Trump’s Betrayal of Julian Assange
From Wikileaks' biggest fan to seeking a Stalinist show trial against Assange
One thing we’ve learned from the Trump Presidency is that the “deep state” is not just some crazy conspiracy theory. For the past three years we’ve seen that deep state launch plot after plot to overturn the election.
It all started with former CIA director John Brennan’s phony “Intelligence Assessment” of Russian involvement in the 2016 election. It was claimed that all 17 US intelligence agencies agreed that Putin put Trump in office, but we found out later that the report was cooked up by a handful of Brennan’s hand-picked agents.
Donald Trump upset the Washington apple cart as presidential candidate and in so doing he set elements of the deep state in motion against him.
One of the things candidate Donald Trump did to paint a deep state target on his back was his repeated praise of Wikileaks, the pro-transparency media organization headed up by Australian journalist Julian Assange. More than 100 times candidate Trump said “I love Wikileaks” on the campaign trail.
Trump loved it when Wikileaks exposed the criminality of Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, as it cheated to deprive Bernie Sanders of the Democratic Party nomination. Wikileaks’ release of the DNC emails exposed the deep corruption at the heart of US politics, and as a candidate Trump loved the transparency.
Then Trump got elected.
The real tragedy of the Trump presidency is nowhere better demonstrated than in Trump’s 180 degree turn away from Wikileaks and its founder Julian Assange. “I know nothing about Wikileaks,” he said as president. “It’s really not my thing.”
US pressure and bribes to the Ecuadorian government ended Assange’s asylum and his seven years in a room at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. After his dramatic arrest by London’s Metropolitan Police last April, he has been effectively tortured in British jails at the behest of the US deep state.
Today, Monday the 24th of February, Assange faces an extradition hearing in a UK courthouse. The Trump Administration – led by a man who praised Assange’s work – seeks a show trial of Assange worthy of the worst of the Soviet era. The US is seeking a 175 year prison sentence.
The Trump Administration argues that the Australian Assange should be tried and convicted of espionage against a country of which he is not a citizen. At the same time the Trump Administration argues that the First Amendment does not apply to Assange because he is not an American citizen! So Assange is subject to US law when it comes to publishing information embarrassing to the US deep state but he is not subject to the law of the land – the US Constitution – which protects all journalists and is the backbone of our system of government.
It is ironic that a President Trump who has been victim of so much deep state meddling has done the deep state’s bidding when it comes to Assange and Wikileaks. President Trump should preempt the inevitable US show trial of Assange by granting the journalist blanket pardon under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
The deep state Trump is serving by persecuting Assange is the same deep state that continues to plot Trump’s own ouster. Free Assange!
Source: Ron Paul Institute
Are we reaching the point where expressing an opinion contrary to “leaders” is becoming hazardous to our existence??? We have the freedom of expression as long as our opinion pleases the “masters”??? Are we all in favour of the democratic process as long as the elected person(s) is to our liking?
I don’t know, are “we”?
Just who is this “we”?
I’ll tell you what, just as an antidote to this idiotic rant from Ron Paul why don’t you ask people in Syria or Iran or cuba, or china, don’t even bother in North Korea to dangerous,or Putin Russia about your abilities to express yourself!
You can say what you want and obviously do so on this site, but find it easy to make childish claims, as though you live in some sort of vile dictatorship, you don’t, but would be if living in the countries I’ve listed,in fact you’d be arrested and jailed for making the statement you’ve just written if you did so in North Korea,iran or Syria,you’d probably be killed in Syria as a terrorist
That being the case why do you blather on in such a dumb way?
Who is this “we”??? You and I and all the others who inhabit this planet. As for the freedom of expression….just take a close look at the US MSM and then tell me about “freedom of expression”…all singing from the same book and no one with a bit of brains to express an own opinion. And the US is getting closer and closer to arresting and silencing those who do not tow the line. All the whistle blowers…And not forgetting the NSA…spying on all.
Vera you haven’t taken in what I’ve written have you!
Like so many you fall into the trap set by Putin and his many useful idiot helpers, you actually believe America is worse than China or North Korea, or Iran when it comes to state control of the media,do you?
Putin uses people like you because you’re obviously receptive to this form of propaganda
Propaganda which is claiming that they, the above mentioned, can create some form of new global free civilisation, what trash!
How can authoritarian regimes make you free?, its like something out of Orwell,and if he was alive i think he’d see Russia,China, cuba, Syria and Iran for what they are,repressive regimes using clever propaganda to undermine the liberal international order,which i find ironic as without said liberal international order China simply wouldn’t have an economy!
You see my dear, China has basically stolen technology from the west, which was stupid enough to let them into the WTO, so we’ve made a rod for our own backs, that is people who actually believe in free markets, which the Chinese don’t, neither do the Russians, and the Iranians certainly don’t
The Chinese are now set on a collision course with America and the west with their infrastructure imperialism and colonialism, this apparently will make you free!
Mr Paul thinks people like Assange have done the world some sort of great service, well if Assange had given equal time spent on Russia or china,and their manipulative and authoritarian ways, then maybe I’d have more respect
But Assange hasn’t, he basically works for Putin, as does Mr Paul, because ever time they appear on RT International they’re effectively working for the forces of repression and authoritarian rule, thats the real kind of authoritarian rule and not the imagery one people like Assange, Mr Paul, yourself and many others obviously think
I didn’t say America is worse than China or Russia or…but catching up, for sure. You think you have democracy because they allow you to vote every 2/4 years. Yeah…not forgetting all the vote manipulations that go on. No, China has not stolen technology from the West – the West was too eager, looking for cheaper labour to manufacture, to open companies in China and the Chinese, not being stupid, have taken advantage of this. Look at the crumbling American infrastructure and then look at China’s modern one. And the American “imperialism” won’t make the West free either, especially not with the US sticking it’s frigging nose in every country where it don’t belong. Might is NOT right…Yes, Assange has done us a great service…revealing how the US/NSA spies on anything that moves and this without proper authorization. Assange opened our eyes and not a moment too soon. Now America is getting a taste of it’s own medicine and…oh, boy…does it taste bad. And talking about RT…this outfit still allows people to express their opinions – unlike American stations which thrive on propaganda and lies. Very few American journalists that I respect – might not always agree with them, but I respect their opinion. America has to learn to live and let live – the so-called “American dream” turned into a nightmare for many long time ago. Yes, things most probably aren’t much better in the countries you mention, but at least they are not bragging to the world how “perfect” they are.
RT doesn’t allow people to relentlessly criticise Putin, or his foreign policy, its tightly controlled, it allows only those on to its channels who are critical of America or the west in general, so you’re actually totally wrong, not only wrong but but obviously unable to fully understand the game being played
As far as those countries not bragging, well actually yet again your wrong, they have plenty of useful idiots in the west who do it for them
All i can say is this, if Assange opened your eyes you’ve obviously lived a very sheltered life,as countries like America have had a very long tradition in something called
“muck racking ” go look it up you’ll be surprised at what journalists, real ones, have been doing for over a hundred years
But what difference has it made?
Since you actually think America is some sort of totalitarian regime, what could Assange actually do that many others before have also done?
You know change things?
Assange hasn’t done anything, simple as that
Oh, America is on its best way to becoming a totalitarian regime…I am not ignorant as to America’s shenanigans (putting it mildly) all over the world. And always accusing others of what it is guilty itself.
You don’t actually want to address any of the points I’ve made do you?
Vera you’re not talking to some idiot, I’ve gone through all the so called anti empire web sites, and almost without exception they’re anti American/ western
None offer anything to replace the liberal international order created after the war
The best you’ll get is the crazy notion of a multi polar world, which will basically set the liberals against the authoritarians
Now just how do you think that’ll end, when neither side is prepared to bend the knee to the other?
WAR!!!!!
Finally which world do you want to live in, and I’ve basically offered you the choices, no other choices exist?
I know you’ll opt for authoritarianism, China/ Russian style because you think America is sooooooooo much worse!
Ok I’m out of here because I’m obviously dealing with insane people!
I wish I could make you feel, just for a moment, how utterly disgusted I feel when I read news pertaining to the USofA. The lies, the backstabbing, the muckraking, the dishonesty…you get the picture. No one country is perfect but I get tired of having the US rub my nose, time and again, as to how “perfect” it is, how it promotes “democracy and human rights” all over the world…and on and on. Perhaps naive but I always believed (and still do) that one leads by example, not by brute force. No, I am not insane and I can still think for myself…and do.
I know how you feel, i actually have sympathy for your position
But wishing the destruction of America, which is frankly what so many anti war/anti American, activists want won’t make the world a better place
gulping down industrial quantities of pro Putin/kremlin/RT international kool aid won’t make the world a better place, especially when backed up by people like Assange, who should have stayed well away from the Russians and their propaganda channels,he should have also made sure his work wasn’t regurgitated by essentially fascist neo Nazi websites
Frankly he’s lucky the MSM haven’t actually looked more deeply into the kinds of sites his work appears on
Be angry, but please don’t for one minute think the ‘ other side’ have anything more positive to offer because they don’t
No, I don’t wish the destruction of America but…I wish America would stop trampling on the rest of the world, trying to make us believe that it is “the greatest nation on Earth”. This PR line might have worked many years but no longer – at least not for me. If Americans want to go at each other’s throats…be my guest but leave the rest of the world in peace. Yes, “the other side” does have something more positive to offer: less arrogance and not trying to impose their way of life on the rest of us.
Of course, I agree with the criticism of Trump, but the piece does have a considerable flaw.
When Trump talked of liking Wikileaks, it was just empty campaign blather.
The fact is, Trump never reads anything, as several insiders have informed us.
Why keep blaming ‘deep state’ especially that no one really knows who they are. Put the blame where the blame should lie and that is at the top of the echelon of power; Trump. Trump has a history of manipulations, deceit, fraud and associating with the criminal elements. Trump should have been impeached for factual breaches not for unconfirmed violations; Russia phobia is just an excuse for the so called deep state to attack Russia and Trump is part and parcel of it all.