RT News - June 25th 2024 early - Julian Assange has been freed from Britain's Belmarsh Prison

Julian Assange has been released from Belmarsh prison in England where he has been held for more than five years without charge.

The founder of WikiLeaks flew out to the Northern Mariana Island where he will face a US court. He has put in a plea of guilty (presumably so the case can be heard). Donald Courter discusses with Mourad.

Former UK Ambassador and HR campaigner (and MP Candidate for the Workers Party GB in the coming elections) talks about the case and says it's a "cheap shot" and "coercion". See whole comments from Craig on Rumble https://rumble.com/v53kd1e-assange-to-strikes-plea-deal-with-washington-whats-next-for-wikileaks-found.html
Mourad also speaks with Arup Ghosh about Julian's release, who says he's been allowed out because of how badly it reflects on the Biden administration.
RT's Marina Kosareva presents some more timeline details about Julian Assange's "crimes" of journalism.
More details below

Short take: Julian Assange leaves a British prison after five years in confinement and is en route to a US territory in the Pacific to finalize a plea deal for his freedom. Assange's homeland, Australia, expects him to return there after the final US hearing. That's after serious concerns that his health was deteriorating in the UK prison. With Assange at the helm, WikiLeaks published numerous classified documents implicating the US in war crimes around the world.

videos on Rumble Marty Gottesfeld on Assange https://rumble.com/v53kwtf-assanges-case-is-testament-of-seriousness-of-results-he-was-able-to-achieve.html

Caleb Maupin : https://rumble.com/v53k5g0-julian-assange-is-free-wikileaks-founder-leaves-uk-prison-after-1901-days.html

rt 24/7 livestream will be updating here (LIVE) https://rumble.com/v35waq4-rt-news-livestream-247.html

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Assange freed as part of plea deal: Live updates 25 Jun, 2024 06:35

The WikiLeaks co-founder is expected to finalize his release at a court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific

WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange has been freed from Belmarsh maximum security prison in the UK as part of a plea deal with the US Justice Department. The activist spent five years behind bars in London while fighting extradition to the US, where he is accused of illegally obtaining and disclosing national security materials which shed light on alleged American war crimes.

According to the US Department of Justice, Assange has agreed to plead guilty at a court in the Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific. He is expected to be sentenced to around five years, equating to the time he has already served in Britain, while the extradition request is likely to be dropped. After the court proceedings, Assange is expected to travel to Australia, his country of citizenship.

06:54 GMT
Despite his release and expected deal with the US Justice Department, Assange is a “marked man” and “will always be in danger” after exposing US secrets, Craig Murray, a human rights activist and former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, told RT. This threat, he added, comes “particularly from the malicious forces of the CIA and the United States.”

06:35 GMT
The VJT199 charter flight believed to be carrying Assange has landed in Bangkok, Thailand, according to the Flightradar24 website. It is unclear whether the aircraft is refueling after flying from the UK, or how the activist will continue his journey to the Northern Mariana Islands, some 5,000km to the east.

04:54 President Gustavo Petro (Colombia) has invited WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange to visit Colombia after the news broke that the activist was released from the Belmarsh maximum-security prison in London on Tuesday morning.

25 Jun, 2024 00:12

Julian Assange leaves UK prison to finalize plea deal with US

The Australian-born activist is expected to strike a deal with the US Department of Justice, court documents say

WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange was released from prison in the UK on Tuesday morning, his team has said. He spent five years in the Belmarsh Prison in London while fighting extradition to the US, where he was indicted on 18 counts of disseminating classified information.

According to newly filed court documents, Assange will soon strike a plea deal in order to avoid further time behind bars.

“Julian Assange is free. He left Belmarsh maximum security prison on the morning of 24 June, after having spent 1901 days there,” WikiLeaks wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “He was granted bail by the High Court in London and was released at Stansted airport during the afternoon, where he boarded a plane and departed the UK.”

WikiLeaks said the international campaign to free Assange has created “the space for a long period of negotiations with the US Department of Justice, leading to a deal that has not yet been formally finalized.”

“As he returns to Australia, we thank all who stood by us, fought for us, and remained utterly committed in the fight for his freedom,” WikiLeaks wrote.

According to a letter from the DOJ, Assange will appear in court in Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, a US territory in the Pacific, at 9am local time on Wednesday. “We anticipate that the defendant will plead guilty to the charge… of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States,” the letter said.

The DOJ said it expects Assange to return to his home country of Australia after the proceedings.

Under Assange’s leadership, WikiLeaks published multiple top-secret files, including documents related to the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a trove of US diplomatic cables. In 2010, the organization published a video of a US military helicopter attacking civilians in Baghdad in 2007 after mistaking them for insurgents.

Fearing extradition to the US, Assange spent seven years hiding inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. He was ejected from the premises in 2019, when Ecuador revoked his asylum status. The activist was immediately arrested by British police and subsequently spent five years in Belmarsh after being found guilty of jumping bail.

Assange’s legal team, family, and associates have described the conditions in Belmarsh as “torture” and warned that his health significantly deteriorated behind bars.

In 2012, the WikiLeaks co-founder hosted ‘The World Tomorrow’ on RT. Over 12 episodes, the program covered a number of hotly debated topics, featuring guests such as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, former Guantanamo Bay inmate Moazzam Begg, and former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.

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Kremlin issues warning over ‘barbaric’ Crimea attack 24 Jun, 2024 14:34

US involvement in the deadly Ukrainian cluster munition strike on a crowded beach in Russia’s Sevastopol will have consequences, Dmitry Peskov has said.

Moscow “understands perfectly well” who is behind Sunday’s deadly strike on the city of Sevastopol in Russia’s Crimea, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said, vowing Russian retaliation.

The Ukrainian attack carried out with US-supplied ATACMS missiles killed at least four people, among them two children, and injured more than 150, according to local officials. Four missiles were intercepted by air defenses, while a fifth deviated from its trajectory and detonated its cluster warhead over the busy Black Sea beach. As a result, the falling fragments of cluster munitions led to numerous civilian casualties, the Russian Defense Ministry stated on Sunday.

“We see … an absolutely barbaric missile attack in Crimea. We understand perfectly well who is behind this … who is aiming these absolutely technically complex missiles at the targets,” Peskov told reporters during a press briefing on Monday.

“You should ask my colleagues in Europe, and above all in Washington, ask the press secretaries there why their governments are killing Russian children. Just ask them this question,” Peskov told the journalists in attendance.

He went on to warn that “of course, the direct involvement of the United States in hostilities that result in Russian civilians being killed [will] have consequences. What exactly, time will tell,” he said, recalling remarks by President Vladimir Putin that Moscow has considered similarly arming the adversaries of Western nations as a response to the supplying of weapons to Ukraine.

Moscow has placed the blame for Sunday’s attack primarily with Washington, accusing it of enabling the “premeditated terrorist missile attack.” The targets for these US-provided missiles are assigned to Ukrainian troops by American specialists, based on their own intelligence data, the Defense Ministry stated.

Kiev deliberately chooses mass gatherings of people as targets, both out of hatred and to sow panic, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said following the attack. Pentecost Sunday was picked deliberately, she claimed.

The US announced in July 2023 that it would provide Ukraine with cluster munitions, sparking outrage in Moscow. At the time, US President Joe Biden called the decision “very difficult” but justified, arguing that the deliveries were needed to fuel a Ukrainian counteroffensive that subsequently failed with heavy losses for Kiev.

Ukraine has previously targeted the Crimean peninsula with US-provided ATACMS missiles. In May, ten ATACMS on a trajectory toward the strategic Crimean Bridge were shot down, according to Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov.
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Zelensky sacks senior military commander 24 Jun, 2024 19:43

Yury Sodol was reportedly unpopular with his subordinates, who blamed him for steep losses on the battlefield.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has replaced the commander of his military’s Joint Forces Command, Lieutenant General Yury Sodol, amid claims that Sodol’s alleged incompetence “has killed more Ukrainian soldiers than any Russian general.”

Following a meeting with military leadership on Monday, Zelensky announced that Sodol would be replaced immediately by Brigadier-General Andrey Hnatov. Zelensky did not elaborate on why Sodol was sacked, but calls for the general’s dismissal had previously come from further down the command chain.

As commander of the Joint Forces Command, Sodol oversaw the combined operations of the country’s army, navy, and air force. Within the structure of the Ukrainian military, he answered only to Commander-in-Chief Aleksandr Syrsky.

In a post to his Telegram channel earlier on Monday, Azov Brigade acting commander Bogdan Krotevich said that he had written a letter to Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) demanding that Sodol be investigated for incompetence.

Sodol “in my opinion, has killed more Ukrainian soldiers than any Russian general,” Krotevich wrote, adding that any Ukrainian successes on the battlefield were “not due to, but in spite of” his command.

Since the conflict with Russia began in 2022, Zelensky has responded to battlefield setbacks on several occasions by purging senior military and political officials. Syrsky’s predecessor, Valery Zaluzhny, was fired earlier this year after Ukraine lost – according to Russia – roughly 160,000 men in last summer’s disastrous counteroffensive. Last September, Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov was sacked over his alleged role in major corruption scandals that apparently hindered the offensive.

Last month, Zelensky sacked numerous political officials perceived as being close to US leadership in Washington, before firing his state security chief amid an alleged plot by officers to assassinate multiple top officials, including Zelensky himself.

Sodol’s dismissal came after Russian forces seized dozens of towns and villages in Kharkov Region – which borders Russia – in a surprise offensive in early May. Across the entire theater of operations, Ukrainian casualties have increased since the beginning of the year. Russian President Vladimir Putin put Kiev’s current losses at around 50,000 per month. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed the Ukrainian military lost more than 1,900 troops on Saturday alone as a result of Russian attacks along the entire front line.

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Russian-led NATO rival ready to expand – secretary-general 25 Jun, 2024 02:33

The Eurasian CSTO alliance has become more crucial given the existing tensions, Imangali Tasmagambetov has said.

Current tensions could motivate more countries to join the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the alliance’s secretary-general, Imangali Tasmagambetov, has said. The remarks were made after a CSTO foreign ministers’ summit in Kazakhstan last week.

The CSTO was founded in 1992 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. The current members are Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Armenia.

“The increasing tensions within the rapidly deteriorating system of international security will draw more attention to organizations like the CSTO,” Tasmagambetov told TASS on Monday. He argued that the “social and political demand for security can lead to the expansion of the organization’s functions, as well as an increase in membership.”

The official added that members could further develop the group’s peacekeeping potential. “The history of the last two centuries shows that the most in-demand instrument is collective security,” he said.

In January 2022, the organization deployed a peacekeeping force for the first time to help quell unrest and riots in Kazakhstan. CSTO members have refused to impose sanctions on Russia or send military aid to Ukraine when Moscow launched its military operation in the neighboring state in February 2022.

Nevertheless, the Eurasian alliance has experienced some internal struggles. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan suspended his country’s participation in the organization earlier this year and threatened to leave the CSTO, while accusing the allies of inaction during Armenia’s conflict with Azerbaijan. Moscow has rejected the allegations of not fulfilling its commitments to Yerevan.

“Armenia is our ally, and all of our commitments to Armenia remain active. As for the question of membership in the organization, it is a sovereign right and the decision of each [individual] country,” Tasmagambetov said last week.

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Russia ‘can’t not respond’ to Crimea attack – Ron Paul 24 Jun, 2024 22:47

Moscow will be under tremendous pressure to do something, the former US lawmaker has said

There is tremendous popular pressure on Moscow to retaliate against the US over Sunday’s ATACMS missile strike on a beach near Sevastopol, former US Congressman Ron Paul has said.

Five civilians were killed and over 150 injured by cluster munitions from a US-supplied missile launched by Ukrainian forces. Among the dead were at least two children.

Paul, a retired lawmaker from Texas, described the strike as “a Ukrainian and American attack on Russia” on Monday’s Ron Paul Liberty Report. He added that some kind of escalation was inevitable after the US supplied long-range missiles to Ukraine and gave Kiev permission to use them for strikes deep inside Russia.

“What’s Russia going to do about this?” Paul asked. “Are they going to twiddle their thumbs and walk away? They might – for a day or two – ponder it, but there will be something that they’re going to do.”

While Moscow might prefer a “minimal response,” Paul continued, “They can’t not respond.” The Russian public simply demands that something be done, he added.

Russian Foreign Ministry officials summoned US Ambassador Lynne Tracy on Monday and told her that the “bloody atrocity” in Crimea would “not go unpunished.”

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian military fired five ATACMS missiles at Crimea. While Russian air defense systems destroyed four of the projectiles mid-air, the fifth was damaged, veered off course, and exploded over a packed beach.

The Kremlin has described the beach bombing as an act of terrorism that the US was as responsible for as Ukraine. The attack happened while a US drone loitered over the Black Sea, and ATACMS launches rely on targeting and intelligence provided by the Americans, Moscow’s ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said.

Paul and his co-host, Daniel McAdams, wondered if the missile attack was a deliberate escalation to justify further direct involvement of NATO inside Ukraine. They approvingly quoted Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, who on Monday condemned the attack as something the US military should not be doing.

“The only border our American military should be defending is our own border,” Greene wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Paul worked as a physician before going into politics. He served in Congress for a total of 23 years and ran for president three times – as a Libertarian in 1988, and in Republican primaries in 2008 and 2012 – before retiring and founding the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.

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