Everyone loves singing along to Bob Marley because his character symbolizes peace, and his music channels that comfort. In one of his hit singles, Redemption Song, released in 1980, he sings, “How long shall they kill our prophets, while we stand aside and look?” People need to realize that the peace he sings about and embodies is not an abstract concept but entirely possible, and his music is intended to help guide us toward that goal. For those who’ve never heard of Julian Assange, his fearless journalism and courageous reporting on classified documents represent a service to humanity similar to that of JFK, Nelson Mandela, MLK, and many other heroes who people say had valiant causes they claim they would have supported.
His legal situation has escalated to critical levels because he now faces extradition for an illegal prosecution in America (2) in a criminal justice system that has shown it cannot protect its highest-profile subjects (through the recent assassination/suicide of Jeffrey Epstein in government custody). Chris Hedges eloquently explains:
“The persecution of Julian Assange, along with the climate of fear, wholesale government surveillance and use of the Espionage Act to prosecute whistleblowers, has emasculated investigative journalism… The U.S. government, especially the military and agencies such as the CIA, the FBI, the NSA and Homeland Security, have no intention of stopping with Julian, who faces 170 years in prison if found guilty of violating 17 counts of the Espionage Act. They are cementing into place mechanisms of draconian state censorship, some features of which were exposed by Matt Taibbi in the Twitter Files, to construct a dystopian corporate totalitarianism.” (1)
Suppose every person who claims they would have supported our past heroes begins supporting our heroes in real time. With some unity and a strategic plan coalescing around figures like Assange, we can start correcting the course from a downward spiral to a surveillance state onto the track toward a free society that uses technology to enhance our civil liberties and unite around shared goals. In the past, organizing in favor of causes presented the unique problem of informing people about the issues and planning civil disobedience without the Internet. Now, we have far more advantages than our predecessors, but we have not educated people about and mobilized for specific ideas, so we lack their will thus far.
Right now, the censorship efforts Hedges mentioned across media platforms represent the establishment’s effort to force compliance since the masses no longer accept their lies at face value. This level of desperation shows their system is under the threat of collapse because of populism from both sides gaining traction and recognizing common interests. Julian Assange is one of the people galvanizing both the populist left and populist right. Anyone against imperialism and war appreciates his contributions, including but not limited to, the toppling of corrupt African governments (4) and the “…publication of Iraq & Afghanistan War Logs, State Department cables, and Guantanamo Bay Detainee Assessment Briefs” (3).
Robert F. Kennedy Jr is the only candidate in the two major parties who has unequivocally pledged to free Julian Assange on day one. In addition to mentioning it in several of his speech, early on in his campaign on his Twitter, he boldly stated:
“Instead of championing free speech, the U.S. actively persecutes journalists and whistleblowers. I’ll pardon brave truth-tellers like Julian Assange and investigate the corruption and crimes they exposed. This isn’t the Soviet Union. The America I love doesn’t imprison dissidents.”
Both Trump and Biden have shown through their actions that they lack the courage to stand up to the CIA, while Kennedy has specifically called them out in ways no other Presidential candidate has ever done in my life. However, if he is extradited to America, we should not wait for the elections because their record and current motivations indicate his life is in danger – the time for the same civil disobedience needed to gain liberty in the past will be required to protect press freedom. Instead of just singing along to Bob Marley’s songs about peace and being thankful for his contributions, we must pay it forward and stand up for the peace he envisioned, firstly by protecting free speech and those using it to keep us informed.
Click the video below for a detailed discussion between Libertarian Journalist, Lori Spencer, and I (an economic progressive) on how RFK Jr’s election could influence his situation and more details about his case.
Sources
(1) “Journalists Abandoned Julian Assange and Slit Their Own Throats” (7/11/2023). Hedges, Chris. The Real New Network.
https://therealnews.com/chris-hedges-journalists-abandoned-julian-assange
(2) “The Imminent Extradition of Julian Assange and The Death of Journalism” (6/17/2023). Hedges, Chris. Substack: The Chris Hedges Report.
https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-imminent-extradition-of-julian
(3) “The Prosecution of Julian Assange Endangers Press Freedom”. Assange Defense.
https://assangedefense.org/the-prosecution-of-julian-assange-endangers-press-freedom/
(4) “Wikileaks documents roil Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa” (12/9/2010). Baldauf, Scott. The Christian Science Monitor.
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Africa/Africa-Monitor/2010/1209/WikiLeaks-documents-roil-Nigeria-Kenya-and-South-Africa
(5) Twitter: @RobertKennedyJr
https://twitter.com/robertkennedyjr/status/1653454289677713428?s=46&t=mMyEtum_SBBzQ_krGMDLUA
