{"id":366666,"date":"2018-06-25T04:54:45","date_gmt":"2018-06-25T03:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/the-foul-role-of-spiked-in-the-demonization-of-julian-assange\/"},"modified":"2018-06-25T04:54:45","modified_gmt":"2018-06-25T03:54:45","slug":"the-foul-role-of-spiked-in-the-demonization-of-julian-assange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/the-foul-role-of-spiked-in-the-demonization-of-julian-assange\/","title":{"rendered":"The foul role of Spiked in the demonization of Julian Assange"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"content\">\n<h3 class=\"nomargin\">\u00a0<\/h3>\n<h2>The foul role of Spiked in the demonization of Julian Assange<\/h2>\n<h5>\n<p>    By<br \/>\n    Thomas Scripps<br \/>\n    <br \/>23 June 2018<\/p>\n<\/h5>\n<p>WikiLeaks founder and editor Julian Assange is in increasing danger of being expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy in London and turned over to US authorities, at whose benevolent hands he could face decades in prison or even the death penalty.<\/p>\n<p>Assange has been denied use of communications for nearly three months on the order of the Ecuadorean government, in response to pressure from the US. On Wednesday, Ecuadorian foreign minister Jose Valencia warned that Assange could not claim asylum in the embassy indefinitely.<\/p>\n<p>Assange\u2019s plight demonstrates the extent to which basic democratic rights have been eviscerated by the imperialist powers.<\/p>\n<p>For Britain&#8217;s <em>Spiked<\/em> magazine, however, whose writers advance themselves as the foremost humanist and, on occasion, even \u201cMarxist\u201d defenders of democratic freedoms and the rights of the individual against the state, the situation has not warranted comment for over a year.<\/p>\n<p>This is not an oversight. Before lapsing into silence, <em>Spiked<\/em> helped prepare the conditions for Assange\u2019s isolation, as one of the most vindictive participants in the campaign against WikiLeaks. While styling itself the embodiment of contrarian radicalism, the publication nonetheless followed virtually word for word the British government\u2019s attack on Assange\u2019s rights and character. Here we have a supposedly libertarian tendency that is slavish in its support for the state.<\/p>\n<p>The essential points of <em>Spiked\u2019s<\/em> position were set out in their last comment on Assange, \u201cWhy Assange should stand trial,\u201d by law editor Luke Gittos. This was published on May 25, 2017\u2014a week after Swedish prosecutors had dropped trumped-up sexual assault allegations against&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wsws.org\/en\/articles\/2018\/06\/23\/spik-j23.html\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 The foul role of Spiked in the demonization of Julian Assange By Thomas Scripps 23 June 2018 WikiLeaks founder and editor Julian Assange is in increasing danger of being expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy in London and turned over to US authorities, at whose benevolent hands he could face decades in prison or even [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2526,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-366666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2526"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366666\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}