This week’s edition of the Lancet—the world’s pre-eminent peer reviewed medical journal—carries a letter from 117 medical doctors in 18 countries, renewing their call for urgent action to save the life of WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange. Their letter appears less than one week before the start of the US extradition hearing in London that may decide Assange’s fate.
The doctors’ two-page letter appears in the correspondence section of the Lancet under the heading “End torture and medical neglect of Julian Assange.” It was written by Dr Stephen Frost (UK), Dr Lissa Johnson, clinical psychologist (Australia), Dr Jill Stein (former leader of the US Green Party) and William Frost (UK).
“The case of Assange… is multifaceted,” the doctors write. “It relates to law, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, journalism, publishing, and politics. It also, however, clearly relates to medicine and public health. The case highlights several concerning aspects that warrant the medical profession’s close attention and concerted action.”
Nearly three months ago, on November 22, more than 65 doctors issued an open letter to the UK government challenging the illegal and arbitrary detention of Assange. A follow-up letter to the Australian government was issued on December 16. Neither government has responded.
Issuing their appeal to medical colleagues throughout the world—the Lancet has 1.8 million subscribers—the letter’s authors describe multiple human rights violations by the US, UK, Swedish, Ecuadorian and Australian governments against Assange. This includes nearly a decade of “illegal and arbitrary detention” and relentless state persecution amounting to “prolonged psychological torture.”
Readers of the Lancet might be shocked to learn that doctors treating Assange in London have faced intimidation and state surveillance—methods commonly employed by military dictatorships. “There was… a climate of fear surrounding the provision of health care in the Embassy,” the letter recounts, with treating doctors forced to report their identity to police.
This is outrageous.
It requires that Julian be immediately released.
This is torture carried out by a government.
Not only should Julian be released immediately, some of the people should be going to prison for the torture they carried out and oversaw.
Chrissie Hynde asks Trump to drop charges against Julian Assange
Chrissie Hynde is part of the British band Pretenders (Chrissie is American). Their classic songs include "Brass In Pocket," "Middle of the Road," "Back On The Chain Gang," "Don't Get Me Wrong," "I'll Stand By You," "My Baby," and her solo hit "Dark Sunglasses." With UB40, Chrissie had hits with covers of "I've Got You Babe" and "Breakfast In Bed."
We should all follow Chrissie's lead.
You can go here for the contact form to send a message to the White House.
Understand a few things. 1) Being rude is not going to make Donald Trump want to support Julian Assange. 2) Threats of violence -- serious or just 'joking' -- will result in the FBI investigating you.
So be a grown up, if you use the form, and speak in a way that helps Julian, not in a way that harms him.
Go read Ava and C.I.'s "TV: Where are the grown ups?" about the way the media refuses to do its job.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for Tuesday:
Tuesday, February 18, 2020. Bernie Sanders continues to surge in the
polls, Joe Biden gets ever more desperate (and is harming him in South
Carolina), Michael Bloomberg is the angry oligarch who attacked
protesters in 2004, protests continue in Iraq and the media starts to
pay attention, and much more.
Starting in the United States where the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination continues. Rebecca Klar (THE HILL) reports:
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has opened a 12-point lead nationally in the Democratic presidential primary field, according to a new poll.
Sanders has 31 percent support in the NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released early Tuesday, pushing him into the top spot, which had been held by former Vice President Joe Biden.
Sanders’s support shot up 9 points since last month’s poll, following his victory in the New Hampshire primary.
Biden’s support, however, decreased by 9 points to 15 percent in the new survey. Biden’s downturn pushed him into third place, behind former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who surged into second place with 19 percent.
What's good for Bernie is sad for Joe. But, as Marc Caputo (POLITICO) points out, Joe still has the support of some of the elderly. Apparently, they are people who don't turn out for campaign events but will somehow show up to support him at some point:
No, he's not campaigning in the same way he has.
Starting in the United States where the race for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination continues. Rebecca Klar (THE HILL) reports:
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has opened a 12-point lead nationally in the Democratic presidential primary field, according to a new poll.
Sanders has 31 percent support in the NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll released early Tuesday, pushing him into the top spot, which had been held by former Vice President Joe Biden.
Sanders’s support shot up 9 points since last month’s poll, following his victory in the New Hampshire primary.
Biden’s support, however, decreased by 9 points to 15 percent in the new survey. Biden’s downturn pushed him into third place, behind former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who surged into second place with 19 percent.
What's good for Bernie is sad for Joe. But, as Marc Caputo (POLITICO) points out, Joe still has the support of some of the elderly. Apparently, they are people who don't turn out for campaign events but will somehow show up to support him at some point:
The crowds remain small. The message is the same. The schedule is still light.
Joe Biden is campaigning in Nevada in
much the same way he did in Iowa and New Hampshire, where he suffered
back-to-back losses that transformed him from frontrunner to underdog.
It’s a testament to the campaign’s sense of confidence — or its state of
denial — that it continues to operate as if Nevada, the first diverse
state to vote this year, will be different for Biden than the two
heavily white states where he was crushed.No, he's not campaigning in the same way he has.
Great to speak to @JoeBiden today. Thank you for joining us
Where is that playing well?
We're in South Carolina and that is costing Joe support. It's not the Joe who's a leader, it's someone who slings mud. Two different Joe supporters -- both African-American women over sixty -- raised it yesterday in two different groups we spoke to. Joe, they insisted, was sounding like every other politician.
We'll paraphrase one woman:
He sounds like Nancy Pelosi. I used to be proud of Speaker Pelosi but all she ever does is scream impeach this person or that person must resign. I'm tired of her. And I am getting really tired of Vice President Biden. He used to campaign on hope and our better nature, now he just slings the mud like any other politician.
Joe's calling card used to read "I'm the adult in the room"; however, it now reads, "Key follower of the 'resistance'." That's not what he promised South Carolina when they were head over heels for him and now that he's lost every contest so far and now that he's coming off like "any other politician," his support is decreasing in South Carolina.
War Hawks attack one another, as Joe demonstrated days ago when he offered his opinion that Hillary Clinton, in 2016, neglected and ignored African-American voters. Whose support is that supposed to rally?
People are talking, in South Carolina, about how bitter Joe comes off these days. And, of course, they're talking about Hunter Biden being a Deadbeat Dad.
There are other issues as well, like Iraq. Mark Weisbrot (GUARDIAN) points out:
Biden’s selling points as a candidate often lead with his reputation for foreign policy experience and knowledge. But Iraq in 2002 was devastated by economic sanctions, had no weapons of mass destruction, and was known by even the most pro-war experts to have no missiles that could come close to the United States. The idea that this country on the other side of the world posed a security threat to America was more than far-fetched. The idea that the US could simply invade, topple the government, and take over the country without provoking enormous violence was also implausible. It’s not clear how anyone with foreign policy experience and expertise could have believed these ideas.
Senator Dick Durbin, who sat on the Senate intelligence committee at the time, was astounded by the difference between what he was hearing there and what was being fed to the public. “The American people were deceived into this war,” he said.
Regardless of Biden’s intentions – which I make no claim to know or understand – the resolution granting President Bush the authority to start that war, which Biden pushed through the Senate, was a major part of that deception. So, too, was the restricted testimony that Biden allowed. The resolution itself contained deceptive language about a number of pretexts for the war, including al-Qaida and weapons of mass destruction that Iraq did not have.
The Iraq war has generally been seen as one of the worst US foreign policy blunders in decades. It fueled the spread of terrorism and destabilized the Middle East and parts of north Africa. “Isil is a direct outgrowth of al-Qaida in Iraq, that grew out of our invasion,” noted President Obama.
More than 4,500 US soldiers, and nearly as many US military contractors, lost their lives; tens of thousands were wounded, with hundreds of thousands more suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Estimates of Iraqi deaths run as high as 1 million.
At the very least, Biden should explain why he played such a major role in winning the authorization from Congress for President Bush to wage this disastrous war.
At THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, Tom Robbins pens an open letter to Michael Bloomberg:
Another thing that sticks, and I know it was a long time ago and I should probably get over it. But remember right after we had that war in Iraq and it turned into that big ugly mess right away, with all that torture in that prison, Abu Ghraib? And remember that right in the middle, the Republicans had their national convention in New York?
I
know the idea was that a lot of delegates would spend a load of money
gallivanting about town and it would be good for the local economy. And I
know you were the mayor of the host city so it was only courteous to
give them a nice welcoming speech. And I know you were a Republican back
then, after you stopped being a Democrat and before you became an
independent.
But did you really have to stand in front of the whole convention and give a big shout out to President Bush that, “I am here to support him”? Did you really have to have your cops arrest all those demonstrators against the war? And then keep them locked up on some dirty pier for days until the president got out of town?
I know you aren’t the only guy running for president now who got suckered into supporting the Iraq invasion. But do you think you could maybe straighten that one out too?
Michael Bloomberg supported the Iraq War and Bully Boy Bush.
Bloomberg endorsed George W. Bush at the 2004 RNC and was a staunch supporter of the bloody, pointless War in Iraq.
And that's who some Democrats want to support?
If nobody brings up Bloomberg going all in for Bush while our soldiers were being ripped to shreds in Iraq for wmd lies...
The Democrats who fight for a better America rally around candidates like Bernie Sanders because they don't put up with nonsense.
Wow!!!!
IMHO Bernie is surging on the strength of his optimism, the strength of his character (people really trust him), his seriousness. He doesn't tolerate bullshit, bigotry, cynicism, or suffering.
This campaign is built on compassion and justice.
Jake Johnson (COMMON DREAMS) reports:
During a rally Monday night in Tacoma, Washington attended by more than 17,000 people, Sen. Bernie Sanders took aim at billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg's efforts to buy his way into presidential contention, condemned the former New York City mayor's record of supporting racist policies, and highlighted the former Republican's history of opposing basic progressive economic initiatives like raising the federal minimum wage.
"Today, we say to Mayor Bloomberg, we are a democracy, not an oligarchy," Sanders said to cheers from the crowd. "You are not going to buy this election."
"We say to Mr. Bloomberg, you are certainly not going to win when you have a record in New York City that included racist policies like stop and frisk," the Vermont senator added. "You're not going to win an election when you oppose raising the minimum wage... You're not going to win an election when you call for cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid."
Michael Bloomberg isn't just Donald Trump's buddy, he's also deeply repugnant all on his own. "Kill it!" That's what he told a pregnant staffer. "Kill it." That doesn't play well in South Carolina to the groups we speak with and won't play well in most areas. It's not funny. It's not a joke. It's a disgusting thing to say all by itself before you even factor in that Bloomberg was the boss of this woman. Shame on him. Shame on anyone who lets him buy the election. He's a disgusting person.
So we are just supposed to replace one naked emperor with another? This is not normal and we have better options! #OligarchyDestroysEveryone
In Iraq, the attacks on the protesters continue.
ABC WORLD NEWS TONIGHT WITH DAVID MUIR reported on the attacks yesterday.
IRAQ PROTESTS: New video shows protesters running from Iraqi security forces in Baghdad as officers used pellet guns, slingshots and tear gas to disperse the crowd, with more than 500 deaths reported since anti-government protests began in October. abcn.ws/327sgq3
0:20
The protesters are killed, they are wounded, they are stalked, they are kidnapped. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad (GUARDIAN) reports:
The Iraqi government’s response to the popular protest movement has been violent and brutal. In four months, security forces killed 669 civilians and injured more than 25,000, according to Iraq’s human rights commission, local NGOs and activists. Some 2,800 are reported to have been detained.
Some of these security forces are, the Guardian has been told, following a parallel crackdown to end the protests and silence activists and journalists through kidnappings, intimidations and assassinations. Last month a television reporter and his cameraman were killed in their cars hours after the reporter denounced the clampdown in a Facebook video. Hayder’s kidnapping, it would seem, was part of the same effort.
“From day one, the government chose to pursue violent options in dealing with the protesters,” a senior official at Iraq’s human rights commission told the Guardian, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The violence came in waves,” he said. “First, there were mass killings; 157 were killed in the first three days alone. By early November we started getting reports of kidnappings, not only in Baghdad but also in Ammarah and Nassiriya. Activists, journalists, academics and anyone suspected of supporting the protest movement logistically or morally started receiving death threats before they were kidnapped.” Two activists in Karbala, the commissioner said, were assassinated a few days after meeting with him and his colleagues.
In Tahrir Square, pictures of the disappeared are posted on walls, electricity poles or flapping tent doors. Some are old, yellow and tattered, others are fresh and new.
New content at THIRD:
- Truest statement of the week
- Truest statement of the week II
- A note to our readers
- Editorial: The attacks on the protesters continue...
- TV: Where are the grown ups?
- Iraqi women refuse to be intimidated
- Tweet of the week
- PREVENTION MAGAZINE can't be bothered with facts -...
- Very interesting
- This edition's playlist
- Highlights
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