Global Courant
The US Justice Department is pressuring some British journalists to cooperate with the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is accused of publishing classified US military documents leaked to him by a whistleblower.
The DOJ and FBI are using “vague threats and pressure tactics” in their efforts to help journalists build their case against Assange, according to Rolling Stones’ James Ball, who said he is among journalists being pressured to cooperate. Ball is wanted by the DOJ as someone who briefly worked and lived with Assange, and was a whistleblower who revealed what he described as “WikiLeaks’ own ethical flaws.”
The first attempt to get Ball’s cooperation in prosecuting Assange came through London’s Metropolitan Police in December 2021, he wrote. He remained silent at the time, on the advice of his counsel, but has since learned that more journalists have seen police appear at the door in the past month. Former Guardian investigative editor David Leigh, transparency campaigner Heather Brooke and writer Andrew O’Hagan have all been approached by police.
Assange faces a grueling legal battle over his possible extradition from London, where he was held in maximum-security Belmarsh Prison, to the US over the publication by Wikileaks in 2010 of top-secret telegrams describing war crimes committed by the US government in Guantánamo committed. Bay, Cuba, Detention Camp, Iraq and Afghanistan. The materials, leaked to him by then-US soldier Chelsea Manning, expose examples of the CIA engaging in torture and rendition. Wikileaks also published a video showing the US military shooting civilians in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists.
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The US Justice Department is pressuring some British journalists to cooperate in the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is accused of publishing classified US military documents. (AP)
The Australian journalist would face 17 counts of receiving, possessing and passing on classified information to the public under the Espionage Act and one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion if extradited to the US, and could face up to 175 years. in a US maximum security prison. Manning was convicted in 2013 by the DOJ of the Obama administration of espionage law violations and other felonies over the Cablegate leak.
Assange has been held in Belmarsh prison since he was removed from the Ecuadorian embassy four years ago for violating prison conditions. He had applied for asylum at the embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden over allegations that he raped two women because Sweden would not promise him protection from extradition to the US. The investigation into the sexual assault allegations was eventually dropped.
Ball was first contacted about help in the Assange case by a Metropolitan Police officer on the Special Investigation Team, who had called him on a blocked number that Ball did not answer. He then received a “deliberately harmless” email from the police.
“James, I would like to meet with you to see if you would be willing to participate in a voluntary witness interview,” the officer wrote. “You are not being investigated for anything. It’s a delicate matter that I can only discuss with you personally.’
A lawyer spoke to police on Ball’s behalf and learned that US and UK authorities asked him to testify about a story he wrote about Assange’s relationship with Israel Shamir, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Ball wrote, adding that, without his testimony, the “U.S. government can’t make much use of what I revealed in the article in a court of law.”
Ball said he was “more than willing” to write about his relationship with Assange in the media, but he does not believe “it should be used to aid a vengeful prosecution of Assange”.
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The DOJ and FBI reportedly use “vague threats and pressure tactics” in their efforts to get journalists’ help in building their case against Assange. (Fox News Digital/Landon Mion)
An officer told Ball’s lawyer that U.S. intelligence officials claimed to have discovered that “‘James Ball’ doesn’t exist”, which Ball said was a false accusation, as the name is his actual birth name which has never been changed. After seeking further legal advice, Ball was told by multiple lawyers not to travel to the US or speak publicly about concerns about possible prosecution for his refusal to cooperate.
“That uneasy truce has come to an end,” Ball wrote. “As a journalist, I need to be able to travel to the US to work, and I am doing so this week. Other journalists are now being contacted in connection with the case. Both together make continuous silence impossible.”
Ball said the two years he did not travel to the US on legal advice “suppressed the stories I would otherwise have written for American media. I had a real and believable fear of prosecution.”
Last year, the editors and publishers of US and European news outlets who collaborated with Assange to publish excerpts from more than 250,000 documents he obtained in the Cablegate leak — The Guardian, The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País – wrote an open letter calling on the US to end its prosecution of Assange.
The Obama administration opted against indicting Assange after Wikileaks published the telegrams in 2010 because it should have given the same treatment to journalists from other major news outlets who worked with Assange on the documents. But former President Trump’s DOJ later moved to charge Assange under the Espionage Act, and the Biden administration has continued with its prosecution.
If President Biden wants his Justice Department to reverse the DOJ’s decision to prosecute Assange for his actions in 2010, he should at least explain that and say why it’s worth the silent effect it’s having on mainstream journalism. it,” Ball said. wrote.
Assange would face 17 counts of receiving, possessing and communicating classified information to the public under the Espionage Act and one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion if extradited to the US. (Getty Images)
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“As it stands, Biden’s DOJ threatens the First Amendment rights of the American media, even as it claims to stand up to a Supreme Court that threatens many other rights. The hypocrisy must not stand,” he continued.
Assange’s case has caught the attention of some lawmakers on Capitol Hill, with Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich. Lawmakers in Australia and other countries have also urged the US to end its prosecution of Assange. Pope Francis recently met with Assange’s wife, Stella, who said the pope expressed support for her family’s situation and was concerned about Assange’s suffering.
The Trump administration’s CIA reportedly had plans to assassinate Assange over the release of sensitive agency hacking tools known as “Vault 7,” which the agency said represented “the largest data loss in CIA history,” according to a report. Yahoo report from 2021. The agency held talks “at the highest level” of the government about plans to assassinate Assange in London. At the behest of then-CIA Director Mike Pompeo, the agency had also prepared “sketches” and “options”.
The CIA had advanced plans to kidnap and extradite Assange and had made a political decision to charge him, according to the report.
