Author: Nathan
Courage Trustee and fashion icon Vivienne Westwood has recorded a video message in support of Julian Assange. Warning that “If Julian steps outside the Embassy the UK will arrest him,” Westwood says, “I appeal to the people of Ecuador to continue to protect Julian.”
See the video here (or on Youtube) and a full transcript below:
Transcript:
“Vivienne Playing Cards. Collect the Cards. Connect the Cards.
I just popped out of my studio near the river Thames into Battersea Park.
Julian Assange is America’s most wanted MAN because he helped to expose American War Crimes. He is a War Hero. For that they want to put him in concrete for 30 years. Julian knew this all along from various statements and emails. But now Trump has admitted it.
Yet Julian has never been charged with a crime. The Swedish allegations had no substance, that’s why they had to drop them.
The UK pretends that Julian jumped bail. This is not true. He’s been given political asylum by BRAVE Ecuador.
If Julian steps outside the Embassy the UK will arrest him. But I don’t think they want to extradite him to Trump. They don’t want to deal with him because he’s popular, despite the press. It’s more convenient for them to just leave him in limbo in the Embassy.
I’m standing on the steps of the Buddhist temple in the park. I’m a Taoist. But I believe that everyone keeps the message of Jesus in their heart – that we should love each another.
And I appeal to the people of Ecuador to continue to protect Julian.
Julian Assange is the most famous victim of human rights abuse in the western world and he is a famous beacon of free speech.
Wikileaks never lies.”
CIA whistleblower and Courage Advisory Board member John Kiriakou hand-delivers letter to the Ecuadorian embassy in Washington DC
In the week since WikiLeaks’ publisher Julian Assange’s internet access was cut, along with his ability to receive visitors in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, there have been a number of initiatives to end his isolation and #ReconnectJulian. There’s been an open letter from artists, intellectuals and campaigners, another huge open letter signed by 338 intellectuals from the Spanish-speaking world and a petition that has gathered tens of thousands of signatures.
Now there has been a third open letter. CIA whistleblower and Courage Advisory Board member John Kirakou hand-delivered a letter today in support of Julian Assange to the Ecuadorian Ambassador to the United States.
Kiriakou was joined in his appeal by Philip Giraldi, a former CIA case officer, Elizabeth Murray, former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East, National Intelligence Council (retired) and twelve more former US government officials. Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters and Alex Cox, film director, writer, and producer also signed.
In the letter, the group applaud the Ecuadoran government’s decision to “grant asylum, to welcome as a citizen, and to grant diplomatic status to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange,” stating that the country has “been a role model for the international community for its views on transparency and press freedom.”
The group also raised the prospects of the confirmation of Gina Haspel as the new Direcor of the CIA as one of many examples why the world and especially America needs WikiLeaks and why Assange should be reconnected to the outside world:
It is because of Wikileaks that we know about the surveillance industry, about warrantless wiretapping and a great deal more about NSA spying on American citizens. And with President Trump’s appointment of the notorious Gina Haspel as the new CIA director, we know that there is a danger that the CIA will keep its torture history secret by keeping it classified.
The full letter and list of signatories follows below.
HE Ambassador Francisco Jose Borja Cevallos
Embassy of Ecuador
2535 15thStreet NW
Washington, DC 20009
Your Excellency:
We, the undersigned applaud and commend the decision of the Government of Ecuador to grant asylum, to welcome as a citizen, and to grant diplomatic status to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. In the case of Mr. Assange, Ecuador has been a role model for the international community for its views on transparency and press freedom. Every country should emulate Ecuador.
I am reminded of August 1990 when Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait. US President George H. W. Bush was unsure of what the US response should be. He received a call from British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. “Now is not the time to go wobbly, George,” she told him. Well, now is not the time to go wobbly in our support of Wikileaks and Julian Assange.
It is only because of Wikileaks that we know about war crimes and atrocities committed against Iraqi citizens by US troops. It is because of Wikileaks that we know about the surveillance industry, about warrantless wiretapping and a great deal more about NSA spying on American citizens. And with President Trump’s appointment of the notorious Gina Haspel as the new CIA director, we know that there is a danger that the CIA will keep its torture history secret by keeping it classified.
It is Wikileaks that has kept, and will continue to keep, all Americans informed of what their government does in their name. It is Julian Assange who has led that fight. We ask the Government of Ecuador to keep up the fight for transparency and press freedom, to continue to be a world leader in honesty and accountability. We call on the Government of Ecuador to reconnect Julian Assange to the world.
Respectfully,
John Kiriakou, former CIA counterterrorism officer and former senior investigator, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Marshall Carter-Tripp, Foreign Service Officer (retired)
Ann Wright, Colonel, US Army Reserve and Foreign Service Officer (retired)
Robert Wing, Foreign Service Officer (retired)
Philip Giraldi, former CIA case officer
Todd E. Pierce, Major, Judge Advocate, US Army (retired)
- J. Laniewski, Lieutenant Colonel, US Army (retired)
Coleen Rowley, retired FBI special agent and former Minneapolis Division
Legal Counsel
Elizabeth Murray, former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the
Near East, National Intelligence Council (retired)
Peter Van Buren, Foreign Service Officer (retired)
- Kirk Wiebe, former senior intelligence analyst and whistleblower, NSA
Larry Johnson, former CIA officer and former Foreign Service officer
Bogdan Dzakovic, former team member, Federal Air Marshals and Aviation Security Red Team
Robert Wing, former Foreign Service Officer
Roger Waters, co-founder, Pink Floyd
Alex Cox, film director, writer, and producer
Spanish language letter has been delivered to the Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno
Coming hot on the heels of our joint letter bringing together artists, intellectuals and activists predominantly from the Anglophone world, today a Spanish-language open letter signed by 338 intellectuals from 38 countries was delivered to Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno.
Coordinated by MST, the Landless Workers’ Movement in Brazil, the letter calls on Moreno to end the isolation of Julian Assange. It has now been a full week since Assange’s internet access was cut off and his ability to receive visitors rescinded.
The letter expresses the concerns of its 338 signatories that “the security, integrity, mental health and political rights of Assange are being violated.” Earlier this year, two doctors examined the WikiLeaks editor in chief and warned that extended isolation in the embassy — even with internet and visitors — has endangered his physical and mental health.
Over the past week of isolation, delegations including Vivienne Westwood and representatives from Cage have gone to the Ecuadorian embassy in London in order to try to visit the WikiLeaks publisher and been refused. Tens of thousands of supporters have added their names to the petition started by Brian Eno and Yanis Varoufakis. The momentum is growing and the world is watching.
“@JulianAssange is a war hero, he opposed American war crimes” says fashion designer Vivienne Westwood outside Ecuadorian Embassy after the @wikileaks founder’s internet is cut.
MORE: https://t.co/uOvQekzi7F pic.twitter.com/JqcLOS2UBb
— RT UK (@RTUKnews) March 29, 2018
@UK_CAGE Muhammad Rabbani International Director outside the Ecuadorean embassy in London #ReconnectJulian pic.twitter.com/wVZTus5PCw
— Miss Organised Chaos (@shezanahafiz) April 2, 2018
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The Courage Board of Trustees are delighted to announce that Naomi Colvin is taking the position of Director of Courage from 4th April.
We call on the government of Ecuador to allow Julian Assange his right of freedom of speech.
If it was ever clear that the case of Julian Assange was never just a legal case, but a struggle for the protection of basic human rights, it is now.
Ecuador has confirmed today that it has suspended Julian Assange’s internet access in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. In a message posted to Twitter, the Ecuadorian government says that the suspension is the result of Assange breaking a late 2017 agreement “not to issue messages that supposed an interference in relation to other States.”
COMUNICADO OFICIAL | El Gobierno de Ecuador suspende las comunicaciones de @JulianAssange. pic.twitter.com/sr4kArFSxw
— Comunicación Ecuador (@ComunicacionEc) March 28, 2018
Courage can confirm that, in addition to having his internet access cut off, Julian Assange is currently unable to receive visitors at the Ecuadorian embassy.
In response to the suspension, Brian Eno and Yanis Varoufakis issued a letter entitled, ‘Restore Julian Assange’s access to visitors and the outside world!’ They write:
it seems that the Ecuadorian government [ ] has been ‘leaned’ on mercilessly not only to stop attempting to provide Julian with a diplomatic route to safety but to drive him out of their London Embassy as well. In addition to US pressure, the Spanish government is also using its leverage over Ecuador to silence Julian’s criticisms of Madrid’s imprisonment of Catalan politicians and, in particular, of the arrest of Catalonia’s former premier in Germany.
The letter concludes by calling on supporters to sign a new petition, launched by DiEM25, calling for an end to Assange’s isolation. Sign the petition here.
Democracy Now! spent their full show interviewing Chelsea Manning about her time in Iraq, releasing documents to WikiLeaks, her experience in prison, and now running for US Senate in Maryland.
About the Collateral Murder video, Chelsea said, “This is not unusual. This was not some freak incident. This is what war is, in a nutshell.”
On solitary confinement, she said, “Nothing justifies doing this to any human being.”
Categories
No US Appeal to Lauri Love Ruling
The High Court has today (20 March 2018) decided not to grant certification on a point raised by the CPS in relation to the last month’s ruling preventing extradition of British-Finnish computer scientist Lauri Love to the United States. As a result, the appeal ruling of 5 February 2018 stands in full.
Lauri Love, who has diagnoses of Asperger syndrome, severe antibiotic-resistant eczema and major depression, had been facing indictments from three separate US federal court districts on allegations of his participation in online protest. If extradited, he faced a maximum sentence of 99 years imprisonment.
The CPS had previously conceded that, on the basis of the High Court’s ruling, there was no prospect of Lauri Love being extradited to the US.
Lauri Love, who received news of the High Court’s decision this morning, said:
The forum bar has now met its first successful test case. US detention and healthcare provision have been rightly shown to be unjust and oppressive. The era of the US Department of Justice as world police is over.
Naomi Colvin, Acting Director of the Courage Foundation, which has been assisting Lauri since his extradition began, said:
The Americans had already given up on their attempt to actually extradite Lauri but today’s decision means that the High Court ruling stands in full. As a result, there is now very little prospect of any British hacker ever finding themselves in the same position as Lauri Love or Gary McKinnon. Fifteen years of terrible public policy in which British hackers were left open to the vindictive instincts of US prosecutors has now been brought to an end.
In their ruling last month, the Lord Chief Justice and Mr Justice Ouseley, held that prosecuting Lauri Love in the United Kingdom would not be oppressive. We will cross that bridge when we come to it. The Courage Foundation will continue to support Lauri and his family until his legal situation is fully resolved.
Courage at the Elevate Festival
Courage cofounder Sarah Harrison and Courage Trustee Renata Avila are speaking at the Elevate Festival in Austria, 28 February 2018, which this year deals with “two basic concepts of modernity – risk and courage.” Harrison and Avila will introduce their new book with Courage Advisory Board member Angela Richter, ‘Women, Whistleblowing, WikiLeaks’, the proceeds of which will go to Courage.
Julian Assange will highlight the opening night, giving a talk and Q&A by video from the Ecuadorian Embassy. Harrison will also moderate a panel on ‘Fearless Journalism’ on 2 March.
Get tickets to the festival here.
Truthtelling in Trump’s America: Reality Winner and the war on whistleblowers
Courage is excited to team up with Expose Facts to co-host a discussion with three US national security whistleblowers, Thomas Drake, Lisa Ling, and Jesselyn Radack, on 1 March 2018 at Juju’s Bar & Stage in London, about Reality Winner, the first whistleblower on trial in the Trump era.
As Reality Winner awaits trial, her treatment gives us a glimpse of what we can expect in the coming years. How is the situation for whistleblowers deteriorating under Donald Trump, when truth itself is under attack? What can we do to help Reality? And what are the lessons for the UK and Europe? Can we build a politics more welcoming to whistleblowers without a rethink of the fundamentals?
The event is free, but please RSVP here.
Reality Winner’s pretrial hearing
When: 27 February 2018
Where: County Courthouse, Augusta, Georgia
What: This hearing is specifically focused on what evidence can be used against Reality and the judge’s ruling will have a significant impact on her ability to attain a fair trial or not.
We’re calling on supporters in the area to pack the courtroom in support of imprisoned alleged truthteller Reality Winner, who faces an Espionage Act charge for purportedly revealing important information about the government’s assessment of Russian activity during the 2016 US election. Winner has already been denied bail four times, and she needs our support more than ever.
Those who can’t attend in person can join our tweetstorm on the 27th.
More info about Reality and the hearing here.
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