Julian Assange is a whistle-blower. And he's persecuted. This is from a speech by journalist John Pilger:
There is a bare table and pictures of Ecuador on the walls. There is a bookcase where the books never change. The curtains are always drawn and there is no natural light. The air is still and foetid.
This is Room 101.
Before I enter Room 101, I must surrender my passport and phone. My pockets and possessions are examined. The food I bring is inspected.
Cameras are everywhere in Room 101. To avoid them, Julian manoeuvres us both into a corner, side by side, flat up against the wall. This is how we catch up: whispering and writing to each other on a notepad, which he shields from the cameras. Sometimes we laugh.
I have my designated time slot. When that expires, the door in Room 101 bursts open and the guard says, “Time is up!” On New Year’s Eve, I was allowed an extra 30 minutes and the man in the phone box wished me a happy new year, but not Julian.
Of course, Room 101 is the room in George Orwell’s prophetic novel, 1984, where the thought police watched and tormented their prisoners, and worse, until people surrendered their humanity and principles and obeyed Big Brother.
Julian Assange will never obey Big Brother. His resilience and courage are astonishing, even though his physical health struggles to keep up.
Julian is a distinguished Australian who has changed the way many people think about duplicitous governments. For this, he is a political refugee subjected to what the United Nations calls “arbitrary detention.”
The UN says he has the right of free passage to freedom, but this is denied. He has the right to medical treatment without fear of arrest, but this is denied. He has the right to compensation, but this is denied.
As founder and editor of WikiLeaks, his crime has been to make sense of dark times. WikiLeaks has an impeccable record of accuracy and authenticity which no newspaper, no TV channel, no radio station, no BBC, no New York Times, no Washington Post, no Guardian can equal. Indeed, it shames them.
That explains why he is being punished.
For example: Last week, the International Court of Justice ruled that the British Government had no legal powers over the Chagos Islanders, who, in the 1960s and 70s, were expelled in secret from their homeland on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and sent into exile and poverty. Countless children died, many of them from sadness. It was an epic crime few knew about.
For almost 50 years, the British have denied the islanders’ the right to return to their homeland, which they had given to the Americans for a major military base.
Again, it's long past time to end the persecution of Julian Assange. There will be a rally in London, Robert Stevens notes:
The Julian Assange Defence Committee has organised the vigil to complement the rally the same day in Melbourne, Australia, called by the Socialist Equality Party (Australia). A week earlier, Sunday, March 3, the SEP is holding a rally in Sydney to demand Assange’s freedom. Both rallies will be addressed by SEP National Secretary James Cogan.
John Pilger, journalist, filmmaker and outspoken opponent of militarism and injustice, will speak at the Sydney rally, along with well-known academic and human rights advocate Professor Stuart Rees.
The Julian Assange Defence Committee has maintained a regular vigil outside the embassy since 2012, when Assange was forced to take refuge after the British judicial system trampled over his democratic rights in a series of perverse and arbitrary rulings.
I also want to note Ava and C.I.'s "TV:
PBS' long con" on fake ass Holly Near:
Holly's a nothing who has mistaken herself for a something, I was the first lesbian profiled by PEOPLE,
she exclaims at one point. No, she wasn't. But we do love to laugh at
that article -- the one where Holly explains that when she first fell
in love with a woman she didn't think it was "a
fair choice."
And choice, that's the real issue here.
Not Holly's choice.
Holly's delusional and says idiotic things about the disappointment some felt when they learned she was now sleeping with a man -- like here, "It was still a time when you could name those famous lesbians on one hand and when that's the case it makes a lot of sense that people would be afraid to lose one."
No, stupid, not because you were famous.
It was because your actions were encouraging a mistaken belief that the LGBTQ community has tried to correct: Your sexuality is not your choice.
But Holly's actions -- especially with her continuing to identify as a lesbian -- say to the world: Being gay is a choice.
Most likely, Holly is bisexual and there's nothing wrong with that.
But claiming you are a lesbian and being in a relationship with a man is saying to those that do not like gay people, "See, it's a choice!"
She's doing a lot of harm.
Shame on PBS for paying to air this bad 'documentary.' This time period could have been covered with an actual star from it: Cris Williamson. How typical for PBS -- and most of the media -- to run with hetero Holly to tell the story of Womyn's Music -- a real genre that existed and flourished in the seventies.
Holly claims she's a lesbian in the 'documentary' and then makes it even worse by declaring, "We were the generation of women who laid every brick down before anyone could walk on it."
Really?
Tell it to Moms Mabley, Lorraine Hansbberry, Ann Bannon, Lilli Vincenz, Djnua Barnes, Mabel Hampton, Alla Nazimova, Patricia Highsmith, Gladys Bentley, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon -- among others.
Holly identifies as a lesbian even though she's having sex with a man. Why?
Let's go back to Stephen Holden, "But 'Fire in the Rain' also leaves you with the feeling that Ms. Near is a limited musical talent who found celebrity in the only arena available. "
She's not much of a singer. She's not much of a songwriter. She has no hits.
Take away her period as a lesbian and she's just a would-be cabaret singer who never made it and now, at her age, never will. AMERICAN MASTERS proves only one thing: PBS is still the master of the con.
And choice, that's the real issue here.
Not Holly's choice.
Holly's delusional and says idiotic things about the disappointment some felt when they learned she was now sleeping with a man -- like here, "It was still a time when you could name those famous lesbians on one hand and when that's the case it makes a lot of sense that people would be afraid to lose one."
No, stupid, not because you were famous.
It was because your actions were encouraging a mistaken belief that the LGBTQ community has tried to correct: Your sexuality is not your choice.
But Holly's actions -- especially with her continuing to identify as a lesbian -- say to the world: Being gay is a choice.
Most likely, Holly is bisexual and there's nothing wrong with that.
But claiming you are a lesbian and being in a relationship with a man is saying to those that do not like gay people, "See, it's a choice!"
She's doing a lot of harm.
Shame on PBS for paying to air this bad 'documentary.' This time period could have been covered with an actual star from it: Cris Williamson. How typical for PBS -- and most of the media -- to run with hetero Holly to tell the story of Womyn's Music -- a real genre that existed and flourished in the seventies.
Holly claims she's a lesbian in the 'documentary' and then makes it even worse by declaring, "We were the generation of women who laid every brick down before anyone could walk on it."
Really?
Tell it to Moms Mabley, Lorraine Hansbberry, Ann Bannon, Lilli Vincenz, Djnua Barnes, Mabel Hampton, Alla Nazimova, Patricia Highsmith, Gladys Bentley, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon -- among others.
Holly identifies as a lesbian even though she's having sex with a man. Why?
Let's go back to Stephen Holden, "But 'Fire in the Rain' also leaves you with the feeling that Ms. Near is a limited musical talent who found celebrity in the only arena available. "
She's not much of a singer. She's not much of a songwriter. She has no hits.
Take away her period as a lesbian and she's just a would-be cabaret singer who never made it and now, at her age, never will. AMERICAN MASTERS proves only one thing: PBS is still the master of the con.
I am appalled. She wants to claim she's a lesbian and she's been
with a man -- the same man -- for 25 years? Stop it, Holly, just stop
it. You're saying that being a lesbian is a choice and that's the last
thing the gay community needs. White woman,
stop harming the community. Seriously. Holly needs to be called out.
If you are with a man for 25 years -- and bragging you are monogamous
-- then you are not a lesbian. It's that simple.
Here's C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Monday, March 4, 2019. More US bases are built in Iraq while Iraqis continue to suffer from lack of jobs in their own country.
Calls for US troops out of Iraq have been a feature of the ongoing war for over a decade now. Typically, the Kurds call for US troops to stay. NIQASH's Mustafa Habib says they're not the only ones calling for US troops to remain.
Calls for US troops out of Iraq have been a feature of the ongoing war for over a decade now. Typically, the Kurds call for US troops to stay. NIQASH's Mustafa Habib says they're not the only ones calling for US troops to remain.
Regardless of where the leaders fall on the issue, the Iraqi people's position remains the same -- all US troops -- all foreign troops period -- out of Iraq.
Despite that fact, as we noted in THIRD's "Editorial: When does the US leave Iraq?" last night, US bases are going up in Iraq.
Search results
MAJOR: US EXPANDS OCCUPATION OF IRAQ – BUILDS TWO NEW BASES @FortRussNews
"U.S. Has 31 Military Bases, 34,000 Soldiers in Iraq." en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?…
The war has been going on so long that now it is now possible to have children serving whose parents served. Two e-mails came into the public account noting an article Saturday about a Tweet. Didn't see that article and won't link to it. Two Sundays ago, at THIRD, we noted the same Tweet in "Editorial: The silence is deafening:"
Editorial: The silence is deafening
My first born son was 14 months old as I talked to him the night before I deployed to Kuwait/Iraq in June of 2003. My son just received mail from a recruiter for the first time. How the f**k is it possible he could go fight in the same war I did before he could walk? ENDTHEWAR
Why aren't others asking it?
And if anyone was asking sincerely for that other site to be noted, it never will be. I still have the January 2005 e-mail the head of that site wrote that was a racist attack on then-US House Rep Stephanie Tubbs Jones (she passed away in 2008). That's why we don't highlight that site. It's not that we're not aware of it, it's that we're far too aware of it.
We never highlight them. We never highlighted Keith Olbermann even when he was our great hope supposedly. Keith's anti-woman, sexist nature (among other things) was well known so we never highlighted him. If there's someone we've always avoided in the 15 years of this site, there's generally a reason for that.
On the subject of Tweets, Fadel al-Nashmi (ASHARQ AL-AWSAT) reports:
Twitter has closed the official account of the “Security Media Cell” that is affiliated with the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi.
The cell was initially formed under the name of the “Military Information Cell” after the ISIS terrorist organization took over large swathes of Iraqi territory in June 2014.
During the war on ISIS, the Cell played a pivotal role in disseminating combat-related military information and information from the Joint Operations Command.
It did not comment on the shutdown, but a source close to it told Asharq al-Awsat that “Twitter has suspended, not closed, the account.”
Adel Abdul Mahdi remains ineffective and ripe for removal. Nouri al-Maliki, former prime minister and forever thug, is currently attempting to convince other politicians to support his move to remove Mahdi and step back in as prime minister. Mahdi's inability to accomplish anything allows this to be a very real possibility.
At no time since 2003 has the president of Iraq (a ceremonial position) been elevated higher than the prime minister by the western press. Now western outlets repeatedly report on Barham Salih and his pronouncements as though Barham is the leader of Iraq. It as though they're preparing you for the end of Mahdi's rule.
Mahdi was, of course, the longtime choice of the CIA and his inability to rule says a lot about their poor analytics. They pushed him hard every time starting in 2010. He was the answer, they insisted.
He has turned out to be no answer at all.
Terrorism and violence happen for reasons. These include economic reasons. There are no jobs in Iraq. That could have been addressed long ago -- and should have been. But it's become a growing problem and one that Mahdi can't address apparently.
The graduates of universities have demonstrated in Alwai area in the
middle of Baghdad to demand Baghdad government providing them with job
opportunities .
If you're not getting how bad the situation is, note this.
These stats on demographics and growth rates should keep you up at night
If the referred to article doesn't show in the Tweet, it's Chloe Cornish's piece for THE FINANCIAL TIMES which notes that overall joblessness in Iraq is at 13% but for the younger adult Iraqis it stands at 40%. The article delves into the implications for Iraq's future as a result of the current babyboom taking place among Iraqi youth, so it's of interest for that as well. But with protests in Baghdad over the lack of jobs, we're noting it due to the jobless rate.
Again:
The graduates of universities have demonstrated in Alwai area in the middle of Baghdad to demand Baghdad government providing them with job opportunities .
Sir i live in Iraq and I graduated from Computer engineering college two years ago and have no job yet, please help me sir
In Iraq, residents of Basra City protest in Bahariya Square near government council building. Demand jobs, better services, abolishment of Basra Council & accountability for the corrupt.
mobp.as/zGGEo
Again, this issue has festered for some time. But Mahdi came to power after the protests began in Basra (July was when they started) so he should have had that on his lists of things to address in his first 100 days. It's now around 124 days since he became prime minister and he's done nothing to address the lack of jobs. He also still can't appoint a Minister of Defense or Minister of Interior.
Again, he's proven to be rather inept.
New content at THIRD:
- Truest statement of the week
- Truest statement of the week II
- A note to our readers
- Editorial: When does the US leave Iraq?
- TV: PBS' long con
- Jim's World
- Tweet of the week
- Mailbag
- Video of the week
- This edition's playlist
- The endless garbage from US 'news' outlets
- Highlights
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