Justin speaks on Day X in Denver - Free Julian Assange

On February 20th of 2024 a citizen collective went to the steps of the Denver Capitol to oppose the war on journalists.Show more

My name is Justin & I've been following Wikileaks & Julian Assange since some time in 2013, not long after he took asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012.

Wikileaks caught my attention because it wasn't like other news outlets that told you what to think about world events, it simply gave you the documents & pointed out key details. Wikileaks always assumed you were smart enough to come to you own conclusions.

What I learned from Wikileaks - In the Gitmo Files I learned my government was kidnapping & torturing people without charges. In the Iraq War Logs I learned my government contracts out things they didn't want pinned to them, like the 60% civilian casualty rate for over 100,000 killed. Later Dan Hale set the record straight with documents showing 90% civilian casualty rates in Afghanistan. Then the Collateral Murder video showed the war crimes of killing journalists & first responders as well as a complete lack of humanity. The Global Intelligence Files showed me that the CIA contracted with companies like DOW Chemicals to spy on & defeat activists much like COINTELPRO did with social movements years before & like the FBI did recently in Aurora Colorado with Black Lives Matter.

As Julian Assange has said "It is impossible to correct abuses unless we know that they're going on".

So, all of this demonstrated to me the need for transparency, education & accountability. Brave publishers like Julian Assange are the only reason we know these essential events.
      
What we know now is the UK spent over 1 million pounds a year (correction 21M pounds in 7 years) on surveillance of that embassy. We know the CIA contracted with U.C. Global to record everything from meetings with lawyers to doctor's visits to other journalists' visiting. We know that every cell phone sim card & laptop drive was taken & copied for the CIA, even though that violates the rights of U.S. Citizens who would be protected by the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. All this violates any chance of a fair trial in the United States. We know the CIA planned to assassinate him. They stole all his belongings & gave them to the United States, who wants 175 years ( a death sentence) to a journalist.

If he is sent to the U.S., it will violate the extradition treaty for political prisoners (and the possible death sentence) & place him with those planning his murder. The court he'd be tried in does not allow a public defense, because those materials are still classified as top secret even though they've been released, so you cannot have a public defense & that court has a 99% conviction rate. What justice is even possible with every policy, law & treaty broken? And for what? Julian Assange exposed crimes. He did not commit crimes.

Julian has said, "I believe the way to justice is education" & I agree. He's also said "to keep a person ignorant is to place them in a cage".

The thing to keep in mind is every one of us that uses social media is a publisher. What you publish on Instagram, Tick Tock, Twitter, YouTube or Facebook is subject to oversights & actions. Actions like your bank accounts being frozen. Actions like the proposed Hate Speech bill in Ireland that doesn't define what Hate Speech is, but can still lead to prosecution. If you've published "Cease Fire Now", "From the River to the Sea...", or "support UNRWA" or "Jail (fill in the blank with your political opponent)" then it may be you that has your bank accounts frozen or PayPal locking you out of your funds & not just independent journalists & Canadian truckers & their supporters.

This is you on trial.

So, whatever your cause is from political corruption, to workers' rights, to women's rights, to our healthcare, the opioid crisis, to clean water, air & food or our ailing planet. You & I have a right to know what is done with our taxes & in our names. The brave journalists being tortured, jailed & murdered - this War on Journalists - it must end.

Julian said "Reality is an aspect of Property. It must be seized. And investigative journalism is the Noble Art of seizing reality back from the powerful".

If you are not allowed to know something, you can never take actions to change it.

Now we have a genocide on journalists in Gaza & Julian's quote comes to mind, "Every time we witness an injustice and do not act, we train character to be passive in it's presence & thereby eventually lose all ability to defend ourselves & those we love".

We may not agree on politics, but we can all agree a brave man who exposed criminal activity does not deserve 175 years, after the 5 years in Belmarsh Prison & the 7 years of arbitrary detention before then. I am grateful to truth tellers, to journalists willing to put their lives on the line for us. So, I will stand up for them. Our First Amendment is the first for a reason.

As Julian has said "What does censorship reveal? It reveals fear".

We must free Julian Assange.