The 12 year saga surrounding Julian Assange has finally come to an end! The WikiLeaks founder has reached a plea deal with the US Department of Justice that officially allows him to walk free! We’re going to see the latest on the extraordinary news surrounding Julian Assange, and we’re going to see what’s REALLY behind what he did and why so many have been so adamant in destroying him!
– Julian Assange has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information.
– Assange was accused of collaborating with Chelsea Manning to leak classified documents, including footage of a US helicopter attack in Iraq and emails exposing corruption within the Democratic National Committee.
– Julian Assange’s release after a plea deal represents not just the end of his legal battles, but also a broader commentary on the evolving political landscape and the ongoing struggle between state power and individual rights.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is finally free. After five years in a UK prison, Assange agreed to a plea deal with the US Department of Justice that allows him finally to walk free. According to court documents released yesterday, Assange pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information, and prosecutors are crediting the five years he already spent in prison as sufficient penalty for the crime, allowing Assange to return freely to his home in Australia.
Assange was accused of conspiring with military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to leak documents that included footage of an American helicopter gunning down 18 people in Iraq, including two journalists from Reuters. Assange also publicized emails exposing corruption at the very highest levels of the Democratic National Committee. He published military logs from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as diplomatic cables.
In response, Assange’s lawyers have argued that their client is a journalist and his actions were protected by the First Amendment. Julian Assange did not himself hack into any national security database, all he did was publish and report on what was presented to him, and for that he was being jailed.
Julian Assange is a fascinating symbol for how the Republican Party has radically changed here in the United States ever since the rise of Trump and the growing populist movement. When Assange was originally arrested at the Ecuadorian embassy in London after the nation of Ecuador withdrew his asylum, Newt Gingrich appeared on Fox News and presented the neocon view on the situation:
This was the monolithic take among the neo-con dominated Republican Party. If you were a faithful Republican and cared about our national security, then Julian Assange was enemy number 1. But just a few years after that interview with Gingrich, something fascinating happened. Tucker Carlson interviewed Jimmy Dore:
Jimmy Dore: "The first person to be de-platformed was WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. If [Trump] knows what's good for freedom of speech and freedom of the press, he should take this moment and pardon Julian Assange."
Tucker Carlson: "I totally agree" #Assange pic.twitter.com/63aaxjfjw7— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 16, 2021
Tucker went on to notice that, according to the Washington establishment, “Leaking classified information that hurts the permanent political class is always considered a grave threat to national security and must be stamped out. But leaking classified information that helps the permanent political class is always an act of good faith. So there was no problem when the FBI told the Washington Post that the Russians were running our government through their agent Donald Trump.
But when leaks implicate the people in charge and embarrass and expose the corruption of the political class, it’s a national crisis and someone has to go to jail. Unfortunately, that scenario is precisely what Newt Gingrich was defending.
State-autonomy theory sheds tremendous light on what Julian Assange did and how it was responded to. This is a theory that was first put forward by the political scientist Theeda Scotch-pull and it argues that the state is largely a radically autonomous institution. It acts according to its own interests and not the interests of the citizens it claims to represent. Because the institution of the state is completely distinct from the wider society by virtue of how it operates, it operates autonomously. This means that the state ultimately governs according to its own interests as opposed to the interests of the people it claims to represent.
Thanks to these unique powers of coercion and compulsion, government officials can enter into coalitions with groups in society, whether business, labor, or political parties, if they share the same goals as the state. State-autonomy theory is very helpful in shedding light on what Julian Assange actually did.
Newt Gingrich could not possibly be more wrong: Julian Assange did not threaten national security, Assange threatened an autonomous security-state apparatus that operates and governs in accordance with its own interests and hides behind the shield of national security! THAT is what Julian Assange exposed, and THAT is what tried to destroy him in the process. I am very glad to see that more Republicans are coming out and seeing the truth of what’s really happening with the unelected Deep State!
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