Five years ago, USA Today published my piece, “Julian Assange deserves a Medal of Freedom, not a secret indictment.” Assange has been persecuted because he and Wikileaks exposed war crimes by the U.S. government and its allies. But he still deserves a Medal of Freedom for his heroic efforts to save democracy from Leviathan.
The Joe Biden administration’s pursuit of Assange has been as shameless as the Donald Trump administration’s indictment. Assange is locked away in one of Britain’s most repressive prisons while the Biden administration is seeking to extradite Assange to the United States for a kangaroo trial that will sentence him to life in prison.
Happily, there are many groups and individuals fighting valiantly to block Assange’s legal destruction. The Libertarian Institute has been in the forefront of this battle. Here are links to numerous Libertarian Institute articles and podcasts on Assange.
Scott Horton has been highlighting Assange’s work and courage since long before the feds sought to legally destroy him. Here is a link to an April 2010 interview between Scott and Assange.
When the U.S. government formally indicted Assange in April 2019, I castigated the feds on Twitter:
The Assange arrest proves that no government critic "is above the law." But governments remain free to secretly trample the law as they please.
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) April 11, 2019
Julian Assange is charged with "conspiracy to commit computer intrusion." What about all the politicians & military officials who conspired to deceive Americans about the Iraq war? https://t.co/RnzGTjiGjh
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) April 11, 2019
The cheering by some of the US media on the Assange arrest vivifies how journalists no longer understand how govt. coverups destroy democracy.
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) April 11, 2019
So Trump gave a Farewell Address in lieu of a massive declassification of Deep State documents & pardoning Assange, Snowden, etc.? What was 2nd prize? Two Farewell Addresses? https://t.co/DfTfChLMUn
— James Bovard (@JimBovard) January 19, 2021
Protests opposing Assange’s extradition occurred outside the Justice Department headquarters and other locations in the United States and abroad in October 2022. I offered my two cents to the crowd; prize-winning videographer Ford Fischer captured the speeches that day. Antiwar.com’s Dave DeCamp gave the best foreign policy speech of the day.
In a March 2023 piece for the The American Conservative on the twentieth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, I declared that Assange and Wikileaks did more to expose war crimes in Iraq than did any U.S. newspaper. Americans deserve the truth & Assange deserves freedom.
Unfortunately, telling the truth is the only war crime now recognized by the U.S. government. But we will continue fighting for freedom for Assange and truth for the American people.
