It’s finally free: Yesterday, it was announced that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would be released from Belmarsh Prison (the highest prison in the UK where he has been held for the past five years) and be free to return home.
Assange, who faces extradition to the United States and prosecution under the Espionage Act for releasing documents the government says contains classified national security information, an activity protected by the First Amendment, will plead guilty to a felony and return His native Australia. Prior to the agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, Assange could have faced up to 170 years in prison if extradited to the United States.
From 2012 to 2019, Assange lived in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, mired in legal limbo and fearing extradition by British authorities. In 2019, Ecuador’s president, angered by corruption allegations made public by WikiLeaks, revoked Assange’s asylum protections. British authorities rounded up Assange and imprisoned him in Belmarsh.
To plead guilty and end his legal ordeal, Assange will appear in court on Saipan, the capital of the Northern Mariana Islands (technically part of the United States), and then immediately fly to Australia.
While Assange’s case has been closely watched by press freedom advocates, who are happy to see him free, some also warn that it is “an infringement of basic journalistic conduct,” according to David Green of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Convicted under the Espionage Act”. New York Times “These charges should never have been brought.”
“WikiLeaks publishes groundbreaking stories about government corruption and human rights abuses, holding those in power accountable for their actions,” the group wrote on The right to know has come at a heavy cost.”
In 2010, WikiLeaks released a video called “Collateral Murder,” showing a 2007 U.S. airstrike in Baghdad that killed several civilians, including two Reuters journalists. The organization received leaks from multiple government and military personnel, including now-famous whistleblower Chelsea Manning, and has been criticized for publicizing potential violations of military rules of engagement and demonstrating the extreme brutality of war, including massive civilian deaths. Retaliation from the U.S. government.
For more than a decade, Assange was treated not as a journalist but as a criminal. Now, his ordeal is finally coming to an end.
For more on the Assange case, watch this episode of my show with Zach Weissmueller, just asking questionsin which we interview Julian’s wife Stella.
International aid funds allegedly flowed to Hamas: One hundred Israeli plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in Manhattan federal court on Monday, alleging that seven United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) officials, current and former, “knowingly misappropriated more than $1 billion from the agency for use by Hamas.” To pay for: among other things, including tunneling equipment and weapons that aided its attack on Israel on October 7,” New York Times.
UNRWA is generally considered a humanitarian aid organization that helps Palestinians build hospitals and schools. Other lawsuits accuse the agency of close ties to Hamas, but none have been so specific about the mechanisms by which U.N. funds end up in the hands of Hamas officials.
In Gaza, unlike elsewhere where the agency operates, UNRWA pays its 13,000 local employees in U.S. dollars, which must be converted by Hamas-affiliated money changers into the shekel, the Israeli currency used in Gaza, the lawsuit said. . Second-rate.
It’s unclear what legal disputes may arise in the future. “The United Nations, including UNRWA, enjoys immunity from legal process, as do United Nations officials, including UNRWA officials,” said agency spokesperson Juliette Touma.
“UNRWA is the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza,” Filippo Lazzarini, the agency’s general commissioner, said pointedly in a statement issued yesterday. “Following allegations against individual staff, 16 Member States have temporarily suspended funding to the agency, equivalent to half of this year’s expected funding…UNRWA lacks the resources to fulfill its mandate.”
New York scene: Okay, that might be a stretch, but I can think of nothing more important than New York, besides the smoking vs. vaping discussion. Nothing turns off Angelenos (or worse, Denverites) more than smoke billowing outside a bar. For New Yorkers, it’s just Monday night. God bless free press Thanks for giving us the showdown we truly deserve: cigarettes (defended by Nellie Bowles) vs. e-cigarettes (defended by Michael Moynihan).
Quick click
- “On the surface, New York’s 1st Congressional District looks like a Democratic winner. First, the district has more Democrats than registered Republicans. And its voters support abortion, care deeply about the environment, and have high level of union membership,” reports Bloomberg. “However, the Long Island district — which spans much of Suffolk County to Hampton — has eluded Democratic control for a decade. Critics saw it as a failure because the party was unable to field a candidate who could appeal to independents, who make up 30% of the electorate.
- Severe, life-threatening flooding occurred this week in parts of Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota.
- The IRS and hedge fund manager Ken Griffin just reached a settlement in a lawsuit filed by Griffin over the IRS’s mishandling of his confidential financial information.
- it yes It’s fascinating how much of the internet of the late 20th and early ’10s has fallen into darkness:
Our history is just lost. As with all nuclear weapons blogs and websites, it has become impossible to find accurate writing about the early 2010s. We believe that online information is unbeatable. In fact, Millennials will be the first forgotten generation in recent history. https://t.co/6xnE37XTvw
— Mike Solana (@micsolana) June 24, 2024
