Stephen Lendman

Assange is a political refugee, given asylum by Ecuador in its London embassy since 2012 - unable to leave because of fabricated rape charges, fearing arrest and extradition to America.

A sealed indictment disgracefully charges him with spying under the long ago outdated 1917 Espionage Act. He’s a conduit, not a spy, involved with others, publishing leaked material they’re given, what everyone deserves to know.

The same miscarriage of justice got Chelsea Manning imprisoned for 35 years for exposing US war crimes the Pentagon wants suppressed.

A petition urging Obama to commute her sentence to time served exceeded its goal of 100,000 signatures, my name among them.

Assange faces brutalizing treatment like Manning if extradited to America. In an interview with Italy’s la Repubblica broadsheet, he blasted Hillary, largely withheld judgment on Trump while expressing guarded hope for change.

Asked to reply to accusations of helping Trump defeat Hillary, he said “(w)e published what the Democratic National Committee, John Podesta, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, and Hillary Clinton herself were saying about their own campaign, which the American people read and were very interested to read, and assessed the elements and characters, and then they made a decision.”

“That decision was based on Hillary Clinton’s own words, her campaign manager’s own words.” They were their own worst enemies.

Hillary has a longstanding deplorable record as first lady, US senator and secretary of state. For years, WikiLeaks published her cables, emails and other materials, supplied by insiders leaking them.

Asked with her defeated by Trump did WikiLeaks win, Assange said “(w)e were pleased to see how much of the American public interacted with the material we published.”

“That interaction was on both sides of politics, including those to the left of Hillary Clinton those who supported Bernie Sanders, who were able to see the structure of power within the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and how the Clintons had placed Debbie Wasserman Schultz to head up the DNC and as a result the DNC had tilted the scales of the process against Bernie Sanders.”

Asked about prospects under Trump, Assange expressed “mixed” feelings, saying “Hillary Clinton and the network around her imprisoned one of our alleged sources for 35 years, Chelsea Manning, tortured her according to the United Nations, in order to implicate me personally.”

Hillary “was the chief proponent and the architect of the war against Libya. It is clear that she pursued this war as a staging effort for her presidential bid. It wasn’t even a war for an ideological purpose.”

“This war ended up producing the refugee crisis in Europe, changing the political colour of Europe, killing more than 40,000 people within a year in Libya, while the arms from Libya went to Mali and other places, boosting or causing civil wars, including the Syrian catastrophe” - the other imperial she orchestrated, far more devastating than against Gaddafi.

He was targeted to destroy Libya’s sovereign independence, wanting it transformed into another US vassal state, its resources plundered, its people exploited, the same goals America pursues in all its imperial wars.

Assange: “If someone and their network behave like that, then there are consequences. Internal and external opponents are generated. Now there is a separate question on what Donald Trump means.”

Hillary’s election assured continued unchallenged deep state rule, especially geopolitically. Trump is a political outsider, “part of (America’s) wealthy ruling elite…(He’s) gathering around him…other rich people,” said Assange.

“It is a new patronage structure which will evolve rapidly, but at the moment its looseness means there are opportunities for change in the United States: change for the worse and change for the better.”

Assange had no chance for justice while Obama remained in power. Whether coming under Trump awaits his ascension to power. Assange helped him defeat Hillary. One good turn deserves another.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at http://www.sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.
http://prn.fm/show/progressive-radio-news-hour/