Smout (Reuters), Christian Christensen, Paul Craig Roberts, CJ Hopkins and Danny Haiphong of Greanville Post), Bruce Shapiro (The Nation), Jim Kavanaugh, Robert Scheer (Truthdig), Stephania Maurizi (la Repubblica) and Ted Rall (for calling what Assange did a "crime of necessity," which is defending him, but I think it is clear that it wasn't a crime). Condemning the anti-Russia hysteria that has driven much of the persecution were Tucker Carlson (Fox News) and Mollie Hemingway. Radio news host Dennis Bernstein and KPFA Flashpoints radio news have also stood up for Assange.

In addition to the publications named above, The Onion pointed out what so many so-called "journalists" have against him (he practices what they preach). On NBC, Ex-CIA Director Michael Morrel denied Russia-Trump collusion in March 2017 and the Observer condemned Russophobia in April 2018. Those opposing the anti-Russia hysteria that has hurt Assange have included The Nation, Voltaire Net, Sputnik, American Conservative, National Interest, American Thinker and PJ Media. Truthout, Mint Press News, RT, LewRockwell.com and World Socialist Website have also come to Assange's side. And, of course, Rice Farmer.

Now for the mad mongrels of the Medusean mass media (for heaven's sake, don't look at them), despite my inclusion of the Guardian*, Intercept, USA Today, Fox News, Reuters and New York Times among the heroes above for allowing a dissenting opinion, these boot-licking stenographers have done everything they can otherwise to harm Assange's public image. The Guardian even went as low as fabricating a libelous story about him meeting with Paul Manafort. Other flies swarming the festering corpse of the Fourth Estate include Slate, BBC* (dossier "verified" 2/2/17), PBS, The Australian, MSNBC*, The Age (Aus.), Washington Post*, Vox, Vice, Daily Mail*, NPR*, AP, daily Caller, New Statesman, CNN (again and again and again), The Atlantic, Independent (of what?), Daily Beast, Wall Street Journal*, London Times, Daily Mirror, Times of London, Mirror, New Statesman, Glasgow Herald, The View, Bloomberg, National Review*, Newsweek ("keep Russians out" 11/9/17), Washington Times, Buzzfeed, Politico (Trump's Russia Ties" 3/3/17), McClatchy (fanning hysteria), Business Insider, Private Eye, The Root, Mother Jones and New York magazine. I hear even Saturday Night Live approved of Assange's arrest and potential extradition.

These press harlots have engaged variously in childish "poop smears," approval of Assange's arrest, cheerleading for his extradition, repeating the "self-imposed exile" canard, rationalizing their indecent treatment of him as due to his being a "narcissist" and "not a journalist," expressing glee at his cruel treatment, fanning flames of anti-Russian hysteria, and carrying on about Russian trolls spoiling the long-deceased corpse of American democracy.

A run down of the 45 names of individuals such as Rachel Maddow** would be too long, even without including the editors of major papers.

Miscellaneous Monsters

Active attacks on Assange occur on Twitter. I won't name them here. Some may have been parodies. Hollywood waded into this sewer with its own contributions from Kathy Griffin, George Takei, Rob Reiner, Joy Behar, Alyssa Milano and Bill Maher.

Intelligence, foreign policy and academic contributions to Assange's persecution have come from Crowdstrike*, Center for American Progress, Fusion GPS, and one professor each at Harvard and the University of Georgia. Several "Never Trumpers" have also attacked Assange and the "Active Measures" documentary is said to have fanned hysteria against Assange.

The has-been Amnesty International refuses, the last I've heard, to consider Assange a political prisoner.

But there is hope

Assange does have notable support from people within Amnesty International such as Massimo Moratti, and also from Robert Mahoney and others of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Knight First Amendment Institute, Human Rights Watch, VIPS, ACLU, Center for Investigative Journalism, Amnesty Ireland, Center for Constitutional Rights, National Union of Journalists, Digital Rights Watch, and Rutherford Institute. He has legal analyst Marjorie Cohn on his side.

Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS*) issued a memorandum to the governments and people of the US and UK in support of Assange, signed by Bill Binney, and many more.

The protests in London in support of Assange have been attended by Patrick Henningsen, Lee Stranahan and George Galloway along with many, many unnamed people, and Women Against Rape has spoken up against the persecution of Assange, with the Guardian providing them space (bless their hearts).

Finally, Edward Snowden, civil rights attorney Jameel Jaffer, lawyer Barry Pollack, Dan Kennedy of Northwestern University, Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, historian Vijay Prashad, Australian human rights attorney Jennifer Robinson, Matthew Hoh (Center for International Policy), Micol Savia (International Association of Democratic Lawyers), human rights attorney John Whitehead, legal advisor Geoffrey Robertson, Australian activist Somerset Bean, Australian attorney Greg Barns, Robert Bridge (Strategic Culture Foundations), Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei, and Sydney criminal lawyers Kieran Adair, Urug Nedim and Paul Gregory have all stood up for him, not to mention his mother, father and attorney Adam Waldman. Last but not least, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd and comedian Jimmy Dore have voiced their support for Assange too.

Authors Bio:

The author has lived 38 years in Japan. She has also spent time in Siberia, where she led ecotours for Friends of the Earth Japan. She is fluent in Japanese and Russian, and also speaks Indonesian, Thai and Spanish. She loves nature and is an officially licensed Shinto priestess. She lives in a rural part of Ibaraki Prefecture. In addition to translation and teaching, she farms with her Japanese husband.