Welcome to the 193rd week of Julian Assange Sydney Town Hall gatherings!
Julian Assange famously said that “if wars can be started by lies, peace can be started by truth.”
The governments and the mainstream media in the US, the UK and Australia were responsible for disinforming the people about Iraq. They blatantly told us that Saddam Hussein was amassing weapons of mass destruction, even though weapons inspectors and intelligence officers did not agree.
The lie was used to facilitate the military invasion of Iraq in 2003. The resulting war claimed more than one million lives and caused immeasurable suffering for the Iraqi people.
The Iraq War has gone down in history as a great disaster and a clear demonstration that the lies of government and media are a grave risk to humanity.
Wikileaks started publishing documents related to the Iraq War in 2010. By the end of 2011, all US soldiers has been withdrawn from Iraq. Many have credited the earlier-than-expected US withdrawal to the publications of Wikileaks. Thank you Julian Assange and Wikileaks for the truth.
Recently the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was in Australia. While he was here, he delivered a carefully scripted, but very tired bullish statement relating to Julian Assange. The statement suggested that Julian risked very serious harm to the US. Blinken, of course, didn’t bother to explain to the Australian people how helping to end the unjust war in Iraq by publishing the truth about war crimes, could be equated to putting the US at risk.
At this point we needed a response from the Australian government.
It would have been very helpful for Julian if Penny Wong, the Australian Foreign Minister, had taken the opportunity to mention that during the court-martial of Chelsea Manning, in 2013, Brigadier General Robert Carr stated on behalf of the US Department of Defence, that he was unable to provide a single specific example of someone having lost his or her life as a result of the Wilileaks disclosures. By being quietly diplomatic, Penny Wong did nothing to help Julian, whose life is at serious risk due to the torturous conditions in which he is currently being held.
As a brave truth teller, Julian Assange is worthy of everyone’s support! Julian Assange should have been completely free for the last 13 years. His persecution is a grotesque corruption of democracy. We must stand up for what is right! We must free Julian Assange.
We need to allow free speech for people, but when it comes to governments and corporations, we need to demand verified evidence. Julian Assange was able to verify everything he published, so it is not unreasonable to expect governments and large corporations to be able to do the same. We have been putting up with bullshit for far too long! We must come together in support of truth! We must come together in support of Julian Assange
Free free Julian Assange!
Free free Julian Assange!
Free free Julian Assange!