From the outset, the release of Julian Assange from his draconian incarceration rang strange. Granted bail but immediately put on an international flight? “Skipping bail” was already weaponised once…
As relieved as most were for the martyr and his family, it stinks that he was forced to plead guilty (albeit to only one charge) and be sentenced to time served, when the whole saga is one of abuse of power behind legal fig-leaves. Even a presidential pardon (for which the season has arrived) would have been a compromise, given that Assange was never subject to US jurisdiction! This plea deal truly leaves the sword of Damocles dangling over the journalists and publishers of the world.
The Biden team will no doubt spin this as undoing a wrong done under Trump - assuming the rival octagenarians survive long enough to contest the position of figurehead of the U.S.S.A.
But if team Biden at all supported the Obama regime’s decision (in which he was VP) to refrain from charging Assange in the interest of press freedom (possibly the last time any U.S.S.A. regime deferred to the Bill of Rights), they would have acted upon taking office, not when leaving it, and if not dropping charges, would at least have granted a pardon, not imposed such a backhanded, begrudging deal.
It has come to my attention, via that inveterate loose cannon Pepe Escobar, that Chinese analysts have linked Assange's "release" to the bizarre AUKUS nuclear "deal" which inter alia, obliged Australia to pay a USD 584 000 000 penalty to the French military-industrial complex. If those analysts are correct, that would be the result of patient campaigning within Australia eventually forcing its government to do its job of asserting the rights of its citizens. However, if as rumour has it, the comprador regime plans to invoice Assange for the private jet which brought him to Australia via another American Pacific colony, it will face a new wave of campaigning!
The phrase "...assuming the rival octagenarians survive..." turns out to have been more than mere sarcasm as Biden seems to have been euthanased on live TV since it was written. Well, whichever authoritarian liberal takes his place will still have a whiff of nappy about them...
Survival of the octagenarians turned into flavour of the month. The Trump earshot is a Rorschach test enabling people to reveal their fears by projecting explanations. An open mind is a precious thing.
Team Biden might be envious - it would be so convenient and face-saving for them if someone took him off their hands.