Free Julian Assange

Today Julian Assange has been arrested. The USA wants him. An extradition warrant is released today by US authorities. That such a warrant existed was almost certain for many years, but it was secret. Assange published with his Wikileaks about US war crimes that the US government did not want the public to know about. Chelsea Manning was in prison for many years for letting the public know that the USA commits war crimes. She is in prison again today. Edward Snowden had to fled the USA for not being put in prison for maybe decades. He lives in exile in Russia. His crime was that he told the public that the US government and the secret services of that country are spying illegally on all Americans and on people in all other countries too. Kim Dotcom is also facing an extradition to the land of the free. While he is not a citizen of the US, and while he has never been there, he still must stand trial in the USA. This for breaking copy right laws. The entertainment industry paid money to US politicians and illegally they wanted this in return. Illegally, because many laws were broken during the house search of Kim Dotcom in New Zealand, the country where he lives.

These four people are heroes. They all were or are afraid of spending decades in a US prison. Decades! Would they serve one day, then it would already be a major blow against press freedom.

In The Hague we have the International Criminal Court. People from all over the world, that commit war crimes can be held responsible here. But the USA as one of the few countries does not accept this court. They only do so, if no American ever will be part of a war crimes investigation by this court. Recently this institute started an investigation concerning war crimes by Americans in Afghanistan. Immediately the US followed this decision with declaring that the person leading this investigation, Fatou Bensouda, loses the right to travel to the USA. She has been placed on a blacklist. Some years ago, the US threatened The Netherlands to invade The Hague if they ever would prosecute an American in this international court! The USA believes they are above all international law. They can commit war crimes and no one is allowed to keep them responsible for this. No one is even allowed to inform the public about this. See the Wikileaks case.

Last week several Dutch attorneys stopped defending their clients. The reason? The USA places lawyers on a blacklist, so that they are no longer allowed to travel to the USA. They are placed on a terrorists list. But they are not terrorist, they are lawyers.

When so many people are locked up in US prisons. When the conditions in these prisons in many cases are so terrible. When you as a country give a 200 years prison time for possession of twenty pictures of kids having sex. Or decades to a person for dealing drugs or even possessing drugs. You can not speak of a free country. A two party system 'democracy'. Things can only start to change if so many people, after years and years, are finding out how sick and inhumane their country has become.

There is also some progress in the US. Massachusetts became the 16th state to have forbidden gay conversion therapy to minors. Parents can not force their children into such clinics anymore, in these sixteen states. Other states have yet to follow this law. The Supreme Court in the US must forbid it totally, otherwise we can wait many years for the last state to abandon this human rights violation. But I'm not that happy though, because the last decades something new came into its place: children having sex with each other are placed in clinics, where they are brainwashed and tortured. Mass media today is still almost ignoring these human rights violations. So when will states abandon this... not anytime soon.

I once met a person (Dancie R.) who was staying in the house of a friend of mine. He was originally from the USA. He worked here at a software company. They had made communication (encription) software for the Dutch police. But the US did not like it, because the software had no so called back door they could enter. What they did, according to this man, is kill his boss [1]. And he himself no longer excised officially. He had no tax number anymore and no income at all. He was nowhere in the registration anymore in his home town. They said: 'That you even have no tax paying number anymore is insane. I have never seen anything like this.' After his boss lay dead in his house, people came to take away his computers. The man I spoke said it was the secret services of the US and Israel [2] who did this. Today this man is very sick. The doctors do not know what kind of disease he has. He thinks they did something to him while he was on vacation in another country. I wanted to interview this man. But unfortunately I was told that an interview would not do his case any good. Because he still fights against being deported to the USA. In the US he has nothing and he fears to end up 'living' on the streets in that country of the free. Do I know if this man speaks the truth? I don't know. I had hoped interviewing him - asking him the right questions, with proof of his work et cetera. And the right dates and so on - would maybe give more insight into this case. But that it cannot be true because the USA would never do something like this, is not a thing I can say, unfortunately. A documentary about this case was on the Dutch radio in 2009. [3-7]

I hope people will demonstrate in front of the US embassies in many countries to demand the freedom of Julian, Chelsea, Edward and Kim. We have to act. I write this text, but it is far from enough. I feel helpless in a way. Getting people out there: in the streets, is by far more affective. History proves this. Yes, informing people is an important phase too. But afterwards we must leave our homes to get things done. For locked up Julian and Chelsea: don't lose hope. Many people are at your side.

notes
[1] In this Dutch article the journalist writes about murders that secret services commit: Spionnen moorden als het zo uitkomt: 'Je raakt gewend aan het doden' - Arjen van der Ziel - www.trouw.nl/samenleving/spionnen-moorden-als-het-zo-uitkomt-je-raakt-gewend-aan-het-doden-~a560dc6c/ - Trouw - 29 March 2018
[2] Article about Israeli company that spies on the police communication in The Netherlands: 'E-spionage' via achterdeur aftapsoftware AIVD en politie - tweakers.net/nieuws/24562/e-spionage-via-achterdeur-aftapsoftware-aivd-en-politie.html - Tweakers - 3 December 2012
[3] pdf-file (Dutch): Zes vragen rond de moord op Jenno van Zwietering - Dit Is De Dag - 8 juli 2009 - https://marthijn.nl/pdf/Zes_vragen.pdf
[4] pdf-file (Dutch): Rechtbank veroordeelt Anita tot 12 jaar cel - Dit Is De Dag - 9 juli 2009 - https://marthijn.nl/pdf/Rechtbank_zaak_Anita.pdf
[5] mp3-file (Dutch): Documentary about this case - https://marthijn.nl/sound/Reportage.mp3
[6] mp3-file (Dutch): Verdict wife of Jenno van Zwietering - https://marthijn.nl/sound/Lely1.mp3
[7] mp3-file (Dutch): Reaction lawyer of the wife of Jenno van Zwietering - https://marthijn.nl/sound/Lely2.mp3