The Lifeboat News
[ Message Archive | The Lifeboat News ]

    For RG - GG's 'quite mild' comments on JA's persecution... Archived Message

    Posted by Si on June 4, 2019, 1:03 pm

    RG, possibly in contradiction to my recommending people listen out for GG's piece on JA, you said that 'his remarks on JA were quite mild'. Really? '[Q]uite mild'?

    Here's what was aired on GG's national radio show:

    Sarah: I wanted to talk about the plight of Julian Assange. Personally I have been aghast at the cruelty, the lack of empathy and the vindictiveness that has been meted out to him. I'd like to quote the report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Nils Melzer. He went to visit JA in prison and found him to be the victim of brutal psychological torture. And he says: 'in 20 years of work with victims of war, violence and political persecution I have seen a group of democratic states ganging-up to deliberately isolate, demonise and abuse a single individual for such a long time with so little regard for human dignity and the rule of law'. He said: 'the collective persecution of JA must end here and now'. And I just share that with you and your listeners because this is a travesty of justice, and we have to save him.

    GG: Well, I'm greatly touched and moved by your words. JA is a friend of mine and it's with an ever heavier heart that I have been receiving the reports from inside Belmarsh where Julian has now been removed to the hospital wing. And I really warn the British authorities that if JA dies in their hands from the accumulation of 8 years of isolation, of psychological torture, of lack of sunlight, lack of fresh air, lack of proper medical attention, that the British authorities will be writing their names in the annals of history in the darkest possible way because when people look back, as they will in history at this whole JA affair, they will not look kindly on those responsible for the conditions that the UN Rapporteur has adumbrated and you have summarised in your call this evening. Those journalists who lined-up to ridicule, to smear, to pile false allegation on top of false allegation - I mention just one: the Guardian has still not withdrawn their absolutely false allegation that Paul Manafort twice visited JA in the Equador embassy - this is an absolute falsehood - the editor and the journalists in the Guardian know it to be an absolute falsehood, yet it lead the front page of their newspaper, was then broadcast on every television and radio station in the entire world. Even though the Guardian now know it to be false they have not withdrawn it. They have not apologised for it. They have not atoned for it. Those s######ing slaves to the prevailing power in the world who call themselves journalists who've joined the pile on, the bullying, the humiliation, the degradation of JA will have their place in history, and it will not be a good one. Now I have reason to believe that JA gravely ill. I don't know how that happened, and so quickly in 7 weeks in solitary confinement, in a cesspit of a prison filled with mass-murderers, terrorist head choppers. The worst people on the earth are housed in Belmarsh prison. No prisoner sentenced to 50 weeks in prison for jumping bail has ever been sent to such a prison before and held in such conditions before. JA is being judicially murdered in Britain right now on our watch, and if his health continues to deteriorate at the rapid rate that his lawyers have been reporting this week and the medical authorities in the prison have presumably accepted finally this week by removing him to the hospital wing, it will bring to a grisly end one of the darkest chapters in British journalism, in British concern or care for freedom of speech and freedom of expression…You know, you really write your name in history in the darkest possible way by your treatment of a political prisoner - and nobody can dispute that JA is a political prisoner. Let me just put it to you this way; if a British journalist was currently in a jail in Moscow and his health had so sharply deteriorated that he had been taken to a hospital wing, what would be the hue & cry in Britain for his release, for his proper humane treatment? You just have to ask that question in order to answer it. Sarah, thank you very much for your call.
    ----------

    Now, RG, that may be 'quite mild' to you, I and others whom are not reliant on the main's output for our info - but for those not so inclined to seek out more exotic and honest reporting/commentary, that which GG said may come as something of revelation and may even give pause for thought and engender another awakened soul. I don't as a rule expose myself to very much main reporting anymore - almost everything that I have heard / seen about JA in the main has been toxic bilge: the usual lies and calumnies. Maybe I'm missing out on some crucial national broadcast that does go as far as GG did last week in admonishing and warning JA's persecutors - I'd appreciate it if you can point me to any such national broadcasts. As it stands, we've lost that precious pair of well-peeled mincers scrutinising power and calling it out for its abuses. Sure, GG may well find another platform - but when? We need somebody in play right now calling the f*ckers to account - they may well have killed Julian by the time GG find another outlet for his magnificent voice.

    Message Thread: