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.
Listen to the interview:
Read the 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 Independent parliamentarian, Andrew Wilkie. So plenty of witnesses to report on the behaviour of the Court in this case of Julian.
The prosecution barrister, a woman by the name of Dobbins KC, King’s councillor, who was in the original hearing that lasted 3 weeks, appeared again for the for the prosecution, reading directly from the Kronenberg superseding indictment without any argument as to its veracity or its evidentiary correctness. No argument whatsoever, just reading straight from the indictment, despite the fact that all of those assertions and allegations in the Kronberg superseding indictment have been convincingly devalued, and in the case of Sigurdu Thordarson, completely destroyed.
JJ: Tell us about Sigurdu Thordarson.
JS: When reading from the Kronberg indictment Dobbins KC
used his handle ‘Teenager’, not his name. He chose that handle because he’s a convicted paedophile. However, the Kronberg indictment uses it to give an aura of innocence to allegations, all of which were recanted by Thordarson, and which were put together by a group of FBI officers in Iceland some years ago, under the promise of freedom from prosecution for Thordarson. But that the FBI can give freedom from immunity from prosecution in Iceland is absurd and subsequently Thordarson recanted the testimony entirely.
However, in the High Court hearing it was read as though it was still evidence that had some quality when it has no quality whatsoever, and that was the case. So this indicates to me that the that there is simply an exercise of power by the United States using the tools available to it in the British courts, simply saying that we want you to do this. We don’t care whether it suits your administration or not. You’re a vassal state. Send him to us. That’s what it amounts to.
JJ: Julian was too sick to attend. How is he?
JS: I’m often asked that question. I always revert to Nils Melser and two specialist doctors’ review of Julian’s condition in Belmarsh prison in 2019 and their 26-page report came to the conclusion that Julian was suffering the effects of psychological torture over a period of 7 1/2 years and characterised that torture as a slow-motion death before our eyes.
The 26-page report was tabled in the Australian Parliament, sent to the United Kingdom Crown Prosecuting service, and sent to the United States. All of those institutions simply ignored it. The report was also, as is required, submitted to the United Nations General Assembly, and there the report was accepted. So just to extract from the report, Julian is suffering the effects of psychological torture over a period of 7 1/2 years, and now that 7 1/2 years is extended by four years, going on five.
JJ: There is a conference in Melbourne this weekend, Night Falls in the evening lands, the Julian Assange saga. Can you tell us about this?
JS: It’s a public forum that has a number of speakers. I think 8 or 9 prominent speakers, each renowned experts in their particular field. The first speaker is Craig Mokhiber, who’s the United Nations official who resigned over the destruction of the people of Palestine. He’s equally expert or erudite on Julian’s case. The next speaker is Alistair Crook, who’s an ex-English diplomat who has done a lot of work with the EU, and he’s very more than competent to comment upon Julian’s matter. The rest we can speak about each one: Emma Shortis, Professor Joe Camilleri, Con Palukas from PEN, Binoy Kampmark, Greg Barnes, and Ruth Mitchell, all of them substantial and prominent thinkers in their fields.
JJ: How can supporters participate?
JS: Well, you can go online and watch it from the comfort of home or just go to nightfalls.info and there you can register for an online attendance. You also get to ask questions if you’re an online participant or you can rock up at Story Hall, RMIT, Melbourne.
JJ: That’s the end of my questions. Anything you want to add?
JS: 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.
An example of this is that 26 of the 28 water purification plants were destroyed and the horror of death squads introduced so every other country can see that the United States, if you go against it, if you go against the dollar and you want to change out of the dollar, the United States will destroy your country entirely top to bottom, as they had done in Iraq, and as they had done in Libya, where Mummar Gaddafi wanted to introduce the Golden Dinar.
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, and absolute crushing of the institutional need for publishers and publications and journalists to be forthright, truthful and factually accurate in their presentations is completely intimidated. 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.
Sent to the United Kingdom Crown prosecuting service and sent to the United States. All of those institutions simply ignored.
Just to extract from Nils Melzer’s report, Julian is suffering the effects of psychological torture over a period of 7 1/2 years and now extended another five years.
To hear more, listen to John Shipton and speakers including Craig Mokhiber, Mary Kostakidis, Yanis Varoufakis, Emma Shortis, Binoy Kampmark, Ruth Mitchell, Michael West, Anne Orford, Joseph Camilleri, Constantine Pakavakis, and Alistair Crooke at the upcoming conference Night Falls in the Evening Lands: the Assange epic, which will be held in Melbourne on March 9 and streamed online.
Bookings essential at the link below:
- Date: Saturday 9 March 2024
- Location: Storey Hall RMIT, 342 Swanston St, Melbourne VIC 3000
- Time: 9:00am – 5:00pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT)
Upcoming Conference: Night Falls in the Evening Lands – The Assange Epic
Dr John Jiggens is a citizen journalist. He was the founding editor of The Westender and The Cane Toad Times and currently works in the community newsroom at Bay-FM in Byron Bay. His PhD was Marijuana Australiana: Cannabis use, popular culture and the Americanisation of drug policy in Australia. He has published several books on the history of cannabis prohibition.
John Shipton
John Shipton is an anti-war activist and architect in Sydney, Australia, and the father of Julian Assange. He founded the WikiLeaks Party and was involved in the creation of WikiLeaks and helped with WikiLeaks for years. He campaigns and acts as an ambassador for Assange and was featured in the documentary Ithaka, produced by his son Gabriel Shipton.
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