I see in the persecution of Julian Assange, a parallel with a technique put together by the United States in the destruction of Iraq that they called shock and awe, wherein all of the institutions of state were destroyed and plundered, with the exception of the department concerning itself with the production of oil. Now the parallel in publishing, in journalism, is Julian Assange. Every aspect of his life is absolutely destroyed. His family, facing bankruptcy in pursuit of some sort of freedom or justice for Julian, and intimidation and crushing, absolute crushing of the courage. There’s just no chance now that anybody will take upon themselves the work of Julian Assange, knowing that the United States will just simply destroy you, John Shipton says in an interview with John Jiggens.

Transcript

JJ: The persecution of Julian Assange is a textbook case of the misuse of law to punish a dissident with many irregularities. You’ve just returned from his latest hearing. Was it less of a travesty of justice this time?

JS: Well, your opening statement, I have some difficulty with, principally because it’s never been about law. It’s only been about the exercise of power against a publisher and a journalist that their power is exercised through forms which are presented to us as a shield between the state and the public indicates to us sort of, there’s a determination on behalf of the United States to ignore forms and just exercise power and use those institutions like law and the judiciary as means. That said, the hearing last week was very satisfying relative to all of the other hearings that I’ve attended to in Julian’s case. The judges were neutral and inquired over detail that the defence had presented, and that the prosecution presented.

Interesting was the audience. there were of course Julian’s family, myself, Stella and Gabriel. But there was also the United Nations rapporteur on torture and two observers from the Australian High Commission in London, and several MEP’s and MP’s, including the Australian........

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