“Should Assange and Snowden be pardoned?” – Elon Musk
Recently Elon Musk conducted this poll on Twitter. Even though we might ask what Assange or Snowden should be pardoned for? For exposing war crimes? Nevertheless it shows how global is the support for both whistleblowers.
- Yes 80.5%
- No 19.5%
3,316,014 votes·(Final results)
WBT hs received the following invitation to supporters of Julian Assange.
A XMAS party for Brisbane supporters of Julian Assange with our special guest John Shipton, Julian Assange’s father, will be held at the Merthyr Road Uniting Church at 52 Merthyr Rd New Farm from 6 – 9 pm on Sunday, December 11. In a few weeks’ time, Julian Assange will begin the new year behind the bars of the UK’s Belmarsh Prison for exposing the war crimes of the US, the UK and Australia. His punishment─what Ciaron O’Reilly refers to as his slow-motion crucifixion─continues. Assange suffered a mini-stroke during his trial, and he recently caught covid, so we have little to celebrate, but there has been some good news, a rare thing in these bleak times.
In his strongest public comment since becoming Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese revealed he personally lobbied the United States government to drop its charges against Assange. The five newspapers who also published the documents from Chelsea Manning, The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País, called for the dropping of the espionage charges against Assange and issued a joint statement saying that “publishing is not a crime”. And Lula Da Silva, the newly elected President of Brazil, called for the charges to be dropped too. The campaign to Free Julian is growing.
How loud it will get depends not just on us in Brisbane, but people in Australia, Mexico, Brazil and all round the world. Julian is a hero for them too!
Some more good news. John Shipton will be present to speak about the campaign and the support for Julian in Mexico and the rest of the world. The film Ithaka only captured a small part of the work he does for Julian. We are all in awe of his endeavours on Julian’s behalf. Come along to meet, greet and thank John Shipton.
And find out what you can do to Free Assange!
Tickets $21.50. Limited to 100 tickets. All profits to John Shipton https://www.stickytickets.com.au/bkb5h/an_evening_with John_Shipton
Cheers,
John Jiggens
