Julian Assange - The CIA Tried to Assassinate Me

Mr chairman esteemed members of the Parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe ladies and gentlemen the transition from years of confinement in a maximan security prison to being here before the representatives of 46 Nations and 700 million people is a profound and a surreal shift the experience of isolation for years in a small cell is difficult to convey it strips away one's sense of self leaving only the raw essence of existence I am yet not fully equipped to speak about what I have endured the Relentless struggle to stay alive both physically and mentally nor can

I speak yet about the death by hanging murder and medical neglect of my fellow prisoners I apologize in advance if my words falter or if my presentation lacks the Polish you might expect from such a distinguished Forum isolation has taken its toll which I am trying to unwind and expressing myself in the setting is a challenge however the gravity of this occasion and the weight of the issues at hand compel me to set aside my reservations and speak to you direct directly I have traveled a long way literally and figuratively to be before you today

before our discussion or answering any questions you might have I wish to thank pace for its 2020 resolution which stated that my imprisonment set a dangerous precedent for journalists and noted that the UN special reporter on torture called for my release I'm also grateful for Pace's 2021 statement expressing concern over credible reports that us officials discussed my assassination again calling for my prompt release and I commend the legal Affairs and human rights committee for commissioning a renowned rapur Suna I daughter to investigate the circumstances surrounding my detention and conviction and the consequent implications for human

rights however like so many of the efforts made in my case whether they were from parliamentarians presidents prime ministers the pope un officials and diplomats unions legal and medical professionals academics activists or citizens none of them should have been necessary none of the statements resolutions reports films articles events fundrais phes protests and letters over the last 14 years should have been necessary but all of them were necessary because without them I never would have seen the light of day this unprecedented Global effort was needed because the legal protections of the legal protections that did exist

many existed only on paper were not effective in any remotely reasonable time I eventually chose Freedom over unrealizable Justice after being detained for years and facing 175e sentence with no effective remedy Justice for me is now precluded as the US government insisted in writing into its plea agreement that I cannot file a case at the European Court of Human Rights or even a freedom from Information Act request over what it did to me as a result of its Expedition request I want to be totally clear I am not free today because the system worked I

am free today after years of incarceration because I plad guilty to journalism I plad guilty to seeking information from a source I plead guilty to obtaining information from a source and I plead guilty to informing the public what that information was I did not plead guilty to anything else I hope my testimony today can serve to highlight the weakness the weaknesses of the existing safeguards and to help those whose cases are less visible but who are equally vulnerable as I emerge from the dungeon of Bel Marsh the TR trth now seems less discernable and I

regret how much ground has been lost during that time period how expressing the truth has been undermined attacked weakened and diminished I see more impunity more secrecy more retaliation for telling the truth and more self-censorship it is hard not to draw a line from the US government's prosecution of me it's Crossing Crossing the Rubicon by internationally criminalizing journalism to the chilled climate for freedom of expression that exists now when I founded Wikileaks it was driven by a simple dream to educate people about how the world works so that through understanding we might bring about something

better better having a map of where we are let us understand where we might go knowledge empowers us to hold power to account and to demand Justice where there is none we obtained and published truth about tens of thousands of hidden casualties of war and other unseen Horrors about programs of assassination rendition torture and mass surveillance we revealed not just when and where these things happened but frequently the policies the agreements and the structures behind them when we published collateral murder the infamous gun camera footage of a US Apache helicopter crew eagerly blowing to Pieces

Iraqi journalists and their Rescuers the visual reality of Modern Warfare shocked the world but we also used interest in this video to direct people to the class ified policies for when the US military could deploy lethal force in Iraq how many civilians could and how many civilians could be killed before gaining higher approval in fact 40 Years of my potential 175e sentence was for obtaining and releasing those policies the Practical political vision I was left with after being immersed in the world's Dirty Wars and secret operations is simple let us stop gagging torturing and killing

each other for a change get these fundamentals right and other political economic and scientific processes will have space to take will have space to take care of the rest Wikileaks work was deeply rooted in the principles that this assembly stands for our journalism elevated Freedom of Information and the Public's right to know it found its natural operational home in Europe I lived in Paris and we had formal corporate registrations in France and in Iceland our journalistic and Technical staff were spread throughout Europe republished to the world from servers based in France in Germany and in

Norway but 14 years ago the United States military arrested one of our Alle alleged wh whistleblowers private first class Manning a US intelligence analyst based in Iraq the US government concurrently launched an investigation against me and my colleagues the US government illicitly sent planes of agents to Iceland paid bribes to an Informer to steal our legal and journalistic work product and without formal process pressured Banks and financial services to block our subscriptions and to freeze our accounts the UK government took part in some of this retribution it admitted at the European Court of human rights

that it had unlawfully spied on my UK lawyers during this time ultimately this harassment was legally groundless President Obama's justice department chose not to indict me recognizing that no crime had been committed the United States had never before prosecuted a publisher for publishing or obtaining government information to do so would require a radical and ominous reinterpretation of the US Constitution in January 2017 Obama also commuted the sentence of Manning who had been convicted of being one of my sources however in February 2017 the landscape changed dramatically president Trump had been elected he appointed apped two

wolves in Maga hats Mike Pompeo a Kansas congressman and former arms industry executive as CIA director and William bar a former CIA officer as us attorney general by March 2017 Wikileaks had exposed the cia's infiltration of French political parties it spying on French and German leaders it's spying on the European Central Bank European economics Ministries and its standing orders to spy on French industry as a whole we revealed the cia's vast production of malware and viruses its subversion of Supply chains its subversion of antivirus software Cars Smart TVs and iPhones CIA director Pompeo launched a

campaign of Retribution it is now a matter of public record that under pompeo's explicit Direction the CIA Drew up plans to kidnap and to assassinate me within the Ecuadorian Embassy in London and authorized going after my European colleagues subjecting us to theft hacking attacks and the planting of false information my my wife and my infant son were also targeted a CIA asset was permanently assigned to track my wife and instructions were given to obtain DNA from my six-month-old son's nappy this is the testimony of more than 30 current and former US intelligence officials speaking to

the US press which has been additionally corroborated by record seized in a prosecution against some of the CIA agents involved the cia's targeting of myself my family and my associates through aggressive extrajudicial and extr territorial means provides a rare insight into how powerful intelligence organizations engage in transnational repression such repressions are not unique what is unique is that we know so much about this one due to to numerous whistleblowers and to to judicial investigations in Spain this assembly is no stranger to extraterritorial abuses by the CIA Pace's groundbreaking report on CIA Renditions in Europe exposed

how the CIA operated secret detention centers and conducted unlawful Renditions on European soil violating human rights and international law in February this year the alleged source of some of our CIA Revelations former CIA officer Joshua Schulte was sentenced to 40 years in prison under conditions of extreme isolation his windows are blacked out and a white noise machine plays 24 hours a day over his door so that he cannot even shout through it these conditions are more severe than those found in Guantanamo Bay but transnational repression is also conducted by abusing legal processes the lack of

effective safeguards against this means that Europe is vulnerable to having its Mutual legal assistance and Expedition treaties hijacked by foreign powers to go after dissenting voices in Europe in Michael pompeo's Memoirs which I read in my prison cell the former CIA director bragged about how he pressured the US attorney general to bring an expedition case against me in response to our Publications about the CIA indeed exceeding to pompeo's requests the US attorney general reopened the investigation against me that Obama had closed and rearrested Manning this time as a witness Manning was held in a prison

for over a year fined $1,000 a day in a formal attempt to coers her into providing secret testimony against me she ended up attempting to take her own life we usually think of attempts to force journalists to testify against their sources but Manning was now a source being forced to testify against their journalist by December 2017 CIA director Pompeo had got his way and the US government issued a warrant to the UK for Expedition the UK government kept the warrant secret from the public for two more years while it the US government and the new

president of Ecuador moved to shape the political the legal and the Diplomatic grounds for my arrest when powerful Nations feel entitled to Target individuals beyond their borders those individuals do not stand a chance unless there are strong safeguards in place and a state willing to enforce them without this no individual has a hope of Defending themselves against the vast resources of that a state aggressor can deploy if the situation if the situation were not already bad enough in my case the US government asserted a danger Dangerous new Global legal position only US citizens have free

speech rights Europeans and other nationalities do not have free speech rights but the US claims its Espionage Act still still applies to them regardless of where they are so Europeans in Europe must obey us secrecy law with no defenses at all as far as the US government is concerned An American in Paris can talk about what the US government is up to perhaps but for a French man in Paris to do so is a crime with no defense and he may be expedited Ed just like me now that one foreign government has formerly asserted that

Europeans have no free speech rights a dangerous precedent has been set other powerful states will inevitably follow suit the war in Ukraine has already seen the criminalization of journalists in Russia but based on the precedent set in My Expedition there is nothing to stop Russia or indeed any other state from targeting European journalists Publishers or even social media users by claiming that their domestic secrecy laws have been violated the rights of journalists and Publishers within the European space are seriously threatened transnational repression cannot become the norm here as one of the world's two great Norm

setting institutions Pace must act the criminalization of news Gathering activities is a threat to investigative journalism everywhere I was formerly convicted by a foreign power for for asking for receiving and Publishing truthful information about that power while I was in Europe the fundamental issue is simple journalists should not be prosecuted for doing their jobs journalism is not a crime it is a pillar of a free and informed Society [Applause] Mr chairman distinguished delegates if Europe is to have a future where the freedom to speak and the freedom to publish the truth are not privileges enjoyed

by a few but rights guaranteed to all then it must act so that what has happened in my case never happens to anyone else I wish to express my deepest gratitude to this assembly to the conservatives social Democrats liberals leftists greens and independents who have supported me throughout this ordeal and to the countless individuals who have advocated tirelessly tirelessly for my release it is heartening to know that in a world often divided by ideology and interests there remains a shared commitment to the protection of essential human liberties freedom of expression and all that flows from

it is at a dark Crossroad I fear that unless institutions like Pace wake up to the gravity of the situation it will be too late let us all commit to doing our part to ensure that the light of Freedom never dims that the pursuit of truth will live on and the voices of the many are not silenced by the interests of the few [Applause]