By Peter Koenig

April 16, 2019 "Information Clearing House" - Indignation has no limits! Arresting Julian Assange is murdering the truth, murdering human rights – and eliminating freedom of speech, let alone freedom of the media, although the latter has been compromised and became a farce since quite a while. What happened on 11 April and in preparation of 11 April – the storming by UK police of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London – to drag Julian Assange from his “room”, rather a cell – within the Embassy – was the pinnacle of abuse and of atrocity on humanity. Julian Assange has been basically for almost 7 years under house arrest in the Ecuadorian Embassy, especially during the last two years, after Lenin Moreno, the new right-wing, Washington shoe-in, became Ecuador’s new President, another Latin American neoliberal leader.

Moreno’s predecessor, Rafael Correa, granted Julian Assange not only asylum, but also Ecuadorian citizenship. Correa admired Assange’s courage to inform the world of the war crimes and atrocities committed by the United States. Correa’s successor, Moreno, at the instruction of Washington’s, deprived Julian Assange of any rights as a human being under asylum in a foreign country which the Ecuadorian Embassy represents. He was no longer allowed to receive visits, nor access to internet, and was confined to a small room. Julian lived under de facto house arrest. As a last straw – Moreno took Assange’s passport away and stripped him of his Ecuadorian citizenship. Similar instructions from Washington were ignored by President Correa. President Correa’s unsubmissiveness is among the reasons why Washington didn’t allow Correa to run for another term, even though a vast majority of the people supported him. “Permission” by Washington to run for a high public office, like the presidency, is a must, enforced by serious threats.

But equally shameful, abjectly shameful, indeed – and it is not said enough, is Australia’s silence. Julian Assange is an Australian citizen. Yet, the Australian government, also a total vassal of the faltering and morally corrupt empire, lets a citizen of hers being exposed to horrendous injustice, pain, most likely being extradited to the US, where he can expect no justice, but may possibly be tortured and killed. Several American lawmakers have already called out for Assange’s blood, for his execution, believe it or not, even extra-judiciary execution was called for, if everything else fails. That is totally in the cards. Just think of Obama’s and Trump’s (vamped up) extra-judiciary drone killings. Nobody says beep; it’s the new normal. The west looks on and keeps enjoying its comfort zone of “no hear, no see, no talk”. – What a life!