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    Growing awareness of a situation most foul Archived Message

    Posted by margo on November 15, 2019, 1:19 pm

    Australia's eloquent former Foreign Minister Bob Carr yesterday (in EU Parliament video feed) warned the UK and US they should expect a "backlash" from Australia, its Commonwealth ally, if they don't get extradition case against Assange "dropped as soon as possible" and Assange's material prison conditions "improved immediately".

    Prof Nils Melzer, John Shipton (11:15:40), Bob Carr, Clare Daly, David Greene et al in discussion >> You'll need to set aside an hour but worth a listen >> Journalism Is Not A Crime: The Assange Extradition Case / Belgium LINK https://www.guengl.eu/events/journalism-is-not-a-crime-the-assange-extradition-case/

    Assange's father John shared that - 'among the avalanche of procedural abuses to which Julian has been subjected' - Julian appears to be subjected to cruel and unusual treatment for someone with no charges against him, officially categorised as 'a person awaiting extradition'. Is this standard treatment for asylees-in-transit, awaiting extradition in defiance of the principle of non-refoulement?

    Shipton reminded the audience of when Julian appeared at Westminster Court a few weeks ago, where people noticed he looked confused and couldn't remember his date of birth: Shipton then explained that Julian had been "strip-searched, and placed in what the prisoners calls a hotbox". "I have no idea what a hotbox is, yet", said Shipton. "But Julian was very, very disturbed by it".

    Hotboxes - according to some accounts- are used by certain military and prisons to induce dehydration and confusion. GITMO cell at HMP Belmarsh?

    South Africans are now another Commonwealth nation waking up to watch: Today's latest from South Africa's Daily Maverick newspaper, the second article in as many days from Curtis and Kennard. Not only is Judge Arbuthnot up to her neck in blatant conflict of interest due to her husband, her son is linked up, too:

    Assange's judge SON's links to UK and US intelligence
    Mark Curtis and Matthew Kennard

    UK DECLASSIFIED series DailyMaverick LINK https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-11-15-conflicts-of-interest-judge-in-julian-assange-case-fails-to-declare-sons-links-to-uk-and-us-intelligence/

    short extract

    Previous Message


    The son of Lady Emma Arbuthnot, the Westminster chief magistrate overseeing the extradition proceedings of Julian Assange, is the vice-president and cyber-security adviser of a firm heavily invested in a company founded by GCHQ and MI5 which seeks to stop data leaks, it can be revealed.

    Alexander Arbuthnot’s employer, the private equity firm Vitruvian Partners, has a multimillion-pound investment in Darktrace, a cyber-security company which is also staffed by officials recruited directly from the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

    These intelligence agencies are behind the US government’s prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing secret documents.

    Darktrace has also had access to two former UK prime ministers and former US President Barack Obama. The revelations raise further concerns about potential conflicts of interests and appearance of bias concerning Lady Arbuthnot and the ties of her family members to the UK and US military and intelligence establishments.

    Lady Arbuthnot’s husband is Lord James Arbuthnot, a former UK defence minister who has extensive links to the UK military community.

    As far as is known, Lady Arbuthnot has failed to disclose any potential conflicts of interest in her role overseeing Assange’s case.

    However, UK legal guidance states that “any conflict of interest in a litigious situation must be declared.” ..../longer article continues

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