The ongoing tensions between the United States, Israel, and Iran have become a focal point in global geopolitics. As America navigates its role in the Middle East, questions arise about its motivations and the implications of its actions, particularly regarding Iran's nuclear capabilities.  Lost in the sound and fury of United States attacks on Iran is how these protect and approve Israel's merciless obliteration of the people of Gaza.

It is profoundly unfair and globally irresponsible to consider military action against Iran, as President Trump is mooting, in a NATO narrative that has told lies about Iran for decades. The recent outcry from Israel, which attacked Iran, and its allies over an Iranian missile strike that damaged a hospital raises serious questions about accountability. Reports indicate that the damage was a result of a nearby military facility being targeted, and fortunately, there were no casualties.

Australia’s top spy wrote to the CIA asking to keep secret details of an investigation into phone calls made to the US Embassy in Canberra about an assassination plot before President John F. Kennedy was killed, newly declassified files have revealed. Australia’s top spy wrote to the CIA asking to keep secret details of an investigation into phone calls made to the US Embassy in Canberra about an assassination plot before President John F. Kennedy was killed, newly declassified files have revealed.

On 22 Second August, Riyad Mansour (pictured) Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the United Nations spoke to the United Nations. In that meeting, Riyad called upon all the Ambassadors to the Security Council to come with him to Gaza to see for themselves how Israel is destroying the housing, hospitals, schools and other infrastructure whilst killing, so far, by one more conseravtive estimate, more than 40,000 unarmed Palestinian civilians. Much, but all of the discussion is

Narna Vasardnar (pictured left) and Alision Tahmizian Meuse @AliTahmizian (pictured right) discuss, in a 48 minute video, how Azerbaijan, by its use of the highway which connects its main territory in the east to its western Nakhchivan exclave, has made travel and trade between Armenia and neighbouring Iran, to the south, very difficult. They also discuss Prime Minister Pashinyan's collusion with Azerbaijan in this de-facto blockade.

The United States has an appalling record of meddling in the affairs of other countries, which has often taken the form of outright invasion. The most recent example is its facilitation of Israel's known murder of more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza since 7 October last year. And, since he was inaugurated in January 2021, it appears that US President Joe Biden has actually overseen an organised, undeclared, invasion of his own country. Using multiple, government financed NGOs, Biden has facilitated truly massive illegal human traffic from across the globe, via the United States southern border, plus their transport throughout the country. His government has also financed airline passage for many more illegal immigrants. Estimates of how many illegal aliens now reside in the United States are in the order of 25 million. In the embedded video Redacted's Natali and Clayton and their guest J J Carrell rightly label Biden's conduct 'treason'.

Update 18 April: George Galloway's guest predicts that Israel will start World War 3 on Saturday.

As the newly-elected UK MP George Galloway recently stated, on Episode 334 of his Mother of All Talk Shows (MOATS), "Will they, won't they, will they won't they, will they they join the dance - Biden says 'no', Netanyahu says 'yes'. Who is going to prevail? How can Netanyahu not say 'yes' because his cabinet have, by a majority, already decided that, within 24 to 48 hours, what will effectively become World War 3 will begin. So, hold your children close and listen carefully to tonight's show, the Mother of all Talk Shows. Who knows? It may be the last time that we ever talk. It's going to be the Mother of all Talk Shows. Stay tuned."

In this 14 minute video, British journalist Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) gives all of the critical facts about the Australian journalist Julian Assange who faces the threat of extradition to the United States. There he would be tried at a kangaroo court and would almost certainly be imprisoned for the rest of his life in conditions of solitary confinement that would be even worse than all that he is now being made to endure at London's Belmarsh Prison.

Update, 7:20AM Qld time, Friday 9 Feb : Tucker Carlson will be interviewing Vladimir Putin at 11:00PM GMT or, in Queensland, 9:00AM - (apologies, 9:00AM and not 9:00PM) tomorrow on Friday and at 10:00AM in NSW and Victoria.

Tucker Carlson will be soon interviewing Russian President Vladimir Putin. He will be putting to Putin many of the claims made against him by the Corporate/Legacy media in the west and will allow him to give his side in response. Whilst large numbers of Western journalists have conducted fawning, uncritical interviews with his adversary Ukrainian President Volodomir Zelenskyy, Tucker will be first Western journalist to have interviewed Putin since the commencement of Russia's "Special Military Operation" against the Zelenskyy government's military forces in February 2022, nearly two years ago. To be notified by email when the live interview will commence, go to https://tuckercarlson.com. The interview will subsequently posted to Tuckewr's Twitter Channel, where there will be no paywalls or any other obstacles to prevent anyone from watching it, in full, for free on his Twitter account.

In his interview of one hour and 22 minutes, which is embedded within this article, Robert F. Kennedy Junior (@RobertKennedyJr), who is seeking to be the Democratic Party's candidate for the Presidential election on 5 November 2024, explained how he will end the war in Ukraine by ceasing the supply of US military aid to the Kiev regime, which so far, totals US$43 billion. Most of this military aid has turned into charred wreckage containing much of the flower of young Ukrainian manhood [1] in the east of Ukraine.

In a media release on 17 July 2023, Annette Brownlie of the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN) welcomed the decision by India not to particpate in the 'Talisman Sabre military exercises which were scheduled to be held from 22 July in Queensland's Shoalwater Bay. Other participants are New Zealand, Australia and the United States.

Ep. 4 Wannabe Dictator pic.twitter.com/MDcs5g0gxB

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 15, 2023

As Australia agrees to host a second US military base among the 800 to 1000 US bases and installations round the world, it also stands almost silently by as the US pursues Julian Assange's extradition to the bowels of the bent and fractured US legal system. This appalling system is now poised to outlaw free speech indefinitely in the United States and wherever its tentacles reach around the globe.

(See also RFK Junior Twitter posts (4/5/23) and US Action 4 Assange) In stark contrast to the Australian government and all but a handful of MPs and Senators, Robert F Kennedy Junior, son of Senator Robert F Kennedy (3/1/1925 - 6/6/1988), has, since he announced, on 19 April 2023, that he was seeking the nomination to be the Democratic Party's candidate for President of the United States, repeatedly condemned both current President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump for their efforts to illegally extradite Julian Assange from London to the United States. In the US, Assange will almost certainly be made to face 175 years in prison in solitary confinement. This penalty is for Assange's supposed breach of the US 1917 Espionage Act when he is not even a US citizen!

The theft of Syrian oil by US forces illegally occupying Syria, and the US-NATO backed destruction of infrastructure and economy, have left Syrians in extreme danger of dying from cold and starvation this winter. Before the war Syria, which is the seat of one of the earliest civilisations, had a healthy economy and was host to many refugees from neighboring states.

Update, 19 February 2023: According to a video by EU President Ursula von der Leyen on 30 November 2022, which she soon edited, 100,000 Ukrainian soldiers have perished [1] since the launch of Russia's Special Military Operation on 24 January 2022. If true, the number of Ukrainian military deaths greatly outnumbers her figure for 20,000 claimed civilian deaths. This makes Ukrainian soldiers, mostly conscripts including ethnic Hungarians the greatest victims of the Ukraine conflict, a conflict, which is clearly a war of choice by the West and its puppet, Zilenskyy.

Former German Chancellor Merkel, former French President Hollande and former Ukrainian President Poroshenko have all revealed that the 2014 Minsk Accords were only designed to buy time for then Ukrainian President Poroshenko to re-equip the Ukrainian Army. Even President Zilenskyy admitted on Thursday 9, February that he personally refused to implement those agreements. So the ongoing war in Ukraine is clearly a war of choice by President Zilenskyy and and his US masters.

However, even if we were to, somehow, still find a way to attribute all of those deaths to Russia and not to the Kiev regime, how does this compare with the record of the United States, which by one estimate, has, since the end of the Second World War in 1945, killed between 20 and 30 million people in many bloody wars of aggression across the globe? Even United States political leaders such as President JFK, his brother, Robert and Marin Luther King, who tried to stop these wars have also fallen victim in circumstances, which can be described at best, as very suspicious.

Russian President Vladmir Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan held a four-hour meeting on August 5 in Sochi which may change the course of the Middle East, and end the US occupation of Syria.

"Official Western institutions have never recognised Assange as a prisoner of conscience,why do you think that is?" Oksana asks Greg Barnes. After almost a decade in confinement, Julian Assange is still fighting against extradition requests to the United States, at cost to his physical and mental health, while also compromising WikiLeaks’ ability to continue its operations.

"Biden is like Trump without the Tweets." The British are known for their "permanent opportunism." "Boris Johnson is like a fifth wheel." US State Department falsely claimed it communicated with the French. China is attempting to make the China Sea into a kind of internal sea. Australia is losing sovereignty to America. US submarines would arrive ten years later than the French ones, so urgency cannot be the reason for breach of contract. (French Minister for Foreign Affairs).
Co-dependency is known to lead partners of people with grave emotional and mental problems into embarassing situations. These kinds of compromise are achieved through manipulation by flattery or pressure on approval-seeking and disapproval-avoiding spouses. Was this the situation for Scott Morrison, who, although Mr Biden could not remember Scott's name, a day or two before, was suddenly convinced by Biden and his team, to seriously snub France, whilst leaving parliament mostly in the dark, in a move that will cost us all even more money but also even more than money. Is China really such an unreasonable threat a world, when America has an order of magnitude more military bases than any other country? Do we really prefer to be completely remade in the image of Walmart, as we become just another new military base for the United States? Is this really just another 19th century trade-war, but with nuclear submarines instead of galleons? Jean-Yves Le Drian is the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs. He was interviewed by lead journalist Laurent Delahousse on France2 News on 18 September 2021, on the subject of Australia's sudden breach of its submarine contract with France for a projected contract with the United States. Inside is a detailed translation of that interview, for any Australians who are interested. The original interview is at Journal 20h00 - Édition du samedi 18 septembre 2021 en streaming - Replay France 2 | France tv.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE: This evening the contract of the century has been broken and France has called its ambassadors home from the United States and Australia. What will be the outcome of this diplomatic crisis between allies? Answers this evening from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Jean-Yves Le Drian, who is our guest.
[Presentation of the other headlines]

LAURANT DELAHOUSSE: A crisis, an earthquake, a conspiracy between allies. It’s hard to work out what’s happening in this affair. The breaching of the contract of the century on submarines is giving rise to consequences that go well beyond economic matters. These highlight a rearrangement of geopolitical maps and it remains to be known where France and Europe will end up in all this.

Before we go to Jean-Yves Le Drian, first, the fact for today: Paris decided to call home its ambassadors in the United States and Australia. (Names journalists Thomas Cuny, Lucie Berbey, and [?Noah d’Intar – unclear] responsible for producing this background segment)

“Alone in the corridors of Sydney Airport, France’s ambassador to Australia leaves the country. Just like his counterpart in Washington. The two diplomats have been called back to Paris for consultation. An exceptional diplomatic decision. Taken by the President of the Republic and justified in this communication from the Minister of Foreign Affairs.”

Communication from the Quai d’Orsay, 17 September 2021: “This exceptional decision is justified by the exceptional gravity of the announcement made on 15 September by Australia and the United States.”

A few hours earlier on the two continents, the French ambassadors spoke in unison of France’s indignation.

Translation from the French translation of the French Ambassador to the U.S.’s statement: “When we learned that the contract had been cancelled, this really made us angry.”
Jean-Pierre Thebault (French ambassador in Australia, statement in English translated into French): “I think it was a huge mistake. A nasty blow to our partnership. It was more than a contract. It was a partnership.”

The return of the ambassadors, France’s retort after the cancellation of Australia’s order for 12 French submarines to the value of 56 billion euros. Basically, Canberra has turned towards the United States and the United Kingdom. Since then there has been a continuing diplomatic crisis between France and these countries.

PASCAL BONIFACE : (Geopolitical expert – Director of the Institute of International and Strategic Diplomatic Relations (Directeur de l’Institut de Relations internationales et stratégiques (IRIS)) : “France, obviously, has been betrayed, as much by the Australians as by the United States, which are allies. And therefore, when there is a betrayal, one cannot accept it without reacting. Otherwise, one loses honour. And therefore it was completely legitimate, moral, and expected, that France should have a strong reaction, rather than be totally humiliated and not react in respect of that humiliation.”

Tonight, the U.S. State Department reacted to the French Government’s decision:

“We have been in close contact with our French allies. We understand their position and we are conscious of their intention to recall the Ambassador to Paris for consultation. France is an essential partner and our oldest ally.”

The emboldened text below is the only part that was verbally translated in the French news

Original U.S. communication appearing on screen :
US DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Attributed to State Department Spokesperson Ned Price: We have been in close contact with our French allies. We understand their position, and we are aware of their plans to recall Ambassador Etienne to Paris for consultations. France is a vital partner and our oldest ally, and we place the highest value on our relationship. The Transatlantic Alliance has fostered security, stability, and prosperity around the world for more than seven decades, and our commitment to those bonds and our work together is unwavering. We hope to continue our discussion on this issue at the senior level in coming days, including at UNGA next week, in line with our close bilateral partnership and commitment to cooperation on arrange of issues, including the Indo-Pacific.

Jean-Yves Le Drian and his American counterpart, Tony Blinken, will again find themselves in New York, at the seat of the United Nations. The Americans hope to continue the dialogue. [Reference to the last paragraph of the US communication above.]

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : And in an attempt to better understand the Minister for Foreign Affairs is with us. Good evening Jean-Yves Le Drian.

LE DRIAN (FRENCH FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER): Good evening.

LAUREN DELAHOUSSE : For many French people listening, to recall those ambassadors in response to such a humiliation, may not mean much.

LE DRIAN : It’s very symbolic. There have been lies, there has been duplicity, there has been a major breakdown in trust, there has been contempt. Therefore things are not good between us! Not good at all! It means there is a crisis, and at this moment, there is firstly a symbolic aspect – you recall your ambassadors in order to try to understand, but at the same time in order to show our countries which were once partners that we are really very angry, that there is really a crisis between us, and then, it is also, when the moment arrives, to reevaluate our position, in order to defend our interests both in Australia and in the United States.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : Mr Drian, you know as I do, this evening, that this measure isn’t going to stop Joe Biden from sleeping. He is happy with the contract, which is now in his favor.
LE DRIAN : Yes, but the fact that for the first time in the history of the United States and France we have recalled our ambassador for consultation is a heavy political action, signifying the importance of the crisis which exists today between our two countries. Also with Australia.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : Have Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron spoken together?

LE DRIAN : Not to my knowledge.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : Has Mr Blinken spoken with you?

LE DRIAN : Today, no. Um, I heard your commentary, according to which there had been consultations with – between the Americans and ourselves – before the announcement. It isn’t true.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : Meaning that you knew nothing.

LE DRIAN : - an hour before -

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : - nothing of these negotiations an hour beforehand. [… unclear]

LE DRIAN : That’s the reason I’m telling you that there has been duplicity, contempt, lying. It’s -

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : And perhaps -

LE DRIAN : - You can’t play with alliances like that! We are allies.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : Mmm.

LE DRIAN : And therefore, when one has an ally, one does not treat them with brutality, with such unpredictability, a major partner which France is. So, there is really a crisis.
This also throws light perhaps on some kind of failure in our research services when one is not up to date …?

LE DRIAN : No. Yes. But really, in fact the agreement which was initiated by the United States an Australia was decided by a tiny little committee and I am not even sure that all the Australian and American ministers knew it.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : Mr Biden’s method bears a strong resemblance to Mr Trump’s.

LE DRIAN : Without the tweets.

LAURANT DELAHOUSSE : Without the tweets.

LE DRIAN : But, with a quite infuriatingly pompous announcement. Truth be told, seeing the US President and the Australian Prime Minister in company with Boris Johnson, announcing with such solemn ceremony, this breach and these new commitments, provides so many reasons to question the strength of the alliance.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE: Are there no allies anymore on the American side? Is there a profound breakdown in trust?

LE DRIAN : There is a breakdown in trust.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : And you saw the same thing, well before. We remember 2013 and those French planes taking off. This is something that affected you deeply. It’s a new step after Afghanistan.

LE DRIAN : What’s for sure is that the United States are in the process of recentering their fundamental interests. They are in the process of going back on a particular commitment they had on the international level, and there is a real link between Afghanistan and what has just happened with the Australian contract, except that a true alliance – in a true alliance – people talk to each other. They don’t hide things. They answer our questions. One respects the other. One respects sovereignty. This was not the case. That is why there is a crisis.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : What we might have hoped for was, finally, a strong, intense, European reaction. I haven’t heard Mrs Merkel say anything today.

LE DRIAN: Yes, but -

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : Aren’t you disappointed about that, in the circumstances? That, in the end, France finds herself alone, while power bypasses Europe?

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : I’m not sure that we are really so alone in this business, because of various conversations we have had in these last 48 hours, including -

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : Perhaps she [Merkel] will speak -

LE DRIAN : But wait, it’s not over – (Smiling)

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE: It’s not over. (Grinning.) It’s not over. (Turning to audience.)

In fact, in a moment we are going to look at how geopolitics in that region are on the move. And we are going to talk about this. Why has America made this choice and why is there new vitality in the Anglo-Saxon axis, and especially why this Asia-Pacific region has become the priority? It’s not new for Washington, which no longer looks to the west, and Europe, but towards the East and China. To understand what is at stake, [..] Presents background piece.

[BACKGROUND PIECE:]
[Picture of Australian Prime Minister Morrison with a rather stupid smile on his face.]

An unconcerned Australian Primeminister, at daggers drawn with Xi Jinping’s China. He has chosen his side and thrown himself into Joe Biden’s arms in a game of power, in that battle of influences that is playing out in the Indo-Pacific region. Australia is thousands of kilometers from the United States, but the two countries are united by their obsession with China. They can no longer bear that Peking (Bejing) wants to reign over this entire region. They have found their theatre, this submarine contract. For Australia, it’s a kind of all-risks insurance against Peking (Bejing), and too bad for the French.

THOMAS GOMART, DIRECTOR OF THE FRENCH INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (DIRECTEUR DE L’INSTITUT FRANCAIS DES RELATIONS INTERNATIONALES (IRI)) : “Australia, which has been the object of multiple pressures from China, has in a way completely switched over into the American camp. That means that this contract also translates into a highly probable form of integration of the Australian Navy into the US Marines, in response to the threat from China.”

An agreement between Washington and Canberra, at a moment when military tensions are more and more lively in the region. Latest episode: [Picture of rows of Chinese ships in the Pacific] This armada of 200 chinese ships that Peking (Beijing) calls fishing boats, in fact a maritime militia financed by China in order to challenge the countries in the region. A perfect illustration of this middle-ranking empire in a quest for supremacy.

ANTOINE BONDAZ : RESEARCHER – SPECIALIST ON CHINA. FOUNDATION FOR STRATEGIC RESEARCH (FONDATION POUR LA RECHERCHE STRATEGIQUE (FRS))
“This confrontation between Australia and China, brooding for years, culminated in 2020. (…) Peking [Bejing] imposed economic sanctions on Australia, with high taxes on wine, beef, barley, and coal. And it is also that economic war that is pushing the Australians to seek shelter under the American umbrella.”

LAURANT DELAHOUSSE : Before we return to geopolitics, what can we do next? What are you going to try to get, to negotiate for, with the Americans?

LE DRIAN : Firstly, there is the agreement we had with the Australians. It was an intergovernmental agreement that I signed myself in 2016 with Mr Morrison’s predecessor. This agreement contained previsions for a situation where one of the parties would want to leave it, since this is an agreement over 30 years.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : So, a violation -

LE DRIAN : So, there are arrangements that indicate, firstly, that the party wanting to break the agreement makes this known in writing, which we have not yet received. After that, 12 months of discussion are required, in order to arrive at a potential breaking of the agreement, if one of the parties wants to break it, at the end of 24 months. We are therefore going to act to ask for explanations from the Australians in order to know how they themselves expect to respect the agreement that they themselves signed. But, there is still another point that preoccupies me in this business.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : Mmm.

LE DRIAN : We were meant to deliver the first submarines by the beginning of the 2030s on a schedule that would take us to 2050. That’s been breached. It’s been breached, say the Australians, because China has militarized.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE. Mmm.

LE DRIAN : And it was precisely in order to ensure the sovereignty of Australia that we entered these contracts with the Australians. But, in short, they say the contracts being broken because of China – And what’s America offering, today? What does the agreement just announced contain? There is an agreement to carry out a study which will end up in a contract after 18 months. A contract for nuclear submarines. Which means they are putting back the delivery date for the new submarines to 2040! All this despite the urgent context of China’s rise?

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE: Therefore, you don’t understand.

LE DRIAN: I don’t understand. And maybe that’s Australia’s choice. And they have also chosen to be truly subordinate to the United States in the region - perhaps a form of giving up a part of their sovereignty. It’s their decision, but it gives rise to questions -

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : The political map is changing there and you are well aware of it. You know that’s been the long-term objective in the region, vis a vis China, since Barack Obama. What will France’s role and place be in that region? And Europe’s?

LE DRIAN : Keep in mind here the rise of a highly confrontational, militarily confrontational, United States-initiated Indo-Pacific strategy in the region.

LAURANT DELAHOUSSE : That’s not our position towards China?

LD DRIAN : It’s not our position. We know very well what China is doing.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : That’s not naïve? It’s the third […unclear]

LE DRIAN : Not at all, it’s not naïve. We know very well that China is rearming. We know very well what China’s behaviour is at the international level: How they are also trying in some way to make the South China Sea an internal sea, which they want to control completely. We know all that, and it must not be accepted. But we Europeans are in a situation where we only recently decided, three days ago, on our own Indo-Pacific strategy. We are in competition. We are in a situation of competition, sometimes violent competition. We are proposing an alternative model, but we are not operating within a rationale of systematic military confrontation – even if sometimes it is necessary to use military means.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : You have previously been known to use the word ‘innocence’, and sometimes even Europe’s ‘naivety’. Have we come to the end of that approach, on the diplomatic level, in the face of China, in the face of the United States, in the face of Turkey, in the face of Russia? Should we be changing gears, Minister?

LE DRIAN : I think that Europe is emerging from its innocence.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : But it seems urgent, Minister.

LE DRIAN : It seems urgent after Afghanistan and this business […] I think that Europe, if Europeans want to remain relevant, they must unite, and defend their own interests together, or their destinies will be totally different and we don’t want to got down that dark road.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : […] Two final questions: No santions, or no reactions, finally, vis a vis the role of the British in that deal? Finally, Boris Johnson has a smile on his face: I just got through Brexit. I’m with my Anglo-Saxon friends. I’ve regained my balance in the face of [… ? ]

LE DRIAN : No sanctions. I told you a moment ago that we recalled our ambassadors to see how we could reevaluate the situation. With Great Britain, it’s unnecessary. We are familiar with their permanent opportunism. So, there’s no point in recalling our ambassador to know this. Moreover, Great Britain, in this affair, is pretty much the fifth wheel.

LAURENT DELAHOUSSE : So, Boris Johnson is a fifth wheel. A few months from the election, your opponents will very quickly oppose you on many things. France’s decline, which is an important issue for the President of the republic, could be strongly represented?

LE DRIAN : The subject is respect, functioning alliances, clarity and truth. I think everyone can share this.

LAURANT DELAHOUSSE : No question of leaving NATO?

LE DRIAN : That’s not the issue. The President of the Republic has embarked on a review of NATO’s fundamentals. Regarding these fundamentals, the next summit will be in Madrid. The culmination of the new strategic concept will of course take into account what has just happened, but at the same time Europe must develop its own strategic compass. This will be under France’s responsibility, in the first half of 2022.

[Translation by Sheila Newman]

Over the past year, the Center for a Humane Economy worked closely with United States Representatives Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Penn., to formulate legislation to ban the trade in kangaroo-sourced products into the United States. When the “Kangaroo Protection Act” was introduced into Congress on February 9, 2021, word spread quickly throughout Australia by way of the press (ABC, Leader, The Australian, Sydney Morning Herald) and social media, for which we have many organizations to thank.

California already bans the trade in kangaroo products, and the Center is working to ensure that law is enforced. The effort to extend that ban to all parts of the United States can have a transformative effect and dry up one of the world’s most important markets for these products (principally, football boots). As we expected, the industries that profit from kangaroo killing understand the potential impact of this bill on their bottom line and have already started to aggressively fight back.

We’re writing to request your formal support of the bill, H.R. 917. You can read the language of the bill here.

The Kangaroo Protection Act would:

· Make it illegal to bring any kangaroo body part into the United States for commercial purposes, with an intent to sell or introduce it into interstate commerce.

· Direct the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with other agencies, to issue regulations to carry out the Act and enforce its provisions.

· Allow citizens to bring actions in federal court to enforce the Act.

· Provide for criminal penalties of up to one year in jail and a $10,000 fine for each violation of the Act, and civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation.

· Allow forfeiture of any kangaroo or kangaroo products in the possession of violators.

By banning the importation of kangaroo products into the United States, we hope to stem the killing of more than two million of these iconic marsupials each year. But first we must show members of Congress that a global coalition of advocates, scientists and leading animal protection organizations in Australia supports the aims of this proposed legislation. We need your support.

If you haven’t seen it, our short film, produced by filmmakers Gavin Polone and Derek Ambrosi, tells a compelling story in just 60 seconds of how a kangaroo becomes a product for purchase in countries like the United States.

Our ask: Will you please sign the statement [see below] of support for H.R. 917, The Kangaroo Protection Act? We would be grateful for your partnership in this endeavor to create sweeping change. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Skiff Mitchell Fox
Perth, Australia Director of Advocacy

Statement of Support example, which you can just send email containing the information,

Support for the United States Kangaroo Protection Act

We support the purpose of H.R. 917, the Kangaroo Protection Act, introduced by Representatives Salud Carbajal and Brian Fitzpatrick into the United States House of Representatives in February 2021. The Center for a Humane Economy / Animal Wellness Action has permission to publicize our support of the bill to members of Congress, on its websites and social media channels, and in campaign materials.
Organization: ______________________________________________
Signed by: _________________________________________________
Title: _____________________________________________________
Date: _____________________________________________________

Please complete and return (scanned or photographed) to Mitchell Fox [email protected]. Or you can simply send us an email containing the information above.
Thank you.

This article can be printed on two sides of an A4 sheet from this file (but, please be warned, it costs a lot more to print it as colour rather than as black and white).

Dear Prime Minister Scott Morrison, I am writing to you concerning the imprisonment, psychological and physical torture, in Britain, of an Australian citizen, Julian Assange, who has committed no crime. So far Julian Assange has endured more than eight and a half years of this, and if the United States' government has its way, this will continue for the rest of his life. On 11 April 2019, shortly after Julian Assange was taken from the London Ecuadorian Embassy and placed under arrest, Foreign Minister Marise Payne issued a statement:

"I am confident, as the United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt publicly confirmed in July 2018, that Mr Assange will receive due process in the legal proceedings he faces in the United Kingdom." [1]

If you, Prime Minister, or Marise Payne, have been able to closely follow the legal proceedings to which Julian Assange has been subjected for over one year now, in Woolwich Crown Court, you will be aware of the following:

• For breaching bail on 19 June 2012 to seek asylum at the Ecuadorian Embassy, which he is entitled to do under Article 14 of United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 [2], he was sentenced to 50 weeks imprisonment, [3] the absolute maximum sentence for this offence;

• On 13 September 2019, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser further extended Julian Assange's imprisonment when she ruled that Julian Assange would not be released on 22 September because of the United States prosecution's extradition request, the case for which, it had evidently not been able to fully prepare in the seven and a half years that Julian Assange had been imprisoned for at that point in time;

• On every day of the hearing, even before Judge Vanessa Baraitser had listened to any of the testimony or cross-examination, she came into court with her judgement for that day pre-written! [4]

• From the first day of the trial (25 February 2020) Julian Assange was brought in handcuffed, and "confined at the back of the court behind a bulletproof glass screen … from which it is very difficult for him to see and hear the proceedings." [5]

• Magistrate Vanessa Baraitser "refused repeated and persistent requests from the defence for Assange to be allowed to sit with his lawyers." [6]

• Reporting on these preceedings, on 22 October 2019, Craig Murray, who, until then, had been skeptical of claims that Julian Assange was being tortured, declared himself, "badly shocked by just how much weight my friend has lost, by the speed his hair has receded and by the appearance of premature and vastly accelerated ageing. He has a pronounced limp I have never seen before. Since his arrest he has lost over 15 kg in weight." [7]

• Craig Murray continued, "But his physical appearance was not as shocking as his mental deterioration. When asked to give his name and date of birth, he struggled visibly over several seconds to recall both. … his difficulty in making it was very evident; it was a real struggle for him to articulate the words and focus his train of thought." [8]

• On 21 February 2020, during that single day, "Julian had twice been stripped naked and searched, eleven times been handcuffed, and five times been locked up in different holding cells. In addition to this, all of his court documents had been taken from him by the prison authorities, including privileged communications between his lawyers and himself, and he had been left with no ability to prepare to participate in [that day's] proceedings." [9] Julian Assange was subject to this sort of treatment for the duration of the trial.

• "For months, he was denied [physical] exercise and held in solitary confinement [for 23 hours a day] … At first he was denied his reading glasses, left behind [on 25 February 2020 when he was arrested inside the Ecuadorian Embassy]. He was denied the legal documents with which to prepare his case, and access to the prison library and the use of a basic laptop." [10] [11]

How is this 'due process'? How could this be procedurally fair to Julian Assange?

What I have written above describes only a fraction of the abuse and torture to which Julian Assange has been subjected, just since the court hearings began on 25 February last year. This follows seven years asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy, whence he fled from injustice and in fear for his life. The constraints of asylum have been described as 'arbitrary confinement' by Nils Melzer, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, after he visited Julian Assange in prison. [12]

In the last two decades alone, the United States, in a rampage of war-crimes leveraged on flagrant lies, has destroyed economies and caused the death of many hundreds of thousands in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Venezuela, Ukraine and elsewhere, apparently with impunity. In contrast, Julian Assange, who revealed many of these crimes to the world, and who himself has no history of violence, has been kept in solitary, stripped of his health, his clothing, his belongings, friends and family, and justice.

This is not 'due process' and certainly not procedurally fair. Unless this situation is rectified, Julian Assange, who is not a U.S. citizen, faces the prospect of being extradited to the United States, where he will face, in secret, a trial in the eastern district of Virginia, before a jury most likely to be made up from employees and the families of the U.S. intelligence agencies based in that area - in other words a rigged trial, hidden from public view.

Under such unfair trial conditions a guilty verdict is the expectation. Julian Assange stands to be sentenced for up to 175 years imprisonment in solitary confinement in the United States - a fate which he considers to be worse than the death penalty.

Like the many Australians who are well informed about Julian Assange, I consider this treatment of him by the British government an outrage. I would expect your government to act immediately to end this outrage:

If your government truly:

• cares for the welfare of each and every one of its citizens;
• believes in human rights;
• believes in the right to free speech;
• believes in the right of journalists to investigate matters of public concern and
• upholds the rule of law (Australian law, British law, International law and United States' law, including their constitutional right to free speech)

then I would expect of you the following:

To contact British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, advise him that an Australian citizen, Julian Assange, has been illegally imprisoned in Belmarsh prison and request that Julian Assange be released immediately, and assisted to return to Australia or to go to any place he chooses.

To communicate to Boris Johnson that if Mr Assange's detention were to continue, Australia would be raising the matter at the United Nations and, if neccessary, at the International Criminal Court.

Yours sincerely,

James Sinnamon

Footnotes

[1] Although this statement can be found on Senator Marise Payne's web page through the link I have given above and on Facebook, I could not find this statement on what is currently Page 19 of the "Latest News" section of your web page, which currently contains news items dated from until 15 April 2019.

The above media statement continued: "We have made 19 offers of consular assistance to Mr Assange since 2019 that have gone unanswered. We will continue to offer consular support." As I have not seen the messages containing the offers of support that Senator Marise Payne said she made to Julian Assange, I cannot comment. I will endeavour to contact Julian Assange's support team for their response.

[2] "Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees" (1951) United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) at https://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10

[3] The 50 weeks imprisonment to which Julian Assange was sentenced on Wednesday 1 May 2019 would have lasted until Wednesday 15 April 2020 (if the day on which Julian Assange was sentenced is included). Both the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the BBC also reported on 1 May 2019 that Julian Assange was sentenced to 50 weeks imprisonment (see WikiLeaks' Julian Assange sentenced to 50 weeks' jail over bail breach at https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-01/julian-assange-sentenced-in-london-over-bail-breach-wikileaks/11064356 and Julian Assange: Wikileaks co-founder jailed over bail breach at https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-48118908). See Sunday 22 September 2019, the day Julian Assange was supposed to be released, according to other cited reports is 'only' 24 weeks and 4 days from Wednesday 1 May 2019 - still an outrageous and wholly unjustifiable sentence. I have not been able to find an explanation for this apparent discrepency.

[4] "Beyond Words" (8/4/2020) by Craig Murray at https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/04/beyond-words/

[5] "Your Man in the Public Gallery – Assange Hearing Day 1" (25/2/20) at https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/02/your-man-in-the-public-gallery-assange-hearing-day-1/

[6] Ibid.

[7] "Assange in Court" (22/10/2019) by Craig Murray at https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/10/assange-in-court/

[8] Ibid.

[9] "Your Man in the Public Gallery – Assange Hearing Day 2" (26/2/20) by Craig Murray at https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/02/your-man-in-the-public-gallery-assange-hearing-day-2/

[10] "Eyewitness to the Trial and Agony of Julian Assange" (2/10/2020) by John Pilger at http://johnpilger.com/articles/eyewitness-to-the-trial-and-agony-of-julian-assange

[11] "Assange in Court" (22/10/2019) by Craig Murray at https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/10/assange-in-court/

[12] "State Responsibility for the Torture of Julian Assange" (16/12/2019) speech by Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, at the German Bundestag in Berlin, 27 November 2019 (English translation) at https://medium.com/@njmelzer/state-responsibility-for-the-torture-of-julian-assange-40935ea5d7c3

This household had a moment of great joy last night, to hear that Judge Vanessa Baraitser, presiding at the Magistrate's court, has disallowed Julian Assange's extradition on medical grounds. She found there was a high risk of his suiciding if confined in a US prison. However, she apparently threw out the grounds of public interest (protection of journalists); political persecution, and oppression. She also seems to have upheld the honouring of the UK treaty obligations to the United States, as the only public interest matter. For some of us, her decision on medical grounds, that Assange would probably suicide in US prison conditions, is equivalent to preventing the extradition of a prisoner to Nazi Germany, on grounds that they would probably not survive the concentration camps. The US prison system actually allows major corporations to benefit from slave labour of prisoners; it conducts secret trials; and it holds prisoners indefinitely without trial - as in Guantanamo Bay prison. The war crimes and international surveillance of governments and private individuals that Julian Assange exposed show the United States as a totally rogue state. It is not even a party to the International Criminal Court. Julian Assange's defense team called the UK treaty obligations with this rogue state into question. We need an international media and state denunciation of state alliances with the United States, but that would, ironically, require journalists to run the danger of being pursued by this rogue state, just as Julian Assange has been. One hopes that a defense of Julian Assange against the US appeal would benefit from a higher court looking again at the points of law disallowed by Judge Baraitser.

US corporate media is either pro-Republican or pro-Democrat and they are nearly always in violent disagreement, except on the subject of war. Both sides love war. Here is a rabid example, dated 19 September 2019, from Sean Hannity, of Fox news. (The video is only embedded here for the record. Most visitors probably won't choose to put themselves through all of Hannity's war-mongering tirade.) Surprisingly, the only mainstream US journalist who seems to be against war is also on Fox - Tucker Carlson.

In contrast to Hannity, Tucker Carlson, another Fox News presenter, is outspoken in his opposition to any new United States' war as well as to its current, ongoing wars. Unfortunately, Tucker Carlson still accepts, by omission and commission, some, if not all, of the narrative, used to justify those wars. One example is his unjust claim that socialism, and not the savage and illegal U.S. sanctions, is the cause of all the hardships faced by Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba. In spite of these and other shortcomings, Tucker Carlson's weekday new service, which lasts about 45 minutes, in contrast to Sean Hannity's, is well worth a look.

The rest of humanity can breathe a sigh of relief, given that Trump has not yet fully taken up Sean Hannity's advice. In large part this is probably due to the fact that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and their allies in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon, seem to have have shown themselves capable of standing up to the United States' bullying. Examples include when the IRGC on 19 June shot down the US drone which had violated Iran's air space and the more recent devastating military defeats inflicted on Suadi Arabian invaders by Yemen's Armed forces.