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The ScheerPost has published a sermon which Chris Hedges gave on Sunday Aug. 20 in Oslo, Norway at Kulturkirken Jakob (St. James Church of Culture) where the actor and film director Liv Ullmann read the scripture passages. Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who has worked for many years at the New York Times, NPR, and several other publications. In his sermon he expounds on the long-standing problem of speaking truth to power.
Julian exposed the truth. He exposed it over and over and over until there was no question of the endemic illegality, corruption and mendacity that defines the global ruling class And for these truths they came after Julian, as they have come after all who dared rip back the veil on power. "Red Rosa now has vanished too," Bertolt Brecht wrote after the German socialist Rosa Luxemburg was murdered. "She told the poor what life is about, And so the rich have rubbed her out."
We have undergone a corporate coup, where poor and working men and women are reduced to joblessness and hunger, where war, financial speculation and internal surveillance are the only real business of the state, where even habeas corpus no longer exists, where we, as citizens, are nothing more than commodities to corporate systems of power, ones to be used, fleeced and discarded.
Given the massive quantities of disinformation spread over a longer period of time against Julian Assange, and the media blackout on coverage of his case and how it effects journalism as a whole, this is a difficult case to find a concise and accurate summary to link to. The bottom line is that, regardless of what one thinks (or has been told to think) about Julian Assange, the case hinges on factors which will determine whether or not there is a future for investigative reporting.
Previously:
(2023) Australian Lawmakers Press US Envoy for Julian Assange Release
(2023) No NGO Has Been Allowed to See Julian Assange Since Four Years Ago
(2022) Biden Faces Growing Pressure to Drop Charges Against Julian Assange
(2022) Assange Lawyers Sue CIA for Spying on Them
(2021) Key Witness in Assange Case Jailed in Iceland After Admitting to Lies and Ongoing Crime Spree
...
(2015) French Justice Minister Says Snowden and Assange Could Be Offered Asylum
(Score: 5, Insightful) by jelizondo on Sunday August 27 2023, @12:22AM (3 children)
As Julian feared, he was charged [justice.gov] by the U.S. government in the case of Chelsea Manning for revealing the truth about what was really happening in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I don't care much for Julian as a person, but I do think he is being punished for telling the truth, a truth that made powerful people uneasy.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Frosty Piss on Sunday August 27 2023, @01:02AM (2 children)
His hubris is his downfall. And unfortunately for him, the chances of the US charges being mitigated or dropped is slim to none. It's unlikely he would qualify for low to medium security lockup due to being a flight risk, and exposure to the "general prison population" would be physically dangerous for him, thus he will likely lose his mind in some sort of protective solitary.
(Score: 3, Touché) by ikanreed on Sunday August 27 2023, @04:43AM
I'm not inclined to take "personal hubris" as a reason to justify excessive punishment and obvious attainder by the powers that be.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 27 2023, @06:08AM
Maybe he'll get another chance at a pardon from a President who just doesn't care, such as Biden or Trump.