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Kevin Gosztola delivered excellent daily reporting on the British hearings regarding the US extradition request for WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange, and joins us today to recap the 20+ days of proceedings.From his deep coverage of the court martial of Chelsea Manning, Kevin Gosztola his developed extensive knowledge of WikiLeaks. You can read his reporting on the Assange hearings here. Readers support his work, so if you are able to contribute, please do!
We start with a discussion of the corporate media blackout on a case that is pivotal to their right to publish materials from whistleblowers and leakers. We list the considerations before Judge Vanessa Baraitser, and the obvious ways that she has conducted the hearings that disadvantage Assange’s legal team, like the 30-minute time limit on direct examination of defense witnesses, with no time limit on the prosecution’s cross-examination.
And we highlight the remarkable testimony of anonymous witnesses who confirmed the reporting of Max Blumenthal in May, 2020; UC Global, a Spanish security firm run by David Morales. The firm had a contract with Ecuador for security services at its London embassy, then took on a second contract with Sheldon Adelson’s Sands Casinos company to enhance the audio and video surveillance of Assange at the embassy. We share our surprise that US media have ignored this story, which includes claims that UC Global talked about poisoning Assange, or allowing him to be kidnapped.
We cover many other aspects of this important case in our wide-ranging discussion.