Caitlin Johnstone: After Assange, Anything Is Possible

 

Caitlin Johnstone: After Assange, Anything Is Possible

The deeply moving footage of Julian Assange coming home to Australia provides an example of something that seemed impossible — until it happened. Read here...

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Assange Agrees to Destroy Unpublished Classified Material

As part of his plea deal with the United States, Julian Assange agreed to order the destruction of any unpublished U.S. classified material in WikiLeaks possession. Read here...

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Assange Celebrations Mixed
With Rebukes of White House

Press-freedom advocates this week flagged the damage done by the U.S. government’s pursuit of a journalist who helped expose state secrets and evidence of war crimes. Read here...

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Assange Celebrations Mixed With Rebukes of White House

June 27, 2024

Press-freedom advocates this week flagged the damage done by the U.S. government’s pursuit of a journalist who helped expose state secrets and evidence of war crimes.

President Joe Biden giving an address in July 2021 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. (White House /Adam Schultz)

By Jessica Corbett
Common Dreams

Amid celebrations that a plea deal with the United States resulted in the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from a British prison, press freedom advocates this week continued to raise serious concerns about the damage done by the U.S. government’s pursuit of a journalist who helped expose state secrets and evidence of war crimes.

“Julian Assange faced a prosecution that had grave implications for journalists and press freedom worldwide,” said Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists, following news of the deal.

After spending seven years in the Ecuadorian embassy in the United Kingdom and five more in the London’s Belmarsh Prison, Assange agreed to plead guilty to one felony to avoid more time behind bars. 

The 52-year-old Australian was fighting against his extradition to the United States, where he faced 18 charges under the Espionage Act and a federal computer fraud law for publishing classified material and could have been locked up for the rest of his life.

“We are hugely relieved that Julian Assange is finally free — a long overdue victory for journalism and press freedom. He never should have spent a single day deprived of his liberty for publishing information in the public interest,” said Rebecca Vincent, Reporters Without Borders’ director of campaigns, in a statement.

“Nothing can undo the past 13 years, but it is never too late to do the right thing, and we welcome this move by the U.S. government,” she added. “We will continue to campaign in support of journalists around the world who find themselves targeted for national security reporting, and for reform of the U.S. Espionage Act, so that it can never again be used to target journalistic activity.” 

[See: How America’s Official Secrets Act Ensnared Julian Assange]

Vincent’s group is among several press freedom and human rights organizations that had long called for the U.S. Department of Justice to drop the charges against Assange — and after news of the plea deal broke, several others warned of what is to come. 

Assange supporters in October 2022 carry ribbon around the Justice Department Building (Joe Lauria)

Amnesty International secretary general Agnès Callamard celebrated what the deal will mean for the WikiLeaks founder and his family — including his wife Stella Assange, who plans to seek a pardon for her husband, and their young children — but said Tuesday that “the yearslong global spectacle of the U.S. authorities hell-bent on violating press freedom and freedom of expression by making an example of Assange for exposing alleged war crimes committed by the USA has undoubtedly done historic damage.”

“Amnesty International salutes the work of Julian Assange’s family, campaigners, lawyers, press freedom organizations, and many within the media community and beyond who have stood by him and the fundamental principles that should govern society’s right and access to information and justice,” she added. “We will keep fighting for their full recognition and respect by all.”

“…the global spectacle of the U.S. authorities hell-bent on violating press freedom and freedom of expression by making an example of Assange for exposing alleged war crimes committed by the USA has undoubtedly done historic damage.”
—Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International

Not all journalists and media outlets defended Assange, despite the precedent that his conviction could have set, and multiple headlines — including at The Associated Press, The New York Times, and The Washington Post — highlighted his guilty plea. 

“A plea deal would avert the worst-case scenario for press freedom, but this deal contemplates that Assange will have served five years in prison for activities that journalists engage in every day,” said Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University. “It will cast a long shadow over the most important kinds of journalism, not just in this country but around the world.”

Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, emphasized that “with today’s guilty plea, Julian Assange stands convicted of practicing journalism, and all investigative journalists now face greater legal peril.”

“Exposing government secrets and revealing them in the public interest is the core function of national security journalism,” Wizner continued.

“Today, for the first time, that activity was described in a guilty plea as a criminal conspiracy. And even if the current Department of Justice stays true to its assurances that the Assange case is unique and will not provide a precedent to be wielded against other publishers, we can’t be confident that future administrations will honor that commitment.”

“The precedent set by this guilty plea would have been far more dangerous had it been ratified by federal courts,” he added. “But make no mistake, the vital work of national security journalists will be more difficult today than it was yesterday.”

“The precedent set by this guilty plea would have been far more dangerous had it been ratified by federal courts…. But make no mistake, the vital work of national security journalists will be more difficult today than it was yesterday.” —Ben Wizner, ACLU

Seth Stern, director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), also looked to the future, tying Assange’s deal to the November U.S. election in which Democratic President Joe Biden is set to face former Republican President Donald Trump.

The current administration “could have distinguished itself from Donald Trump, Biden’s openly anti-press electoral opponent, whose administration first indicted Assange,” Stern noted in a piece for the Daily Beast. “It could have dropped the case.”

Instead, the Biden administration opted for a plea deal that “does not add any more prison time or punishment for Assange,” Stern stressed, echoing his initial statement on the news. “Its only impact will be to legitimize the criminalization of routine journalistic conduct and encourage future administrations to follow suit—including a potential second Trump administration.”

In a Tuesday opinion piece for The Guardian, FPF executive director Trevor Timm wrote: 

“Just imagine what an attorney general in a second Trump administration will think, knowing they’ve already got one guilty plea from a publisher under the Espionage Act. Trump, after all, has been out on the campaign trail repeatedly opining about how he would like to see journalists — who he sees as ‘enemies of the people‘ — in jail. Why the Biden administration would hand him any ammo is beyond belief.”

“So if the Biden administration is looking for plaudits for ending this case, they should get exactly none,” Timm asserted. “Now we can only hope this case is an aberration and not a harbinger of things to come.”

Jessica Corbett is a staff writer for Common Dreams

This article is from  Common Dreams.

Views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

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Welcome to Stop the Presses, a weekly newsletter about how right-wing extremism has exploited the weaknesses in American journalism and what we can do about it. 5 reasons journalists accept being lied to And why they think they’re blameless when they spread the lies MARK JACOB APR 15 Journalists don’t punish liars enough. Occasionally they push back on live TV, creating a few awkward moments, but by and large, they let liars state their lies and move on. Sometimes the journalists correct the lie later after their audience has absorbed the disinformation. It’s like pouring water on the ashes long after the fire is out. Confrontation is hard for people – even for journalists. If they make their guests look bad, the guests might never come back on the show. Their press aides might stop providing anonymous quotes or tidbits of information that make the journalists look like they have the inside scoop.  For this reason and others, some journalists accept being lied to, and consider it a part of their job. They don’t get offended – or at least not offended enough to fight back. They become part of a cynical system. And they come up with all kinds of rationalizations for their failure to vigorously defend the truth. Here are five of those rationalizations. These are not direct quotes by anyone – they’re just my attempt to capture the attitudes that are active in political journalism today.  1. We didn’t say he was telling the truth – we just reported what he said, and our report was true. He said it. This type of dodging of responsibility was demonstrated last week when the media repeated Donald Trump’s obvious deceptions about abortion.  Whenever news outlets report what politicians say without examining whether the comments are true or how they match the politicians’ past actions, they’re failing to do their job. That kind of fact-checking and context is the value-added that journalists bring. If they’re not going to do that, they might as well just put up a message board and let politicians post on it. 2. Yes, Trump lies a lot, but we can’t assume he’s lying this time. If we show too much skepticism, we’ll look biased. Journalists wouldn’t put it this way – at least not publicly – but they’re thinking this way.  To update an old expression … Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me 30,000 times in four years as president, shame on me. Team Trump should never get the benefit of the doubt. They haven’t earned it. Instead of reporting what "Trump says,” the media should report what "Trump, who has often lied about this issue, says.”  That would put Trump’s comments in a truthful context. But it would also violate the posture of objectivity that most mainstream outlets demand of their reporters. Many newsrooms are afraid of too much truth-telling because when the media reports negative information about one side in a two-party system – however valid – it makes some people think the truth-tellers are biased.  3. We have to give them their say. No, you don’t. Not unless they’re defending themselves on specific allegations or they’re saying something that will help the public understand the issue better.  Of course, it’s an ethical journalistic practice to ask people to comment if a news report is about them. But that doesn’t mean you have to publish whatever they say. The Washington Post wrote a story last November about Trump’s plans to use the Justice Department to punish his enemies if he’s elected. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung would not answer specific questions about the plan but told the Post: “President Trump has always stood for law and order, and protecting the Constitution.”  The Post should not have printed that. By this time, Trump had already talked about pardoning the thugs who beat up cops and stormed the Capitol. He was facing 91 criminal counts (later reduced to 88). He had called for the “termination” of the Constitution. Cheung’s comment was an obvious lie. The Post probably thought printing that was “fairness.” But fair to whom? Certainly not the readers. 4. All politicians lie. The cynicism of political reporters is a problem. Yes, it’s difficult not to become jaded when you see all the ethical shortcuts in politics today. But our government has a great capacity to bring either justice or oppression to people. The news media must demand high standards for public servants and call out those who don’t meet those standards. It’s probably true that almost all politicians make misleading statements at one time or another. But they don't do it in equal numbers. The level of dishonesty being shown by today’s Republican Party is unprecedented in American history. It is not normal. 5. It’s not technically a lie if they think it’s true.  This argument was used by media execs to explain why they didn’t call Trump’s statements “lies” when he was running in 2016. They argued that they couldn’t read his mind and didn't know whether he was intentionally spreading falsehoods. He might have simply been mistaken. Of course, he almost never changed his rhetoric when the fact-checkers took his lies apart. He just kept repeating them. With the exception of a few genuinely stupid politicians like Tommy Tuberville, MAGA politicians are not deluded. They know exactly what they’re doing, which is trying to delude the public. Many are highly educated people. They know what the truth is. They just think it’s an obstacle to their ambitions.  Media types won’t say this publicly, but I’m sure some of them feel overwhelmed by the torrent of lies from the right. They might fact-check one lie, but three others slip through. This is why, if they feel compelled to put liars on television, they should never do it live. They should record the interviews and present them with the fact-checks inserted right after the lies. The most important reform, though, would be for journalists to get beyond fact-checking and move on to fact-crusading. That’s what CNN was doing last week with its excellent reporting on how Republicans are trying to slip away from their past positions on abortion.  Fact-crusading happens when journalists consider themselves defenders of the truth and become so offended by disinformation that they confront and punish those who spread it. Fact-crusading happens when journalists value their duty to democracy more than their access to democracy’s enemies.

Israel allegedly carried out mass summary executions at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital

in Palestine

by Andre Damon

21/03/2024 

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) engaged in summary mass executions of civilians during a raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza this week, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said Wednesday.

The raid has killed at least 100 people, “many of whom were victims of extrajudicial executions after their arrest,” the human rights group said. Dozens more were detained, beaten and tortured.

Based on interviews with survivors who were detained and tortured at the hospital, Euro-Med said that Israeli forces had been carrying executions for three days in a row.

One detainee, identified as MK, told Euro-Med, “The soldiers detained me and handcuffed me in the hospital courtyard; I was left undressed for more than nine hours.” He reported that soldiers repeatedly took prisoners into the morgue, then gunshots were heard, and the soldiers returned without the prisoners.

“About four times during that period, I saw soldiers lead groups of detainees—[always] at least three people and [never] more than 10—into the hospital buildings, particularly the morgue building where bodies had previously been kept,” he said. “Gunshots were heard, with the soldiers then leaving the area to bring another group there.”

Another witness, who asked to remain completely anonymous, said, according to Euro-Med, that he “witnessed Israeli forces taking eight or 10 Palestinian civilians at a time towards the morgue area. He then heard heavy gunfire, and the Israeli forces later left without the civilians.”

Commenting on the victim’s account, Euro-Med said, “These civilians were likely subjected to unlawful killings and executions.”

The Israeli military claimed to have “eliminated” 90 “terrorists” during the raid on Al-Shifa Hospital, the Gaza Strip’s largest medical facility. “Over the past day, the troops have eliminated terrorists and located weapons in the hospital area,” the IDF said in a statement.

Among those detained, tortured, and stripped naked were medical personnel at the hospital.

Emergency surgeon Mads Gilbert, who previously worked at Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital, said colleagues described torture by Israeli forces.

“Medical staff have been arrested and left for hours in the cold,” Gilbert said. “Some were forced to leave the hospital and taken to unknown places. Others were displaced to the south half naked.”

He concluded, “One doctor was shot in the chest when he followed the orders to leave the hospital and later went into surgery at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital.” He added that the Israeli military does not differentiate “between fighters and medical staff, patients and refugees.”

As a result of the raid, Al-Shifa Hospital was again taken out of commission, further threatening the lives of the population of northern Gaza, where epidemic disease is running rampant amid the absence of food and drinking water, which is being blocked by Israel.

Journalists were also tortured at the hospital. CNN reported that IDF forces detained, blindfolded and stripped journalists from Al Jazeera and left them in the hospital yard in the cold.

Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Ismail al-Ghoul and his team were arrested for 12 hours and “severely beaten” by Israeli forces.

Al Jazeera journalist Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah, said al-Ghoul was “tortured, beaten and detained by the Israeli military along with his crew member on the ground.”

Since October 7, there have been 410 attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza, according to the World Health Organization. “Attacks have resulted in 685 fatalities, 902 injuries, damage to 99 facilities and affected 104 ambulances,” the WHO said in a statement on Twitter.

Meanwhile, famine continues to spread throughout the Gaza Strip. A report by the World Bank published Wednesday found that 1.1 million people in Gaza are at the highest risk of famine—classified as a “catastrophe”—while another 854,000 are facing an “emergency.”

“The situation in the Gaza Strip has reached catastrophic levels,” according to the World Bank’s report.

None of the population of Gaza falls into the lower two categories of food insecurity.

“Household surveys reveal alarming trends, with virtually all households skipping meals daily and a significant portion of children under two suffering from acute malnutrition,” the report concluded.

In a statement Wednesday, Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, said, “Siege, hunger & diseases will soon become the main killer in #Gaza.”

Between March 19 and March 20, 104 Palestinians were killed in Gaza, bringing the official death toll to 31,923. Once the missing are added, the effective death toll since October exceeds 40,000.

A critical element of Israel’s deliberate mass starvation of the population of Gaza has been the deliberate targeting of aid workers. Gaza’s government media office said Wednesday that over 100 aid workers had been killed over the past week in eight separate attacks. The aim of these attacks was, according to Gaza’s government media office, to “perpetuate the policy of starvation and deepen famine on a broader scale.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli government continues to openly advocate for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. In a statement to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Israeli parliament, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speculated that the port being constructed by the United States in Gaza, nominally to provide food aid, could be used to deport Palestinians.

“There is no obstacle for the Gazans to leave, maybe even the port they are building could be used for this, but there are no countries in the world that are ready to receive them,” Netanyahu said, according to a report by a journalist for the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation.

Despite verbal criticism of Netanyahu by President Joe Biden, the United States continues to insist that there are “no red lines” for the types of war crimes that Israel is allowed to commit, and continues to provide funding and weapons for the ongoing genocide as part of its broader military offensive throughout the region targeting Iran.

Originally published in WSWS.ORG

IDF troops detain and torture people at Shifa hospital in Gaza.

https://countercurrents.org/2024/03/israel-allegedly-carried-out-mass-summary-executions-at-gazas-al-shifa-hospital/