By Dr Lissa Johnson
Convinced Julian Assange handed Trump the election? Certain he raped two women in Sweden? Want to see him rot in jail? The fourth in a five-part series by clinical psychologist Dr Lissa Johnson explains the science behind smear and propaganda, and how and why it works.
March 17, 2019 "Information Clearing House" - On Sunday March 3rd and 10th, hundreds attended rallies organised by the Socialist Equality Party of Australia in Sydney and Melbourne, demanding that the Australian government secure freedom for Julian Assange.
Acclaimed journalist and film-maker John Pilger spoke at the Sydney rally along with founder of the Sydney Peace Foundation, Professor Stuart Rees AM, and editor-in-chief of US news website Consortium News, Joe Lauria.
The rallies called for the Australian government to intervene to protect its citizen, Julian Assange, who has been confined to the Ecuadorian embassy since 2012. Assange is suffering arbitrary detention according to two UN rulings. Should he leave the embassy he is expected to be extradited to the United States and prosecuted for his publishing activities, most likely over 2010 disclosures of US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
According to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), Julian Assange faces “well founded” risks of “political persecution and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment” and “physical harm” in the United States. The WGAD further ruled that Assange is entitled to compensation and the restoration of his freedom.
Shortly before the Melbourne rally, in an escalation of the US government’s pursuit of the Wikileaks founder, news broke that Chelsea Manning had been jailed for refusing to testify in Grand Jury proceedings against Assange. Wikileaks tweeted, “Whistleblowers are now being forced to testify against journalists. A new angle in the attack on media freedom.”
“This is the cutting edge of attempts by governments and the corporate elite to abolish free speech, censor the internet and suppress mass anti-war sentiment,” Evrim Yazgin, President of the International Youth and Students for Social Equality, told the Melbourne rally.
Rally organiser, James Cogan, added that “the Trump administration is moving to file the first ever criminal charges against a media publisher, Wikileaks, using the powers of the 1917 Espionage Act.”
Speaking at the Sydney rally Consortium News editor Joe Lauria asked, “from their point of view it’s easy to understand why the U.S. wants to crush Assange. But what is Australia’s excuse? Why is it fighting America’s battles? Why has the Australian mainstream media also turned against Assange after an election held in the US, not here? What has happened to Australia’s sovereignty?”
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