Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Graham Elwood, another job lost for Justin Roiland, refusing committee assignments

Starting with Graham Elwood.



Another update on Justin Roiland.  He's no longer part of RICK AND MORTY and now he's been dropped by another show:



Rick and Morty and Solar Opposites co-creator Justin Roiland has been dropped from the latter series following revelations of a domestic violence charge against him.

Hulu, which airs Solar Opposites, is also removing Roiland from its recently debuted series Koala Man, where he’s an executive producer and voice actor. Disney’s 20th Television Animation, where Roiland had an overall deal and which produces both series, has also cut ties.

The decision from the two Disney units comes a day after Adult Swim cut ties with Roiland. He co-created Solar Opposites with fellow Rick and Morty alum Mike McMahan and also voices one of the show’s lead characters. Solar Opposites has aired three seasons to date and is renewed through a fifth.

Koala Man, which premiered on Jan. 9, comes from creator Michael Cusack and showrunners Benji Samit and Dan Hernandez. Both it and Solar Opposites are slated to continue without Roiland’s involvement.


Am I calling for him to be fired?  No.  I'm also not calling for him not to be fired.  I'm neutral.  I'll weigh in with my opinion when we get a verdict.  


There have been real issues and real problems with RICK AND MORTY before.  Seems like this was the straw breaking the camel's back.  

Speaking of real issues . . . Kevin McCarthy is the new Speaker of the House.  I do not support him blocking Ilhan Omar from being seated on The House Foreign Affairs Committee.  I don't feel he has sufficient reasons.  As for Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell being blocked from sitting on The House Intelligence Committee.  Adam is a leaker to the press and always claiming he has proof of this or that when he has no proof.  If McCarthy wants to deny him a seat, I say more power to him.   Swalwell? From WIKIPEDIA:




See also: Chinese espionage in the United States

In December 2020, Swalwell was named in an Axios story about suspected Chinese spy Fang Fang or Christine Fang,[62][63][64] who had since at least 2012 been cultivating contacts with California politicians who the Chinese government believed had promising futures in politics.[65][66] Axios reported that Fang participated in fundraising for Swalwell's 2014 congressional election bid, met Swalwell at events, and helped place an intern inside his congressional office. Swalwell ended ties with Fang in 2015 after U.S. intelligence briefed him and top members of Congress on concerns that Chinese agents were attempting to infiltrate Congress. Officials believe Fang did not obtain classified information from her contacts, and Swalwell was not accused of any impropriety.[67]

In March 2021, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy moved to remove Swalwell from his seat on the House Intelligence Committee, which was tabled 218–200–3 on a party-line vote. Swalwell suggested that someone in the Trump administration may have leaked the information to the press, as he had been a vocal critic of Trump and served on two committees involved in Trump's impeachment.[68]

The December 2020 Axios story said Fang had had sexual relations with two unidentified Midwestern mayors, but not with Swalwell, though allegations persisted he was a national security threat by being associated with Fang. Since the report, Swalwell has received death and rape threats against him and his family. After McCarthy became Speaker in January 2023, he announced he would remove Swalwell from the Intelligence committee, saying, "If you got the briefing I got from the FBI, you wouldn’t have Swalwell on any committee." Swalwell characterized McCarthy's action as "purely vengeance". Intelligence Committee members are term-limited and Swalwell's membership expired in January 2023.[69][70][71][72]




Sorry he's had threats but I think that his past does raise questions.  I don't object to McCarthy's move there either.  But Ilhan Omar?  She disagrees with him politically and he's bothered by a statement she made about Israel (one that she later apologized for).  I don't believe that warrants her losing a Committee seat.  

Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Wednesday, January 25, 2023.  UFOs  (and witchcraft?) in Iraq, the prime minister is feeling pressure over his upcoming trip to the US, Iraqis take to the street to protest and much more.


Starting with Iraq, Bill Gallucio (KFI AM) reports:

The United States government is reportedly investigating a potential unidentified flying object seen flying over the Iraqi city of Mosul. A still image from a brief video clip was shared on Twitter by Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp during the first episode of their new podcast Weaponized.

Corbell said that the video, which was taken in April 2016 and shared with members of Congress during a classified briefing, shows a metallic-colored sphere moving next to the spyplane without losing any altitude.

"It's one of many images, this one is a still from a video. It's a brief video, maybe four seconds, where this orb or metallic ball runs alongside a spy plane, and it's shown moving beside the plane without dropping altitude at all," Corbell said on the podcast.

Corbell and Knapp did not say how they obtained the image, and the Pentagon has not responded to their claims that a UFO was spotted over Iraq.

Tala Michel Issa (AL ARABIYA) adds:

One source stated: “These drones operate 20-25,000 feet up in the air and they’re flying around. We’re keeping an eye on bad guys all over the world. An operator will be zoomed in looking at a town in Syria. And all of a sudden, a little orb will go flying through the viewfinder. The operator’s like, “What the hell?” And so, he starts focusing on it and he just watches the orb for a while. We might get it for 30 seconds, we might watch it for 10 minutes. And then it will do something remarkable, like suddenly bolt off the screen.”

The Mosul orb image, obtained by the Daily Mail, was taken at 9:47 am on April 16, 2016, according to its timestamp.Although the image had precise coordinates of where it was taken in northern Iraq, Corbell said that he removed them in order to be cautious not to release sensitive information.It is understood that Congressional intelligence and defense committees have seen the image and footage, as part of a briefing given by the

Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF), a previous incarnation of the US government’s UFO office, on November 4, 2021.Corbell also added that the flying spherical object captured in Iraq is reminiscent of similar UFOs previously encountered by naval aviators on the US’ west and east coasts everyday, but the fact that it was caught in an active conflict zone makes it a little more complicated.

“For the first time, we are releasing a military-filmed image of a UAP [unidentified anomalous phenomena] over an active conflict zone. This is an entirely different scenario to the east and west Coast incursions over training ranges,” the Mail quoted Corbell as saying.“UAP pose significant risk to our service men and women, and this case highlights this – and is unfortunately not unique.

“This is not just about safety concerns to pilots and ground troops. Its potential consequences are far deeper. And the scope is now proven to be global.”


TECHEBLOG covers it here.








Is it a drone, what was it?  It's captured attention in Iraq and outside of Iraq.  It's fed into the same fascination that ARAB TIMES' article earlier this month did, "The Abdali customs men have seized tools used in magic and sorcery from a female citizen coming from Iraq, reports Al-Rai daily. A customs source told the daily the customs men suspected the woman, and when the customs inspector checked her luggage, he discovered prohibited materials used in witchcraft and sorcery. When asked about the reasons for bringing them, she replied, 'Personal interes' but the materials were confiscated and handed over to the competent authorities."


In other news, Ismaeel Naar and Sinan Mahmoud (THE NATIONAL) report:

Security personnel were on Wednesday out in force to safeguard the Central Bank of Iraq headquarters in Baghdad from protesters demonstrating over the currency inflation crisis.

Iraqi riot police cordoned off the area as dozens of activists gathered near the Central Bank building. Some merchants in the surrounding area also closed down their shops and joined the protesters, some of whom raised placards that read: “The politicians are the ones covering up financial corruption for the banks.”

Activists close to the Sadrist and youth-led Tishreen movement, as well as civil rights groups, had called for gatherings outside the bank on Wednesday after a week-long plunge of the Iraqi dinar that led Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani to sack Central Bank governor Mustafa Ghaleb Mukheef.

The demonstrations were expected and a journalist from The National earlier confirmed that several groups of people had been seen crossing Al Shuhadaa (Martyrs') Bridge that leads to the bank.

Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) notes, "The protesters -- mainly young people -- rallied amid a heavy security presence, with many carrying the Iraqi flag and banners with slogans."



Earlier this week, Ahmed Rasheed (REUTERs) noted, "Under pressure from Washington to stem the flow of dollars into Iran, Iraq's prime minister sent elite counter-terrorism forces more accustomed to battling Islamist militants to shut down dealers smuggling the currency to the Islamic Republic."


Pressure?  As usual, the big story is missing from the filings.  Mohammed's real pressure and the dance he's doing right now has to do with the upcoming trip to the US.  The US government is happily going to welcome him but -- and this is why Brett McGurk and other Americans were visiting in the last days -- not everyone would be welcomed.  Meaning?  He's having to do a dance with regards to the entourage accompanying him.  He's been informed that certain people he might want to bring are persona non grata in the US (due to past actions).  

Otherwise, Mohammed's turned out to be an American dream for the US government -- a point Jack Detsch (FOREIGN POLICY) underscores throughout his latest article:

Just three years ago, Iraq was on the brink of expelling U.S. troops that had helped drive the Islamic State out of the country. In January 2020, days after a monthslong military tit-for-tat between the United States and Iran had culminated in the U.S. assassination of a notorious Iranian military commander and a retaliatory ballistic missile attack on U.S. troops in Iraq, the Iraqi parliament, with the backing of the then-caretaker prime minister, took a symbolic vote to kick out foreign forces.

The scene in Baghdad, according to former U.S. officials, was a state of near-pandemonium, with Iran-backed Hezbollah operatives whipping votes in a flurry of calls just as U.S. lawmakers would on Capitol Hill—only in this case, with much more serious carrots and sticks attached.

“You had Kataib Hezbollah guys texting and calling the cellphones of sitting members of the Council of Representatives, threatening them and/or bribing them if they didn’t vote in support,” said Jonathan Lord, a former U.S. defense official and congressional aide who is now the director of the Middle East security program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a Washington-based think tank. “There was an immense amount of coercion to get that vote across the finish line.”

But the U.S. presence that was hanging by a thread in pre-pandemic Iraq, at the tenuous invite of the Baghdad government, now appears to be there to stay—indefinitely. That’s after freshly inaugurated Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, in his first interview with Western media last week, told the Wall Street Journal that he wants the 2,000 U.S. forces in the country, who are there training Iraqi troops to fight the Islamic State, to keep doing their work for the foreseeable future.

“We think that we need the foreign forces,” Sudani told the Journal. “Elimination of ISIS needs some more time.”

Though Sudani’s public support for the U.S. mission—which has grown increasingly limited since Iraq declared the Islamic State’s physical caliphate defeated in late 2017 and combat troops were drawn down—seems like an abrupt turn of the tide in Baghdad, it reflects a steady movement toward Washington in recent years.


Monday, we noted the hideous Tony Dungy.  Where homophobia and transphobia abound, Jonathan Turley rushes in to embrace it, as Ty noted in "Ty's Corner." In the real world -- a world Turley left long ago --  Kevin B. Blackistone (WASHINGTON POST) points out:

 

It isn’t my intent to criticize religiosity, though Dungy has used his to pan non-Christian religions and people whom his version of Christianity rejects. He is an evangelical Christian who has been an outspoken opponent not just of abortion but same-sex marriage, which he campaigned against in Indiana when he was coach of the Colts, and against gay people in general, including those who may toil as professional athletes. He infamously said he wouldn’t have Michael Sam, the would-be first openly gay player in the NFL, in his locker room.


This is all yet another reminder that sports can be, has been and often continues to be an agent for the opposite of which it is celebrated: regression, not progress. Dungy isn’t in the sports world’s ballyhooed vanguard of social change no matter his historical achievement as the first Black head coach to lead a team to a Super Bowl championship.

In fact, in March he is scheduled to stay on brand as a speaker at an all-men’s conference called Men’s Advance 2023. It’s headed by evangelical Christian pastor Andrew Wommack, who argued two years ago that “homosexuality is three times worse than smoking. We ought to put a label across their forehead: ‘This can be hazardous to your health.’ ”

Dungy should know going through with that appearance could be hazardous to his career.

This was not just a recent Tweet, this is a history for Dungy, this is a pattern.  And at some point, NBC's going to have to decide where they stand on this issue.  Dungy was hired to bring in viewers, if his statements are repelling people?  NBC already has enough problems without taking on more of them.  And maybe someone needs to ask Dungy to comment on the Chicago TV shows and their storylines?  I have a feeling that five minutes after he weighed in on one of the same-sex relationships, NBC would dump his ass.  In other words, Dungy pretends to be brave about being a homophobe but even he knows there are limits to his hate speech.  Paid whores always do know that line.

Look for Jonathan Turley to wrap his arms around Dungy and the two to roll around on the floor while panting "religious rights!" to one another.

 

The following sites updated:





Posted by at

Tuesday, January 24, 2023

Graham Elwood, RICK AND MORTY, Ted Galen Carpenter

Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS  "Take That Moment To Enjoy The PEW" went up Sunday.  

takethatmoment

 

The color really pops on that comic.  Now here's Graham Elwood.


 


I've noted the problems RICK AND MORTY have had.  There's an update.  YAHOO reports:

 Adult Swim is severing ties with Justin Roiland, co-creator of the wildly popular animated series Rick and Morty, as he faces domestic violence charges. Roiland also voiced both of the show's titular characters.

The news was confirmed Tuesday on Rick and Morty's official Twitter account, which said the network has "ended its association" with Roiland but that the show will continue. "The talented and dedicated crew are hard at work on Season 7," the statement added. The two lead characters are set to be recast, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

This comes after NBC News reported that Roiland was charged with felony domestic violence in California in connection with a 2020 incident with a woman he was dating. According to the report, Roiland faces charges of domestic battery and false imprisonment. He has pleaded not guilty.


And this is from Ted Galen Carpenter (ANTIWAR.COM):


U.S. and NATO officials routinely contend that assisting Ukraine in its war against Russia is a moral as well as a strategic imperative. Ukraine is supposedly on the frontlines of a global struggle between democracy and freedom on one side and brutal authoritarianism on the other. That justification lacks credibility for two reasons. First, Ukraine itself is a corrupt, repressive autocracy, not a freedom-loving democracy, even if one uses the most flexible, expansive definition of "democracy." Second, the Russia-Ukraine war is a nasty turf fight over mundane stakes, not part of an existential global confrontation between good and evil.

It is hard to determine how much Western political leaders and their media mouthpieces actually believe their own moralistic propaganda. Some likely have drunk the Kool Aid, but others clearly have more practical (and less savory) reasons for wanting Washington to wage a proxy war against Russia. First and foremost, the financial benefits to the military-industrial complex are enormous. The United States has already provided more than $100 billion in aid to Kyiv, and a major portion of those funds are going to pay for Ukraine’s purchases (now or in the near future) of weapons systems from Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, or other manufacturers. Those firms also will benefit from the destruction of weapons already provided to Kyiv, since US stockpiles supposedly must be replenished. The usual collection of hawks already are sounding alarms that the arsenals of the United States and its NATO allies have become significantly depleted.

However, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin may have inadvertently disclosed a broader, ignoble motive for the proxy war. An April 2022 statement that he issued in Poland at the end of his stealth visit to Kyiv emphasized that Washington’s goal was not merely to help Ukraine repel Russia’s invasion, but to "weaken Russia" to the point that it could no longer pose a threat to any other country. Achieving such an objective would indisputably require a prolonged war in Ukraine – regardless of the consequences to the Ukrainian people. 


Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"


Tuesday, January 24, 2023.  Julian Assange remains persecuted, Friday an event took place to call for his release, yesterday a video posted on YOUTUBE which is probably going to drive some support away (what were those two idiots thinking?).


Friday, in DC, people gathered to address the ongoing persecution of Julian Assange and the continued attack on The First Amendment.  Amy Goodman and DEMOCRACY NOW! broadcast the events.




Julian remains imprisoned and remains persecuted by US President Joe Biden who, as vice president, once called him "a high tech terrorist."  Julian's 'crime' was revealing the realities of Iraq -- Chelsea Manning was a whistle-blower who leaked the information to Julian.  WIKILEAKS then published the Iraq War Logs.  And many outlets used the publication to publish reports of their own.  For example, THE GUARDIAN published many articles based on The Iraq War Logs.  Jonathan Steele, David Leigh and Nick Davies offered, on October 22, 2012:



A grim picture of the US and Britain's legacy in Iraq has been revealed in a massive leak of American military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes.
Almost 400,000 secret US army field reports have been passed to the Guardian and a number of other international media organisations via the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks.

The electronic archive is believed to emanate from the same dissident US army intelligence analyst who earlier this year is alleged to have leaked a smaller tranche of 90,000 logs chronicling bloody encounters and civilian killings in the Afghan war.
The new logs detail how:
• US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of abuse, torture, rape and even murder by Iraqi police and soldiers whose conduct appears to be systematic and normally unpunished.

• A US helicopter gunship involved in a notorious Baghdad incident had previously killed Iraqi insurgents after they tried to surrender.
• More than 15,000 civilians died in previously unknown incidents. US and UK officials have insisted that no official record of civilian casualties exists but the logs record 66,081 non-combatant deaths out of a total of 109,000 fatalities.

The numerous reports of detainee abuse, often supported by medical evidence, describe prisoners shackled, blindfolded and hung by wrists or ankles, and subjected to whipping, punching, kicking or electric shocks. Six reports end with a detainee's apparent deat



The Biden administration has been saying all the right things lately about respecting a free and vigorous press, after four years of relentless media-bashing and legal assaults under Donald Trump.

The attorney general, Merrick Garland, has even put in place expanded protections for journalists this fall, saying that “a free and independent press is vital to the functioning of our democracy”.

But the biggest test of Biden’s commitment remains imprisoned in a jail cell in London, where WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been held since 2019 while facing prosecution in the United States under the Espionage Act, a century-old statute that has never been used before for publishing classified information.

Whether the US justice department continues to pursue the Trump-era charges against the notorious leaker, whose group put out secret information on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, American diplomacy and internal Democratic politics before the 2016 election, will go a long way toward determining whether the current administration intends to make good on its pledges to protect the press.

Now Biden is facing a re-energized push, both inside the United States and overseas, to drop Assange’s protracted prosecution.


Before we go further with Julian let's note something.  There is a huge movement behind freeing Julian.  As with any large grouping, there are smart people and then are flat out stupid people.  You don't help the cause with raving lunatics.  So if your recent YOUTUBE segment -- which we won't be noting here, please stop e-mailing -- embarrasses us all, grasp that you didn't help the cause.


You should have known that to begin with when you tried to recycle yesterday's Jimmy Dore -- another failed comic this one from decades ago.  His failure alone didn't make him a bad guest.  His screaming and yelling made him a bad guest.  I don't care who he slept with back in the day -- and the rumor spun like crazy -- but he's not worth a segment today.  You'd try to set up the clip and he'd be yelling.  You'd play the clip and he'd be yelling.


You really think that makes the movement to free Julian look good?  You think anyone watching Crazy yell and scream changed their mind because of him?  Changed it in a good way?


Tell you when you lost me: When you started going after Juan Gonzalez. 


You and your partner are nepo-babies, grasp that and grasp that we see you as such.  And you want to go after Juan?


Juan's a leader, he's a mentor, he's a fighter.  And not 'online.'  He's all those things in the real world and long has been those things.  And we're not talking ancient history.  While you had your nose down to the hairy root as you swallowed every lie of candidate Barack Obama, Juan was writing columns like "I Smell Barack Obama Baloney."


You're two spoiled little boys so you have no idea the importance within the world of Juan Gonzalez.  For you to trash him -- and that's what the two of you and the yeller were doing -- did not look good for your cause.

When you put that kind of hatred out there, don't be surprised with the response.  


By that I mean, as that clip and word of it got out, I had multiple phone calls where they were bringing up the fact that one of your fathers beat your mother.  That detail is buried and unknown to your young audience today.  But it was well known -- and published -- in the 90s.  Your lives just got a lot harder because of the stunt you pulled.  And, hey, I'll sacrifice myself for a cause and have.  But I self-sacrifice smartly.  You just made yourself a target for a very sh**ty video that is not going to help Julian's cause at all.


I wasn't bothered by your Amy Goodman trashing -- I've called her out here for years and will continue to do so as needed.  I'm certainly not bothered that you (finally) called out Allan Nairn -- or let the screamer call him out while one of you tried to offer useless Allan an excuse (whores for Barack don't get excuses from me).  


But to have that meltdown on YOUTUBE where you savaged Juan Gonzalez?  And where there was that screaming for a public apology?  


You went back to a 2017 interview and that's how you contribute to increasing support for Julian?


Julian deserves to be free.  Julian is not a saint.  He doesn't have to be a saint for most adults to call for his freedom.  But that's what you need him to be for yourselves because the world must be simplified into a LITTLE GOLDEN BOOK for very young readers.  


Juan is a journalist.  In any interview he does, he is a journalist.  That may frustrate you and it may enrage you -- apparently it did.  Appears someone had a lot of Juan envy when he was working on DEMOCRACY NOW! and needs some therapy to address it today.  

Take your crazy to a doctor's office and fix it there.  Don't put it on YOUTUBE.  But if you do, don't kid yourself that you were trying to help Julian Assange.


Chris McGreal (GUARDIAN) notes:


Joe Biden has been accused of hypocrisy for demanding the release of journalists detained around the world while the US president continues seeking the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from Britain to face American espionage charges.

The campaign to pressure the Biden administration to drop the charges moved to Washington DC on Friday with a hearing of the Belmarsh Tribunal, an ad hoc gathering of legal experts and supporters named after the London prison where Assange is being detained.

Hypocrite Joe.  His legacy is being written as we watch.  Senile.  Unable to handle classified documents.  And a man who molests The First Amendment as her persecutes Julian Assange.  Not how I'd want to be remembered but apparently Joe wants to be the most hated president of all time.


Chaired by journalist Amy Goodman (Democracy Now) and Srećko Horvat Philosopher, Co-Founder of DiEM25, The Press Club’s Belmarsh Tribunal today included testimony from Julian’s father John Shipton.

Mr Shipton said: “It’s unbelievable we are now entering the 14 year of the persecution of Julian Assange. The ceaseless abuse, constant hounding, unscrupulous lies, abuse of process, the ceaseless application of three states – Sweden, UK and US – to abuse due process is appalling. Their bureaucratic malice and constant crying from the rooftops about free press is an artifice. They have used the democratic process to hound Julian close to death’s door.”

“Their disrespect of their own and international law is disgraceful. Julian only ever spoke truthfully, published accurately. Julian Assange is an icon of the decay of application of law, a symbol of freedom of speech, of righteousness and crimes against humanity. We, Julian’s supporters and family are beginning to see support in civil society all around the World. Together, we will prevail in bringing about Julian’s release.”

Mr Shipton said that “Julian’s persecution is of great, vital concern to Australia’s people and government. Remembering as we do with firm pride and responsibility, that Australia authored the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”


Joe Biden holds Julian's fate in his hands.  And Julian hold Joe's legacy in his hands.  Hypocrite.  Funny how that word keeps popping up and applied to Joe.  AL MAYADEEN notes:

US President Joe Biden has been accused of hypocrisy for calling for the release of detained journalists around the world while the US president continues to seek the extradition of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange from Britain to face American espionage charges.

The Belmarsh Tribunal, an ad hoc gathering of legal experts and supporters named after the London prison where Assange is being held, convened in Washington DC on Friday to press the Biden administration to drop the charges.

Sadaf Hassan (TRANSCONTINENTAL TIMES) uses the term hypocrisy and applies it to Joe  as well. Pentagon Papers whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg took part in Friday's hearing.  Brett Wilkins (ASIA PACIFIC REPORT) notes:

“One of the foundation stones of our form of government here in the United States . . . is our First Amendment to the Constitution,” Ellsberg — whom the Richard Nixon administration tried to jail for up to 115 years under the Espionage Act, but due to government misconduct was never imprisoned — said in a recorded message played at the tribunal.

“Up until Assange’s indictment, the act had never been used… against a journalist like Assange,” Ellsberg added. “If you’re going to use the act against a journalist in a blatant violation of the First Amendment… the First Amendment is essentially gone.”


Inviting action by the U.S. Department of Justice or DOJ, Ellsberg said that “I am now as indictable as Julian Assange and as everyone who put that information out — the papers, everybody who handled it.”

“Yes, I had copies of it and I did not give them to an authorized person. So, if they want to indict me for that, I will be interested to argue that one in the courts — whether that law is constitutional,” he continued, referring to the Espionage Act.

Highlighting that the highest U.S. court has never held that it is constitutional to use the Espionage Act as if it were a British Official Secrets Act, Ellsberg said that “I’d be happy to take that one to the Supreme Court.”

The Espionage Act, “used against whistleblowers, is unconstitutional,” he asserted. “It’s a clear violation of the First Amendment.”

Ellsberg’s public confession comes after editors and publishers at five major media outlets that collaborated with WikiLeaks in 2010 for articles based on diplomatic cables from Manning released a letter late last month arguing that “it is time for the U.S. government to end its prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing secrets.”


Friday's event featured multiple speakers.  In an effort to make sure that important points were not lost, Amy Goodman and DEMOCRACY NOW! devoted yesterday's show to highlighting some of what took place.  Here's an excerpt from yesterday's program:

AMY GOODMAN: Our next speaker is Jesselyn Radack, human rights attorney, renowned for her work protecting whistleblowers and journalists. While working at the Justice Department, she disclosed the FBI committed ethics violations in their interrogation of John Walker Lyndh. Among her many roles, Jesselyn is the director of national security and human rights at ExposeFacts.

JESSELYN RADACK: I’m Jesselyn Radack, and I represent whistleblowers and sources for a living, basically. I have defended the most number of media sources in the U.S. who have been investigated and charged under the Espionage Act. Most recently, I represented, and still represent, Daniel Hale. Huge shoutout to Daniel. I know he’s paying attention to this. But, basically, Daniel had to navigate an Espionage Act prosecution in the most conservative federal court in the country, the exact same court where Assange is indicted, in front of the same judge.

Daniel is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force who participated in the U.S. drone assassination program. After leaving the Air Force, he became an outspoken opponent of the U.S.'s targeted killing program. He basically called out and informed the public about targeting ineffectiveness and casualties and consistently exaggerating the accuracy of drone strikes and underreporting civilian deaths. Daniel's house was searched in 2014. Like Julian Assange, he lived under a sword of Damocles for a better part of his adult life. In May 2019, he was finally arrested and indicted on allegations that he disclosed classified documents to the U.S. military’s clandestine drone program, believed to have been the source material for a series in The Intercept called “The Drone Papers.”

Daniel pleaded guilty to a single count under the Espionage Act and was sentenced to 45 months in prison. I think his case is a prescient warning of how an Espionage Act case against Assange would proceed. Bear with me. At sentencing, the judge recommended — he recognized that Daniel was a whistleblower, and recommended that he be placed in a minimum-security medical prison. But the Bureau of Prisons instead sent him to an Orwellian communications management unit, nicknamed Gitmo North. There are only two such facilities in this country. Created in the aftermath of 9/11, they were intended to house terrorists. Daniel is a pacifist with no priors. Until recently, he has been housed in this special prison with the “Merchant of Death,” Viktor Bout, who was recently released.

So, when the U.S. gives assurances that Assange won’t be put in a supermax, don’t be fooled, because he’ll end up in a far worse place, one of these communications management units. In the CMU, Daniel is far more isolated from his support network, unable to receive the medical and psychological care he so desperately needs, and has more restrictions on his communications, reading materials and visitors, with other people, than anyone on death row.

SREĆKO HORVAT: There are a few people in Washington, D.C., who were not afraid to talk about Julian Assange all these years, and our next member of tribunal is one of them. So, it’s my big pleasure to present the one and only Chip Gibbons, policy director of the organization Defending Rights & Dissent.

CHIP GIBBONS: I want to start by acknowledging three people who cannot be here today. One is Julian Assange, who is imprisoned in a dungeon called Belmarsh. The second is Daniel Hale, who is currently being held in a communications management unit. I’ve been told that Daniel watches Democracy Now!, which is streaming this. Daniel, if you can hear this, I want to say, on behalf of everyone in this room, you have our solidarity. Never let them break your spirit. A better world is possible only because of people like you. And the third person who can’t be here is, of course, Edward Snowden, who exposed that our government was lying to us about how they were spying on us, and, for this patriotic act, was driven into exile, while the lying spies continue to enjoy lucrative careers with war profiteers and cable news programs. And you have to ask yourself: Do they view those as two different jobs? Because, after all, someone has to sell the wars that line their pockets.

The U.S. government knows, like we know, that without sources, there is no journalism. But the U.S. government is no longer content with merely going after the sources. They have made Assange the first person ever indicted under the Espionage Act for the crime of publishing truthful information. Make no mistake: The attempts to silence Assange is part of a larger war to silence those who expose the crimes of empire, militarism and the U.S. national security state.

And it’s not just a legal war involving a prosecution, but an extralegal war involving covert action and propaganda. While the U.S. security state is cloaked in secrecy, there have been a steady trickle of revelations about the three-letter agencies’ war on WikiLeaks. The NSA added Assange to their man-hunting database. The CIA plotted to kidnap and maybe even kill Assange. Various agencies sought to get around rules protecting press freedom by arguing WikiLeaks were not journalists. The NSA discussed the idea of declaring WikiLeaks a malicious foreign actor. The FBI and the CIA demanded a personal audience with Barack Obama to persuade him that rules protecting press freedom should not apply to WikiLeaks, as WikiLeaks should instead be classified as information brokers. I’m not sure what an information broker is; I don’t think the CIA and the FBI know, either. And finally, they invented the term “hostile nonstate intelligence agency” to allow the CIA to engage in offensive counterintelligence against WikiLeaks, something previously reserved only for rival spy agencies, and requires even less oversight — and there’s the very little oversight over the CIA — over CIA covert action. The U.S. government’s legal and extralegal war on WikiLeaks is a war on journalism itself.

AMY GOODMAN: Chip Gibbons, policy director of Defending Rights & Dissent, testifying Friday at the Belmarsh Tribunal in the case of Julian Assange in Washington, D.C. 



The presidents of major Latin America countries have increased their support for the campaign to free WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

The leaders are urging US President Joe Biden to drop the charges against Assange and set him free.

He is continuing to fight against extradition to the US and is being held at Belmarsh prison in London.

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson and WikiLeaks ambassador Joseph Farrell have held meetings in recent weeks in Latin American countries including Mexico, Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador raised the issue of Assange at a recent summit with Mr Biden, and has used his daily briefing to highlight his continuing “unjust detention”.

“If he is taken to the United States and sentenced to the maximum penalty … we must begin the campaign to dismantle the Statue of Liberty," said Mr Lopez Obrador.


Julian is not free.  It's going to take more effort to free him.  Those efforts need media coverage. So if you're on YOUTUBE and you're wanting to help Julian?  Probably not a good idea to attack a respected journalist like Juan Gonzalez who just did his job -- watch the DEMOCRACY NOW! segment from 2017 and you will grasp that Juan got dragged into a beef two YOUTUBERS have with Amy Goodman and that Juan didn't do what Amy and Allan did.  Grasp that and grasp that journalists will grasp it as well. He conducted himself in a journalistic manner.  So they may decide to just avoid the topic of Julian so they don't experience the wrath of the nepo-babies on YOUTUBE.  Again, that segment helped no one.  Maybe I need to put it in the hypermasculine terms that YOUTUBERS can grasp: Boys, you haven't earned the right to lick the sweat off Juan's sack.  And having watched your video, I fear you never will.


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