Julian Assange

At the Sydney protest for Julian Assange last Thursday 25 May, David McBride, the former SAS officer who exposed the murder of unarmed Afghans by Australian troops, spoke alongside Stella Assange and Scott Ludlum. McBride's speech is included immediately below, whilst Stella Assange's speech is included further below.

Albanese and Dutton finally publicly agree that Assange’s imprisonment should end, but slur his efforts for peace and press freedom.

I have sent the following complaint to the Sydney Morning Herald and I hope others will do the same. Was unable to use the SMH's "feedback" page, so I sent an email to [email protected]. I complained that their editorial of May 12, 2023, based on their Assange poll and his Kafkaesque incarceration, while widely welcomed, nonetheless contained errors too often repeated which I requested the SMH correct publicly or by publishing my comments.

(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!

More terrific impromptu speeches by members of the public in defense of Julian Assange, and a slice of Sydney.

Why did the David Hicks case attract so much public support in Australia, when Julian Assange’s apparently does not? The establishment press was still a lot freer in Australia then. It still covered anti-war protests, protest against the introduction of new terrorism laws, and even Hicks’s scandalous treatment by the Australian government. It’s not doing that for Assange.

Update 28 Apr: Follow RFK Junior's campaign on Twitter. Less than 3 days ago there was a surprising and welcome development in the unfolding contest for the Presidential election to be held on 5 November 2024. On the morning of Friday 21 April, less than three days ago, Robert F Kennedy Junior (RJK Junior) the nephew of President John F Kennedy (JFK), asked of Republican supporters of former President Donald Trump, why he "imprison[ed] Julian Assange" and of Democrat Supporters of sitting President Joe Biden why "your candidate persist[s] in Trump's prosecution of the most consequential journalist of the 21st century? " He did so in the tweet embedded below:

I posted the following letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Foreign Minister Penny Wong and the Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus at around 11:00am on Thursday 7 April during a protest for Julian Assange outside the electoral office of Mark Dreyfus in the Melbourne suburb of Mordialloc. I had hoped to hand a copy of this letter to Mark Dreyfus in person or, at least, to a member of his staff, but his office was unattended. For security reasons, as explained to me by a member of the Federal Police, there was no slot through which I could put the letter, so I had to send the letter through the mail. I expect that my letter would have been received in Mark Dreyfus' office the next day and that my letters to Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong will arrive at Parliament House on Tuesday 11 April following the Easter long Weekend. I have also e-mailed this letter, with the subject Please act humanely now to end the illegal imprisonment of Julian Assange, and sent CC copies to members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group.

From 10am until 12pm tomorrow, on Thursday 6 April, outside the electoral office of the Attorney General Mark Dreyfus in the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Mordialloc, supporters of Julian Assange will be protesting to demand that the Australian government act to end the British Government's imprisonment of Julian Assange.

Included below is an example of the letters I sent late in the evening of Monday 27 March to each of the 40 members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group. I point out that, in spite of its size, the efforts of this group so far appear to have made little difference towards making the Albanese government act to end the UK's illegal imprisonment of Assange or even to just hold this government to account for its failure to do so.

The following article has been adapted from the leaflet handed out at the weekly Vigil for Julian Assange in the evening of Friday 17 March 2023 at Melbourne's Flinders Street Station: Julian Assange, the multiple award-winning Australian journalist, has been imprisoned in solitary confinement for 23 hours per day in London's Belmarsh pr

Melbourne State Library 1 pm Saturday 18 March against AUKUS US $170b nuclear sub purchase and alliance No AUKUS Coalition, Solidarity Melbourne and Melbourne 4 Assange

Join us - rally, say No to War – protect truthtellers 8am Monday 20th March at the ACT Courts. On the 20th anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq, and as the Coalition of the Willing which was responsible for the illegal invasion of Iraq on 20 March 2003 has regrouped as AUKUS, we should remember the legacy of that disastrous war and other destructive wars.

On March 3, 2023, protesters gathered outside Mark Dreyfus, the Australian Attorney General's office, to complain of Dreyfus's failure to object to the British Government's illegal and cruel imprisonment of heroic Australian citizen, Julian Assange. March 3 is Assange's birthday. Inside is the text of James Sinnamon's speech on that occasion.

Text of James Sinnamon's speech (video embedded below)

Previously published 7 March 2023 on Consortium News and on 4 March 2023 at Declasified Australia: At the Belmarsh Tribunal for Julian Assange, held at Sydney University’s Great Hall on Saturday 4 March, Kellie Tranter (@KellieTranter), a lawyer, researcher, and human rights advocate, in a 7:40 minute speech, reported that despite private and public requests for diplomatic assistance for the WikiLeaks publisher, Canberra’s policy — shown by FOI documents — has been one of complicit inactivity in the face of his persecution:

In person and online event this Saturday 4th of March the Belmarsh Tribunal reconvenes for its fifth session in Sydney University Great Hall.

It was the 169th Assange Friday night vigil outside Sydney Town Hall and, for once, ABC Australia turned up.  But they were there for a Gay Pride event at the town hall.

In the early hours of Thursday 16 February, the last day on which the House of Representatives, the lower house of Australia's two houses of Parliament, is to sit until the next sitting begins on Monday 6 March, I have been individually emailing members of the House with my Open Letter entitled "Lift Parliament's gag on discussion about Julian Assange - an Open Letter to members of the Julian Assange Parliamentary Support Group".

The following Open Letter has been sent to all 40 members of the Bring Julian Assange Home Parliamentary Support Group (Julian Assange Parliamentary Support Group).

From 4pm, this coming Saturday 11 February, come down to the Victorian State Parliament to celebrate Julian Assange for the Global Carnival Worldwide Mobilization for Assange. Meet at Parliament Steps at 4pm Saturday 11 February 2023.

Update, 8 Feb 2023: I have received a reply from Josh Wilson and responded further below. They both now precede my original "Open Letter" of 6 February, which is further below.

Engrossing discussion of the arcane and unfair legal and political web entrapping Julian Assange: Lee Camp's excellent questions allow Stella Assange to use her legal and personal experience to comment in depth on the political relationships and laws and legal systems involved, such as the post 9-11 terrorism extradition laws; Britain's unequal status in US-British extradition laws; the incompatibility of how freedom of the press as conceived in the US is not possible in Britain

At Woodford Folk Festival, 28 December 2022, Prime Minister Albanese spoke about how democracies all over the world are coming ‘under attack from a whole range of corrosive, insidious forces’ and that ‘no-one is immune’ (see Appendix 2 below). He also said that by next year there will be an indigenous voice in parliament.

Update 7/12/22: See also Pentagon Papers whistleblower reveals that he also committed the 'offence' for which Assange has been indicted.

Every Friday at Sydney Town Hall, this group continues to stand up for Julian Assange. Stirring speeches about Australia's whistleblowers and Australia's involvement in war-crimes, Albanese's failure towards Assange, our crocodile tears for the prisoners of other regimes, but not for Julian Assange.