Assange Described A Decade Ago How 'Endless' Afghan War Was Engineered By "Transnational Security Elite"

[spoon!]

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/08/1...of-afghan-war/

Assange Described A Decade Ago How 'Endless' Afghan War Was Engineered By "Transnational Security Elite"
Aug 21, 2021

As the hawks who have been lying about the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan for two decades continue to peddle fantasies in the midst of a Taliban takeover and American evacuation of Kabul, progressive critics on Tuesday reminded the world who has benefited from the "endless war." "Entrenching U.S. forces in Afghanistan was the military-industrial complex’s business plan for 20+ years," declared the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group Public Citizen.

"Hawks and defense contractors co-opted the needs of the Afghan people in order to line their own pockets," the group added. "Never has it been more important to end war profiteering."

In a Tuesday morning tweet, Public Citizen highlighted returns on defense stocks over the past 20 years — as calculated in a "jaw-dropping" analysis by The Intercept — and asserted that "the military-industrial complex got exactly what it wanted out of this war."

The Intercept‘s Jon Schwarz examined returns on stocks of the five biggest defense contractors: Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and General Dynamics.

Schwarz found that a $10,000 investment in stock evenly split across those five companies on the day in 2001 that then-President Georg W. Bush signed the authorization preceding the US invasion would be worth $97,295 this week, not adjusted for inflation, taxes, or fees.
U.S. Army photo

According to The Intercept:

"This is a far greater return than was available in the overall stock market over the same period. $10,000 invested in an S&P 500 index fund on September 18, 2001, would now be worth $61,613.

That is, defense stocks outperformed the stock market overall by 58% during the Afghanistan War."

"These numbers suggest that it is incorrect to conclude that the Taliban’s immediate takeover of Afghanistan upon the U.S.’s departure means that the Afghanistan War was a failure," Schwarz added. "On the contrary, from the perspective of some of the most powerful people in the U.S., it may have been an extraordinary success. Notably, the boards of directors of all five defense contractors include retired top-level military officers."

"War profiteering isn’t new," journalist Dina Sayedahmed said in response to the reporting, "but seeing the numbers on it is staggering." Progressive political commentator and podcast host Krystal Ball used Schwarz’s findings to counter a key argument that’s been widely used to justify nearly 20 years of war.

"This is what it was really all about people," she tweeted of the defense contractors’ returns. "Anyone who believes we were in Afghanistan to help women and girls is a liar or a fool."

Jack Mirkinson wrote Monday for Discourse Blog that "it is unquestionably heartbreaking to think about what the Taliban might inflict on women and girls, but let us dispense with this fantasy that the U.S. has been in Afghanistan to support women, or to build democracy, or to strengthen Afghan institutions, or any of the other lines that are deployed whenever someone has the temerity to suggest that endless war and occupation is a harmful thing."

"We did not go into Afghanistan to support its people, and we did not stay in Afghanistan to support its people," he added. "It is astonishing, given what we know about the monsters that the U.S. has propped up time and time againaround the world, that the myth persists that we do anything out of our love for human rights. We went in and we stayed in for the same reason: the American empire is a force that must remain in perpetual motion."

As Common Dreams reported Monday, while the Taliban has retaken control, anti-war advocates have argued diplomacy is the only path to long-term peace, with Project South’s Azadeh Shahshahani emphasizing that "the only ones who benefited from the U.S. war on Afghanistan were war-profiteering politicians and corporations while countless lives were destroyed."

Responding to Shahshahani’s tweet about who has benefited from two decades of bloodshed, Zack Kopplin of the Government Accountability Project wrote, "Adding war-profiteering generals to the mix too."

[U. Dunrouse]

The military-industrial complex works for the progression of the Zio-Globalist agenda, especially in wars on Muslim countries. Every reporter "omitting" to mention that fact is a pro-Zionist diverter or an incompetent idiot.

[notmenomore]

Article seems to omit the poppy industry.

[Jim Harting]

Not a big fan of Assange, but he does come up with some interesting insights and useful information on occasion, as here.

[Mick Walker]

Join Assange’s father, an Australian MP, a former national news presenter, two medical professionals and*CN‘s legal analyst in a discussion about the upcoming appeal hearing.

The U.S. appeal at the High Court in London against the decision not to extradite*WikiLeaks*publisher*Julian Assange*on health grounds will be heard on Oct. 27 and 28. Live from Sydney’s*Politics in the Pub*Tuesday at 3 am EDT (U.S. viewers can watch it later on replay), 8 am BST and 6 pm AEST, will be a discussion about the grounds of the appeal, its possible outcomes and the impact of recent revelations by former CIA officers and U.S. officials about a plot to kill or kidnap Assange.

With Assange’s father*John Shipton, will be*Mary Kostakidis, former SBS News anchor; clinical psychologist*Lissa Johnson, Prof.*Bill Hogan, MP*Julian Hill*and*Alexander Mercouris, editor of*The Duran*and*CN*legal analyst. A joint production of*Politics in the Pub*and*CN Live!, produced by*Cathy Vogan.

More here...

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/10/0...ts-the-appeal/

[Mick Walker]

The only surprise when it comes to the Pandora Papers revelations, exposing the scale of the greed and corruption of various world leaders, political figures and officials in hoarding obscene amounts of cash in offshore tax havens, is that anyone should be surprised.

We are living through a crisis of late capitalism, an economic system whose many and manifold contradictions have been exacerbated by a global pandemic. And we have reached the point where huge imbalance in wealth within states, between states - and also within and between regions - is no longer tenable. What is also no longer tenable is the clawing hypocrisy that underpins Western liberal democracy.

The man who more than any other has exposed this hypocrisy is Julian Assange, currently languishing in Belmarsh high security prison in London awaiting the outcome of the US government’s appeal against the decision of a British judge towards the end of 2019 not to allow his extradition to the US on grounds that his treatment there is likely to amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

The level and intensity of the persecution Assange has been made to endure is a measure of the extent to which he removed the flowery curtains of democracy and human rights behind which the savage beast of US-led Western hegemony resides. In exposing the vicious and racist character of the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, the mountain of war crimes committed in their name, Julian Assange and Wikileaks quickly became a greater and more potent threat to the ability of the Empire to continue as normal than a thousand bayonets.

More here...

https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2021/1...nge-war-crimes

[Mick Walker]

A precedent created by prosecuting Assange could be used against publishers and journalists alike, chilling their work and undermining freedom of the press," said the groups.

*coalition of more than two dozen press freedom groups on Monday intensified an earlier call demanding the U.S. Department of Justice drop its charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, saying the demand is now even more urgent due to recent reports that the CIA plotted to kidnap—and possibly kill—the journalist.

*

In*a letter*sent Friday to Attorney General Merrick Garland, groups including the Knight First Amendment Institute, Committee to Protect Journalists, Freedom of the Press Foundation, and Reporters Without Borders said the prosecution of Assange by the U.S. government is "a threat to press freedom around the globe."


More here...


https://www.commondreams.org/news/20...p-assange-case

[Mick Walker]

If extradited to the US, the WikiLeaks founder may be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for publishing classified documents.

Sputnik is live from London, as the Royal Court of Justice is holding a hearing on the Julian Assange case. The judges are going to address the US appeal of the court's previous ruling, passed in January, which said that the whistleblower should not be extradited to the US due to a high risk of suicide.

More here...

https://sputniknews.com/20211027/lon...090236415.html

[Mick Walker]

The pursuit of Julian Assange for revealing secrets and lies of governments, especially the crimes of America, has entered its final stage as the British judiciary - upholders of 'British justice' - merge their deliberations with the undeterred power of Washington.

I sat in Court 4 in the Royal Courts of Justice in London with Stella Morris, Julian Assange's partner. I have known Stella for as long as I have known Julian. She, too, is a voice of freedom, coming from a family that fought the fascism of Apartheid. Today, her name was uttered in court by a barrister and a judge, forgettable people were it not for the power of their endowed privilege.

The barrister, Clair Dobbin, is in the pay of the regime in Washington, first Trump's then Biden's. She is America's hired gun, or "silk", as she would prefer. Her target is Julian Assange, who has committed no crime and has performed a historic public service by exposing the criminal actions and secrets on which governments, especially those claiming to be democracies, base their authority.

For those who may have forgotten, WikiLeaks, of which Assange is founder and publisher, exposed the secrets and lies that led to the invasion of Iraq, Syria and Yemen, the murderous role of the Pentagon in dozens of countries, the blueprint for the 20-year catastrophe in Afghanistan, the attempts by Washington to overthrow elected governments, such as Venezuela's, the collusion between nominal political opponents (Bush and Obama) to stifle a torture investigation and the CIA's Vault 7 campaign that turned your mobile phone, even your TV set, into a spy in your midst.

WikiLeaks released almost a million documents from Russia which allowed Russian citizens to stand up for their rights. It revealed the Australian government had colluded with the US against its own citizen, Assange. It named those Australian politicians who have "informed" for the US. It made the connection between the Clinton Foundation and the rise of jihadism in American-armed states in the Gulf.



More here...


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/56920.htm

[spoon!]

Originally Posted by Mick Walker

If extradited to the US, the WikiLeaks founder may be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for publishing classified documents.

They're after him because he's not a fucking kike. Does anyone remember this classified leaking piece of shit?

Convicted spy Jonathan Pollard gets hero’s welcome in Israel
12/30/2020

https://nypost.com/2020/12/30/convic...ome-in-israel/

Jonathan Pollard is greeted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel.

[Mick Walker]

The same corporate outlets that most vocally profess concern over disinformation are the ones spreading it most casually. NBC’s Assange report is the perfect case study.

The war on “disinformation”*is now one of the highest priorities of the political and media establishment. It has become the foundational justification for imposing a regime of online censorship. Around the world,*new laws are being enacted*in its name to empower the state to regulate discourse. Exploiting this cause, a*small handful of billionaires*are working in unison with Western security state agencies — under the guise of neutral-sounding*names like The Atlantic Council*— to set the limits of permissible thought and decree what is true and false. Corporate media outlets are attempting to rehabilitate their*shattered image*by depicting themselves as the bulwark against the rising tide of disinformation.

It is an understatement to say that this righteous cause is a scam. That its motive is power and control over speech and thought — to eliminate dissent and discredit competition — rather than a noble quest for truth is almost too self-evident to require explanation. No human institutions should be trusted with the inherently tyrannical power they seek to arrogate unto themselves: to decree truth and falsity with such authoritative power that views they have decreed “false” become prohibited, off-limits, even worthy of punishment.

More here...


https://21stcenturywire.com/2021/12/...o-minute-clip/

[zoomcopter]

Originally Posted by spoon!

https://consortiumnews.com/2021/08/1...of-afghan-war/

"This is what it was really all about people," she tweeted of the defense contractors’ returns. "Anyone who believes we were in Afghanistan to help women and girls is a liar or a fool."

Both NPR and the NYT report that the American State Department is barring the release of Billions of dollars to the Taliban.

Billions of dollars which would warm and feed women and girls during a brutal winter of starvation.

Such is the morality of America.

"We thought it was worth it" said Madeline Albright referring to the 500,000 dead Iraqi children America sentenced to death.

Think America won't do the same with deplorables? Think again.

[zoomcopter]

Originally Posted by Mick Walker

If extradited to the US, the WikiLeaks founder may be sentenced to up to 175 years in prison for publishing classified documents.

The Covid vaccines will get him long before that.

Didn't he already have a mini-stroke after a forced vaccine?

If America gets it's way, he'll get 6 million more "booster jabs" in rapid succession

[zoomcopter]

Originally Posted by Mick Walker

A precedent created by prosecuting Assange could be used against publishers and journalists alike, chilling their work and undermining freedom of the press," said the groups.

With only a very few exceptions, all publishers and journalists are being censored.

Uniformed goyim are much easier to herd when they don't know friend from foe, rumor from fact, truth from fiction.

The one-eyed Jew is King in the land of the blind.

[jagd messer]

Russia damns Western hypocrisy on Assange – VIDEO.

The appalling conditions and the torture (UN) of journalist Julian Assange is a flagrant violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to freedom of speech.

The WikiLeaks founder would have been viewed as a ‘fighter for truth and freedom’ if his revelations had concerned Moscow or Beijing, according to Vyacheslav Volodin

Nations that support the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the US will no longer be states based on the rule of law if the handover eventually happens, Russian State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin argued in a Telegram post on Monday.

The situation around the detained whistleblower is an example of the lies, double standards, and spite on display from Washington, London, and Brussels, Volodin added.



Assange, a martyr to real journalism is now in his fifth year of solitary confinement in the high-security Belmarsh prison in London.

Yet, he has never been convicted of a crime and faces 175 years in prison in the US for publishing documents via WikiLeaks that detailed appalling footage of illegal US actions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo Bay, and elsewhere. The files were leaked to him by former US soldier Chelsea Manning.

The published records and documents prove Washington’s involvement in coups and the instigation of wars, Volodin pointed out in his post.

The leaked documents also purported to show that the US National Security Agency (NSA) wiretapped several European heads of state, including former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

‘Assange exposed Washington’s crimes. And the world hegemon does not tolerate this kind of thing, destroying all those who disagree,’ Volodin argued.

The whistleblower would have been designated a ‘fighter for truth and freedom’ had his revelations concerned Russia or China rather than the US, according to the MP. The fact that a person remains in a high-security prison without proven guilt ’is nothing short of a scandal,’ the lawmaker added.



Assange was first arrested by British state-controlled police in 2010 on a dodgy European Arrest Warrant (EAW) issued by Sweden over allegations of sex crimes – later withdrawn when they had Assange in the slammer.

The world’s most admired journalist denied the accusations and proved they were a pretext to extradite him to the US. In 2012, he took refuge in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London only to be arrested again in 2019 after Ecuador revoked his political asylum.

The WikiLeaks founder is now awaiting the decision of the High Court in the UK on his appeal against extradition. He was not able to attend or even watch the recent proceedings remotely due to a sharp deterioration in his health.

QUOTE: ‘Some journalists who are actually quite open-minded and are aware of the real situation but have no choice but to write what is expected of them by their editors to make both ends meet and have a decent salary.’ ~Fernando Casado, Spanish Analyst and Legal Expert.



In the US, Assange is facing 17 charges under the Espionage Act and a potential prison sentence of 175 years. The Espionage Act has never before been used to prosecute someone who published – but did not steal – classified material. Former US President Barack Obama refused to press charges against the Australian journalist for this very reason, arguing that Assange’s activity was protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

https://youtu.be/ShEtWzh3kPs

https://youtu.be/ShEtWzh3kPs

‘His extradition would be a flagrant violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to freedom of speech,’ Volodin warned.




Russia damns Western hypocrisy on Assange – VIDEO.
21 III 2024.

They call this the FREE WORLD and unchallenged get away with it.

All we in the West ever hear about are Western made empty stooges like Navalny.

[jagd messer]

Assange hearing shows ruling class is ‘full of shit’ – Roger Waters, Pink Floyd .



The WikiLeaks founder remains in legal limbo after a British court refused to grant or deny his extradition appeal.

The decision by Britain’s High Court to postpone judgment on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s last extradition appeal proves that the ruling class is ’full of s**t,’ Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters told Going Underground host Afshin Rattansi.



After two days of oral arguments, the court adjourned on Wednesday without granting or refusing Assange a fresh appeal against his extradition to the US. The UK Home Office approved his transfer to American custody in 2022, but the former WikiLeaks truther – now in poor health after nearly five years of solitary confinement in London’s Belmarsh Prison – has filed repeated appeals, none of which have been successful.

None of these hearings should last more than five minutes,’ Waters told Rattansi on Saturday. ’They should go in and say ‘obviously he’s not guilty of any crime, let the prisoner go’ and that will be the end of it.’

‘These people don’t believe in the rule of law,’ the legendary rocker continued, referring to senior judges Victoria Sharp and Jeremy Johnson, who will ultimately decide whether to grant Assange another appeal

‘They believe in the ruling class, and they believe they are servants of the ruling class. And they will do whatever they are told,’ he declared. ’It’s becoming more and more transparent to us, the people…that they are full of shit.’

In the US, Assange is facing 17 charges under the Espionage Act and a potential prison sentence of 175 years. The charges stem from his publication of classified material obtained by whistleblowers, including Pentagon documents detailing US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Espionage Act has never before been used to prosecute someone like Assange, who published but did not steal classified material. Former US President Barack Obama refused to press charges against the Australian journalist for this very reason, arguing that Assange’s activity was protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Assange’s lawyers said that he was ’too ill’ to attend Wednesday’s hearing. Waters, who met with Assange in September, told Rattansi that the publisher was also ’too unwell psychologically to even watch the proceedings on closed-circuit television.’

‘It was emotionally very crippling,’ Waters said of the visit. ’Imagine being locked up in solitary confinement for five years, particularly if you’ve never committed a crime. It’s beyond all imagination.’

If the appeal fails, Assange will apply to the European Court of Human Rights and seek an emergency order to stop the extradition while it considers the case, Assange’s wife Stella said earlier this week.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: ‘The enemy of subversive thought is not suppression, but publication: truth has no need to fear the light of day; fallacies wither under it. The unpopular views of today are the commonplaces of tomorrow, and in any case, the wise man wants to hear both sides of every question.’ Sir Stanley Unwin.



Assange hearing shows ruling class is ‘full of shit’ – Roger Waters.
21 III 2024.

The Western Establishment are fully intent on killing Assange. Continuous indefinite Solitary confinement.

[U. Dunrouse]

A UK court distorted an old law on obscene phone calls from the 1990s in order to be able to extradite the top Holohoax debunker Vincent Reynouard, which amounted to a life sentence. In the same way, they'll devise any workable legal trick to extradite Assange.

[Dawn Cannon]

Originally Posted by Mick Walker

I sat in Court 4 in the Royal Courts of Justice in London with Stella Morris, Julian Assange's partner. I have known Stella for as long as I have known Julian. She, too, is a voice of freedom, coming from a family that fought the fascism of Apartheid.

In that case he deserves the 175 years.

[Bismillah]

They aren't squeezing trillions of dollars out of the shattered souls of Afghanis, they are squeezing trillions of dollars out of the shattered souls of Americans, the war is on their American slaves, Ukranians didn't want to be their slaves so now they are genociding them. That's what the DeKulakization was, history repeats itself, what is going on right now in the Ukraine is the exact same thing Dekulakization was, the extermination of the ethnic german farmers in the Ukraine, who the jews saw as a political threat because of their intelligence and wealth.