Don’t Shoot the Messenger: Why the Assange Plea Deal Matters for Libertarians

Jun 27

Written By SanMan

By- HLMenckenFan

“When exposing a crime is treated as committing a crime, you are ruled by criminals”. The ironic quote by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden brings to light the great challenges of our time in an age of mass surveillance and endless war. When the truth is classified, no one is safe. June 25, 2024, marks a pivotal day in the history of press freedom worldwide. Whistleblower Julian Assange is now allowed to return to his native Australia after being held in confinement for fourteen years instead of facing extradition to the US. He was allowed a plea deal with the US Department of Justice after agreeing to a single count of violation of the Espionage Act for conspiring to illegally obtain and publish classified information related to national security. This deal ended a long legal battle between him and the federal authorities. The freedom of Julian Assange from prison marks a great victory for the libertarian movement with its emphasis on press freedom, privacy, civil liberties, and freedom of speech.

Julian Assange was born on July 3, 1971, in Queensland, Australia. From a young age, Assange had a longtime passion for computers, programming, and hacking and used his skills to become a computer programmer, software developer, and consultant. Julian Assange became famous as the founder and editor-in-chief of the media organization Wikileaks in 2006 to open secrets of government corruption, censorship, and human rights abuses and help whistleblowers bring information to light using the Internet. He believed he was making a case for “radical transparency and truth”. The revelations of atrocities and abuses of power carried about by the United States shook the world amid times of turmoil and war. Julian Assange made it clear in a 2011 antiwar speech that “If wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth.”

Wikileaks made international history for releasing over 700,000 confidential documents on Washington’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan including diplomatic cables from American embassies and battlefield accounts. The comprehensive unredacted leaking of over 250,000 diplomatic cables from 274 US embassies including diplomatic analysis from world leaders became known as Cablegate. These battlefield accounts included a video known as Collateral Murder, a 38-minute video released in 2010 documenting the murder of over a dozen Iraqi civilians and two Reuters news staff by Apache helicopter gunship fire on July 12, 2007. Wikileaks also brought to light the Iraq War logs and the Afghanistan War documents noting civilian casualties and acts of torture carried out by the US government and its allies during the occupation that was previously unknown to the American people. The information on the war logs was obtained by whistleblower and former intelligence analyst Bradley Manning who was sentenced to 35 years and convicted of violating the Espionage Act in 2013 but had the sentence commuted in 2017. Wikileaks also released 20,000 Democratic National Committee emails which showed clear favoritism for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders during the 2016 presidential campaign along with 2,000 emails from Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta. The Obama White House argued that the publication of the files by Assange endangered the lives of Americans and US partners abroad. Former CIA Director Mike Pompeo argued that Wikileaks through its leaks acted as a “nonstate hostile intelligence service”.

Assange earned several awards for journalism and publishing over the years amid controversy surrounding Wikileaks. Julian Assange was indicted by a federal Virginia grand jury in April 2019 on more than a dozen charges. He was evicted by Ecuador’s embassy in London for escaping a rape allegation by two women in Sweden which Assange has called without basis. He was sentenced to the high-security Belmarsh Prison in the UK for 62 months, resulting in a lengthy legal saga for him and his legal team. He was isolated in solitary confinement for twenty-three hours a day and faced declining health in the prison. UN Special Rapporteur Nils Melzer on torture visited Assange in prison in 2019 and concluded that "in addition to physical ailments, Mr. Assange showed all symptoms typical for prolonged exposure to psychological torture”. The combined eighteen charges leveled against him would mean that he would face 175 years in prison if convicted. Assange’s release from Belmarsh and departure from Britain following the plea deal was made possible by a global campaign of grassroots organizers, press freedom campaigners, legislators, and political leaders across the political spectrum.

The results of the plea deal were met with a strong positive reaction in Australia. Assange’s wife Stella was “elated” and said it was “incredible” that her husband was free. She stressed that “The correct course of action from the U.S. government should have been to drop the case entirely. The fact that there is a guilty plea under the Espionage Act in relation to obtaining and disclosing national defense information is obviously a very serious concern for journalists." Julian’s brother Gabriel came to the defense: “The Australian government has played a significant role in these last moments. They have played an integral role in securing his release and getting him on that plane. But they couldn't have done that without the support of the Australian people.” Australian Prime Minister Anthony defended him “Regardless of the views that people have about Mr. Assange’s activities, the case has dragged on for too long” and stressed that “There is nothing to be gained by his continued incarceration and we want him brought home to Australia”.

News of this event sparked a firestorm on social media with mixed reactions across the political spectrum. The ACLU argued regarding a long-overdue resolution that “This is a prosecution that should not have been brought. With today’s guilty plea, Julian Assange stands convicted of practicing journalism, and all investigative journalists now face greater legal peril.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation noted that these charges “should have never been brought”. Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie noted that Assange’s “liberation is great news, but it’s a travesty he’s already spent so much time in jail.” Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has defended Assange’s freedom arguing that he was “jailed for practicing journalism”. Former Libertarian Congressman Justin Amash argued that the release was “great news” and that “he should have never been charged under the Espionage Act.” Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was “overjoyed” at the result of the freedom of a “generational hero”. Former Vice President Mike Pence argued that Assange should have faced harsher punishment for threatening national security, stressing that “Assange endangered the lives of our troops in time of war and should have been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law”. Congressman Adam Kinzinger stated that “Assange is a traitor”. The division over Assange’s legacy continues to widen in the United States.

Julian Assange has become a hero to many in his courageous struggle for press freedom worldwide. Like Edward Snowden, he has gained the support of millions of people by shining a light on the follies of failed government measures to ensure national security and endanger the lives of innocents. Former Texas Congressman Ron Paul said it best in his dissenting 2010 speech in Congress in support of Assange and Wikileaks: “How can the US government charge an Australian citizen with treason for publishing secret information that he did not steal?” The legal and ethical ramifications of this plea deal speak volumes for the free press movement. Libertarians should rejoice in the freeing of Julian Assange as a major step for their outreach. Their movement can reflect on his struggle and inspire people to fight for what he believed in.

The libertarian movement in the United States has long championed the cause of Assange from the beginning of the case and has pushed for his release. James Bovard of the Libertarian Institute has argued that Assange deserves a Medal of Freedom, not a secret indictment. News of Assange’s freedom still reminds us of the continued struggle for Edward Snowden among numerous other political prisoners for exposing secrets. For over a hundred years, the unconstitutional Espionage Act has been wielded by the surveillance state against journalists, dissidents, and critics of the state for engaging in illegal wars and endangering the American people, and should have been repealed long ago. Julian Assange argued in one of his old 2007 blog posts that “Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train our character to be passive in its presence and thereby eventually lose all ability to defend ourselves and those we love.” This quote considering these extreme circumstances reveals how important the struggle of press freedom really is in these trying times. Assange’s return to his native Australia highlights that the libertarian movement still stands boldly against oppression.

SOURCES

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/24/us/politics/julian-assange-plea-deal.html

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/julian-assange-supporters-overjoyed-by-wikileaks-founder-s-plea-deal/ar-BB1oOZb5

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/06/26/wikileaks-leaks-reveals-hacking-influence/

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2024-06-25/the-julian-assange-wikileaks-saga-everything-you-need-to-know

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/25/wikileaks-julian-assange-document-dumps/

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/27/europe/julian-assange-profile-intl-cmd/index.html

https://theintercept.com/2024/06/24/julian-assange-plea-deal-biden/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQVBZQz6d4I

https://news.yahoo.com/news/hero-villain-reactions-mixed-julian-150957126.html

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