Niles Neimuth (WSWS) explains:
Two weeks have passed since the Ecuadorian government cut off WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange from any communication with the outside world, placing a block on his access to the Internet, phone communications and visitors.
Assange has been confined to Ecuador’s embassy in London for the last six years, where he had been granted political asylum as he has fought to avoid being extradited to Sweden for questioning on trumped-up sexual assault allegations. The United States has long sought to detain and prosecute Assange for publishing emails and diplomatic logs exposing American war crimes in the Middle East and the corruption of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Any accusations against Assange have long been dropped by Sweden, and the UN has declared his confinement to the embassy to be illegal. However, the British government continues to insist that they will arrest him if he leaves the building for any reason, including health problems, and presumably deliver him immediately into the clutches of the American government.
CIA director Mike Pompeo, soon to be President Trump’s Secretary of State, has declared WikiLeaks to be a “hostile non-state actor.” Then businessman Trump called for the death penalty for Assange and others involved with WikiLeaks in 2010.
According the government of Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno, Assange has been cut off from Internet access for “interfering” in the politics of another country by tweeting about the arrest of the former Catalonia leader Carles Puigdemont in Germany.
In days leading up to his silencing, Assange released statements questioning the official narrative spun by the UK government around the alleged poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal by Russia. He had also tweeted links to the WSWS series exposing the unprecedented number of former CIA agents running as Democrats in the US midterm elections.
It is no coincidence that Assange has been shut off from any form of communication with the outside world as the US and its allies prepare for an escalation of the war in Syria and for direct confrontations with nuclear-armed Russia. The censorship of oppositional voices that are critical of the official narrative is seen as necessary to selling new wars to the public.
Julian Assange's internet needs to be restored. That's actually the very least that needs to happen. He needs to be granted asylum and the UK needs to leave him alone and allow to leave England of his own free will.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Wednesday:
We’re going to surprise Madam Secretary at her Brooklyn appearance. Follow this thread for the action
Second disruption: @madeleine is a war criminal. She helped destroy Yugoslavia in the 1990s. #USoutofeverywhere
Third disruption: Our comrade stepped up and told @madeleine she should go to jail for murdering 500,000 Iraqi children. #USoutofeverywhere
Fourth disruption of @madeleine’s #fakenews book tour. War criminals ought to be tried in the @ICC. #USoutofeverywhere
Fifth and final disruption of @madeleine’s atrocious talk! Ask her why she bombed innocent Yugoslavians in the 1990s. #USoutofeverywhere
Feel free to organize your own disruption! We can't let these warmongers have a platform or peace of mind! Call these criminals out where you see them!
"You killed half a million Iraqi children!" someone screams at Mad Maddie Albright. "You have blood on your hands!"
"I do actually believe in free speech," Mad Maddie declares as the first protester is led away. That's a War Criminal for you, speak up for free speech only after your security team has removed anyone you think might speak freely. She gives up that supposed belief once she realizes more than one protester remains present.
The second clip shows a protester declaring, "Madeline Albright is a War Criminal. A War Criminal."
To this protester, Mad Maddie says, "I respect your right to talk. I would like you to respect mine." But what of the half a million Iraqis who can't respond, who can't speak because you killed them Madeline with your sanctions? Sanctions you later insisted were appropriate. When questioned by Lesley Stahl for 60 MINUTES, you infamously said, "We think the price was worth it."
She goes on to insist that "people came here to listen to me and not you."
No one should listen to Mad Maddie except the guard who slides her meals through the opening in her cell.
"You're a War Criminal who should be in jail!" insist the protester in the third clip. Some of the assembled whine, "Get out! Get out!" because they're Team Maggie which means there's a special place in hell for them right to next to Mad Maddie.
These disgusting people get even more upset in the fourth video and steal the banner from the protester who insist "You're a War Criminal."
In the next clip, a protester calls her out for the 500,000 Iraqi kids she's killed.
"I could spend a lot of time explaining what happened in Iraq," Maddie says in a bored tone. Really? Why don't you start off by explaining how you made money off of the Iraq War in 2003? It wasn't just James Baker that Naomi Klein was reporting on. You're a whore Maddie, you always have been, you always will be. Get back to your brothel, you public menace.
The disgusting trash assembled goes on to giggle with Maddie.
The blood of 500,000 children is funny to them.
They're probably the same type that is outraged when an American child is killed.
Excuse me, they're probably the same type that is outraged when a White American child is killed.
But they think the deaths of 500,000 children is a funny joke as long as those children were Iraqi.
Shame on them.
She was part of the 2003 war effort, the effort that continues to this day, the war that continues to this day.
Mohammed Ebraheem (IRAQI NEWS) reports a Ramadi car bombing left two people injured. ALSUMARIA notes 1 person was shot dead in Baghdad. Last night, Margaret Griffis (ANTIWAR.COM) reported 93 killed across Iraq. With little comment or attention from the US press, violence continues (and increases) in Iraq.
It's campaign season ahead of the May 12 elections and, if you doubted that, enter Zainab Arif Basri. ALSUMARIA reports Basri has castigated Prime Minister Hayder al-Abadi for not realizing elements of ISIS and the Ba'ath Party are both working in jobs with the Iraqi national intelligence. The proof? No proof, just more baseless charges from Basri. Basri is demanding that Hayder immediately address this situation. Not noted in the report, Basri belongs with who? That's right, it's a Nouri al-Maliki flunky. Basri is a member of former prime minister and forever thug Nouri's State of Law. Basri last got major attention in Iraq last year by insisting Nouri would return as prime minister. These baseless charges are part of Bari's efforts to ensure that happens.
'Many Iraqis now see corruption as just as bad as terrorism, and the gap between elite and citizen has become more important than the gap between Sunni, Shia, and Kurd'
- Iraq's allies must question status quo ahead of elections in May, says @renadmansour
The Iraqi people are concerned about real issues and the fact that, despite repeated elections, their government has failed to improve their lives. This is not what they have been promised with this system and it is not what they have been promised in each round of elections since the 2003 US-led invasion.
Mina Aldroubi (THE NATIONAL) reports that Iraq's Vice Presdient Ayad Allawi stated that the crises (plural) in Iraq will not be resolved by the elections, that Iraq has to go beyond sectarian division and move towards inclusion as well as step away from foreign interference.
SYNDIGATE INFO reports:
Prominent
Iraqi Shia cleric and opposition leader Muqtada al-Sadr has declared
his willingness to mediate between Saudi Arabia and Iran with a view to
mitigating tensions between the two regional powerhouses.
The offer came in a Tuesday
statement issued by al-Sadr's office in response to questions regarding
the possibility of an Iraq-brokered “reconciliation” process between
Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Moqtada is the Shi'ite cleric and movement leader whose party will most likely elect MPs in the double digits this election if past elections are any indication. THE NATIONAL reports that he has also declared that Iraq is not be working with Turkey to confront the PKK despite the claim of the Turkish government that they have an agreement with the government of Iraq on this.
The following community sites updated:
THE CW
6 hours ago
Patrick Martin nails it
6 hours ago
The runaway prosecutor
6 hours ago
TJ Miller has some serious problems
6 hours ago
J Brokaw is insane
6 hours ago
